 CIO - Productivity KitSarbanes-Oxley Compliant
|
|
Project Manager - Titles |
Large Enterprises |
Mid-Sized Enterprises |
| Applications |
$94,471.74 |
$80,058.56 |
| Distributed Systems |
$95,658.06 |
$86,119.15 |
| Network Technical Services |
$89,257.62 |
$62,462.99 |
| Systems |
$89,004.99 |
$89,193.04 |
The one Project Manager type that has been impacted the most by the economy is Network Technical Services. That is the area where many enterprises (Mid-sized Enterprises in particular) have made cuts.
Currently the Mid-Atlantic
market is toughest place to find a job.
IT Executive Salary Medians Fall
Janco Associates is just completing its 2009 Mid Year Salary Survey and found that the median salaries paid to IT Executives in large enterprises (over 500 million in sales or with more than 100 IT professionals) has fallen in the last 18 months.
The CEO of Janco, Victor Janulaitis said, "Over the last six quarters there has been a noticeable reduction in costs associated with senior level IT professionals in large enterprise. In New York alone there are over 200 IT executives that had earned well into the six figures that are now looking for work."
The 2009 Mid Year IT Salary Survey will be released at the end of June and more information can be gotten at Janco's websites.
- more infoStaffing Needs to Address New Application Approaches
CIO's need to adjust staffing requirements to address the needs of 2010 versus 1990. Application achitecture has and is continuing to change.
|
1990 Applications |
2010 Applications |
|
Mainframe - Host Based |
Web - Server Based |
|
Designed
to last |
Designed to change |
|
Tightly
integrated |
Open Architecture, modular |
|
Application
silos |
Enterprise Mirrors |
|
Code-oriented |
Process-oriented |
|
Rigid
sequential development - SDM |
Interactive
and iterative development - SOA |
|
Cost-centered |
Business-oriented |
|
Homogeneous |
Heterogeneous |
Job content is changing as well as knowledge requirements.
- more info
How to Tell if the CIO's Job is at Risk
What are the signs that the CIOs job is at risk. Unfortunately, many CIOs have a hard time recognizing their own shortcomings. CIOs and IT managers should watch for these signs that could indicate that co-workers have a problem with them:
-
Meetings happen without the CIO or IT manager being involved or informed.
-
The CIOs or IT Managers feedback and input are not sought or are ignored.
-
CIO or IT manager are not included in strategic planning.
-
The IT department suffers from high turnover, and the CIO or IT manager have a particularly hard time keeping top-tier talent.
-
People work around the CIO or IT manager.
-
The business-side peers seek out others in IT to handle their problems, while IT staffers seek out other IT leaders or even go over your head.
-
The CIO or IT manager don't hear bad news directly from those who should be delivering it. (It could indicate that they are not good at taking criticism or handling problems.)
How to avoid the courtroom for employment lawsuits
The Internet and IT Job Description
HandiGuide is a tool that every CIO and IT manager should have at their
disposal. It defines some simple
things that you can do to avoid employment-based lawsuits:
-
Know the laws that apply EEOC and OSHA
-
Create an employee handbook and follow it for everyone
-
Minimize the use of employee contracts
-
Retain copies of your offer letter
-
Document all employment-based conversations
-
Do not assume that "transferring" an employee will solve a problem
-
Hire well and do detail vetting and reference checking
-
Be proactive any all personnel issues
Top Reasons For CIO and IT Manager Failures
The top reasons why CIOs and IT Managers lose
their jobs are:
-
Inability to communicate effectively
-
Poor interpersonal skills
-
Lack of leadership skills
-
Inability to accept new solutions - locked into doing things the same old way
-
Inability to deliver systems and expected results
-
Not meeting budget (time and dollars) expectations
- Inability to see beyond technology - missing business objectives
IT Job Market Impacted In The Far East
(Reuters) - Private business activity in Hong Kong stayed below growth levels for the 11th straight month in May, but the speed of contraction eased further as staff costs dropped sharply, a purchasing managers' survey showed on Monday.
Respondents widely commented that further falls in new business and an uncertain economic outlook were key factors that contributed to the latest decline, Markit Group Ltd, which compiles the monthly survey, said.
However, overall cost burdens faced by private companies also fell as job layoffs accelerated and staff costs marked their steepest drop since June 2003, the survey showed.
The Hong Kong purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to a seasonally adjusted 44.77 in May from 44.34 in April. A reading above 50 indicates growth in activity, while a figure below 50 signals deterioration.
The survey compares business conditions with a month earlier, based on data from Hong Kong companies across industries including manufacturing, services, retail and construction.
- more infoCities that are Growing In Spite of the Recession
(Forbes) The cities that are growing in spite of the recession have: more business opportunities, better weather and more affordable housing. The top three areas according to the data are Raleigh, N.C., ranking first, which jumped 4.29% to nearly 1.9 million; Austin, Texas, which came in second, with a 3.77% increase to almost 1.7 million; and Charlotte, N.C., which moved up 3.36% to 1.7 million.
The in-migration that happened in the middle of this decade certainly had a lot to do with the housing boom. When that went bust, so did those crazy population balloons. But these particular places are still growing because instead of building an economy that relies heavily on one industry, most of the metro areas on Forbes' list serve as headquarters for a diverse range of companies.
For example, Austin's biggest employers include the University of Texas, Advanced Micro Devices and Dell. That wide range might have something to do with the area's relatively low January 2009 unemployment rate of 6.4%.
This is the opposite of what happened in true
housing boom-and-bust towns like Las Vegas. In 2004, Las Vegas - a
foreclosure mecca - saw a population increase of 4.6%, followed by 3.66% in
2005, 3.98% in 2006 and 3.22% in 2007. In 2008, that number fell to
2%.
Thousands of IT Jobs Continue to be cut Globally
Global IT service providers continue to be adversely impacted by the economy as BT Group plans to cut about 15,000 jobs. This news comes on top of 15,000 job cuts the company made during its fiscal year, which ended March 31. BT said that as part of its cost savings program, it had reduced full-time employees during the year by 5,000, while also reducing by around 10,000 the number of indirect employees working through agencies or third party contractors.
Further reductions of a similar level are planned this year according to BT. These moves by BT come as its profits and revenue slide due to the global economic downturn, and fierce competition.
- more info
Lay-Offs Continue in the US IT Job Market
Microsoft Corp. laid-off 3,000 workers additional workers in the US. This is second wave of a major reduction the company announced in January. In a memo to employees, CEO Steve Ballmer said more cuts are possible. In a letter to some employees Ballmer said, "As we move forward, we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure, including additional job eliminations."
Janco Associates' predicts that if the new taxes on un-captured offshore revenues are enacted Microsoft will be forced to more of it operations outside of the US in order to maintain its competitive advantage in the software market. This would in turn mean ever-greater lay-offs in the US.
- more infoTerminated Employees Put Enterprises at Risk
Terminated
employees pose some unique risks for enterprises; many are angry and are finding
it difficult to find new jobs. As a
result they can do damage to enterprise systems. One such employee, a systems
administrator pleaded guilty in a federal court yesterday to charges that he
tried to extort an undisclosed amount of money and even forcibly secure good job
references from a mutual fund company that had just laid him off.
The best
solution is to have a well-defined set of policies and procedures in place for
security, which includes processes to assist in the management of employee
termination. The Security Manual Template
offered by Janco Associates directly
address how to do this and provides forms to assist enterprises of all sizes to
more effectively manage the termination
process.
IT Job Market Tighter Due to H-1B and Off-shoring
June graduates will find a much tighter job market due to H-1B and off-shoring by US companies. Several recent studies show that between H-1B visa workers and off-shoring the IT industry has job market has been hit hard.
- Tambe and Hitt found that as many as 8% of US IT workers have been displaced by offshore outsourcing, either through job loss or job transfer.
- New York University's Stern School of Business
and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania that finds the use of
H-1B workers by U.S. companies is decreasing wages for computer programmers,
system analysts and software engineers by as much as 6% and IT managers by
3%.
The researchers said they found evidence that the wages are falling by accessing tens of thousands of resumes provided by a "leading online job search site" they would not identify, to gain demographic and wage data of individual companies. They took all that information and combined it with government and other public data sources, including H-1B visa use and outsourcing, to get what they termed a "micro-data" view of what is going on in public companies that hire visa holders and offshore work.
Tech Job Cuts Highest Since 2002 Q4
The technology sector in the U.S. has always been in headlines due to various issues. Most recently, the sector was in news due to the projected decline in the number of deals because of expected drop in companies' IT spending, which is going to decline by 3.1 percent in 2009 (as per Forrester's recent study). The sector is again set to make more headlines with the number of layoffs announced in the recent past.
Companies operating in the U.S. tech sector have announced 84,217 jobs cut in the first quarter of 2009, according to a global outplacement company. Of which 18,972 employees were laid off in the telecom tech sector (12,395 more than the number of employees laid off in the same area in Q1 '08), 33,665 in computer (26,740 more layoffs than in the same period last year), and 33,665 in electronics (27,737 more jobs cut than Q1 '08).
This is the largest quarterly jobs cut since Q4 '02 when the industry had posted 133,511 layoffs and five times higher than Q1 '08 when it had registered 17,345 jobs cut.
Drivers of higher productivity and peak efficiencies
Every organization faces pressure to reduce waste and run at peak efficiency. For many, this means making difficult personnel decisions to eliminate positions that do not add value to the organization and either eliminating or re-deploying people in those roles.
The climate in many organizations is tense as these changes take hold, and the stakes are high with little room for error. This is compounded proposed changes in workplace regulation making it much more difficult and costly to terminate an underperforming employee.
Your
organization may be behind the curve if job designs have not changed with your
revamped plan of action. If employees are performing their jobs the same old
way, they are holding the company back. Job descriptions are
one of the key components in navigating the current environment.
Demand is down for H-1B visas
The economic recession and the resulting widespread job cuts at IT vendors were expected to reduce H-1B demand this year. However, immigration attorneys and supporters of the visa program had predicted that the available supply would easily be exhausted again.
The CEO of Janco, Victor Janulaitis predicted that the number of visa requests will fall between 85,000 to 95,000 this year. He said," The economy has impacted everyone and there is a 'reluctance' by US employers to hire non-US citizens and face a possible public back lash."
Demand for H-1B visas typically fluctuates with the economy. The initial number of H-1B applications filed with the federal government was down sharply from the number filed a year ago. In 2008, in just five days, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received 163,000 applications for the 85,000 visas that were available. The USCIS resorted to a lottery to award the visas.
USCIS began accepting H-1B applications for fiscal 2010, which starts in October. However, nine days into the filing period, only about 62,000 visa petitions had been submitted. The USCIS said 42,000 of those applications were for one of the 65,000 regular visas that can be issued. Another 20,000 visas are set aside for foreigners with advanced degrees from U.S. universities; the agency has received more than enough applications for those visas but said it is continuing to accept additional petitions.
Moreover, that still may happen, especially after college graduations in May. Foreign students cannot apply for H-1B visas until they graduate - a restriction that shut them out of the application process in recent years. That prompted the Bush administration last April to extend the amount of time that some foreigners can continue to work in the U.S. on their student visas.
Jobless Numbers Jump to 8.5%
The jobless numbers for March jumped from to the highest rate since 1983. Unemployment went from 8.1% to 8.5%. About 663,000 jobs were lost. Factoring in part-time and discouraged workers, the jobless rate is more than 15%.
There were 9,000 more jobs cut than analysts had predicted, and March's losses were 12,000 more than February's. January's numbers have been modified from an original number of 655,000 to 741,000. Since December of 2007, the economy has lost a net total of 5.1 million jobs while the federal government has imported more than 2 million foreign workers.
Factories took the hardest hit in March, cutting 161,000 jobs. Despite some positive news in the home sales numbers from February, construction firms cut 126,000 jobs. Professional and business services, retailers and the hospitality industry also saw significant cuts.
- more infoCIO Best Practices for Staff Levels
In today's economy, every CIO is faced with pressure to reduce unnecessary expenses and run at peak efficiency. For many CIOs, this means making difficult personnel decisions to eliminate positions that do not add sufficient value to the organization and either eliminating or re-deploying people in those roles. The climate in many IT organizations is tense as these changes take hold, and the stakes are high with little room for error.
One of the greatest expenses in most IT organizations is personnel. Even in today's environment unexpected opening will occur. Janco has identified the best practices that CIOs and IT managers should follow if they are to succeed in successfully manage their staffing.
Understand and be able to justify how each position supports the enterprise's key objectives.
-
Establish quantitative and objective metrics to evaluate job performance
-
Validate that compensation is competitive, based on current market rates for the position and metro area the job is in
-
Look at both internal and external candidates for open positions when they need to be filled
-
Apply a consistent selection process to all candidates
-
Include key stakeholders in your employee selection process
-
Train your interviewers in your employee selection process
-
Give your interviewers guidance to help them probe deeper into a candidate's suitability and compatibility with the culture of your enterprise
-
Conduct comprehensive reference and background checks on job candidates and validate the information on resumes of all employees
-
Ensure your orientation process helps re-deployed people become productive faster.
Way to Stand Out as an IT Professional
Ways to standout as an IT professional are:
-
Be more than a technologist - Understand how economic cycles affect your professional associates, the enterprise as a whole, and the industry in which it operates.
-
Understand how the economy impacts your job - Big projects and challenging initiatives could to be put on hold, and you might find yourself working on less-than-exciting tasks.
-
Create your future - It is very easy for people to keep their heads down and hope not to be noticed, but that is often exactly the wrong thing to do. As an IT professional you have the opportunity to demonstrate what you're capable of.
-
Know the new technologies - Be aware of the latest technologies that offer new ways to improve productivity and expand your expertise.
-
Listen to what others say - Companies shed poor performers, so it is important to stay at the top of your game by soliciting feedback as part of a focus on continual self-improvement.
IT Infrastructure Key to CIO Success
The number of IT jobs in the U.S. counted by the
National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses declined in each of the
last four months of 2008. The NACCB, which uses data from the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, said its tally of IT employment fell by 63,000 jobs from
August to December - a reduction of nearly 2%.
As the economic news continues to get bleaker, budget and staffing
cuts are a fact of life for many IT departments - resulting in postponed
purchases, delayed projects, hiring freezes and layoffs. IT investments need to
be targeted and focused on the core business and its bottom
line.
The situation poses difficult leadership challenges for CIOs. CIOs
need to focus on key IT initiatives so they can proceed as planned, because of a
desire by many business executives to rely even more heavily on technology to
help reduce corporate costs and boost revenues.
The recession is not good for IT per se, but CIO do have an
opportunity to clean up the processes at facilities where things maybe were not
as efficient as they could be.
It Will Get Harder to Terminate Employees if New Legislation Passes
Questions that need to be asked before new legislation makes it
more difficult for employers to terminate employees. Enterprises need to have answers and
strategies in place for these issues.
-
Are job responsibilities documented in detail job descriptions?
-
How does each job support the key objectives and mission of the enterprise?
-
When looking for individuals to fill roles are internal candidates looked for first? Why or why not?
-
Are specific job performance criteria defined for each job?
-
Is the compensation for jobs within the enterprise competitive? If not why?
-
When recruiting for new employees and/or promoting existing employees are the selection and evaluation process robustly defined?
-
When interviewing potential employees does the enterprise have guidelines established that key in on the suitability of the candidate for the job being filled?
-
Are all potential employees thoroughly vetted?
-
Are all employees afforded equal opportunities to be trained to meet specific job requirements?
All of these questions are the basis for an HR process which can insulate an enterprise from risk and costs associated with terminations that go wrong.
- more info