Training key to staff retention

By Adam Gifford

If you want to keep your highly-trained and expensive information technology professionals on the payroll, give them opportunities to upgrade their skills.

That is the conclusion of a survey of IT professionals conducted in New Zealand and Australia by market research consultants The Leading Edge.

It was carried out for Com Tech Education Services, the region's largest high-end technical training company.

Asked to identify reasons for staying with an employer, 70 per cent of network professionals rate training higher than salary, company culture or superior technology.

However, employer commitment to training falls well short of demand. More than half the staff polled say they need at least two weeks of training a year. But only 38 per cent of employers offer that much or more. Another 34 per cent offer one to two weeks.

Survey respondents identify time (47 per cent), money (31 per cent) and lack of management commitment (18 per cent) as the main reasons for training not being offered. Yet 76 per cent of New Zealand network professionals believe training doubles or triples the effectiveness of their network.

Com Tech general manager Steve Ross says the training shortfall means staff dissatisfaction is high, making people ripe for poaching.

"New Zealand and Australian organisations are being forced to participate in a talent war to attract skilled employees for understaffed IT departments," Mr Ross says.

"There is a finite global pool of highly-skilled IT professionals."

Organisations, he says, are snapping up the best they can find from this pool without replenishing it by skilling-up the potential of existing talent.

"In the long run, by not providing training opportunities, companies are shooting themselves in the foot. There are few other careers where you can leave Auckland on Friday and be working in London on Monday. Certification is international."

Mr Ross says some employers still fear staff will leave for more money elsewhere if they get more training.

"They don't realise they need to re-evaluate staff once they have received further training, and perhaps increase their pay."

Newly hired staff are always less productive than existing staff and they're likely to be more expensive than the person who has just left, he says.

"If your recruitment budget is larger than your training budget, you have problems."

Most training is done to achieve technical certification, and 78 per cent of those surveyed in New Zealand agree certification is more relevant to their careers than a university degree.

Some 85 per cent believe certification will guarantee them a job, a higher percentage than their Australian counterparts. Only 21 per cent believe a university degree is a job ticket - in Australia that figure is closer to 33 per cent.

Mr Ross says in a skills crisis, certification not only tells prospective employers an individual has achieved a skill level based on set international standards, it means that person can be immediately effective in the workplace.

In line with earlier surveys, the most sought-after technical certification is Microsoft certified systems engineer (58 per cent), followed by Microsoft certified professional and certified Novell engineer (each 17 per cent), certified Novell administrator (16 per cent), certified Lotus professional (10 per cent), Cisco certification (9 per cent) and Microsoft certified solutions developer (3 per cent).

Only 40 per cent of New Zealand respondents report that their companies have increased training spending. However, in about 10 per cent of companies this increase is more than 50 per cent.

Most network professionals predict the amount their employers spend on training will stay the same or increase significantly this year because of new technology, multi-skilling, upgrading, taking on new staff and, for a small percentage, to keep existing staff happy.

The average IT professional on a Com Tech course is a 32-year-old male and about 58 per cent earn more than $45,000 a year.

Mr Ross says IT professionals "might get paid a lot of money, but they work hard."

At least 75 per cent work more than 40 hours a week, 60 per cent work at least one weekend a month and 25 per cent two weekends. Much of their work is done when other users are not on the system.

"The Internet has forced a lot of organisations to provide service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so they are always on call."