Free Membership
Existing Members
Weekly e.Newsletter
Expert Insight
Tech Showcase
Breaking News
Research Center
Required Reading
Advertising Info
About Us
Site Search
|
| |||||||||||||
| 'ERROR' say Tech Professionals to Salary Stagnation | |||||||||||||
| In the face of nearly flat salaries for tech professionals -- a one percent increase in average pay to $78,845 -- technology professionals cited an increase in salary dissatisfaction, according to the 2009-2010 Annual Salary Survey from Dice, a career site for technology and engineering professionals. Further, technology professionals were disappointed with efforts by employers to keep them motivated via non-compensation related incentives during the recession. Close to half (47%) say their employers are doing nothing to keep them motivated; just 19 percent are being offered more interesting or challenging assignments, and 14 percent are benefitting from more flexible work hours. Nearly a quarter (24%) of surveyed tech professionals said that they received a bonus last year. But those who didn't reported higher levels - at 42 percent - of dissatisfaction with their compensation, than their rewarded colleagues of which just a quarter (27%) were displeased. Technology salaries are up four percent in Washington, D.C. to $89,014. In fact, technology pros in the Government and Defense sector enjoyed a 4.4 percent average increase -- nearly equal to last year's overall 4.6 percent surge in salaries. Silicon Valley still reigns as one of the top metro areas to work in, with a reported average IT salary of $96,299. New York City reported a 1.5 percent increase in average salaries to $86,710, similar to the wage increase reported nationally in financial services. Continuing to lead the pack in top paid skills is ABAP-- Advanced Business Application Programming ($115,916), followed by SOA -- Service Oriented Architecture ($107,827), and ETL -- Extract Transform and Load ($105,844). Additional findings of the survey include: | |||||||||||||
| [Full Article] Feb-19-2010 | |||||||||||||
| Following an Expected Increase in Hiring, 57% of Private-Company CEOs Plan to Increase their Workforce Expenses | |||||||||||||
| As signs of economic recovery continue to positively trend, approximately 57 percent of CEOs interviewed for PricewaterhouseCoopers' Private Company Trendsetter Barometer survey plan to increase their total workforce expenses over the next 12 to 18 months, while 35 percent plan to remain the same, and only 5 percent expect a decrease. Concurrently, the majority of private companies surveyed (57 percent) reported being affected by reductions in their companies' workforces as a result of the economic crisis. While most employment areas were affected, there was a particular emphasis on middle management and skilled labor. In contrast, of those surveyed, 40 percent reported no layoffs or reductions as a result of strain economic conditions. Despite workforce reductions, 61 percent of Trendsetter CEO’s believe their companies' current workforce is well aligned to business objectives that must be met over the next 12-24 months. Thirty-four percent believe they are only somewhat aligned, and only two percent believe their company is not well aligned. Sixty-one percent believes their organization has the right skills at the management level to effectively lead their company over the next 12-24 months. However, 35 percent believe they will have skill gaps. Interestingly, among the 35 percent of leading private companies that believe they will have to fill in some skills gaps, 82 percent are planning to fill the gap by hiring new talent. Additionally, 68 percent plan to train/develop existing talent, 32 percent plan to redeploy talent and 22 percent plan to use contractors as means to fill skills gaps at their companies. Over the next 12 months, 39 percent of private company CEOs also plan to invest or are currently investing in talent management programs, while approximately 54 percent reported they have no plans to invest. The goal of the talent management programs as highlighted by 88 percent of those currently investing or planning to invest in these programs, is to better capitalize on existing workforces. One-in-five (20 percent) reported their goal is to better position their company from a recruiting perspective as an employee of choice as the economy recovers. | |||||||||||||
| [Full Article] Feb-19-2010 | |||||||||||||
| U.S. Job Satisfaction at Lowest Level in Two Decades | |||||||||||||
| Americans of all ages and income brackets continue to grow increasingly unhappy at work-a long-term trend that should be a red flag to employers, according to a report released today by The Conference Board. The report, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. households conducted for The Conference Board by TNS, finds only 45 percent of those surveyed say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61.1 percent in 1987, the first year in which the survey was conducted. "While one in 10 Americans is now unemployed, their working compatriots of all ages and incomes continue to grow increasingly unhappy," says Lynn Franco, director of the Consumer Research Center of The Conference Board. "Through both economic boom and bust during the past two decades, our job satisfaction numbers have shown a consistent downward trend." Fewer Americans are satisfied with all aspects of their employment, and no age or income group is immune. In fact, the youngest cohort of employees (those currently under age 25) expresses the highest level of dissatisfaction ever recorded by the survey for that age group. The drop in job satisfaction between 1987 and 2009 covers all categories in the survey, from interest in work (down 18.9 percentage points) to job security (down 17.5 percentage points) and crosses all four of the key drivers of employee engagement: job design, organizational health, managerial quality, and extrinsic rewards. | |||||||||||||
| [Full Article] Jan-21-2010 | |||||||||||||
| Employers Increasing Use of Social Media to Reach Employees in Study Finds Consumers want Increased Automation in the Contact Center | |||||||||||||
| Nuance Communications, Inc. announced the findings of a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting. The study revealed that consumers rate automated telephone customer service higher than live agents for certain straightforward interactions. In five out of ten posed scenarios, consumers preferred automated telephone customer service systems over live agent interactions for tasks like prescription refills (66% rated automation highly, compared with 52% for live agent), checking the status of a flight from a cell phone (61% versus 49%), checking account balances (59% versus 36%), store information requests (55% versus 37%), and tracking shipments (53% versus 47%). The survey also revealed that automated telephone systems are an expected and accepted customer service channel with 82% of US online adults having used an automated touchtone or speech recognition system to contact customer service in the past 12 months. That figure trails behind only live agent interactions, with which 93% of consumers have engaged. In the survey, consumers provided their level of interest in a variety of specific proactive notification options within five different industries. The aggregated results of the industry-specific questions show that a strong majority of consumers are interested in at least one proactive notification alert via their choice of email, voice message, or text message. Consumers were most open to notifications related to the travel industry (93%), which include such things as flight status updates and confirmation of reservations for flights, hotels, and car rentals. Eighty-eight percent of consumers were interested in notification from a financial services institution, with strong interest in transaction confirmations. With regard to health care, consumers strongly favored appointment reminders � something that could be adopted in a variety of other industries as well, such as utilities or professional services. Other key findings: According to Forrester's study, when it comes to evaluating a great experience with automated speech recognition customer service systems, two-thirds of consumers value having the ability to speak to a live agent at any time. Forty-two percent of consumers value the ability of the speech recognition system to understand them the first time a response is spoken, and 39% of consumers prefer not to have to repeat themselves. Similarly, when asked to identify what would improve speech recognition customer service experiences, the top choice (75%) of consumers was to offer the option of speaking with a live agent throughout the interaction. Being understood the first time (63%) and improving menus to direct callers to the appropriate destination (45%) round out the top three answer choices. | |||||||||||||
| [Full Article] Jan-21-2010 | |||||||||||||
| Are Employees Twittering the Day Away? | |||||||||||||
| Whether they're shooting off their own "tweets" or following others, workers using Twitter are creating liability and PR risks with their 140-character rants, raves and company gossip. Example 1: A PR exec landed in Memphis and promptly posted on his Twitter account, "I would die if I had to live here." The problem: Memphis is home to FedEx, one of the PR firm's largest clients. FedEx reps were not amused. Example 2: A 22-year-old applicant who was offered a job with Cisco sent a "tweet" saying, "Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work." Needless to say, the woman Twittered her way out of the job. Advice: Draft a brief policy on your organization's expectations for employees' use of Twitter and other social networking sites (plus video). It could serve as a complement to your e-mail or e-communication policies. As the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) points out, "If your company ignores the impact of Twitter, the company's silence might cause confusion." Here are some suggestions from SHRM for your Twitter policy: Remind employees that they can be disciplined or terminated for making online disparaging remarks about the company -- even if they're made on their own time from their own computers. | |||||||||||||
| [Full Article] Dec-18-2009 | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
