Companies with strong workplace management cultures can offset the trend by providing clear career opportunities for disaffected IT staffers

Currence, who joined Livingston, MT based PrintingForLess.com (PFL) in 2003, says his title on any given day jumps from network administrator to server maintenance to end user support to security management to troubleshooting the company’s VoIP system.

“End-user support was not part of my original career plan when I came here, but if you are in IT in a small business, becomes one of your responsibilities,” said Currence.

Currence left a good job with Fidelity Investments, the financial services giant in Boston because he was restless and to “become a more well-rounded IT professional,” as well as to achieve some much-needed work-life balance.

New research shows that Currence may be on the leading edge of a new trend among IT workers.

A recent study of US-based IT workers by the employee research and consulting firm ISR found that employment insecurity, unreasonable workloads and job stress contribute to growing discontent and increasing wanderlust among the sector’s top performers.

ISR compared opinions on job stress and employment security from a representative sample of the US workforce to those opinions of US-based IT workers. Among the findings in this study:

• IT workers perceive job stress at a much higher rate than the overall US workforce; 51 percent compared to 41 percent.
• More than half of IT workers, 53 percent, say their workloads are excessive, compared to on 39 percent of the US workforce.
• One quarter of IT workers would seriously consider leaving their company, up from 16 percent in 2004.
• 43 percent of IT workers fear losing their jobs even if they perform well. In comparison, only 32 percent of the overall US working population report a similar lack of confidence in their job security.
• 57 percent of IT workers are worried about being laid off within the next year, compared to only 47 percent of the US workforce.
• And just 33 percent of IT workers are not worried about the consequences of a corporate reorganization.
• The percentage of IT workers who believe that their employers reward innovation has plummeted over the past four years to 46 percent in 2005, compared to 64 percent in 2001.

These findings reflect a growing perception of the IT function as a cost-center, not a source of innovation that delivers a competitive advantage, says Dr. Gary Berger, executive director of ISR. The continued momentum of outsourcing that threatens job security combined with the current economic upturn that’s creating new job opportunities “has created a perfect storm that could lead to higher turnover among IT workers.”

David Foote is chairman of Foote Partners, a Connecticut-based research firm that has recently completed its own study of IT talent retention strategies. Foote stresses that a small company’s ability to retain its IT talent is never solely based on compensation.

“Retention is very much based on environment,” Foote said. “In a small business, you are talking about long hours in a very fluid environment. You walk in every morning with a list of things you need to get done, and before morning is over, your list is no longer a priority.”

“But IT workers at small companies usually enjoy multiple responsibilities; access to top management at their companies; access to customers. These people want to maintain close relationships with internal and external customers, and want to impact the success of their company. It’s an intoxicating mix of factors. But it is heavily based on personality and attitude.”

“If you look at the culture in a small company, there is a short-term focus on being an excellent multi-tasker, having the ability to solve a variety of problems every day, you can’t get that kind of formal training anywhere,” said Foote. “Comparatively speaking, in a larger enterprise, you aren’t going to know how the work you are doing is impacting your company’s bottom line. Most IT workers in larger companies are so far down the totem pole, they don’t feel that they have any impact on what the company is doing. It’s no wonder they are restless.”

For Currence, who grew up in Virginia but fell in love with hiking, fishing and other outdoors activities while pursuing his Masters degree in Boulder, CO, the decision to leave Boston in 2003 was not easy.

“I thought that this was the riskiest move I could make, since I had only been in working for five years, all of it for large companies,” he said. “Instead of going up the pay scale, I went down, and instead of becoming a specialist, I came here and became a jack of all trades.”

Currence was impressed with PrintingforLess – an INC. 500 company that recently won the 2005 Fortune Small Business’s Best Bosses award.

All the same, Currence defines his decision to move to Montana as a lifestyle choice that ended up working well professionally.

And in the process of indulging his love of outdoor activities, Currence also discovered his work had a direct impact on the company. 

“My input is taken into account whenever we’re faced with a decision on a new technology investment,” Currence said.  “With the experience I’ve gained here, I can do anything in IT that most companies need. I came here because I wanted the opportunity to make myself a better-rounded IT person. That is definitely a motivator. The best way to keep employees is to make sure they are continually challenged.”

The steady growth of PrintingForLess also improves retention. “In 9 years of operation, we’ve never had a layoff and the company's steady growth means opportunities are expanding, not shrinking,” said Andrew Field, president of PrintingforLess.

Despite the growth of the business, Field concedes that most people don’t come to Montana to get rich, “they come for the lifestyle.” All the same, he believes keeping employees challenged is the best way to keep them from becoming restless.

Field has set a clear direction for the company and works diligently to keep the organization on task. Although workloads are tremendous, the company sets clear directions and keeps working hours reasonable. “I'd prefer to have people work hard for 40-45 hours then head out skiing or fishing, rather than pace themselves for 60 hours,” he said.  

Field believes clear, important work is far more motivating and interesting than low-priority busy-work, so he is quick to say "no" to low-value projects. “I also stay out of the way,” he said. “The last thing they need when a critical server is down is me looking over their shoulders!”

ISR’s findings identify several methods for maintaining a productive work-life balance, including the ability to promote a strong workplace management culture. This management culture is based on leaders who display uncompromising integrity, set a clear direction for their organization and communicate it through a variety of channels. Strong leaders are able to accomplish this while maintaining career opportunities up and down the organization, said Dr. Mike Sokol, project director at ISR. 

Provia Software, a Grand Rapids, MI-based supply chain management software vendor, maintains a clear technology leadership direction, which helps keep the company’s four IT groups engaged, says president and CEO Ken Lewis. In addition to using leading-edge technology in its product development, Provia participates in industry consortiums like the EPCglobal, which develops and supports global standards for radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, underscoring the company’s role as a technology leader.

However, Lewis acknowledges that being known as a technology innovator is not enough to retain top talent. Competitive salaries plus perks like subsidized health club memberships, Thanksgiving turkeys, supporting home offices for telecommuting, are key retention tools.

“We’re very sensitive to compensation, and from a financial perspective as well, we consider ourselves leaders,” he says.

Harry Adams, CIO for Hinda, a Chicago-based marketing incentives solution provider with nearly 100 employees, said the ability to quickly recognize good performance has been motivating for his IT team. 

“You should expect the very best from your staff and try to manage for near-perfection,” Adams said. “Being an incentive company we also award performance points for extraordinary performance. These performance points can be redeemed for merchandise from our warehouse.”

Hinda has been in business since 1970, and has built a work culture that is focused on meeting company objectives while allowing team members the flexibility to perform necessary family functions and maintain a quality life. 

Adams said Hinda’s summer-hours program gives employees a half day off every other Friday, in exchange for working an extra hour per day during the week. Hinda also hosts a company picnic in the summer, informal cookouts throughout the year, and Adams’ IT Department hosts outings at least once per year.

To combat fears of outsourcing, Hinda involves its IT staff at the outset of any “make-or-buy” decisions, giving the IT team a greater sense of control and participation in the company’s business.  

“The issue of IT outsourcing has been around for a very long time,” Adams says. “Our IT team regularly participates in make-or-buy decisions ... outsourcing is merely one of those important decisions.”

Foote sees companies spending too much time assessing of the impact of outsourcing on their bottom line and neglecting to talk with their own people that may be affected by outsourcing. He said small companies are better at communicating to own staff, customers, and communicating strategy involved in such moves.

 “You find in large companies that when attention is not paid to various employee levels, this upsets the employees not directly connected to the top levels,” said Foote. “They get angry enough to sometimes leave. You don’t find that with small companies, because the relationship to the top managers is usually much closer.”