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Most firms have not defined mobability policies

Webmaster — Sat, 12 May 2012 22:48:32 -0600

Policies defined the rules of the road for mobile computing yet only one in five organizations have them defined and implemented according to Janco Associates. This lows rate of definition is driven by smaller to mid-sized firms as almost half of all large firms have mobility policies defined.

When a CIO or an IT Executive takes over a new job one of the greatest challenges is to quickly validate that the infrastructure that is in place. Would it not be nice to have some tools that could be use to quickly put proven world class policies in place with minimal effort. That is what the CIO IT Infrastructure Policy Bundle does.

The mobility policy template address all areas related to mobility: mobile devices (including procedures for lost devices), mobile applications including consideration for approved applications for business use), and data in mobile environments (including policy for using public Wi-Fi networks).

Mobile workers to drive IT

Webmaster — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 01:43:59 -0600

By 2015, the world's mobile worker population will reach 1.3 billion, representing 37.2 percent of the total workforce, according to an updated forecast from an IT analytics firm. The report projects the most significant gains will again be in the emerging economies of Asia/Pacific thanks to continued, strong economic growth. The Americas will experience a slower growth rate due to a protracted economic recovery and high rates of unemployment, the analysts concluded.

This bundle contains the following policies:

CIO IT Infrastructure Policy Bundle
Backup and Backup Retention Policy
Blog and Personal Web Site Policy
BYOD Policy
Incident Communication Policy
Internet, e-Mail, Social Networking, Mobile Device, Electronic Communications, and Record Retention Policy
Mobile Device Access and Use Policy
Outsourcing Policy
Record Management, Retention, and Destruction Policy
Sensitive Information Policy (HIPAA Compliant)
Service Level Agreement (SLA) Policy Template with Metrics
Social Networking Policy
Telecommuting Policy
Travel and Off-Site Meeting Policy
Electronic Forms

More workers stop looking for work

Webmaster — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 06:10:24 -0600

Industries and occupations related to health care, personal care and social assistance, and construction are projected to have the fastest job growth from now until 2020. Total employment is projected to grow by 14.3 percent over the decade, resulting in 20.5 million new jobs. Despite rapid projected growth, construction is not expected to regain all of the jobs lost during the 2007-12 recession. The bad news is that the number of individuals dropping out of the job market continues to increase and the Labor Participation Percentage continues to fall.

http://www.ejobdescription.com/IT_Salary_Survey.html

Webmaster — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 09:47:39 -0600

IT pros are reeling from a one-two punch brought on by the sustained economic crisis: Organizations of all stripes have reported deep cuts to their training budgets in recent years, and they have held off on initiatives that would have given workers a way to learn new technologies.

At the same time, technological evolution continued at its breakneck pace. Janco and eJobDescription 2012 Salary Survey found that the skills related to emerging technologies, such as mobile, wireless and communications systems, cloud computing and Web security, enjoyed the biggest year-over-year increases in demand among IT managers who plan to hire in the next 12 months.

On top of that, hiring managers say they want people with the basic tech skills that have always been required, as well as business acumen, communication skills and customer service abilities.

Finding a job - social media implications

Webmaster — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:08:16 -0600

The process of finding a job has changed in the digital age, and human resources managers and other hirers are using new tools to screen potential job candidates, according to recent research. While resumes and other traditional means of candidate-employer interaction remain standard, many hiring managers want a more complete picture of their applicants. That could include job-fitness assessments to determine whether you fit in with the company culture - and maybe even probing your world view.

So it is wise to make sure you've got your social media ducks in a row before you begin a job search. What you say on Twitter could haunt you. Organizations are recognizing that their attraction and retention of top talent is what will propel them to the top. There is a tremendous opportunity for companies worldwide to put their people intelligence to work to create positive, profitable business outcomes.

What is the jobs picture?

Webmaster — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:06:52 -0600

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released its biennial employment forecasts, and this year's report has some good news for IT workers. The agency predicts that employment in all computer-related fields will grow 22 percent through 2020. Some job titles will do even better, for example software developers (28-32 percent growth), database administrators (31 percent growth), and network and systems administrators (28 percent growth).

While the forecast looks good, some experts say the U.S. IT job growth isn't as high as it needs to be. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of research firm Janco Associates, characterized the IT job growth as "anemic," saying, "When you consider the overall demand for systems and applications in high-growth markets like China and India, [the BLS projections] mean the U.S. will be doing a diminishing portion of the development and implementation work. If that's the case, the U.S. will no longer be the leader in IT."

He added, "The BLS projections are a bad sign for the U.S. IT graduates from universities. Those numbers do not cover the net growth necessary to give all of the graduates jobs."

BLS forecast is for anemic IT job growth

Webmaster — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:15:21 -0600

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) forecasts that offshoring will hurt the growth of U.S. programming jobs in over the rest of this decade, though expansion of healthcare IT and mobile networks will in turn increase demand for software developers, support technicians and systems analysts.

By 2020, employment in all computer occupations is expected to increase by 22%, but some IT fields will fare better than others, according to the BLS biennial update of employment projections.

Demand for software developers will be the strongest in this period, with increases ranging from 28% to 32%, depending on the type of software development.

The agency's forecasts, particularly for technology-related jobs, are often controversial because they can't account for rapid market changes and tech disruptions. But its estimates are often cited in various policy debates on issues ranging from education to immigration.

The IT employment growth rate projected by the BLS was characterized as "anemic" by Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates, a research firm that analyzes IT wage and employment trends.

"When you consider the overall demand for systems and applications in high-growth markets like China and India, [the BLS projections] mean the U.S. will be doing a diminishing portion of the development and implementation work," said Janulaitis. "If that's the case, the U.S. will no longer be the leader in IT.

"The BLS projections are a bad sign for the U.S. IT graduates from universities. Those numbers do not cover the net growth necessary to give all of the graduates jobs," Janulaitis added.

Outsourcing via offshoring is costing jobs in the US and Europe

Webmaster — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:45:27 -0600

Offshoring continues to shrink the number of IT jobs, but in 10 years companies will run out of jobs to offshore, study says
Offshoring is negatively impacting the number of IT jobs in large corporations. A management consulting firm examined services occupations in finance, human resources, procurement, and IT. They found that only 4.5 million of the 8.2 million jobs in these fields that existed in the U.S. and Europe at the start of 2002 will still exist in 2016.

Of the 1.8 million IT jobs at the companies represented in survey about 270,000 jobs in the U.S. and Europe will be moved offshore between now and 2016. The U.S. share accounts for about half of the total jobs lost, or 135,000. By 2016 the firm estimates that 1.8 million IT jobs in North America and Europe at large companies today will have declined to about 1.5 million, despite the growth of many of these companies.

This decline in IT jobs reflects decisions to buy IT services, in the form of cloud-based services. But the IT industry, which has been seeing employment growth, will still move some of those jobs moved offshore.

Microsoft say cloud will generate 14 million job internationally

Webmaster — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:44:36 -0600

Implementation of cloud services will create 14 million jobs internationally by 2014, with the greatest increases occurring in emerging markets, which are not constrained in deploying cloud systems by legacy infrastructure, according to a new study from Microsoft.

China and India alone could create up to 6.8 million new jobs related to the cloud, the study found. Because many of the businesses in these emerging markets are young, they aren't bound by the "Legacy lag" -- as the study calls it -- that could be holding back cloud adoption at larger enterprises around the world.

IBM lays off over 1,200 employees in US and Canada

Webmaster — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:52:26 -0600

According to an IBM employee organization, reports and independent sources, IBM has laid off more than 1,000 employees with some estimates going as high as 1.200 or more in the U.S. and Canada

According to an IBM employee organization, reports and independent sources, IBM has laid off more than 1,000 employees with some estimates going as high as 1.200 or more in the U.S. and Canada.

Some industry experts say that the layoffs in the U.S. are part of an IBM strategy to limit the number of Big Blue employees in the U.S. in favor of lower-cost workers in emerging countries.

IBM, which employs more than 425,000 people around the world, in 2009, stopped releasing figures on the number of employees it has in each country. In 2009, IBM listed 105,000 employees in the U.S., down from nearly 134,000 in 2005. Now, Alliance@IBM estimates that in 2011 IBM employed 98,000 workers in the U.S.

Younger workers are different

Webmaster — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:31:24 -0600

A recent study discovered some key trends about millennials and how they view technology and workplace IT departments. The study found that younger workers:

Have very high expectations when it comes to getting a response regarding support calls
Prefer interactions with IT beyond just calling the helpdesk, including email, chat, and texts
Will typically research problems on their own (either before calling IT or while waiting for a response)
Tend to work outside of typical business hours and off premises
Will develop their own solutions and processes with the tools at their disposal, including consumer-oriented cloud services and personal devices
Value working collaboratively with colleagues within their organization and beyond it
Are often willing to share knowledge about solutions provided to them by IT and solutions and processes they develop on their own

Certifications are not highly valued by CIOs

Webmaster — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:09:55 -0600

While some staffing firms report that IT salaries are growing according to Foote Partners, has been observing a different trend. They are in agreement with data that has been publsihed by of Park City, UT and eJobDescription.com.

Foote says pay premiums for 82 specific technical skills and 88 different technical certifications have been dropping for a year. Premiums are the extra cash companies sometimes pay to full-time employees or contractors on top of their annual salaries or hourly rates in order to acquire a specific, desired skill or certification.

The value of IT certifications has been sliding for five years. Meanwhile, pay premiums for technical skills began falling at the end of 2010, after 20 consecutive months of increases. The dip in demand for technical skills and the corresponding drop in pay premiums for them represents a "correction" in the way IT leaders are structuring their IT organizations, and consequently, in the way they value various skills.

In short, according to Foote's assessment of the market, IT leaders see technical skills and certifications as a dime a dozen, and thus, not worth paying premiums to acquire. Moreover, IT leaders are not necessarily looking for pure technical skills as they re-staff their IT departments, undertake new projects and focus on innovation. Tech skills are third, fourth, and fifth on their lists of desired skills according to Foote.

IT hiring trends

Webmaster — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:32:35 -0600

As the economy's recovery and corporate earnings improve, business across North America are reinvesting in IT projects that were put on hold through the recession. The industries with the strongest growth, including technology and health care, are adding the most IT jobs today, and the IT positions in demand today are a combination of those directly related to profit drivers (product and service development) and back-office operations (such as networking and database administration), a positive indicator for the economy overall.

The distribution of the employment opportunities metro areas across the country confirms that IT job growth is not confined to those areas traditionally considered IT job markets such as Silicon Valley. The Metro areas with the greatest opportunities for IT professional are:

Minneapolis (Overall Unemployment: 5.1%)
Salt Lake City (Overall Unemployment 5.4%)
McLean, Va. (Overall Unemployment: 5.5%)
Boston (Overall Unemployment: 5.7%)
Houston (Overall Unemployment: 7.6%)
San Francisco (Overall Unemployment: 7.6%)
Walnut Creek, Calif. (Overall Unemployment: 7.6%)
Denver (Overall Unemployment: 7.9%)
Toronto (Overall Unemployment: 8.5%)
New York City (Overall Unemployment: 9.0%)
Jacksonville, Fla. (Overall Unemployment: 9.5%)
Orlando (Overall Unemployment: 9.7%)
Detroit (Overall Unemployment: 10.7%)

IT drives company success

Webmaster — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:33:21 -0600

Top-performing companies are top performers in IT, too. Enterprises ranking in the highest quartile for annual revenue, growth, profitability and innovation, and with revenue growth of more than 5% in the past year are better at measuring data, interacting with customers via mobile tools, and mobilizing applications to the cloud, among other things.

"Raising a firm's digital IQ means improving the way it leverages technologies and channels to meet customer needs," says a principal at PwC. "The core of the ecosystem for innovation has moved from inside the firm to out in the marketplace. Customer and employee expectations are being shaped by this environment -- if you miss this trend you will be increasingly irrelevant to the market."

Participate in IT Salary Survey

Webmaster — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:22:27 -0600

Janco is just starting it data gathering for the 2012 Mid-Year IT Salary Survey. Everyone who participates will get a copy of the summary data and those who provide at least ten (10) data points will get a copy of the full study. In addition anyone who provides data within the next 30 days will be entered in a drawing for a fifty percent (50%) discount on any product in the eJobDescription.com catalog. Just click here and follow the link to participate or cut and paste the link below into your browser.

CIO begin to think about growing the their IT organizations

Webmaster — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:05:32 -0600

According the Hackett Group's, company leaders have identified the need to grow their emerging market presence as one of the most important priorities for 2012, compared to 2011. They now want their current level of globalization to triple within two to three years, and among their top goals is expanding the reach of their IT service delivery models.

But simply growing and tapping new markets isn't enough. Companies want to remain agile so they can adapt quickly and intelligently to volatile changes in customer demands and costs, according to the firm. "Getting the right information to permit quick action can only be accomplished when mechanisms are in place to gather high-quality data, conduct rigorous analysis, and make decisions with confidence. IT and other support functions overwhelmingly recognize this fact and are focusing their technology priorities for 2012 around the themes of improving the foundation of unified data (to create 'one source of truth') and being able to provide analysis and access to those findings."

H-1B Visa program continues to grow

Webmaster — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:42:12 -0600

The data comes from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. One list shows new applications for H-1B visas; the second list shows the combined totals for new visas and renewals. A H-1B visa must be renewed every three years.

The U.S. issues 85,000 H-1B visas annually. Of that number, 20,000 are reserved for advanced degree graduates of U.S. universities.

In total, the new visa applications from the top 10 users account for 22% of all the visas allowed by the U.S. each year. But offshore providers probably have a much larger percentage of the visas issued under the 65,000 cap, which includes graduates for foreign universities. An exact breakdown isn't available.

H-1B Visa Renewals and Approvals

Cognizant - 5715
Infosys- 4042
Wipro - 2817
Tata - 1758
Larsen & Toubro - 1608
Microsoft - 1586
Accenture - 1370
HCL America - 1128
IBM - 1063
Google - 615

H-1B New Visa Applications

Cognizant - 4222
Infosys - 3962
Wipro - 2736
Tata - 1740
Accenture - 1347
Larsen & Toubro - 1204
HCL America - 1033
Microsoft - 947
IBM - 853
Google - 383
TOTAL - 18427

Recruiting using social media

Webmaster — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:43:49 -0600

Social media sites provide distinct clues that help identify top talent. Look at the candidate's presence on Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, or blogs, and look at:

Writing style: Many top-tier recruits have blogs with at least a small readership. Take the time to read his or her blog posts - and not just the most recent ones, but the early ones as well. It will give you an idea about his or her professionalism, communication skills, and ability to evolve and progress.
Followings: A good way to differentiate between two seemingly equal candidates may be to see how many people are commenting on their blog and, more significantly, how many followers they have on Twitter. Followers are a rough vote of interest and confidence in an individual.
Word of mouth - online: Wall posts, Twitter @replies, blog comments, and LinkedIn recommendations provide insight into what people think of an individual.

Social media has proven to be a valuable resource in bad times, and it may also be a compelling resource for businesses in times-a-plenty. Tracking potential talent across social media venues is smart business because the top players in any industry or profession are likely to be actively engaged in online communities.

Talent in high demand at large firms

Webmaster — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:56:12 -0600

CIOs and other top organizational executives foresee a global talent shortage looming for the next several years, according to recent research from Deloitte. The consulting firm released the results of its survey in a new report, "Talent Edge 2020: Redrafting Talent Strategies for the Uneven Recovery." When it comes to adequately appointing leaders and staffing key operations, the report says fallout from the talent shortage could be significant. In addition, retaining younger workers has emerged as a key issue for many organizations.

Ultimately, companies that invest aggressively in talent management and development programs will reap rewards, the report concludes. "Today's top talent organizations are not sitting back and waiting for a slow recovery to solve their talent challenges," says the talent services leader for Deloitte Consulting. "These executives are more likely to invest ‑ by a two to one margin ‑ across the board on talent priorities." More than 375 senior executives and talent managers at large companies worldwide took part in the research.

Hiring is on the uptick

Webmaster — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 11:44:08 -0600

Janco Associates and eJobDescription.com have found that hiring seems to be on the move up. In the last few months they have found that companies are beginning to look into the future.

http://www.e-janco.com/Salary.htm

Webmaster — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:53:10 -0600

The 2012 Salary Survey, just released by Janco Associates, is mixed news for IT Professionals. The survey shows that hiring and salaries are up in some sectors of the IT job market, salaries have stopped falling and for selected positions there has been an increase in compensation.

The CEO of Janco stated, "Our main conclusion from analysis of the data and interviews of CIOs is that for Information Technology the recession has bottomed out for and that hiring of IT professionals will increase in 2012." He also said, "However there still are a number of companies who are continue to be cautious and are concerned that the recovery will not be strong enough to support increased IT spending." He added, "Cost control is still the rule of the day; however we have seen an increase in the number of part-timers and contractors who are focused on particular critical projects. This is strong indicator that IT hiring and salaries will go up in 2012."

42% CIO report to the CFO

Webmaster — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:51:50 -0600

The Financial Executives Research Foundation found that 42% of IT organizations report directly to the CFO. The percentage soars to 60% at smaller businesses with revenues between $50 million and $250 million.

The same survey pointed out that finance chiefs alone authorize 26% of all IT investments, while chief information officers approve only 5%. This makes sense: in tough economic times finance inevitably asserts itself and casts a gimlet eye on spending. In fact, an October 2011 report by CDW, one of the worlds largest technology resellers, said that only 40% of IT decision-makers expect their budgets to rise this winter, down 8% from last year and the lowest level of IT investment increase since October 2009.

Overtime may be thing of the past for ALL IT workers

Webmaster — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:27:17 -0600

The Computer Professionals Update Act (CPU Act) was proposed by a Democrat, Sen. Kay Hagan, whose state is home to a heavy concentration of technology-related companies, as well as financial services outfits, including Bank of America, that are huge employers of IT workers.

The bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA), which mandates that workers be paid time-and-half for work beyond 40 hours in a week -- in some cases, beyond 8 hours in a day. There are already numerous exemptions to that requirement, including salaried executives, professionals, and any IT worker "who is a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled worker." The current version of the FSLA goes on to specify that exempt-from-overtime jobs include "systems analysis techniques and procedures design, documentation, testing, creation, or modification of computer programs."

The CPU Act would broaden that exemption so much it appears that any IT worker who is paid more than $27.63 an hour would lose the right to overtime. Here's what it says:

Any employee working in a computer or information technology occupation (including, but not limited to, work related to computers, information systems, components, networks, software, hardware, databases, security, Internet, intranet, or websites) as an analyst, programmer, engineer, designer, developer, administrator, or other similarly skilled worker, whose primary duty is

the application of systems, network, or database analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine or modify hardware, software, network, database, or system functional specifications; or
the design, development, documentation, analysis, creation, testing, securing, configuration, integration, debugging, modification of computer or information technology, or enabling continuity of systems and applications.

Security jobs may be in high demand

Webmaster — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:51:33 -0600

IT security professionals are projected to see higher salary increases, compared with the overall IT market in 2012, according to one national recruiting firm.

Salaries for IT security professionals are projected to increase by 4.5 percent in 2012, according to this firm. The increasingly hostile threat landscape and growing demand for cloud computing has made security the hottest IT career in terms of salary growth.

The guide listed projected percentage increases over 2011 salaries as well as estimated base salaries. The IT salaries in general are expected to see a 3 percent increase in 2012; security jobs are expected to outpace the projected average.

Dumb move by creater of CityVille and FarmVille soical network games

Webmaster — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:42:24 -0600

Attracting top employees is difficult for cash-strapped startups. To address this many of these companies give out company stock to supplement salaries that employees might feel is below-market.

Zynga followed that strategy. The creator of CityVille and FarmVille, Zynga apparently wishes it hadn't, according to a the Wall Street Journal.

The Zynga CEO, along with his top executives, decided last year as they were preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) that they had given out too much stock to employees. But rather than accept that reality, the executives reportedly tried a different tactic: demand employees give back not-yet-vested stock or face termination.

In order to determine which employees would be asked to give stock back, Pincus and his executives tried to pinpoint workers whose contributions to Zynga--in the execs' eyes--didn't necessarily justify the potential cash windfall they could receive when the company went public, the Journal claims. One Journal source said that Zynga executives were especially concerned with not creating a "Google chef" scenario.

That reference relates to Google's 2004 IPO when one of the company's chefs, who was hired in the firm's early days, walked away with $20 million worth of stock after the shares went public.

After finding people to target, the Journal's sources say, the CEO offered his ultimatum. However, as one might expect, he faced some anger from employees who didn't believe they should be required to give back the stock. The Journal cited two employees--one who has left Zynga and another that still works with the company--who hired attorneys to reach a settlement that saw them give up some, but not all, of the unvested shares.