Report: What’s bugging IT professionals

Priority areas we have selected:

Projections of further development of AI and its effects on the industry: We check whether IT people are afraid of AI taking over some work and whether they see any potential in automation of their current tasks.

Key competencies in the coming years: We wonder which skills will be decisive in future, analysing both technical and general aspects.

Expectations and benefits offered to IT specialists by employers: We check what is crucial for IT employees’ satisfaction and what benefits they consider most material.

Quality of cooperation between IT and internal/external clients: We analyse the efficiency of cooperation and identify improvement opportunities.

Professional plans of IT employees and reasons of decisions they make: We check what affects professional decisions of IT employees, and factors that attract or discourage them with respect to employers.

• Health and wellbeing in a variety of contexts are the key unsatisfied needs of IT employees. A large share of respondents, in particular leaders, who admit to experience professional burnout, seems to be a problem.

• Generative AI and security will be the key industry competencies in the coming years; our respondents believe that technical skills are significantly higher than general competencies.

• The opinion of IT employees regarding their cooperation with internal/external clients is better than that of the clients. At the same time, their perception of low efficiency of this cooperation differs from the perception presented by the clients. Ironically, most key reasons of low efficiency of the cooperation indicated by both parties regard general competencies as opposite to technical skills.

THE SPECTRE OF AI

As many other industries, the IT sector is undergoing a significant change caused by growing popularity of AI. When asked about the portion of their current tasks to be taken over by AI, three-fourths of respondents indicated minimum 25 percent. When asked what types of tasks would probably be taken over, they indicated mostly analytics, installation of applications and maintenance of standard business processes.

GROWTH DIRECTIONS AND MOST VALUABLE COMPETENCIES

IT specialists are strongly interested in continuous competency growth and learning. Our survey indicates that most of them prefer specialised professional roles, and 60 percent perceive such tasks as their future.

When indicating key IT competencies for the coming years, respondents have unanimously considered technical ones, especially those related to security, generative IT and cloud, as most valuable. General competencies have been indicated as important, but much less frequently.

PROFESSIONAL BURNOUT: A REAL THREAT FOR IT

Professional burnout, experienced by 53 percent of team leaders and over one-fourth of specialists, poses a growing threat for the industry. It results from a variety of reasons, among others work-life imbalance, being given too many tasks or general dissatisfaction with work.

In order to maintain appropriate IT headcount, employers need to adjust to the needs of technology specialists. The support gap, i.e. the difference between expectations and actual support provided, is most clear with respect to time off (-51 percent), health of respondents’ family members (-46 percent) and healthy lifestyle (-40 percent).

Growing popularity of generative AI will trigger material changes in business operations. Therefore, organisations should allow IT experts to develop their competencies regarding technology, behaviour or psychology to allow adjusting their knowledge to current market needs, which may bring measurable benefits both to them and their enterprises. Predispositions of technology experts, owing to which they may become new technology adoption leaders in their organisations, are also material.

- John Guziak, Partner, Human Capital Leader, Deloitte

According to our respondents, most valuable IT competencies in the coming years will regard generative AI and security. In both cases, investing in talent development and experimental, even draft projects, may bring substantial benefits in the long run. These topics are interrelated: AI will generate enormous threats and opportunities to overcome security systems, not only purely technological, but also of the social nature.

- Zbigniew Łobocki, Senior Manager, Human Capital Deloitte 

When considering a change of employer or role, we cannot overlook differences of approach between Generation Z and the other ones. For Generation Z, lack of growth opportunities is the crucial factor. The new generation is ruling on the employment market, making companies work hard to meet their expectations. This is of special importance in fast-changing industries, such as IT. New technologies become increasingly popular; over time they will replace the current ones. Therefore, investing in development of the youngest employees may both solve efficiency problems and help retaining these people in your organisation.

- Weronika Żochowska, Consultant, Human Capital Deloitte

The presented data originate from 300 respondents, mostly from Poland, but also from the CEE region. Their opinions underlie the report, which is dedicated to IT function leaders and CHRO. You are welcome to read the full report, which presents both the current challenges facing the IT industry, and potential growth and improvement areas for industry leaders and employees.