Budget cuts, workforce reduction, increased workloads, competitive salaries, and flexible, remote work options are playing central roles in IT attrition and recruitment post-pandemic.
In a recent Quick Poll, 55% of respondents said they were leaving their institution soon to work somewhere else or to retire. Respondents were the senior technology administrators at their schools. Some themes emerged including:
- Most respondents reported a reduction in their workforce.
- Budget cuts were cited as the main reason.
- Increased workloads and pandemic-related stress caused major staff burnout.
- Flexible, remote work options and competitive salaries, or the lack thereof, are central to both attrition and recruitment.
- IT departments will reorganize this year to become more agile and efficient for the changing needs of their organizations.
Almost half (48%) of respondents reported that the pandemic impacted the size of their IT workforce. 42% reported that 12 months prior to the survey, their IT group got smaller, yet 26% expanded during the same time. Although many spoke of reductions, during remote learning, “[The] Increased visibility of the impact of IT was helpful in justifying a few new positions,” said one IT leader.
Shift to Remote Work and Higher Pay
Greater flexibility in working remotely has emerged as a leading issue as institutions emerge from the pandemic. Some staff are leaving for other remote working environments and higher salaries. “Our replacement strategies have had to change to include remote work, higher compensation, and out-of-state applicants,” said another leader.
Units that have not supported remote work are seeing an increase in resignations and a decrease in morale for remaining workers—who argue that IT teams proved they were just as, if not more productive, working remotely.
Job turnover has resulted in extensive burnout of IT teams. They are stressed and fatigued according to the poll. “People are tired from all the extra work, and from the stress and logistics of managing family life.”
IT Reorganization Plans
New service requirements are needed “to support the students and workforce of the future.” IT departments are designing new, flatter organizations with more project-based teams. One respondent said “[We’re creating] flatter organizational structures and less ‘middle management’ for increased agility and more focus on service delivery vs. management.” Many job descriptions are being rewritten as they are no longer relevant to today’s IT needs.
“Given that our roster is smaller, we’ve had to redistribute roles and responsibilities, outsource some activities, and eliminate some services altogether. Therefore, IT job descriptions and duty assignments are in the highest state of flux and churn in my professional experience.” Some senior IT leaders have left but new leaders often bring their own vision and strategy to reorganize and to re-energize the IT group.
The poll revealed two other organizational changes:
- Remote work requires new security measures and increased cloud services to accommodate not just IT work but the entire institution, including teaching and learning. Some changes can be handled by expanding existing technology, but other services require new technology.
- Some institutions are “aligning their resources to the future, centralizing core functions and capabilities, [and] enhancing data-driven and analytics related decision making.”