Employee motivation is now firmly on the IT agenda since a study found that two thirds of tech professionals are actively looking for another job elsewhere in IT. The research by Spiceworks revealed several factors for employees’ dissatisfaction with their current roles, which is leading employers to look at ways they can retain their key staff in a climate where skills shortage is a global problem.
IT Pros Feel Underpaid and Under-Valued
Being underpaid was cited by 75 percent of workers as one of the reasons for leaving a job (especially amongst millennials) however many other influences came into play across all age groups.
70 percent of IT pros were looking to build on their skills elsewhere and 39 percent felt that their employee didn’t place enough importance on IT. Interestingly, 39 percent were looking for better work-life balance, especially those in Gen X age bracket.
Whilst the percentage of those looking for a higher salary was high, research has shown time and time again that money isn’t the greatest pull if other factors are working well for an employee – which reflects the range of reasons given.
Can Gamification Work for IT Pros?
Job satisfaction and motivation is important for IT professionals, and many companies in the UK and abroad are introducing gamification into the working day, which has been shown to encourage positive and enjoyable competition amongst teams, boosting employee performance in the process.
Gamification can make a laborious job, in particular, more enjoyable. In the case of IT support, it has been used with success to motivate employees to handle higher numbers of support queries, with the added reward of extra pay, but the jury is still out on how it can be used elsewhere in IT.
It’s clear it can work for routine tasks, such as data entry, or commission-based roles like sales, but there are questions on how it can be used with non-competitive individuals.
Create or play?
Gamification isn’t right for all jobs or tasks but, when done right, can show an employee that a company is willing to invest in their job satisfaction. Maybe, though, it should be left to the tech pros to design and create the gamification systems for everyone else.
What do you think? We’d love to hear what IT pros think of gamification in their department.
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