Management Toolkit

IT pros fear offshoring, executives don't

Sylvia Carr silicon.com

Published: 17 May 2006 15:35 BST

Though no job in the enterprise is safe from being offshored nowadays, the top of the IT department feels the most secure while the rank-and-file IT workers are the most concerned about their job security.

According to the 2006 Skills Survey, commissioned by ZDNet UK sister site Silicon.com, IT directors and chief information officers were the most confident their jobs would not be offshored. Perhaps secure in the knowledge that they will be around to orchestrate and manage any offshored IT work, two-thirds said they don't believe offshoring is a threat to their job.

Board directors and CEOs/CFOs/COOs were next in line, with half believing their jobs won't be offshored, followed closely by IT managers.

Despite the confidence of these high-fliers, some still fear for their jobs — at least one-fifth of each group believed they could lose their job because of offshoring.

IT pros and software and web developers, however, were more concerned. Nearly half of each group agreed offshoring was a threat to their current position — the highest percentages of any job title.

This is unsurprising given these are just the sorts of positions that can be filled by qualified graduates in foreign countries at a fraction of the price of UK salaries.

IT consultants were the most lukewarm on the topic, with slightly more disagreeing that offshoring threatens their job than agreeing. This is backed up by separate research from recruiting company Giant Group which revealed that job security is a low priority for consultants in today's job market — it is outweighed by skills development and an employer's brand status.

No part of the UK workforce is unaffected by offshoring, however. A majority of even the unemployed Skills Survey respondents believed offshoring negatively impacts their ability to land a job.

The results are based on responses from 1,198 individuals.