Capitalize On Skills Gap With Salary Reassessments

Even though information technology professionals may generally be passionate about their work, the money still matters. Fortunately for highly skilled employees, salaries in their fields are more generous than those associated with most other jobs throughout the global market. However, as their advanced qualifications become more and more in demand, IT workers may be able to use their precious value as leverage to receive an income boost.A growing number of companies are in need of certified and trained tech staff members so they can successfully employ sophisticated solutions to promote efficiency and improve profits throughout their business operations. At the same time, because many of these innovative tools are still relatively new, only a limited supply of tech professionals have the right experience and know-how to successfully wield them. Consequently, organizations are scrambling to attract qualified candidates while trying to hold on to any viable talent they already have on staff.There is such a limited supply of professionals who are capable of implementing and managing new business technologies that recruiters everywhere are reporting that many of their open positions have been left unfilled. In light of this IT skills gap, tech representatives who already deal with these critical solutions should consider using this talent shortfall to their advantage.Assess actual value prior to pay negotiationsBefore making any moves to start salary negotiations, IT professionals first have to be honest with themselves. They have to consider how much time they have invested in their current companies, in addition to assessing how much of an asset they may be to their employers. Staff members need to come up with specific examples of their contributions to projects, determining the exact results they have produced for their departments and businesses as a whole. They may also want to see if there were any significant missteps that they have made over the course of their tenure.By sorting through all these factors, tech professionals gain accurate insight into their actual value as an employee. Staff members should be sure to do this preliminary step. If they ask for a raise either too early in their tenure or without truly proving themselves, they could have the tables turned on them, having their work scrutinized by IT executives or, worse, putting their employment into question. For this reason, it is better to guarantee that they have a case before approaching superiors and suggesting bumping up income brackets.Investigate the market salariesAfter analyzing their own performance and how much they are worth to a company, employees should then start to do some thorough investigating about their competition. It is important that staff members hoping to negotiate their salaries have a deep understanding of what other businesses are paying comparably skilled professionals responsible for doing similar jobs. With this market research, IT professionals will have a better grasp on what their credentials could earn them so that they may be less likely to walk into negotiations with lofty, baseless demands.Business Insider recommended that employees do so much research about salaries that they are then able to throw out precise figures to their companies. In fact, the source reported that a study conducted at Columbia Business School found that asking for exact sums instead of rounded figures can prove effective when it comes to income negotiations.”What this all suggests is that the level of precision at which a speaker chooses to convey a quantitative estimate – as ‘7 days’ versus ‘1 week’ – signals to message recipients the magnitude of error around the estimate they should expect,” explained Malia Mason, the lead researcher in this study.Using this precision tactic with regards to salary pitches will show employers that IT staff members have done their homework to come up with such an exact number. Because of this, executives could feel more inclined to honor requests, provided that they have the funds to do so. At the very least, pinpointing precise figures could spark their interest, prompting them to at least entertain the idea. Employers may agree to fulfilling these requests should it be more economical for them to increase IT incomes than using resources to try to find replacements.