IT Pros: How Well Do You Know Them?

September 14, 2017 No Comments

Today’s evolving business landscape heavily impacts roles inside an organization, regardless of where you sit. But no role has been more influenced by this new business reality than IT professionals, who are not only tasked with their core roles and responsibilities of maintaining complex IT environments, but also with educating end-users and solving end-user and business problems, among many other tasks. Further, technologies that drive digital transformation—automation, machine learning, and analytics—are placing additional pressures on IT professionals to develop their skills in these areas. Finally, the looming threat of security breaches forces IT professionals to work long hours to ensure their environments are as secure as possible.

In fact, a new survey conducted by SolarWinds explores the daily lives of IT professionals, revealing their tendency to donate time for education and problem-solving for end-users and spend countless hours texting with their monitoring systems. But despite long hours and security threats that keep them up at night, IT professionals overwhelmingly agreed that they continue to tackle all of this and more, day and night, because they love their jobs. As the third annual IT Professionals Day approaches, these results emphasize the need for greater appreciation towards IT professionals and the critical role they play not only in modern business, but in the lives of nearly all technology end-users.

SolarWinds’ Little-Known Facts survey provides a glimpse into the often-overlooked aspects of IT pros’ lives, ultimately allowing us to better understand, and in turn, appreciate them. A comprehensive look at the findings show that IT professionals:

Extend beyond the call of duty to solve end-user and business problems.
IT pros spend just over two-thirds of their time (65 percent) actually managing IT and IT-related services. What are they doing with the rest?

* Educating business leaders and end-users about IT/technology (18 percent)
* Fixing office equipment that is NOT related to IT (9 percent)
* Performing admin duties unrelated to IT (8 percent)

Dedicate most of their problem-solving to senior executives.
Of the 65 percent of time IT professionals spend on core IT responsibilities, nearly half of that time (47 percent) is dedicated to resolving technology issues from senior executives/chief officers.

* Rounding out the top three users who take most of IT’s time, 43 percent list finance/accounting/procurement as having the most technology issues that require an IT pro to solve, followed by sales/business development personnel at 39 percent.
* Marketing and PR required the least support, at seven percent.

At times, communicate with technology more than humans…
In any given week, nearly one-third of IT pros surveyed spend more time communicating with their IT monitoring systems than people close to them. 30 percent say they receive even more texts from their IT monitoring systems (for example, system alerts) each week than they do from their friends/family/loved ones.

… but want to connect on social media.
LinkedIn is the preferred method to network and connect with peers, according to 57 percent of IT pros surveyed.
Nearly half of all IT professionals (45 percent) use Facebook^® as their preferred social media platform, followed by Twitter^® (29 percent) and Instagram^® (9 percent). Just three percent, however, feel compelled to share face-filtered selfies on Snapchat.

Don’t fear the machine.
Despite industry hype that AI and machine learning are threatening their jobs, IT pros’ greatest concern is keeping their organizations secure: 89 percent of IT professionals most fear a security breach. Just 9 percent fear AI will take their jobs, a finding that is echoed by a recent McKinseyreport on AI’s nuances.

Want you to ask for help!
One-fourth of IT professionals agree that half of the time, end-users who try to solve their own IT problems ultimately make things worse.

Chronically overwork, but still love being an IT professional.
91percent of IT pros surveyed work overtime hours—and of those, 57 percent do so with no compensation for working overtime.

* Over half of IT pros work at least 10 overtime hours per month, and one in five IT pros works 20 or more overtime hours per month
* Of the 44 percent who do receive compensation for working overtime, the majority receive something other than monetary compensation, such as comp days.

94 percent of IT pros surveyed enjoy being an IT pro, and over half of all IT pros love what they do.

In 2016, survey data showed that as IT expanded beyond the four walls of organizations, IT professionals did so too, and were forced to adopt a 24/7 “always-on” mentality. In 2017, the trend continues, with IT pros performing their core IT responsibilities, in addition to dedicating time to educate end-users and business leaders, problem-solving for senior executives, and keeping their organizations secure from the threat of security breaches. This IT Pro Day, think about all the ways IT affects your work life and personal life, and take a moment to thank the IT pros who make it all possible.