Harvey Nash Initiative Invites Technologists to Play in its Data Sandpit

Harvey Nash, one of the world’s leading technology recruiters, recently announced its highly respected global 2017 Technology Survey open for responses. This year the survey – targeted at technology experts from CTOs to software developers – offers something unique: the opportunity for participants to get detailed access to the data so they can compare themselves to their peers on a broad range of topics, from salary to skills development.

Over the last five years, the Harvey Nash Technology Survey has become a highly regarded source of information for tech leaders around the world. Through it history more than 10,000 technologists from over 40 countries have taken part, generating almost 1 million data points. It offers a keen insight into trends and challenges faced by technologists across the globe.

In the process of developing the 2017 survey, Harvey Nash identified an opportunity to further utilise the vast amounts of data captured to create a more valuable experience for those who take part in the survey: they’ve created a unique data sandpit for technologists can actively interact with the data, contrasting and comparing the information however they please. The report focuses on five key areas: Future Technologies, Big Data, Privacy, Future Skills and Salary.

In addition to providing a genuinely valuable incentive for taking part in the survey, the hope is that sharing such information and offering greater transparency will enhance the lives of those working in technology. Equipping people and businesses in the space with the knowledge to make better decisions. From establishing a fair wage or promoting greater diversity to driving innovation and identifying cyber threats before they have a chance to wreak havoc.

Simon Hindle, director Harvey Nash, comments, “The value of data and the insights it provides is well recognised today. At Harvey Nash, we genuinely believe that sharing this information can enhance the lives of those working in technology. Equipping people and businesses in technology with the knowledge to make better decisions has the power to promote greater diversity, drive innovation and identify cyber threats.”

Some of the preliminary survey findings include:

• 4 in 10 tech technologists believe a significant part of their job will be automatedin 10 years (in other words they need to start looking for a new career!)
• Augmented reality is seen as the biggest potential growth area. While 20% of respondents feel it is important now, 91% believe it will be important to their company in the next five years.
• Conversely, mainframe is highly important to 87% of technologists today, but only 40% feel it will be in five years time.
• Technologists value personal development. A whopping 92% believe their career would be severely limited if they didn’t continually teach themselves new skills
• To achieve this:
  • 24% are gaining formal accreditations
  • 64% are learning new technical skills
  • 62% are gaining exposure to innovative projects
  • 52% are learning new business / people skills
  • 32% are changing jobs into a sector/ company with more potential
• Tech people are massively pro-immigration. 3 out of 4 respondents see immigration of skilled tech talent as critical to the competitiveness of their country’s tech sector.
• The most popular use of Big Data is to understand and target customers (63%). Only one in five use it to improve security. However, Big Data is yet to be a big success – only 25% of projects seem to show positive outcomes.
• Almost a third (32%) of technologist feel their organisations aren’t innovative enough. While just under a fifth (19.81%) say they work for a very innovative company, despite the fact that 39% feel innovation is part of their culture.
• When it comes to tools to become more innovative, most organisations (63%) are using agile methodologies. 37% of respondents also use third parties to promote innovation.
• Even though 89% of respondents have at least a reasonable understanding of how 3^rd parties use their data, 4 in 10 don’t trust them and 95% at the very least worry about it.
• 7 in 10 think recruiters are too obsessed with technical skills, and are overlooking good people as a result
• 16% of technologists have received more than 20 qualified approaches from head hunters in the past year. 34% have been approached between 5 and 14 times.
• 33% of technologists aspire to work in a C-suite role, while 17% want to set up their own business.
• If they could change one thing at work 24% would work on more interesting projects, while 16% would have a stronger team around them. Only 6% would change their boss and 5% would reduce their workload.

Closing date for the survey is 4th September. Technologists can get involved by completing the survey.