5 Perks Worth Pursuing for IT Professionals

As technology becomes a critical component  of organizational success today, the demand for qualified IT professionals increases. To attract the best employees, these organizations must understand the changing face of the modern workplace, especially as it relates to information technology.

In many cases, IT professionals have a unique set of needs regarding working hours, remuneration, flexibility to work in different locations, amongst others. For employers to recruit and retain the best technology professionals, they need to have a better understanding of these unique needs.

 Top workplace perks for IT Professionals

• Flexible Work Times: Those in IT jobs often spend long and odd hours working on projects that involve fixing bugs and troubleshooting systems. The organization needs to ensure that the work time schedule is ideal for its IT staff.
• Location: Many IT professionals also like spending time alone working on their projects. Many of them prefer telecommuting or working from a choice of different locations. Some tech companies like Asana give employees $10,000 to spend on their office set up. Employees use the money to buy ergonomic chairs, motorized desks, and other amenities that would make the workspace more effective for them.
• Organizational Culture: Tech companies tend to have offices with radically different designs. The workspace is designed to spur creativity and reduce fatigue and lethargy. But Tech companies don’t stop there; they also develop core values such as transparency, collaboration, honesty, and hard work. Some workplaces have designs that encourage the application of core values such as collaboration and open communication.
• Making Life Easier: Because IT technology jobs often require staff to spend a lot of odd hours working on their projects, the perks may include items or services that make their life easier. For example, the company may provide laundry services that pick up their employees’ clothes and return the clothes clean and folded. Google, which is known for its unique organizational culture and unusual workspaces, gives free haircuts, free dry cleaning, employs on-site physicians, and subsidizes massages. These are all part of the many perks that their staff enjoy.

Top Skills Needed for IT Professionals for Negotiating Perks

To meet IT career goals, employees need to cultivate skills that would enable them to negotiate perks that will make meeting their goals easier. Here is a summary of some of the best skills to learn in order to facilitate the attainment of job satisfaction within the field.

• Communication: Tech staff are required to interpret technical documentation into a language that can be understood by non-technical staff. They also need to be in a position to explain complex problems and how the proposed solution is expected to solve it. This requires staff to develop superior communication skills that would place them in a better position to negotiate effectively.
• Flexibility: New developments and unexpected setbacks happen at a faster rate for those working in the tech field. For this reason, flexibility is one of the key IT job requirements. Employees need to be in a position to adjust to changes made by vendors and their employers and still execute their plans effectively. Employers also appreciate staff who listen to feedback and respond to it in a timely manner.
• Negotiating Skills: IT professionals will often find themselves in a position where they need to negotiate with hardware and software vendors, contractors, and their employers. They also need to convince the relevant parties of the need to invest in a new idea. This requires more than good communication skills; the employee needs to come up with a creative arrangement that is a clear win-win for all parties. This way, the parties involved can see the value in allocating resources for perks.
• Leadership and Teamwork: One of the best IT skills to learn that is often overlooked by employees is leadership. Even if the employee has not been given a position of leadership in the organization, they will often find themselves in a situation where they need to lead a team to solve problems and find the best solutions. To steer your team towards the goals and objectives effectively, IT professionals need to have good mentoring and interpersonal skills, develop the capacity to delegate tasks, and superior communication skills.

Conclusion

There are certain perks that IT professionals need that are important in the achievement of their IT career goals as well as the organization objectives. Organizations need to identify the best perks for their tech staff if they are to recruit and retain the best talent.

IT professionals need to develop the right skills needed to be in a position to negotiate the perks they need. These skills generally revolve around superior communication skills, leadership abilities as well as the ability to negotiate the best arrangements for themselves and the organization. These skills are not only important in negotiating perks but in many day-to-day transactions within the IT field.