Corvus April 2020 IT Survey results - covid-19 - Alex Devenney

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April 2020 How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the IT Industry in Northern Ireland? Introduction We are living in unprecedented times as the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the economy worldwide and the way we work for the foreseeable future. As the rest of the UK braces for the inevitable recession, how has the tech industry in Northern Ireland be affected? Do people feel supported by their Employers and how has the crisis affected workloads and productivity? Rather than making assumptions, Corvus Recruitment wanted to reach out to the tech community to see how people are really being affected. So, we asked 155 people who work in tech how the pandemic has affected their jobs to date and how they expect things to pan out over the following weeks and months. Who completed the survey? A range of professionals from the IT industry completed the survey. Majority of participants were engineers, back end and front end developers. In addition, most people were a team member, rather than in a managerial position. What is your job title? Front end developer 27 Back end developer 22 Mobile App Developer 5 UX Designer/researcher 16 IT Support 5 Engineer 23 Product owner/manager 6 Consultant 8 Manager 9 Lead 3 Full stack dev 3 Other developers 7 QA 4 Director 3 CTO 3 Head of a department 3 Other 8 What's your level of authority in your current job? Team Member Manager Leader Director C-Level Executive Consultant 0 20 40 60 80 100 Authority How have employers communicated with their staff? As there is a lot of uncertainty during the pandemic, we wanted to find out if employers were communicating effectively with their staff. The results were promising with 83% of participants feel informed on the company's decisions and 82% feeling supported by their employer during the pandemic. Majority of participants (88%) were working from home and only 2 people out of 155 participants had been made redundant. Has your employer kept you informed Do you feel supported by your at every stage of the pandemic on employer during the pandemic? their company decisions? Yes Yes Somewhat Somewhat No No 0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150 Kept informed Feel supported How has the pandemic affected your job currently? 150 88% 100 of IT professionals who completed the 50 survey were working from home. 7% of participants were furloughed 0 and 1% were made Working from On furlough Made redundant Working but Still working as home reduced salary normal redundant. Affected by pandemic Professional's who are still working Of those participants who were still working from home, we found that 74% don't expect to be put on furlough. In addition, 65% have experienced no difference in their work load. Interestingly, 27% of our participants have see an increase of work load since the pandemic started, this could possibly be due to colleagues taking furlough so they are looking after other's work or that the product or clients they work with have become more in demand during the pandemic. Do you expect to eventually be put on furlough? Yes 5 No 106 Not sure 31 65% have noticed no difference in their workload, while 27% have seen an increase in their work load. Fewer participants haven seen a reduction in their workload (8%). Professional's who are still working continued.. Of the participants who're still working, 63% feel they have job security for the remainder of the lock-down and only 6% are worried about the security of their job. After the pandemic, 61% expect their employers may introduce more home working opportunities while 24% expect their work habits to go back to normal. This could mean a shift in the way IT companies work as they are now mostly set up for remote working. How do you think this pandemic will effect your company's work habits after it is over? They may introduce more 87 Back to normal 35 home working Not sure 20 Do you feel you have job security for the remainder of the lock-down however long it will go on for? Yes Somewhat No I'm worried 0 20 40 60 80 100 Job security All survey participants Majority of participants were spending their time at home their family or learning a new skill which is relevant to work, in addition, many were doing DIY activities. When asked how long participants expect lock-down to last, 53% expect it to last until June and 29% expect lock-down to last until August. Surprisingly, 9% of participants expect lock-down to last longer than 4 months. How are you spending your time at home? (Multiple choice) Spending time with family 97 D.i.Y 51 Learning a new skill relevant to 54 Taking up a new hobbie 40 work Trying to find another job 9 Working 9 Working more than usual 6 Fitness 6 How long do you expect a lock-down to last for? 100 80 60 40 20 0 A few weeks Until May Until June Until August Longer than 4 months Expected time Conclusion We have spoken to several companies and their employee’s over the past few weeks and the overall feedback has been largely positive. After the initial upheaval of switching from working in the office to working from home, it seems to be largely business as usual. A lot of companies already had remote working options in place, so the transition has been smooth for some. Many companies do not have the same luxury. Most of the participants feel like they are supported by their employers which is good to see. What I found most interesting is that 27% of people have found that their workload has increased over the past few weeks; largely down to the market sector you are supplying software solutions to. From our perspective we are seeing a mixed responses from our clients that we recruit for; some have paused recruiting for staff while they work out what their needs will be and how to on-board staff remotely and others are looking to expand due to an increased demand in their products & services. We all know how competitive the market is to recruit IT and development staff in particular and we are encouraging our clients to continue to build their talent pipelines as it can take months to recreate them if efforts are shutdown overnight The most important thing we can do during this time is to help and support each other. With that in mind, I would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete the survey. I hope the results are useful. Gareth Stirling Web Development & UX/UI Recruiter Host of local tech podcast WebTalksNI Corvus Recruitment Get in touch: gareth@corvus.jobs / 077 8988 6539 / www.corvus.jobs