IT Australian guns-for hire happy and productive, a study says

Marina Freri
Wednesday, 21 September 2011 16:46

IT Industry - Development

Give IT workers the possibility of being uncertain about their weekly wage and you will make them more productive, more resilient and even happier than regular employees, a research study reports.

At a lunch held today in Sydney, business solutions company, Entity Solutions, disclosed the results of a study on Australian independent professionals, titled 'Independent Professional (IPro) Index', which was compiled by senior lecturer of Monash University, Dr Tui McKeown.

According to McKeown, the index found that IT workers had the highest record for working as contractors and reported high levels of overall job satisfaction. She said most IPros voluntarily chose to be independent because of the perceived ability to earn more and achieve a better life style.

'This is the land of opportunity, basically you're doing this because you want to be doing it,' she said. According to the study there are five predominant categories of IPro workers in Australia: IT and telecommunications workers make up the largest group (42 percent), followed by professional in the field of engineering and mining (18 percent), contractors in accounting, banking or finance (11 percent), and finally administration (5 percent) and human resources (5 percent) workers.

The IPro index reported Australian IT contractors had an average age of 41.2 and had about 6 years of experience as independent professionals. It also stated the category was dominated by male workers (101 of those surveyed in this category were men, against 32 women), a result which contradicted the overall tendency of female contractors being more numerous than males.

Adding that only a minority of all surveyed IPros had been pulled into contracting by job loss or redundancy, McKeown said IPros were happier and more committed to their current client than regular employees were to their usual boss. She also added IT Ipros had the highest score for sharing knowledge with their colleagues, a task which she said was important in today's competitive business environment.

'We clearly see the empowering nature of working as an IPro - illusions of security and safety are stripped away, and the individual's control and clear focus on just who and what they are as a professional emerges,' she said.

Entity Solutions chief executive officer, Matthew Franceschini, said the Australian job market should take into consideration the growing force of contractors. He said IPros tended to be more productive and better engaged with their job, because they were free to take on board what really interested them.

'We don't have to look at 'permanent' as the option, but as one of the options,' Franceschini said. 'IPros bring a great deal of vigour, dedication, absorption and professional efficacy to their tasks. It's not hard to see why some companies are serial users of them'.

McKeown said IPros were so productive that client companies often offered them more stable contracts. Asked whether the return to corporate also meant 'going backwards' to less freedom, and therefore less productivity, McKeown said there were no data available yet to answer the question. But she maintained that a more proactive attitude characterised those who had worked independently.