•The new deal for employees – Work location and remote working has risen to become one of the five most important factors for engaging and retaining key technology talent during, and after, COVID-19. Leaders will therefore need to rethink how they attract and engage their employees in a world where physical location is no longer a prime asset.
Influence of the technology leader:
•Influence on the rise – Almost two thirds (62 percent) stated that the pandemic has permanently increased the influence of the technology leader.
•Board membership – Australia bucked a downward trend globally for board
memberships, rising from 58 percent in 2018 to 60 percent of CIOs, IT Directors and CDOs on the main board in 2020.
Diversity:
•Women in Tech still an issue – The gender diversity of technology leaders remains broadly unchanged from last year’s survey (11 percent).
•Promoting diversity – 28 percent in Australia of IT leaders feel that their organisation is successful at promoting diversity, and this has improved trust and collaboration in the technology team (52 percent), and engagement with the business (48 percent).
Notes:
1. Over an eight-week period (5th June – 10th August 2020), global IT leaders reported a median additional technology spend of 5 percent to deal with the COVID-19 crisis as a percentage of the total of their annual IT/technology budget. Data from Forrester, published 3rd February 2020, shows that global IT spending was forecasted to reach US$3.5trillion in 2019 and US$3.59 trillion in 2020. As global IT leaders report a median additional spend of 5 percent of their IT budgets on technology to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, this was an additional surge/spike in IT spending of around US$175bn (5 percent of the US$3.5trillion global IT spend in 2019 forecasted by Forrester) – to deal with the initial impact of COVID-19. This is equivalent to around US$15bn per week during the first three months of the crisis, when this spend would have undoubtedly taken place to support the sudden move to remote/distributed working.
2.Analysis by Harvey Nash and KPMG of a range of publicly available global data on IT/tech spending shows that annual rises in spend have tracked at 5 percent and below for more than a decade, reaching a peak of 5 percent growth in 2018. For instance, Forrester research, published 3rd February 2020, found that the growth in global spending on tech goods and services dropped from a peak of 5 percent in 2018 to 3.9 percent in 2019.. As global IT leaders report a median additional spend of 5 percent of their IT budgets on technology to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, this level of spend, in just three months, is more than their annual budget rise.
3.Digital leaders are those that have organisations that are ‘very’ or ‘extremely effective’ at using digital technologies to advance their business strategy.
About the Survey
In its 22nd year, the 2020 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey is the largest IT leadership survey in the world in terms of number of respondents. The survey of over 4,200 CIOs and technology leaders took place in two pulses - one prior to COVID-19 (commencing on 17th December 2019) and one during the pandemic (5th June – 10 August 2020), across 108 countries.
About Harvey Nash
Shaping your tomorrow
We are global leaders in technology recruitment, delivering solutions that connect organisations with the very best talent – from software developers to business transformation leaders.
With over 30 years’ experience and global reach, we have an unparalleled knowledge and capability in all areas of technology.
www.harveynash.com