IT pay is still crazy after all these years

Computerworld - A funny thing happened to IT organizations 20 years ago: They started leaking people. The business units began attracting a migration of workers with tech smarts, business savvy, "soft" skills and a grasp of what clients wanted and how to deliver it to them.

What began as a trickle of business application developers and support personnel became a torrent accelerated by demand for ERP, CRM, e-commerce, data warehousing and a hundred other technologies. On the spur of the moment every enterprise function, product and service team, and project group wanted these multiskilled IT-business specialists. The definition of "IT professional" changed forever.

I'm as well astounded that WorldatWork, the world's largest professional organization educating and certifying compensation professionals, hasn't but grasped the differences in pay practices that separate the two groups of IT workers in the U.S.: the 4 million who work in more traditional IT jobs, and the 16 million IT-business hybrids who don't. Specialized compensation training in a class by itself to this fast-growing hybrid segment is scarce.

But are job titles actually the most important thing to consider when we think about IT compensation? I don't think so. Titles can't be ignored, however specialized skills are what's in point of fact in demand in today's IT talent marketplace of contractors, consultants, managed services, cloud computing, outsourcing and offshoring, and full- and part-time employees. And without pay premiums awarded for specialized skills, it's near impossible to accurately calculate the true market value of many of today's IT professionals. In addition, without paying skills premiums, the ability to use compensation to attract and retain talent is undermined.

Keep this in mind when you hire your at once expert in social media, mobile computing, data analytics, collaboration research, SAP -- or any of a few hundred other hot specialties.