IT managers 'are excluded in business'

IT professionals are being denied senior level positions as their skills are seen as too niche by senior management to warrant boardroom status, new research shows.

IT agency Computer People surveyed 500 company directors and 500 senior IT managers to examine the levels of influence that IT professionals have within UK companies and to establish where IT ranks on their management agenda.

The research revealed only a third (31 per cent) of UK companies has an IT director on the board.

Amongst the IT professionals surveyed, only one in 20 (five per cent) rated their chances of reaching the board within the next two years as "very good", with 50 per cent rating their chances as "unlikely" and a third (35 per cent) saying they have "no chance".

The majority (82 per cent) of IT professionals feel that technology issues are a lower priority in the boardroom than they should be.

Two fifths (41 per cent) say this is because management teams do not fully grasp the long-term implications of IT issues, whilst over a third (35 per cent) say that innovations in IT are seen as too expensive to implement.

A third (33 per cent) of IT professionals also feel that their advice to senior management is sometimes ignored, with a further 80 per cent saying that they are seen by their peers in other disciplines as "technical advisers" rather than "fellow directors".

Oil and water?

Of the company directors surveyed, three quarters (75 per cent) said a lack of all-round business skills is holding IT managers back and that IT professionals' skills are too specialised for the boardroom.

At the same time one in two (49 per cent) IT professionals admit that they need to communicate the business implications of their roles more effectively to raise their profile at boardroom level.

The research also revealed that the majority of company directors (69 per cent) rate IT issues behind finance; research and development; marketing; and human resources on their list of priorities.

Two fifths (41 per cent) also said they do not expect IT managers to understand, or show an interest in, broader business issues.

Carole Hepburn, Commercial Director at Computer People said: "IT professionals have the power to make or break a company and technology plays a key role in the success of a business. And yet IT staff are still under-represented in company boardrooms and feel less valued than their peers in other disciplines like finance and marketing.

"IT professionals need to promote their contribution to a company's success more effectively, whilst business needs to wake up to the vital role that their IT managers perform."

Received wisdom on getting from the backroom to the boardroom includes:

• Sell the positive impact on business performance that your IT plans will have, rather than blinding management with the technological jargon;
• Demonstrate your understanding of wider business issues to senior management;
• Broaden your skill base by learning about other business disciplines;
• Discuss your ambitions with your project manager and set goals to achieve progresses in the right direction.