• News & events
• Archived news releases
• 2011 archived press releases
• Hull City council cuts target disabled adults in Hull
• Unite to stage mass meetings over 2,000 Manchester city council job cuts
• Speech and language therapists in Southwark PCT begin ballot for strike action
• 'Leaves on the line' excuse for growth figures won't wash
• Exam staff feel betrayed as final pension scheme is axed by ‘hypocrite’ bosses
• IT workers want better workplace training
• MoD firefighters ‘to go under the hammer in fire sale’ warns Unite
• Don't Break Britain, union urges: jobs, anxiety and money worries mount as workers feel pain of cuts
• Wigan workers rally to save local services and stop job cuts
• NHS reforms likened to ‘poll tax’ by top City executive

IT workers want better workplace training

18 January 2011

A survey conducted by Unite the union of employees working for well known IT companies reveals that 62 per cent of respondents felt they did not receive the necessary training to keep their skills up and only 15 per cent reported being satisfied with the training provided by their employer.
 
The survey of just under 400 employees working for IT and communications companies - including Accenture, Apple, Atos Origin, Capita, CSC, Ericsson, HP, Fujitsu Services, IBM and TCS - also revealed that over 90 per cent of respondents felt that forced ranking had a negative or very negative effect on team working.

Peter Skyte, Unite National Officer, said: "In such a fast moving sector, the fact that almost two thirds of people felt they did not receive the necessary training to keep up their skills is deeply worrying. UK workers will lose out unless they can compete in a global IT market. Employers must do more to keep their employees’ skills up to date.

"In addition, we were surprised at the extent of pre-determined performance distribution and overwhelmingly this is regarded as impacting on team working in a negative way.

“Whilst people were fairly satisfied with the approach of their line manager, our survey suggests that many employees are dissatisfied with how performance is managed and assessed by employers.

"Unite will be meeting employers to raise some of the issues arising from this survey and will suggest ways of improving training and remuneration practices.”
 
ENDS

Contact: Ciaran Naidoo on 07768 931 315

Summary of main findings:

Amongst employers represented in the survey were Accenture, Apple, Atos Origin, Capita, CSC, Ericsson, Everything Everywhere, HCL, HP, Fujitsu Services, IBM, Logica, Phoenix, TCS and Unisys

• 21 per cent of respondents reported that performance appraisals did not happen regularly in practice
• 28 per cent of respondents reported that the performance assessment was not agreed with them
• 22 per cent of respondents do not have the right of appeal against their assessment
• 21 per cent had no right of appeal against their pay award
• Only 8 per cent felt they had been fairly rewarded for their efforts over the past three years, with 78 per cent dissatisfied or very dissatisfied
• 26 per cent were positive about receiving feedback from their employing organisation but 47 per cent were negative about feedback on their performance. 48 per cent were positive about support from their line manager to improve their performance with only 21 per cent negative
• 62 per cent did not receive the necessary training to keep up their skills and performance with only 15 per cent reporting satisfaction 
• 24 per cent were satisfied that over the past three years the assessment of their performance had been fair and accurate with 52 per cent reporting dissatisfaction
• 44 per cent were satisfied that their appraising manager took the appraisal process seriously with 27 per cent expressing dissatisfaction
• Against this, 38 per cent were satisfied that their employing organisation took the appraisal process seriously with 33 per cent expressing dissatisfaction
• 66 per cent reported that their employing organisation has a pre-determined distribution of performance rankings (‘forced ranking’), with 30 per cent being unaware whether their organisation had such a system. Where there was a forced distribution system, 37 per cent of respondents claimed to know what the distribution was
• 69 per cent had the right to appeal against their performance ranking 62 per cent were not satisfied that such appeals were taken seriously
• 94 per cent thought the system of force ranking to be unfair
• 91 per cent thought that force ranking had a negative or very negative effect on team working