Over the last 12 months, the consultants within Crimson’s IT recruitment agency noticed the emergence of several ‘digital’ job titles in the marketplace, which include Chief Digital Officers (CDOs), Digital Programme and Project Managers, Digital Business Analysts, and Digital Architects. Keen organisations have created these roles in the process of capitalising on new digital opportunities - opportunities being major digital transformation projects.
According to Harvard Business Review, employees with digital job titles are typically more innovative, they are more likely to embrace disruption, they have a higher willingness to challenge traditional approaches, they are more socially adaptive, they are bold and they are determined. Crimson’s IT Salary Survey also revealed that they are being paid slightly more than IT employees without the ‘digital’ tag – click here to download your FREE copy of the survey.
Despite this evolution, most CIOs and IT team members do not see their digital counterparts as a threat and they’re keen to work alongside them to achieve joint business objectives. We believe this is because fundamentally the digital and traditional roles have different skill sets and goals.
Gartner predicted that 25% of large companies would have CDOs by 2017, so throughout 2016 Crimson representatives asked their networks what they thought about this.
Amrik Dosanjh, former IT and Projects Director at The Department for Work and Pensions, said: “The roles of CIO, CDO and CMO can have overlap but it really depends on the scale and complexity of the enterprise and their customer/target market. Taking in to account ‘digital’ is fast becoming, and in many cases, is already the new norm, the CDO and CMO is where the biggest overlap and similarity of roles is likely to be, rather than the CIO.”
Mike Cadden, Interim ICT Director at Countrywide Farmers PLC, argued: “CIO’s and IT Directors need to build agile and simplified teams who are focused on ensuring every decision helps the organization’s customers. Every decision has to be through this lens.”
Collaboration is key to success, a point that was well conveyed by JetBlue Airways CIO Eash Sundaram, who told CIO Magazine: “Leave the titles at home and come to work with a vision to make a new customer experience and then see how you want to structure your organisation.”
If you would like explore the emergence of digital roles further or if you would like to see the most comprehensive report on IT salary bands in the UK, download Crimson IT Salary Survey for 2017. Simply click the image below to access your FREE copy.
Crimson is an IT consultancy, an IT solutions provider, an IT recruitment agency, and a Microsoft Gold Partner with offices in Birmingham and the City of London.