Core's recent research into the sleep patterns of IT professionals gave a fascinating glimpse into what it's like to work in IT in the UK in 2020, with some startling statistics that are hard to ignore.
IT professionals are losing sleep
One of the key findings of the study, was that IT professionals are losing sleep over their work. In fact, 38% of the 250+ IT workers we asked said they have had a bad night's sleep due to worrying about work.
The report also suggested that many IT workers are finding the job stressful, with 29% of respondents telling us they find their work "too stressful". 71% said they get less than two hours of genuine downtime each day, and 74% said they get less than the recommended 7-8 hours' sleep per night.
Of course, there's plenty of positives about working in IT - but lack of sleep and lots of stress are impacting performance and productivity of businesses key workers. Not only does this mean organisations aren't getting the best from their team, but individuals can become frustrated, disillusioned and disengaged with their work. It's a no-win situation.
What parts of working in IT are causing stress?
Before we look at what can be done to reduce the burden on IT teams and help IT professionals get a better night's sleep, we need to know which parts of the job workers find most stressful. In our survey, the most common answer to the question "what is the most stressful aspect of your job?" was IT support, with 40% of respondents saying so. This was closely followed by IT maintenance at 36%.
IT security was by far the most common cause of worry, with 54% of people giving that answer. IT support, IT strategy and planning, and IT maintenance took the second, third and fourth spots. Interestingly, all of these answers are unavoidable, essential parts of working in IT - it's simply not an option for an IT team to overlook these tasks or "decide" not to care about them. They keep the organisation's IT machine running and the heart of the business beating. Yet these are the parts of the job causing the most stress and consuming valuable time and resources, for seemingly little reward. So, what can be done to change the situation?
Making the load on IT teams lighter
There are two key ways that the load can be made lighter for IT teams that are feeling stressed and losing sleep over work.
From collaboration hubs that make working together easier to business automation software that automates a range of repetitive tasks, there is a world of innovative tech that can be implemented to take away some of the day to day stress on IT teams. Identifying and rolling out the type of tech that will help your organisation in the areas it needs most is essential if IT teams are going to be able to sleep better at night.
Of the IT pros we surveyed, those whose organisations had adopted cloud technologies reported feeling happier with their work/life balance. 57% of high users of cloud technologies said they were satisfied, and 50% perceived a change in their work/life balance by using cloud tech.
Outsourcing some parts of your IT to a Managed Services Provider (MSP) is another way to make the load lighter.
Among some IT teams, there's a perception that outsourcing parts of the job to an MSP might leave them redundant; that using managed services will replace, rather than enhance the capabilities of the existing IT team. But that isn't the case.
Managed services span the entire IT function. By picking and choosing which parts of your IT you want to keep hold of, and which to give away, IT teams can focus their time and energy on the projects that are most valuable to the business, reduce the burden on the team and in turn give the people working within that team freedom from 'fire-fighting' and simply keeping the lights on, and greater job satisfaction.
Core's managed IT services offering includes tailored round-the-clock support; security that allows staff to work safely from anywhere and on any device; and managed servers and desktops so that our customers can concentrate on exciting, big-value projects that not only drive the organisation forward but reduce the stress associated with trying to keep everything ticking over smoothly (you can leave that bit to us).
You can get to know our offering better and find out why using managed services alongside your existing IT team could be the key to a better night's sleep for your IT team in The Little Book of Managed Services from Core, available to download now.
If you would like to talk to a member of the Core team about our managed services, we're waiting to help! You can contact us here.
