Techies Want Flexibility

Technology jobs continue to be in high demand, which has fueled an increase in higher salaries and signing bonuses, according to Dice.com, a website that posts technology and engineering jobs. But in its September jobs report, it notes another (surprising) demand from technology job seekers that the federal government may want to take note of: a request for more flexible work schedules, including telework.

That's an unusual request from technology job seekers, Dice says. But it's been climbing up the list of incentives being offered to new hires, reaching No. 3, with 9 percent of companies offering a telework option. "Technology jobs with a telecommuting option have doubled on the Dice site year [over] year," the company's newsletter states. "Still, they remain less than one percent of the total jobs available."

Flexible work options remains, however, well below the enticements of a higher salary (42 percent of companies have offered that as a sweetener to take a job) and a signing bonus (22 percent).

The trend for flexible work options would likely come as no surprise to the federal CIO Council. In its recent report on IT workers, Net Generation, the council strongly urged agencies to offer flexible work hours, including telework, to convince young candidates to apply for federal information technology jobs -- the vacancies for which will be increasing sharply in the near future, it warned.

Wired Workplace is a daily look at issues facing the federal information technology workforce. It is written by former Government Executive reporter Brittany Ballenstedt, with a guest entry this week from Nextgov Executive Editor Allan Holmes, and published on Nextgov.com. Click here to read the latest entries.