Western Sociology Professor Julie McMullin is leading an international comparative study of IT employment called Workforce Aging in the New Economy (WANE). Participants include labor groups, technology organizations, government agencies and IT companies from North America, Australia and Europe, as well as researchers from such diverse backgrounds as business, demography, gerontology, organizational psychology and sociology.
The team has generated profiles of IT industries in several countries and found that, apart from Germany, businesses tend to be very small. In Canada, for example, 96 per cent of IT firms employ fewer than 10 people. Despite the industry's massive growth over the past decade, most of the businesses remain quite unstable, diminutive in size and vulnerable to failure during their start-up years. In Canada, one-third will close before they are three years old.
While the typical IT workforce tends to be younger than in other sectors, it is aging. In many of the countries studied, as much as one quarter of the IT labor force is now over the age of 45.
McMullin's team is investigating whether there are barriers in place that hinder employment opportunities for older workers in IT. Small firms often face challenges providing training and benefits for employees, items that may create obstacles in an aging workforce. "A critical emergent issue in the study of age and IT professions is whether IT workers choose to migrate out of certain fields as they age, or if there are push factors involved. Incentives and company policies may need revision to reflect the aging workforce," she says.
To this end, the third phase of the project, which is due to wrap-up in the spring of 2007, will look to inform policy at individual, firm and government levels, and to help develop human resources strategies for better managing older workforces. "We are looking to determine best practices to help companies reconcile profitability and employee well-being," says McMullin.
WANE researchers will be conducting research in more than 50 IT businesses around the world. Firms interested in participating are encouraged to contact wane@uwo.ca.
McMullin recently received $3 million from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)-the agency's largest-ever grant - as well as a Premier's Research Excellence Award (PREA). "We could not possibly do a research project of this magnitude without the SSHRC funding," she says. "With PREA and SSHRC funds, we are able to train graduate students, which will create a project legacy - graduate students are the bread and butter of such a project."
Working on a global scale has enabled the team to tap into the breadth and depth of many international data sets. "The benefits of working internationally far outweigh any challenges," says McMullin. "Being able to study the exact same thing in all these countries adds immeasurably to the knowledge base in Canada ."
Original citation:
Technology Industry Growing Up. (Winter 2004/2005). Research Western, p. 1. London, Ont.: University of Western Ontario.
