Employers Value IT Training/Certification, Struggle with Measuring ROI

New research presented today at CompTIA’s EMEA conference highlights the many ways employers use and value IT training and certification, while uncovering some of the challenges organization face in measuring ROI. The CompTIA survey of 1,371 IT managers, located in the UK, South Africa and the US, who recently made an IT staff hire reveals that IT certifications play an important role in screening candidates and confirming expertise.

“Despite a virtual buyers market for hiring companies, many organizations report difficulties in finding the right worker with the right skill set,” said Tim Herbert, head of market research for CompTIA. According to the research, 6 in 10 UK IT firms say they are understaffed, while 40 percent indicate they want to hire more workers to enable expansion. And yet, 66 percent report a very or somewhat challenging environment for finding quality workers.

Herbert continued, “obviously, work experience tops the list of criteria when sizing up a job candidate. Beyond that, however, factors such as IT certifications serve as a valuble input in assessing a candidate’s base of knowledge and technical expertise.”

While 46 percent of UK employers rate IT certifications as having high value or moderate value (39 percent), several factors inhibit the use of certifications as a hiring input or career development vehicle. For example, the research suggests that in some organizations, a knowledge gap exists in the HR deparament, whereby the undersanding of IT certifications is limited. Furthermore, organizations struggle with finding the time to verify a candidate’s credentials. For employees already on the job, firms wrestle with how to isolate the factors that contribute to success (was it IT training or a combination of factors?).

Herbert noted, “measuring the ROI of training requires time, effort and know-how. While many companies seek to improve their understanding of how investments in skills training impacts the bottom line, few are equipped to do so.” With this mind, the IT training community most continue to work towards developing the metrics and tools to effectively and efficiently measure the value of IT training and certification.

The Employer Perceptions of IT Training and Certification study will be published mid-November. CompTIA members will be able to access the report free of charge, as well as Herbert’s presentation slides, in the member area of the CompTIA website.