Media releases 2008

Gershon priority is now implementation Visa Subclass 457 Integrity Review SA.NET launched National Board of Directors 2008/09 Industry cautiously welcomes Gershon Report AIIA celebrates 30 years of industry leadership First Aussie astronaut opens ICT Careers Week National ICT Careers Week opens across Australia National ICT Careers Week industry support ICT Careers Week promoting a growing jobs market National ICT Careers Week continues to grow ICT industry engage with Garnaut Review Queensland Premier invests in ICT National ICT Careers’ week starts here Byteback-Officeworks partnership AIIA welcomes Federal Budget Australia's first National ICT Careers Week iAwards honour brightest innovators AIIA announce change at the top Unplug in support of Earth Hour Byteback opens at Darebin Salary Survey provides clarity AIIA calls ICT educators to close the gender gap ‘Million Dollar Babes’ a boon to ICT industry 2008 must be year of the sustainable workplace Expanded portfolio a win for ICT sector Print is so five minutes ago Academic Council a boost for the creation of ICT ‘Last out? Lights out!’ says AIIA

2008 must be year of the sustainable workplace - 11/01/08

The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) said today that while environmental sustainability is now an important touchstone for the ICT industry, a much broader concept of sustainability will need to be embraced in the future.

“Traditional ideas about sustainability are becoming too limiting as ICT enters a business era that is being slowly depleted by an industry brain-drain,” said AIIA CEO Sheryle Moon.

“Retaining skills must become an integral part of the way that we think about environmental design in ICT, alongside all the things that we usually think of when we consider sustainable industry practice.”

Traditional concepts of sustainability are important. Contributing around 1.52% of total carbon emissions means that the ICT industry will inevitably play an important role in meeting future carbon output targets, and it has already willingly begun to tackle this problem on many fronts.

“However, while the reduction of ‘power in and carbon out’ remains the current focus of world media, the ICT industry will need to think much more laterally about the concept of sustainability in order to remain economically viable and intellectually relevant into the future,” said Ms Moon.

“There are clear threats to the sustainability of our industry that need to be addressed, and most of them are being driven by three factors: falling ICT student enrolments, an increasingly competitive labour market, and the imminent retirement of the baby boomer generation.”

These factors are a potent combination, and potentially lethal to the skills that ICT relies upon. We need strong leadership and integrated programs that will transform the nature of industry workplaces to address these problems.

“By necessity, the design of sustainable organisations must move beyond environmental and efficiency concerns to embrace the challenge of changing workforce demographics,” said Ms Moon.

“Foremost as an industry, ICT will need to address the health of our workplaces to attract and retain the skills that are needed in the future.”

Job stress and poor management practices have become all too common in modern business, and the workforce effects are now beginning to be well documented. These issues are strong drivers of absenteeism and among the most significant factors in high staff turnover and separation. The ICT industry cannot afford this.

“Designing healthier workplaces will mean a return to the age-old management principles of establishing trust, communicating a clear vision, and setting goals and objectives that align with both corporate and individual values,” Ms Moon said. “What the industry needs are new ideas to deliver these values to our workplaces and change them for the better.”

“We cannot afford to sit idly by while problems that we have long been aware of eat into our most valuable resource, the skilled workforce. 2008 must become the year of the sustainable workplace,” Ms Moon concluded.

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For more information contact:
Sheryle Moon
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Information Industry Association
Mobile: 0419 708 675
s.moon@aiia.com.au