on organisations to look at the wages of all their employees.
“There are people who have been in post for maybe four years in firms where the salary hasn’t moved on. When they see what people are being paid externally, they almost can’t believe it. Some places have moved, some haven’t. The bigger firms have to move because their bigger teams have a higher attrition rate. But if you’re a smaller team and you’ve not had to replace anyone for a while, you might have heard that there’s salary inflation, but it can be a bit of a shock when you have to replace someone – we are in a totally new market.”
Strange dynamic
These big pay discrepancies based on higher living costs, already exist, but are often geographical rather than genera- tional. Simon adds: “It can be a strange dynamic, but it’s not new and happens when we hire people in America, in New York and the West Coast. Which is always difficult if you have UK-based managers. When you show them what they have to pay someone based in Manhattan it’s always a shock. But the West Coast and New York have an incredibly high cost of living so the salaries are significantly higher, probably double what you’d pay in London. But those employees probably still wouldn’t be feeling wealthy because it’s so expensive to live there. It’s a differ- ent world.”
Find mentors
These external economic factors add complexity to the workings of organi- sations. And Simon believes that New Professionals need help navigating their employers’ modus operandi, even during calmer times. He says mentors are not a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘need to have’ even when employers don’t have a mentoring programme.
So why are mentors important? Simon reveals: “To help you through all the unwritten rules of the working world, all the stuff that no one really tells you, other than discreetly: how to behave in an organisation; how to get ahead; how the appraisal process really works; how the interview process really works; how to navi- gate colleagues; how to navigate promotion rounds; how to win budget for your own development for personal training; how to manage relationships with senior col- leagues and get the best out of them. “It is particularly important if you’re in a partnership environment, like a law firm or a consulting firm. A mentor in that kind of environment where stakeholder management can be so critical to your success can be really beneficial to you, your career and your overall development. All those soft skills that you can get out of mentors are important and it’s hard
28 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL
Sue Wills.
to learn them without having people to guide you through it when you’re in the workplace.
“A lot of this stuff is hard to get from anywhere else. It can also be things like what books you should be reading, what events you should be going to, who are the other key people you should be meeting in your sector. It’s all that soft stuff that’s really important.”
Leadership
Digital transformation, often accelerated by Covid, has increased the visibility and communication about leadership at all levels. So, for new professionals, along- side the more tangible value of learning new technical skills, another strand in career development is leadership. “Ultimately the information profession is about enabling users with resources and information. Here leadership skills are not necessarily about leading a depart- ment but more of an integral part of what you are doing.
“You may be running programmes, activities, doing training, and these require leadership skills: engaging people; influenc- ing them; getting them to buy into things and also interpreting feedback. It’s not always large groups and may also be leading upwards within an organisation. “So, if you are a digital champion you might be influencing senior stakeholders down that path. That is a leadership skill to me. But it is a softer skill area, so it can be
hard to quantify, it’s not like ‘I’m a really good coder’.”
He says that using professional bodies, “getting involved, micro volunteering at first, that’s one of the best and ready made ways to develop leadership skills”.
The KM coherence
Simon believes that all the skills and in- itiatives required to find a way through the early stages of a profession relate to those required for knowledge manage- ment. It also fits in with how people find and communicate with mentors. “You cannot make KM work without leadership skills, that is impossible, because a huge part of KM is about getting knowledge out of the people in your organisation’s heads. A lot of it is about getting information from people by helping them to trust you and then collaborate and contribute to KM initiatives. Someone who can do that, get them believing in the desired end outcome of the process, will be using leadership skills.”
It is a point reinforced by Sue Wills who recommends new professionals to “network, network, network. Build your networks and share what you are doing, initiate discussions and reply to debates.” She recommends LinkedIn as “a bril- liant and free way to do that. I am really happy for professionals at whatever stage in their career to connect with me on LinkedIn and share my network.” IP
July-August 2022
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