Being miserable, underappreciated, and stressed at work can and will often lead to burnout, but it can be downright demoralizing when a global pandemic gets added to the mix.

Striking a balance between life and work is an omnipresent challenge for almost everyone, and very few people get it right. However, amid all the continued uncertainty and anxiety brought on by the COVID-19 crisis, employees and organizations are reckoning with a surprising new reality: many workers, including IT professionals, have gained the upper hand.

“During the pandemic, staff realized that there is more to life than just the job. The work-life balance has been out of whack for a while with an emphasis on work. The pandemic shifted that balance to focus more on life,” said Tim Crawford, analyst and strategic advisor to CIOs at AVOA.

Although this period of heightened turnover has been deemed “the Great Resignation,” it’s so much more than that. Professionals are reassessing priorities, organizations are confronting ugly truths about the managerial status quo, and the job market hasn’t been this hot, enriching, or lucrative for jobseekers in a very long time.

CIOs and IT professionals are in particularly high demand because the path forward for almost every company rests on their shoulders. Modernizing corporate infrastructure, workforce management, and engagement tools puts IT at the center of what matters most to a company’s growth potential and bottom line.

Talent Gains Upper Hand

Talent doesn’t come cheap and the pool of professionals willing to negatively impact their personal lives for a paycheck is dwindling. A flood of professionals have embraced this shift as a movement to new opportunities and their list of demands would typically be scoffed at if organizations weren’t so desperate to keep and attract good people.

“The shift in work-life balance is impacting IT organizations as much or more than any,” and IT teams have proven throughout the pandemic they can successfully function remotely, Crawford explained.

This dynamic opens up the talent pool beyond the geography of physical offices, but it also opens up competitors’ talent pools all the same, he added. “The competition for talent is fierce right now and there is a lot of movement. Higher demand jobs are commanding incredibly high salaries, which is pricing some enterprises out because they can’t compete on salary alone.”

As such, CIOs are searching for clever ways to compete on culture, opportunity, and growth beyond financial compensation, Crawford explained. “Organizations that are requiring employees to return to an office are experiencing an added complexity by reducing the talent pool.”

Flexibility, Balance Now Must Haves

The appetite among CIOs and IT professionals for flexibility and balance in the workplace, including the ability to work from anywhere and at any time, is no longer a differentiator but a must have, according to David Chou, a CIO and longtime health care technology executive.

The health care industry remains very traditional in its approach to IT organizational structure, but there’s nothing preventing IT leaders from seeking greater flexibility in other sectors, he added.

There’s still a lot of pushback among corporate leaders to these changes, but it’s important to continue emphasizing the importance of an agile work environment, Chou said. “Not having the ability to work anywhere any time is actually not beneficial because it increases the chances of burnout because they’re always working.”

Unfortunately, many organizations remain resistant to change. “They just think if I can’t see my employee they’re probably not working. Well, I can guarantee you when you do see your employees they’re not working either, so it really comes down to the management of productivity,” he said. “The key is not about whether you see them physically or not.”

CIOs, IT Pros Among Those Most Likely to Flee

A recent Gartner survey underlined the extent to which IT professionals are especially caught up in this wave of workplace transformation and expectations. Nearly half, or 44%, of human resource leaders identified IT as a function at the highest risk for attrition, according to Gartner VP Suzanne Adnams.

“When IT workers are asked about their intent to stay, 22% indicate they are looking for a new job within the year. Active job postings in the U.S. for IT have continued to increase over the past year, driving stiff competition in an already scarce talent pool,” she wrote in an email to SDxCentral.

Adopting more flexible work options is the primary means by which CIOs and IT leaders seek to limit job dissatisfaction and resignations, Adnams explained.

“The pressures on retention and the challenges for recruiting, combined with the escalating demands on IT to deliver business solutions have created an urgency that is driving workplace innovation,” she wrote. “Organizational leaders are looking to the CIO and IT leadership team to find new ways to do work, design operational improvements, implement new digital solutions, and be the role model or test case for a flexible work approach and hybrid work environment.”

Rigid Management Practices Impact Business Outlook

The potential business impact of these changes are also abundant. A strict adherence to legacy work cultures and management practices can negatively impact the brand and its ability to retain top talent, according to Chou. “The reality is that good employees can go anywhere,” he said.

This moment of change in professionals’ expectations of work requires CIOs to recognize a geographically open talent pool as an opportunity, and look at their decision-making and collaboration processes under that lens, according to Crawford.

“This is not trivial and requires a high degree of introspection and thought,” he added.

“These issues are constantly evolving and flexibility is key to success,” Crawford said. “Over time, culture and the way we work will evolve. CIOs must keep their thumb on the pulse of staffing trends and their own organization.”