Post 9/11: Status of Employee Conditions Information Technology Industry Pakistan

Abstract

The term Information Technology although not new to most people in Pakistan is relatively recent to the Pakistani economy. Historically the growth in Aviation in t he l ast 100 years has been most impressive . But the growth of I nformation Technology in the l ast few years has been phenomenal . I n Paki stan I n formation Technol ogy may well be termed in its nascent stage and although feverish efforts are being made , both in the Private and Public sector, we still lag far behind. The Government is making all out efforts to enhance computer literacy rate , to increase Information Technology awareness ; a number of institutions in the Private sector have sprung up in ever y locality offering computer education. The result is that although the growth of Information Technol ogy is sti l l s l ow compared t o other countries hectic efforts are on to reach a reasonable level . A number of Pakistani companies had already started working in this sector and were definitely adding to our growth , the unfortunate incident of 9/11 threw most of our efforts in reverse gear and the business if any from abroad also diminished . The local companies either had to close down or severely cut down on their employees to survive on the local demands , which weren' t much . This reduced motivation , security and morale of the I T workers as wel l as companies. To assess the post 9/11 employee conditions in the IT sector this study was undertaken . A sample of 150 employees of the sector was taken from Software Houses and Call Centres presently operating in Islamabad . As these two are Ill mainly responsible for promot ing IT development in the country. The variables assisted in the construction of a questi onnaire , which was the main survey instrument. In depth i nterviews were also conducted on a small scale to obtain more insight. According to the survey most of the respondents were not satisfied with the motivational tools , development, training facilities , career enhancement and career de f inition. It was found that most of the workers were also keen to seek opport unities for employment abroad . The analysis of the survey also exhibited that the working conditions ln the Call centres were relatively more efficient than the Software Houses. But the overall status of the employee conditions in the IT sector remains static , whereas it should be growing at a more rapid pace to bring us at par with the International markets especially considering our abundant Human Resource.