There is more optimism among Portland-region leaders within tech companies for 2024, according to the latest Silicon Forest Tech Trends. It’s a marked increase from a year ago and one that might seem counterintuitive given the industrywide layoffs in other major hubs.
Sixty-nine percent of leaders expect revenue growth this year, up from 57% last year, according to the report. Thirty-eight percent of leaders expect bigger budgets in 2024, up from 33% last year.
The report comes from Portland tech staffing and consulting firm ProFocus Technology and has become an annual measure of industry sentiment from the company. ProFocus surveyed 191 tech professionals between Oct. 3 and Nov. 14, 2023, across executive, manager/director and individual contributor/team lead roles.
Businesses ranged from small (less than 100 employees) to enterprise (more than 5,000).
For individual contributors within an organization a big bight spot this year is the focus leaders intend to put on up-skilling and other investments, said James Lund, president of ProFocus.
“If you are a professional, it’s positive to hear about that and the plans to grow headcount and increased revenue expectations,” he said. “From organizational leaders' perspective, the biggest takeaway for executives is the misalignment between executives and individual contributors. That was eye-opening.”
Ninety percent of leaders thought their employees are empowered to innovate, but that was not shared by lower-level employees. Only 52% of individual contributors felt the same, according to the report. Another area of disconnect is how leaders and employees feel turnover affects others in the organization.
Sixty-five percent of executives did not see it as a major issue, whereas 30% of individual contributors do.
“Listening is important across the organization and an awareness to recognize (these gaps exist),” said Lund. “If you have awareness then you can focus.”
Respondents noted a big shift in how employees are working now, with 65% reporting a hybrid model that has employees working hours both remote and in office. That’s up from 43% last year. Full-time remote work has dropped to 32% from 51%. And only 3% work exclusively in-office, down from 6% last year, according to the findings.
Oregon has about 140,000 tech workers, according to ProFocus research. The median salary is $97,171, which is 115% of the state’s median salary. For companies looking for talent, the report notes that salary and compensation is the No.1 factor for attraction and retention. That is followed by remote work and meaningful/interesting work.
“The significance of flexibility in working hours, coupled with remote or hybrid work has grown substantially for both current employees and prospective candidates when considering job offers,” said Linu Parappilly, president of the Portland chapter of the Society for Information Management, in the report. “Post-Covid, job negotiations now prominently feature discussions around work arrangements, often rivaling or even surpassing the importance traditionally placed on compensation negotiations.”
Despite national headlines about layoffs at big tech companies, the report found that Oregon tech workers are interested in changing jobs — even executives. The percentage of executives looking for new roles rose to 17% from 7% last year. Of individual contributors 46% are actively looking and another aren’t looking but are open to a new role.
This might not be a good signal for managers as Oregon’s low unemployment and demand for tech workers sees this type of talent receiving multiple offers. As it is, 42% of leaders said their top challenges is not only finding talent but getting them to accept an offer, according to the report.
