By David Byrd

A few of you may have noticed there was no blog on Monday and therefore no recipe. Lets just say my Monday started off with a few unexpected turns and writing the blog was briefly interrupted. It was a great weekend for food I cooked cocoa-infused French toast with sautéed pears, prime rib with iceberg wedge salad and poached salmon in a creamy wine sauce with wild mushrooms and peas. Last night I made four Indian dishes, a traditional Rogan josh, butter chicken, beer braised beef with vegetables and coconut milk, and chicken green masala curry with yogurt. As you can see, I like my Indian food varied. Anyway, that is for tonights dinner. Instead, my favorite dish of the past week is the poached salmon. It had been years since I made this dish and since wild salmon was available, I thought it a good choice. Done properly, this is a flavorful, moist and very aromatic dish. More importantly, it is very simple. Poached Salmon with Wild Mushrooms and Peas is the recipe of the week. Enjoy!

The New Salary Survey is Here!

Every year InformationWeek publishes a survey covering Information Technology (IT) professionals compensation. The 2012 US IT Salary Survey provides information which can be used to position yourself with your manager for a salary increase or, for you the manager, to explain why your staff is properly compensated. The good news is that the profession is recovering from the recession. Whereas salaries did not grow in 2010, they did increase 1 percent for staffers and 1.8 percent for managers. The average compensation for staffers was $90,000, and for managers, a rather robust $116,000. The report is a lengthy 89 pages but with 13,880 respondents, we can certainly benefit from what looks like a well-researched and crafted study.

Several things jumped out as read the survey. Like CIOs make a lot more than CTOs ($147K vs. $117), titles remain important. SMBs pay considerably less than the industry average, starting with $62K for staffers and maxing out at $95K for managers. This difference in pay is usually offset by job satisfaction, project diversity and potential for professional growth. Skills development remains significant to maintaining compensation increases, although, many are finding it more difficult to schedule developmental training and certifications. Surprisingly, given the political buzz, most (69%) indicate that they have not been impacted by outsourcing, yet the belief is that it is reducing the number of jobs and lowering employee morale.

Finally, of interest to me at Broadvox was the average salary of IT professionals in our primary business of hosted communications (cloud computing). Cloud computing and wireless infrastructure compensation were the highest for staffers at $110,000, and $115,000, respectively (these are the trending technologies).

Comprehending compensation requirements for highly valued employees is important. Understandably, money is not the only consideration but when it comes to retaining IT professionals. Seventy percent seek new jobs for higher compensation with more interesting work” a distant second (50 percent for staffers, 42 percent for managers). Consequently, a balanced approached of appropriate compensation, interesting work, positive job environment and rewarding culture will go a long way toward retaining and attracting employees.

David Byrd is vice president of marketing and sales for

Broadvox

, and is responsible for marketing and channel sales programs to SMBs, enterprises and carriers as well as defining the product offering. Prior to joining Broadvox, David was the vice president of Channels and Alliances for Eftia and Telcordia. As director of eBusiness Development with i2 Technologies, he developed major partnerships with many of the leaders in Internet eCommerce and supply chain management. As CEO of Planet Hollywood Online he was a pioneer in using early Internet technologies to build a branded entertainment and eCommerce website company partnered with Planet Hollywood. Having over 20 years of telecom sales and marketing experience, he has held executive positions with Hewlett-Packard, Sprint and Ericsson.