If a recent prediction from Copier Careers, the Minneapolis-based recruiting firm for the document imaging industry, comes to fruition then dealerships across the country will be paying lower base salaries to service and operations managers in the not-to-distant future. That’s a prediction made by the folks at Copier Careers based on anecdotal observations and the results of their 11th Annual Service & Operations Management Salary Survey.
The survey, one of four released yearly by Copier Careers, tracks an array of data and summarizes compensation for copier industry professionals, job satisfaction, and how they feel about their employers.
These surveys are ambitious undertakings and one can’t help but give credit to an organization that was able to elicit 1,746 responses from copier service managers, operations managers, vice presidents of service, general managers, and regional service managers.
Highlights of this year’s survey include:
- The average number of hours service managers work each week has increased from 52 to 56 hours over the course of the past year.
- Service and operations managers are increasingly interested in working with cutting-edge technology and want to work for organizations who understand the value of IT.
- As mature service managers retire or are replaced, copier dealerships are finding it difficult to hire replacements who can bring both IT and management skills to the table.
The last bullet point is particularly noteworthy and something the industry as a whole will need to confront in the coming years across all job titles. We’re getting old no matter how many times people make statements like “60 is the new 40” or “70 is the new 50.”
As pointed out in the article accompanying the survey, “In normal economic times, average salaries tend to rise a little each year. But due to projected demographic shifts for this position, it’s possible that the next few years will see a decrease in average compensation as older workers are replaced by less tenured candidates.”
Jessica Crowley, head of recruiting for Copier Careers, underscores that observation by adding, “Many copier dealerships are hoping to hire new service managers at a much lower salary than they are paying their current service managers, who are typically being compensated at a higher rate because of their long tenure with the company. Frequently, dealerships believe that replacing a more experienced employee with someone younger creates an opportunity to pay a lower salary. The reality, though, is that people with the right mix of technical and management skills are extremely difficult to find, so the market is very much in their favor.”
If I were a young person in high school or college wondering what to do with my life, especially as old jobs and career paths are displaced by new technologies and other factors, Jessica’s comments would make me sit up and take notice.
