What’s in a name? Learning from the job titles of Intranet Now attendees

Job titles are funny things and almost never describe what we do, but they say something about the dominant narratives in the organisations we work in. I have been having a close look at the 400 job titles of people who attended or are going to attend Intranet Now. Three years is long time in today’s business world and by tracking job titles of conference participants we can see some patterns.

Digital

First trend is the appearance of the word Digital. In 2014 just 9% of job titles had the D word in their title; now, in  2016, (not a complete sample yet) 15% of attendees have the word in their title. No real surprise considering the heat around Digitalisation.  In career terms it’s a good space to be in (provided you have the skills).

Communication

Communication is still the most frequently appearing word amongst the job titles showing the persistence of this role in all organisations but it is shrinking. In 2014 34% of attendees had the words Communication or Communications in their title as of 2016 this was down to 20%. Partly at least due to the rise of Digital above.

IT

Does the focus on Digital mean a resurgence of IT in job titles? No is the short answer; IT remains about the same over time with about 10% of attendees having “IT” or another technical skill named in their job title.

Knowledge

Considering this year’s conference theme of business impact, it is interesting to see what is happening to Knowledge as a word in the job titles list. Many intranets have been built on a knowledge management business case and we have always seen knowledge managers as part of the community that should get something from the conference. In 2014 7% of attendees had the word Knowledge in their job title this has fallen in successive years to a low of 4% in 2015 perhaps a reflection of just how difficult having the K word in your title is.

Intranet

The word ‘Intranet’, despite the reports of the death of intranets, still appears in more titles than any other word apart from Communications, with a mention in 24% of the total job titles on the list.

Best of the rest

Finally, around 30% of submitted job titles don’t include the obvious key words. It is noteworthy that only two people with HR related titles are on the list (why not more?) and only three people have the word Collaboration in their title (which is a still a low number considering the buzz).

Best title on the list? “Head of helpfulness” (slight disappointment that the title owner is not from a major corporation or large state body). Intranets should definitely be helpful.

The digested job title story – many would like to be more more digital; intranets ain’t goin’ away just yet; Knowledge Management is hard, and people from HR still aren’t very interested in intranets

Whatever your title, if your role influences, or is influenced by, the way your organisation uses your intranet you’d be very welcome to participate in our London conference on the 30th of September.

Check our agenda, and our extraordinary ticket prices.

Brian Lamb, Intranet Now, @Blamb