Digital Workplace Leader portrait: skills, motivation, and salary

Everything you need to know about the portrait of an Intranet and Digital Workplace leader in Russia and CIS: skills, motivation, salary. There are around 150 such unique specialists in Russia. Rivelty team interviewed more than a hundred and made a detailed portrait. The numbers and conclusions will help you understand who to look for in the market if you require a Digital Workplace leader.

Who is a Digital Workplace leader

Digital Workplace leader — an employee who is responsible for Intranet and Digital Workplace development in the company being the advocate of users and work on internal clients’ requirements at the junction of several areas, most often — Internal Communications, HR, IT, Business Development, and Digital Transformation.

Digital Workplace leader market situation

70% of companies in Russia and CIS have an intranet or DW leader. In 40% of companies, he works full-time, in 27% part-time. Compared to 2019, the number of companies that do not have an intranet or DW leader has decreased by 15%. This is the first significant leap in demand for an intranet or DW leader in five years of our research. I believe it’s related to COVID-19 pandemic influence — the value of the DW leader has become more transparent.

Digital Workplace leader skills

The most in-demand Digital workplace leadership skills in 2020 are product and project management, ability to deal with IT and Information Security people, intranet products expertise, and strategic thinking.

Compared to 2019, two times fewer respondents believe that a DW leader should be able to write for an intranet. A year ago, a skilled intranet leader was either a product owner or an internal communicator, but now it becomes clear that this is a “pure” product owner, so IT background and management skills are more important than writing well.

50% of respondents agree that DW leader should have UX-expertise and 40% say that content design skill is important too.

What motivates Digital Workplace Leader

First, it is the ability to create value for all employees. 77% of the participants voted for it. In my opinion, this reflects well what type of personality feels best in this position. Intranet or DW leaders are genuinely interested in doing something meaningful, changing the company and the world around them for the better.

62% are attracted by the opportunity to create a large-scale product, and more than half appreciate the unique experience of working at the junction of several areas.

45% confirm the importance of support from top managers. I completely agree with them, such large-scale projects as an intranet can only be promoted with the support of the board. If not, the DW leader is forced to move mountains alone, which, of course, is very difficult.

For 31%, professional recognition of the intranet community is important. These are local and global awards, speaking at local or abroad conferences.

How much Digital Workplace leaders earn?

DW leaders with experience of one current project or with a location outside of Moscow earn up to $16,000 per year.

DW leaders with experience of one completed project from “A to Z” earn annually from $16,000 to $24,000.

DW leaders with experience of two completed projects earn $24,000–$29,000.

If DW leader has experience in implementing several projects and has outstanding professional achievements (for example, professional awards — #RIawards and #IDWawards) he earns $29,000–$40,000. Intranet leaders in IT companies earn about the same.

More than $40,000 per year is earned by DEX leaders who are responsible for the entire digital experience of employees, that is, in addition to the intranet, they also drive other intranet solutions of the company: learning management system, mobile apps, PM tools, messengers.

To summarize the data in one slide, the portrait of the skilled Digital Workplace leader looks like this:

All numbers and findings in the article are based on our latest study “The State of Intranet and Digital Internal communications in Russia: based on 120 companies survey”.

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow Rivelty.Intranet to learn more about Intranet and Digital Workplace in Russia.