Dive Brief:

• The number of CIOs who say they are "very fulfilled" in their role is at a three-year high — going from 33% in 2015 to 39% in 2017, according to the 2017 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey, released Tuesday.
• That doesn’t mean they are staying in their jobs longer, however. Almost 60% of respondents said their life span at a company is five years or less, according to the survey, which polled 4,498 CIOs and technology leaders.
• More than seven in ten CIOs said they believe the CIO role is becoming more strategic, and more than half are investing in "more nimble" technology platforms.  "Digital is without question the CIO's priority, but especially for legacy organizations, leading this change to a complete, unified digital strategy is top of mind. CIOs and CDOs are responding by tackling this head-on with innovation and agility," said Harvey Nash President and CEO Bob Miano in a press release.

Dive Insight:

An innovative CIO is a happy CIO. As the number of companies with enterprise-wide digital strategies increased over 50% in just two years, CIOs simultaneously reported more satisfaction in their jobs. At least part of that satisfaction has to do with the fact that those CIOs in many cases are now leading innovation in their respective companies.

But increased job satisfaction doesn't lead to longer tenures. According to an analysis from Korn Ferry released in February, CIOs are among the shortest-tenured professionals compared with other C-suite roles. The only role that has a shorter tenure is the CMO. While other C-suite executives stay 5.3 years on average, a CIO's tenure is on average 4.3 years.