Employers scramble to fill ‘in demand’ IT roles

The tech skills shortage continues to bite as employers scramble for the right candidates in numerous high demand areas like software development, infrastructure, and project management, according to the latest Hays Quarterly Hotspots report for April to June.

Hiring managers are also being very selective and finding someone who is the right fit for a vacancy is a challenge, said the recruiter.

There’s a shortage of Drupal programmers to fill the demand from digital agencies and governments. Retailers want Web developers and analysts to create e-commerce platforms.

There’s also a shortage of Cognos developers, a niche skillset, and employers are unable to pay appropriate rates to secure candidates, Hays said.

Helpdesk and desktop support candidates are wanted to support larger user bases and assist with upgrade projects. Cisco voice engineers, system and security administrators, and senior storage and network engineers are also needed.

On the business side, the healthcare and financial services industries want project managers and hands-on corporate IT managers who are technical but can also create and manage budgets and submit board reports. But Hays said candidates are less willing to commit to the IT manager roles due to lack of career progression.

According to Hays, most permanent vacancies are the result of natural turnover rather than growth plans.

“Employers are, however, recruiting contractors for project roles, and we are seeing more requests for short-term assignments of between one and three months, with a view to extending,” the report said.

“We have also seen the number of one and two week contracts increase significantly as employers use a temporary candidate to cover holiday leave due to low permanent headcounts.”

There has also been a rise in the number of organisations taking advantage of good generic skill sets and adding to their pools of business analysts and project managers. These candidates are being used across multiple projects.

“Employers are increasingly looking for consultative skills in IT managers … and the ability to coordinate with various other business units.

“This is the result of more organisations bringing IT back in-house or considering how to best embrace cloud technology solutions while keeping technology in-line with business strategies,” Hays said.