Innovation, business transformation to drive IT hiring

IT hiring is expected to increase in 2014 as more companies adopt new and innovative technologies to improve their offerings and transform the way they run their businesses, says recruitment firm Hudson.

The recruiter’s latest quarterly survey (October to December 2013) of 2556 Australian employers shows the IT industry has the highest intention to hire out of all the industries at 36 per cent, an increase from 32.7 per cent since last quarter.

Permanent IT positions fell slightly from 27.3 per cent last quarter to 25.5 per cent this quarter. However, contract IT positions slightly grew from 23 per cent to 24.1 per cent.

Hudson’s director of ICT, Tim Davis, said IT hiring continued to fall from around January to the lead up to the federal election.

But now that there is a change in government, he expects IT hiring to stay at a healthy level and may increase towards the end of the financial year when organisations gain a better understanding of what the government has planned in terms of making the environment more pro-business.

“It really went into a path of decline until pretty much close to the election when polls suggested a change in government. The figures went from 42.2 per cent to about 40.3 per cent, then down to 33 per cent and now it’s back up to 36 per cent.

“We’ve seen a steady decline throughout this year, but considering the changes in government that has seemed to have influenced uplift in sentiment within IT,” he said.

The financial services, government and industrial industry sectors is where innovation and business transformation activities are most taking place, according to Davis. He expects IT hiring to also pick up in these industries in 2014.

“Organisations are also looking to improve their customer engagement,” Davis added. “For example, providing an online banking solution to people to access through mobile devices, or through big data by looking through all their historical data and gaining some sense of how people might behave in the future.”

The most sought after roles from now through to 2014 are program and project managers, business analysts, change managers, IT architects and analyst programmers who focus on Web technologies, open source software and some enterprise software technologies, Davis said.

However, there are some roles and skills where demand will continue to outstripped supply, if not become even harder to obtain. There’s a shortage of mobility developers and people with skills in identity and access management, he said.

“Security is becoming more of a priority as more organisations are moving into the cloud and they want to make sure the environment is secure.

“There are people out there who are working in these particular spaces, but it’s about trying to find people who have the technical skills as well as the soft skills that add value to the business,” he said.

Davis suggested CIOs to turn to consulting firms as an option for acquiring the skills that are not easy to find.

He said if organisations are not able to find the skills they need through mainstream channels such as recruitment firms or online through LinkedIn, specialised consulting firms could be an option. Organisations can gain business knowledge by working with these firms on delivering strategies, he said.

Follow Rebecca Merrett on Twitter: @Rebecca_Merrett

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