Rethink Recruitment - 2011 IT Directors Survey
Rethink Recruitment - 2011 IT Directors Survey
Leading IT recruiter Rethink Recruitment's 2011 IT Directors Survey has highighted that confidence among IT Directors has improved significantly over the past year, following the budget cuts and headcount reductions which dominated responses in 2010. IT Directors are more optimistic about the outlook for staffing, pay and project levels compared to the previous 12 months.
The overall trend within the IT sector is positive, however some areas of concern still remain. A small yet significant number of IT Directors are expected to implement headcount reductions and pay cuts in 2011.This shows possible indications (for the public sector at least) that the full impact of the recession has yet to be felt.
Headcount and pay expectations
Over half (52%) of IT Directors reported an increase in salaries for their employees during 2010. Last year also saw forty-one per cent of IT Directors increasing pay to staff. Thirty-six per cent expected to increase headcounts in IT Departments for 2011. This demonstrates the overall growth within the IT jobs sector, after the recession during 2010. The outlook for 2011 appears to show positive signs of further predicted growth as 36% of IT Directors expect to increase headcounts within IT departments. 2011 also has positive implications for employees with forty-seven per cent of IT Directors forecasting pay raises for staff.
Contract and permanent staff
The proportion of workers in IT departments who have IT contractor jobs has increased over the last year. 12% of personnel in IT departments are now contractors compared to 10% in 2010 and 16% in 2009. Contractors are invariably the first to face the axe during a recession, but with demand strengthening, IT departments are increasing their use of contractors.
As workloads continue to increase we would expect to see a rise in demand for contractors in 2011 as IT Directors keep one eye on permanent headcounts.
The majority of IT departments (51%) increased salaries for permanent staff in 2010. This is a significant improvement on 2009 when just 29% of IT Directors reported having increased salaries. A shrinking minority of IT departments (5%) cut pay in 2010, compared to 7% who implemented pay cuts in 2009.
Concern over key staffing issuesCompetition for talent and skills continues to intensify as activity levels pick-up. 85% of IT Directors were found to be some way concerned about attracting high calibre candidates over the next year, compared to 77% of IT Directors who were polled 12 months ago. This implies high competition for securing the best candidates will intensify further this year. Competition for skills will mean that in-demand candidates will increasingly receive multiple offers, which will feed pay rises.
IT budgets and project loads
39% of IT Directors reported IT budget increased during 2010, which is a significant improvement on 2009 when just 17% reported higher budgets. However, despite being out of recession, 29% of IT departments had their budgets cut last year. Although budgets were cut last year, it still makes an improvement compared to forty-nine per cent of budget cuts witnessed during 2009.
Conclusion
2010 saw a steady improvement in the outlook for IT departments, though concerns remain, perhaps reflecting the expected fallout from public sector spending cuts this year. On balance, almost twice as many IT Directors are expecting to hire than reduce headcount. A growing proportion of IT Directors forecast that they will have to increase pay this year, though for contractors the prospect of rate rises will largely depend on having niche, in-demand skill sets.
The pressure on IT Directors to make gains in productivity appears to be lessening, albeit slowly. For the second successive year, IT Directors will be expected to increase output, and whilst a growing proportion of respondents expect budgets to rise, there is still a concern that rising workloads are outpacing budgets. Some staffing concerns have become more acute over the last year, such as attracting high quality candidates, which suggests that competition for skills is intensifying. That mirrors our own experience. Both the number of offers per candidate and the frequency of counter-offers from existing employers increased significantly in 2010. If bidding wars become more commonplace in 2011, this will drive pay growth.
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