Australian IT professionals in high demand

Australian IT professionals are in high demand but short supply as companies seek to transform into digital businesses, new research indicates.

A survey from Greythorn, a ManpowerGroup specialist recruitment agency, found that demand is outstripping supply for candidates with data analytics, digital, security and web development capabilities.

This is being driven by the growing impetus for companies to become digital businesses to survive in competitive markets, according to Greythorn Australia General Manager Suzanne Gerrard.

“There has been a surge in both the public and private sectors moving into cloud environments, particularly in the last 12 months, resulting in complex and large IT transformation projects,” she said.

“Since these projects require specific skills and capabilities, we are finding the talent pool is smaller and candidates’ experience is shorter in duration, pointing to a skill shortage in the industry.”

The report also found that 60% of the more than 2500 IT professionals polled expect to change roles in the next 12 months.

But at the same time the number of candidates actively looking for a new role shrank to 28% in 2016 from 43% in 2014. In addition, 70% of IT professionals report being fairly or very satisfied with their current roles and 62% feel that their role is secure at their current company.

“This year we saw an increase in candidates not feeling the need to actively look for a new role, but waiting for the right role to fall into their laps instead,” Gerrard said.

“This trend, coupled with the current talent shortage we are seeing, will mean employers need to think smarter about how they attract and retain talent. This is becoming more important than ever as the industry continues to grow and mobilise.”

Career development is the factor most likely to attract IT professionals to a new role, followed by remuneration and benefits, and interesting projects or technologies.

Perks most likely to convince individuals to stay with their current employer include flexible work arrangements, attractive remuneration offers and new challenges. A lack of interesting work and career development opportunities, as well as poor organisational culture, are the main reasons they would leave.

Image courtesy of Brandon Leon under CC