Firms get green light for hiring

Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

Organisations are starting to open their wallets again for IT projects, but they don't want them going over budget.

That's created a demand for "financially savvy" project co-ordinators who can ensure projects stay on track, according to the latest quarterly survey of the IT job market by Robert Walters.

The recruiter's assessment that increased economic confidence is giving the green light for hiring is backed up by a rival survey by Hudson New Zealand, which found one in five firms intend to increase their permanent headcount this quarter.

Richard Manthel, Robert Walters' New Zealand manager, says one sign the turmoil of 2009 is over for now is the fact his firm's worldwide revenues are up 45 per cent on this time last year.

"Clients have projects on, there is high demand and in the last month we have seen firms very motivated to get good staff on board - people who can make impact on their business," Manthel says.

That doesn't mean a massive increase in job numbers or space for new entrants into the market.

Rather, a lot of people in jobs have their hands up to move on to higher paying or more interesting positions.

"We're not seeing the sort of numbers that will make an impact on the unemployment figures in the interim," Manthel says.

"We are dealing with the top end of the market where people are skilled. The way things are going, in the next three to six [months] there will be a massive skills shortage in some areas."

Currently, though, there is a sort of equilibrium, where there are still enough candidates in most disciplines to fill roles created by natural attrition or people moving on.

For when that changes, Manthel advises that firms invest in staff development and training so they can retain top performers and attract new talent.

Robert Walters has also conducted seminars in London for expatriates thinking of coming home, and reports that most are realistic about the salary levels they are likely to command here. People with SAP skills are starting to be in short supply, as large teams are put together for major projects, whether that be merging the back-end systems for the Super City or catching up on some of the maintenance deferred during the recession.

Smart business analysts are also in big demand, as people get projects off the ground and salaries for most roles have come back to where they were two years ago.

Wellington was slower to move than Auckland, but the market is coming back now as government agencies start looking at projects again.

That's not to say the uncertainty has gone. The fear of the double-dip recession is still there.

"A lot of clients have strategies for the next 12 months, and they are hiring to those.

"If there is a dip they will deal with it, but they don't want to be too cautious and miss out on the upside."

Marc Burrage, Hudson New Zealand's executive general manager, says the IT sector had the strongest expectations of any in its latest survey with more than half of the technology firms looking to raise permanent staff numbers. "Normally post-recession you expect temporary and contract staff to come back first. What is unusual this time is that permanent hiring has accelerated past that.

"Firms cut so hard and fast but there is now growing awareness of the talent shortage, so firms grab people back as soon as the economy turns," Burrage says.

He says times like these emphasise the importance of employee engagement. "Organisations that looked after their people and communicated with them will be set fair now that employees have more choice."

He says contracting numbers are only starting to pick up this quarter, fuelled by projects in banks and insurance firms, and also in telecommunications, particularly in the fibre optic space.

This year there has seen an increase in requirements for candidates with strong Linux and Unix skills, particularly in an administrative capacity, along with middleware engineers.

The two drivers of technology are people and technology, and firms have probably spent the past two years wringing what they can get out of their people - it's time to give the technology a chance.

Since that technology has moved on, with the explosion in cloud computing and the inexorable creep of Moore's law making computers faster and cheaper, that may mean some jobs may never come back.

Australia continues to be the big threat for those hiring - with the resource boom holding up its economy, employers across the Tasman added 194,600 jobs in the first five months of this year, cutting the unemployment rate to 5.4 per cent.