Skills shortage to return, but with variations

Market won't be like that of 2007-08, recruiter says

This year is likely to see a return of the skills shortage that plagued the IT industry in 2007 and 2008, says Robert Walters New Zealand IT recruitment division manager Annabelle Klap.

However, while many of the sought-after skills will be the same as in those years, this time around things will be different, Klap says.

“If you look back two to three years, it will be the same skills in demand, but different people.

“In the past three years, the market has matured a lot and clients are focused on soft skills and consulting.”

Business analysts are back in demand and as projects put on hold during the recession get underway, other skills are becoming sought-after.

“In the second quarter, we expect to see more project managers being hired, and after that, we’ll see demand for testers.”

One difference between the upcoming skills shortage and the last one is that while the 2007 to 2008 one saw a lot of work in the ERP space, it won’t be as big a factor this time.

“There are a couple of big ERP projects underway, but I don’t necessarily see that it will create a skills shortage in that sector.”

Another difference between this year’s and the previous skills shortages is that now, marketing professionals with web skills are in demand.

“As businesses increase their exposure online, more web specialists are needed,” Klap says.

This new type of role, which sits between IT and marketing, involves hiring staff “who are looking at the marketing side of the web, but who also have a technical understanding of it”.

While the internet has been used as a marketing channel for 10 years or more, “in the past 12 months, there has been far more activity in that space and hybrid IT/marketing roles are becoming more common”.

An example of this type of role was recently advertised on the Seek website. CheetahMail, a division of Experian, called for an email marketing account manager, and listed among the required skills “Exposure to Microsoft Excel for managing data and performing quantitative analysis”, “Exposure to databases and query tools like Microsoft Access”, “Strong knowledge and experience in online marketing” and “Working knowledge of html”. In terms of qualifications, “a Bachelors degree, eg in disciplines such as marketing or e-commerce, will be looked on favourably”, the ad notes.

The job description specifies that candidates will, where required, be responsible for “setting up, testing, and deploying our clients’ email marketing campaigns using our proprietary, web-based application”.

Looking at the market overall, despite the differences of less emphasis on ERP and more on marketers with technical web skills, in other respects, the upcoming skills shortage will be similar to the 2007 to 2008 one, Klap says.

“There’s always demand for business analysts and developers, for example.”

A key feature of the 2007 to 2008 skills shortage was that it led to an imbalance between the permanent and contract hiring markets.

“Many people left permanent positions to go contracting, and that led to an uneven balance, in which candidates for permanent jobs became limited.

“The recession evened the market out, as people didn’t want to worry about contracts ending, and went back to permanent roles.”

Much of the hiring work Robert Walters’ IT division is now doing is filling a backlog from last year, Klap says.

“A number of companies had sign-off for roles, but weren’t allowed to go to market to recruit.

“Now, they are.”

Robert Walters recently released its 2010 Global Salary Survey, which found little difference in Auckland between permanent and contract rates in 2009 compared to 2010. However, in Wellington, pay rates in many IT skill sets are up this year compared to 2009, especially in contracting. For example, senior project managers on contract have seen rises this year. The salary figures quoted in the report are based on industry placements made by Robert Walters to clients.

The commentary accompanying the survey makes predictions for this year in both cities.

In the “Outlook for 2010” in Auckland, the commentary notes “We predict that the overall focus will continue to be cost-cutting and refining IT processes.

“This will be helped by a technology push towards cloud computing, ultimately cutting infrastructure and associated costs.

“As a result, the demand for skilled candidates who can operate within the cloud environment will be heightened.

“Additionally, candidates with skills in application development, datacentre operations and network engineering (including security) will be highly sought-after.”

The commentary notes that things began to pick up in the final quarter of last year in Auckland, and that this year, “we envisage that the pattern of slow and steady levels of recruitment will continue in 2010 and we expect a general shortage of skilled professionals in the IT sector once again”.

In Wellington, the commentary notes, “The fourth quarter started positively with strengthening demand for most disciplines across the sector.

“Disciplines such as project and programme management and IT architecture saw the strongest resurgence in the latter stages of the year”.

The Outlook for 2010 notes “Most organisations have restructured and the focus will move towards delivery and change implementation.

“There are already a number of significant programmes of work underway and we therefore anticipate demand for those candidates with technical project management skills to strengthen in the first quarter.

“We expect to see some strength return to the private sector which will lead to more demand for highly skilled and experienced candidates across all key IT disciplines.

“This is expected to drive wage growth due to an ongoing underlying shortage of good quality, experienced professionals.

“We anticipate however that wages will remain largely static for those candidates with less experience,” the report stated.