Attracting and retaining top talent as the IT skills gap widens

Transcription

1 Attracting and retaining top talent as the IT skills gap widens Seven years of research data from leading IT skills recruitment site CWJobs, and insight from our customers, shows how IT recruiters in the UK can build more effective recruitment strategies and attract the best talent. Since the economic crash in 2008, knowledge workers across a range of roles and industries have experienced a protracted pay freeze but not so in IT. For both IT specialists and generalists, salaries have outpaced inflation every year since the crash, and competition between IT recruiters is fiercer than ever. To understand the current state of the IT recruitment market, CWJobs has analysed data from our systems for the last seven years. This exercise has revealed a number of key trends that show that the skills gap in the UK continues to widen. In particular, the data reveals: A 1.7% annual increase in IT salaries over the period (compared to 0.5% annual inflation). High demand for specialist IT skills such as web developers with Agile, Python, PHP and ios skills, with developer roles paying more than 50,000 up by 3.6% in the last seven years. Increased competition between recruiters in London and UK tech hubs such as Bristol and Cambridge (where the cost of living is lower). The salary gap between London and other cities has seen a 7.2% drop since Based on our research, CWJobs has created the following top tips for UK recruiters looking to attract and retain the best talent. In addition, we have interviewed several of our customers to see how the IT skills gap has impacted their own business, and how they are working to overcome their pressing recruitment challenges. Their testimonies provide useful guidance for other recruiters looking to recruit and retain the right IT skills in their own organisations. 1

2 Top Tips Evolving IT recruitment strategies to increase success: Five top tips for IT recruiters 1 Look beyond pay to attract the best candidates With salary expectations at an all-time high, an excellent remuneration package is now a prerequisite for effective recruitment. However, our experience of working with thousands of recruiters also tells us that money isn t everything for many IT pros. Recruiters that can offer the opportunity to work with the latest technologies, or on innovative projects, now have a distinct competitive advantage over those that can t. Likewise, recruiters can no longer rely on their brand alone to attract the best talent. To effectively communicate all the benefits associated with a particular role, many companies choose CWJobs branded products. These include premium job ads and targeted s that are designed to communicate a range of soft benefits to candidates, from flexible working to opportunities for training and professional development. Videos and links about corporate values and working conditions can also be embedded in CWJobs ads to make roles as attractive as possible to prospective candidates. CWJobs research insight: Specialised web developers are 57% of web developer roles in high demand, with roles paying in London now pay more than more than 50,000 up 3.6% over 50,000. the last seven years. 40% of contract positions now pay more than 100,000. NOTE: For detailed CWJobs data on web developer salaries over the last seven years, see Appendix A 2 Understand skills supply and demand to optimise your recruitment strategy As competition between IT recruiters continues to grow, a more strategic, long-term approach to recruitment is needed. To fill niche roles, for example, it may be necessary to increase contract hiring. Where possible, companies should also consider up-training generalists to fill roles that require specialist skills, or to meet the requirements for resource-intensive one-off projects. Critically, by understanding skills supply and demand, recruiters can set realistic lead times for recruiting hard-to-find skills and avoid costly project delays. CWJobs can help with this, providing tools for searching our comprehensive database of skilled professionals and providing real-time alerts to recruiters inboxes when skilled candidates register online. Recruiters also receive details of all candidates with relevant skills and experience, as soon as their job ad is posted. CWJobs research insight: Six specialist IT skills have seen notable growth in demand since 2008: PHP, HTML, Agile, Python, Android and ios. Of these, skills with largest increases in demand since 2008 are Android (7,2970%), ios (5,327%), Python (264%) and Agile (115%). While Microsoft.NET developers still account for 9% of total developer roles,.net demand has fallen by 52% since the recession. NOTE: For detailed CWJobs data on in-demand IT skills, see Appendix B 2

3 Top Tips 3 Tailor recruitment practices for permanent and contract roles Many organisations now use a combination of permanent employees and contractors to meet their IT skills requirements. To maximise success, companies need to effectively evaluate where tasks cannot be completed by in-house teams and budget for the relatively high cost of contractors compared to permanent staff. In addition, recruiters should be prepared for large numbers of applications for each contract role, and ensure that the application process is as fast and simple as possible for contractors. CWJobs research insight: Critically, recruitment strategies should also be tailored to meet the specific needs of permanent and contract applicants. To attract the best permanent staff, recruiters should focus on job security, flexible working opportunities, training and development and other long-term benefits. Job ads for contract work should focus on remuneration as well as opportunities to work on innovative, exciting projects, which can be a key motivator for contractors. Permanent developer roles still outnumber contract positions by 3:1. 10 people apply for each contract role compared to six for each permanent role. Companies must pay a premium for recruiting contract web developers, with pay up 36.6% over the last seven years (London). 4 NOTE: For detailed CWJobs data on permanent and contract recruitment, see Appendix C Take full advantage of candidate mobility The competitive job market means that many IT specialists can choose where they want to work. As evidenced by CWJobs research, growing employment opportunities in the East, North and West of England (and Wales) are making the employment market somewhat less London-centric. To attract the best candidates, recruiters in London and the South East need to effectively differentiate their roles. This requires them to offer the perfect balance of weighted remuneration with compelling soft benefits such as flexible working and excellent training and development opportunities and communicate these benefits to candidates effectively in their job ads. For regional employers, the challenge is to attract skilled professionals from London and other tech hubs in the South East, as well as successfully recruiting talent in their local areas. To take full advantage of candidate mobility, regional firms need to provide competitive remuneration, a good work-life balance, and other soft benefits that enable them to compete effectively with London-based companies. Companies may also need to be more flexible when it comes to taking on contractors to meet their skills needs. CWJobs can help both London-based firms and regional firms to maximise their recruitment success. With tools for targeting specific skill sets and geographies, and for communicating the soft benefits of each role, companies can increase their competitive advantage and attract the skills they need. CWJobs research insight: The number of IT roles in London fell by 4% between 2013 and 2014 (6% across the South East of England). Tech jobs in the East of England increased by 6% over the same period (with a 1% increase in the North and West of England and Wales). NOTE: For detailed CWJobs data on regional employment opportunities and candidate mobility, see Appendix D 3

4 Top Tips 5 Optimise recruitment efficiency and effectiveness In the past, creating job ads required some technical knowledge and, often, development expertise. To increase efficiency, forward-looking organisations use systems that automate key recruitment processes, including design and publication of job ads. With CWJobs e-business services, for example, internal recruitment teams can create ads, including logos and branding, using simple drag-and-drop tools, saving time and reducing administrative costs. In addition, companies can further reduce admin by choosing CWJobs account managersupported services. Here, our account managers take responsibility for building and publishing your ads as needed, leaving you to focus on the core tasks of reviewing applications, interviewing and employee on-boarding. We can see which candidates viewed roles and follow up with them at a later date if necessary. I also get alerts in my inbox when people with particular skills publish their details on CWJobs, which helps me to fill niche roles faster. Shivani Sharma, Senior Recruiter, In Practice Systems and Cegedim RX 4

5 Customer Experience Learning from successful IT recruiters Three CWJobs customers that are effectively navigating the IT skills gap are leading IT company Dell, top recruitment consultant Hays and healthcare technology companies In Practice Systems and Cegedim RX, both part of the Cegedim IT services group. Their experiences show how companies of all sizes can attract and retain the best IT talent in a highly competitive market. Dell Five years ago, Dell decided to implement a direct source model for recruitment. This has helped the organisation significantly reduce its spending with recruitment agencies from millions to around 30,000 per year in the UK. As a direct IT recruiter, Dell recognises all the key trends highlighted in the CWJobs research, including rising salary expectations and high demand for specialist developers. Dell is attracting the best talent by providing both competitive remuneration and a range of soft benefits for candidates. Adam Shah Pickles, UK Talent Acquisition at Dell, says, There is definitely a war on talent, particularly for skilled Java developers and others with niche software skills. To compete effectively with other recruiters, we offer remote and flexible working to help improve people s work/life balance. In addition, we ensure that developers are always working on interesting projects, and that they have access to continuous learning and development so they can thrive in their careers at Dell. To support its highly effective direct source recruitment model, Dell works with a range of partners and technologies, including CWJobs. With CWJobs, we can search for candidates and create job ads ourselves, so there are no agency fees and we can control the process better, says Shah Pickles. CWJobs is also great for candidates, who can engage with us directly, rather than going through an agency. 5

6 Customer Experience Hays Hays uses a range of technology tools, including CWJobs job boards, to take a proactive approach to finding, tracking and recruiting IT talent and helping its clients achieve success. Recently, we interviewed Lee Chant, Managing Director at Hays IT. He summed up the state of the IT recruitment market in this country very eloquently. Everyone needs developers now, from corporations to development houses and digital agencies: the size of the market has tripled since the crash. When we asked him if available skills had also tripled, the answer was a resounding no!. All this means that creating job ads and collecting CVs is no longer adequate, according to Chant. We don t just post jobs, we also talk to potential candidates to understand their skills profiles, and we get them to recommend good people they ve worked with in the past. Hays candidate surveys show that pay is always a top consideration for candidates, with flexible working and training and development coming a close second and third. Soft benefits such as gyms, canteens, parking and other perks can make a 40,000 a year job more attractive than a 45,000 job: companies need to talk about these benefits far more than they do at the moment. To optimise IT recruitment and provide the best service for clients, Hays partners with CWJobs. We find using CW Jobs greatly benefits our clients and our business, with strong results in terms of cost efficiency, applications, interviews and resulting placements, says Chant. It s a tool that greatly benefits our clients and our business. In Practice Systems and Cegedim RX In Practice Systems (INPS) and Cegedim RX are major players in the UK healthcare technology market, employing a total of 4,000 people. Shivani Sharma, Senior Recruiter for the companies, says, It s a candidate s market. We increasingly find ourselves negotiating on everything to attract the best talent, from remuneration to home working, annual leave and other benefits. The negotiations get really tough if people have skills which are generally hard to find, or if there are no other viable candidates available in a particular area. Growing job opportunities in urban centres and tech hubs around the country are impacting Sharma s recruitment strategy. We have a developer team in Preston and people used to travel from Manchester or Liverpool to work there, she says. Now that those cities offer more tech jobs, people are less willing to travel, so we have to be especially focused on delivering excellent benefits to attract the skills we need. Sharma uses CWJobs to recruit the best IT talent across a range of generalist and specialist IT roles. CWJobs offers a number of key benefits for our business, she says. It is simple to use, which makes it easy to publish job descriptions. Because CWJobs is very well known, we always get a good response and we also get good-quality candidates for our roles. According to Sharma, companies with the right internal skills sets and resources can achieve major cost savings with CWJobs. I recently recruited two C++ developers directly, which would have cost around 14,000 with an agency. Just recruiting one developer directly pays for 20 job ads on CWJobs. 6

7 Appendix Appendix A: CWJobs data showing average UK salaries for permanent and contract web developers ( ) across the UK and including and excluding the London premium 60,000 CWJobs Advertised Salary Trends to 2014 Q3 Excl LON LON Prem Web Developer: Permanent Expected Salary 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 Expected Salary UK excl LON LON Prem 41,678 40,313 9, % 3.4% -7.2% 0 Sep-08 Sep-09 Sep-10 Sep-11 Sep-12 Sep-13 Sep-14 Excl LON LON Prem % Jobs > 50,000 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% % Jobs > 50,000 UK excl LON LON Prem 30% 25% 57% 3.6% 3.8% 2.3% 0% Sep-08 Sep-09 Sep-10 Sep-11 Sep-12 Sep-13 Sep ,000 CWJobs Advertised Salary Trends to 2014 Q3 Excl LON LON Prem Web Developer: Contract Expected Salary 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 Expected Salary UK excl LON LON Prem 82,027 80,936 4, % 6.1% 36.6% 0 Sep-08 Sep-09 Sep-10 Sep-11 Sep-12 Sep-13 Sep-14 Excl LON LON Prem % Jobs > 50,000 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% % Jobs > 100,000 UK excl LON LON Prem 35% 31% 44% 9.1% 8.7% 10.2% 0% Sep-08 Sep-09 Sep-10 Sep-11 Sep-12 Sep-13 Sep-14 7

8 Appendix Appendix B: CWJobs data on demand for specific IT skills ( ) Top 20 Skills - Share of Jobs % change in #Jobs shown in brackets % Jobs 0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% PHP (1%) HTML (3%) Agile (115%) Python (264%) ios (5327%) Android (72970%) 12 mths to 2014 Q3 12 mths to 2008 Q3 8

9 Appendix Appendix C: CWJobs data on permanent vs. contract IT roles ( ) Breakdown of CWJobs Recruitment Activity in 12 months to Sep-14: All Roles Job Type Breakdown Trends by Job type Applications by Job type Year on Year Change in #Jobs #Applications per Job (%yr on n Sep-14 yr trend in -20,000-10, ,000 n Sep brackets) n Contract 25% n Permanent Permanent (6%) Permanent (6) 75% Contract (6%) Contract (10) Appendix D: CWJobs data on candidate mobility and regional recruitment Regional Breakdown Trends by Region Applications by Job type Year on Year Change in #Jobs #Applications per Job n South East (%yr on n Sep-14 yr trend in -10,000-6,000-2,000 2,000 n London n Sep brackets) 4% n North 7% South East (-6%) South East (8) n West & Wales 13% Breakdown of CWJobs Recruitment Activity in 12 months to Sep-14: All Roles 41% n East n Scotland London (-4%) North (1%) London (9) North (6) 15% West & Wales (1%) East (6%) West & Wales (5) East (5) 20% Scotland (-1%) Scotland (5) 9

10 Working with CWJobs Attracting the best IT talent with CWJobs As a specialist provider of recruitment services for the IT sector, CWJobs is 100% focused on helping our customers attract and retain the best tech talent. Our industry vertical approach and specialist IT-recruitment technology offers a number of key benefits when compared to generic recruitment solutions, including: Access to a large pool of qualified IT professionals across the UK Over half a million IT professionals use CWJobs each month, giving you access to relevant active job seekers across the UK. Strong brand recognition CWJobs is well known across the IT community, ensuring that we are constantly on the radar for IT candidates looking for their next job. Sophisticated search and match technology CWJobs uses sophisticated search and match algorithms and skills-based keywords to ensure that candidates have suitable skills, experience and qualifications for your role. With fewer aspirational applications from unqualified candidates, your internal teams can increase recruitment efficiency. Faster, more efficient recruitment With CWJobs e-business services, internal recruiters can quickly build and publish job ads using intuitive, point-and-click tools, minimising administrative workloads and costs. Account manager support If internal teams don t have time to build and publish job ads themselves, a specialist CWJobs account manager can help. By choosing to advertise through an account manager, recruitment teams can free up time to review applications and to manage candidate onboarding. Mobility CWJobs has created an intuitive mobile application, allowing candidates to view job ads on the move and apply using their smartphones or tablets. The app makes it easy for professionals to upload CVs and covering letters from cloud storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive, encouraging more qualified professionals to apply for your roles. At the same time, recruiters can view relevant candidates on their mobile device, and get valuable candidate alerts on the move. To find out how CWJobs is helping top recruiters to attract and retain the best IT talent, and to talk about how your company could benefit from partnering with us, please contact sales@cwjobs.co.uk, , or visit. 10

11 CWJobs Customer Success Stories Dell Five years ago, Dell decided to implement a direct source model for recruitment. This has helped the organisation significantly reduce its spending with recruitment agencies from millions to around 30,000 per year in the UK. Over the years, Dell has evolved its IT recruitment practices to ensure its ability to compete with other leading tech companies, and attract and retain the best talent. Adam Shah Pickles, UK Talent Acquisition at Dell, says, We ve definitely seen candidates pay expectations increase in recent years and we ve invested significantly into our compensation and benefits globally. We also benchmark our remuneration packages every quarter against other leading IT companies such as HP, Oracle and IBM to make sure we stay competitive on pay. With CWJobs, we can search for candidates and create job ads ourselves, so there are no agency fees and we can control the process better. Adam Shah Pickles, UK Talent Acquisition, Dell At the same time, Dell maximises its attractiveness as an employer with a range of soft benefits for candidates. There is definitely a war on talent, particularly for skilled Java developers and others with niche software skills, says Shah Pickles. To compete effectively with other recruiters, we offer remote and flexible working to help improve people s work/life balance. In addition, we ensure that developers are always working on interesting projects, and that they have access to continuous learning and development so they can thrive in their careers at Dell. To support its highly effective direct source recruitment model, Dell works with a range of partners and technologies, including CWJobs. With CWJobs, we can search for candidates and create job ads ourselves, so there are no agency fees and we can control the process better, says Shah Pickles. CWJobs is also great for candidates, who can engage with us directly, rather than going through an agency. 11

12 CWJobs Customer Success Stories Hays Hays takes a proactive approach to finding, tracking and recruiting IT talent to help its clients achieve success. Recently, we interviewed Lee Chant, Managing Director at Hays IT. He summed up the state of the IT recruitment market in this country very eloquently. Everyone needs developers now, from corporations to development houses and digital agencies: the size of the market has tripled since the crash. When we asked him if available skills had also tripled, the answer was a resounding no!. All this means that creating job ads and collecting CVs is no longer adequate, according to Chant. We don t just post jobs, we also talk to potential candidates to understand their skills profiles, and we get them to recommend good people they ve worked with in the past. Hays candidate surveys show that pay is always a top consideration for candidates, with flexible working and training and development coming a close second and third. Soft benefits such as gyms, canteens, parking and other perks can make a 40,000 a year job more attractive than a 45,000 job; companies need to talk about these benefits far more than they do at the moment. We use up to 10 job boards, but CW Jobs is always in the top three in terms of cost efficiency, applications, interviews and resulting placements. Lee Chant, IT and Telecoms Managing Director, Hays UK and Ireland On recruitment efficiency, Chant says that most organisations have massively improved their operational processes in recent years. Hays and our top competitors now offer mobile access for clients and candidates, and it s never been easier to post jobs or upload CVs to our site, he says. While the technology is highly efficient today, Chant says that employers need to react faster to attract the best talent. Our data shows that 60% of our clients take more than three days to give candidates an answer after their interview, while 40% take five days or more to respond to CVs. These figures explain why employers chosen candidates are often snapped up by other companies. To optimise IT recruitment and provide the best service for clients, Hays partners with CWJobs. We find using CW Jobs greatly benefits our clients and our business, with strong results in terms of cost efficiency, applications, interviews and resulting placements, says Chant. 12

13 CWJobs Customer Success Stories INPS and Cegedim RX In Practice Systems (INPS) and Cegedim RX are major players in the UK healthcare technology market. To increase operational efficiency and attract the IT skills they need, the companies use a direct-source recruitment model. While INPS provides software to support interactions between GPs and patients, Cegedim RX provides software solutions to more than 6,500 pharmacies in the UK more than 50% of the UK pharmacy market. Together, the two companies form part of the Cegedim Group, which is now owned by American tech giant IMS. Shivani Sharma, Senior Recruiter at INPS and Cegedim RX, says that the company has been impacted significantly by the growing IT skills gap. It s a candidate s market, she says. We increasingly find ourselves negotiating on terms and conditions, from pay to home working, annual leave and other benefits. The negotiations get tougher if people have hard-to-find skills, if we want to fill roles in areas of the country where the skills pool is limited, or if there are no other viable candidates available. I recently recruited two C++ developers directly, which would have cost around 14,000 with an agency. Just recruiting one developer directly pays for 20 job ads on CWJobs. Shivani Sharma, Senior Recruiter, INPS and Cegedim RX Recruitment is also made more complicated by growing job opportunities in urban centres and tech hubs around the country. We have a developer team in Preston, Lancashire, and people used to travel from Manchester or Liverpool to work there, says Sharma. Now that those cities offer tech jobs, people are less willing to travel, so we have to be especially focused on delivering excellent benefits to attract people to Preston. Over recent years, Sharma has also seen a growing trend towards contract work. We now talk to lots of candidates who refuse permanent roles point blank, she says. The world has changed and we ve had to be flexible to keep up, even when that means increasing the number of people on contracts. Sharma says that CWJobs is one of her most valuable resources in terms of accessing good candidates across a range of generalist and specialist IT roles. CWJobs offers a number of key benefits for our business, she comments. It is simple to use, which makes it easy to publish job descriptions. Because CWJobs is very well known, we always get a good response and we also get good quality candidates for our roles. Sharma says that companies with the right internal skills sets and resources can achieve major cost savings with CWJobs. I recently recruited two C++ developers directly, which would have cost around 14,000 with an agency, she says. Just recruiting one developer directly pays for 20 job ads on CWJobs. Finally, CWJobs can help companies access hard-to-find talent, says Sharma. We can see which candidates viewed roles and follow up with them at a later date if necessary, she says. I also get alerts in my inbox when people with particular skills publish their details on CWJobs, which helps me to fill niche roles faster. 13