According to the survey, the financial services sector will be most active in IT recruiting with 63 percent of those companies projecting some level of increase in IT headcount. Among financial services firms surveyed, 22.2 percent anticipate an IT staff increase of more than 10 percent. The public, non-profit market is the second most active sector, with 62 percent of companies projecting headcount increases.
Overall, 66 percent of organizations surveyed by Gartner EXP project some level of increase in IT staffing. This includes full-time employees and contractors as supplementary staff.
The findings in EXP's "2005 IT Market Compensation Study" are based on research compiled from survey data submitted by 160 organizations as of March 1, 2005. The study includes detailed compensation data for 48,586 IT employees within the United States.
"Although the improved job market presents more promising opportunities to IT job seekers, it may also force IT and human resources leaders to respond to increasing IT staff turnover in their companies," said Lily Mok, senior consultant with Gartner EXP. "Total IT voluntary turnover was higher in the 2005 survey than last year. This may imply that as the IT employment market improves further, IT professionals will consider leaving their current jobs for better opportunities."
Gartner EXP said the factors that attract IT professionals to join a company may not be the same as those that keep them satisfied on the job. According to the survey, IT professionals are attracted to companies by company reputation, followed by pay and work environment. However, as employees progress through their career lifecycle, their needs and values change. Therefore, companies need to examine employee demographics and personalize their human capital management (HCM) programs to effectively attract and retain these employees and minimize unwanted turnover.
"Employees are considered the most critical asset and investment that set leading companies apart from competitors," Ms. Mok said. "To inspire loyalty and boost productivity, many companies now offer a total rewards package that is customized to the specific needs of the company. This approach also helps a company achieve the right demographic profile for its workforce."
The survey shows that the average budgeted base salary increase for IT employees in the 2005 fiscal year is 3.5 percent, or 0.3 percent higher than in the 2004 fiscal year. Companies also appear to have increased the variable pay portion of their reward package. A larger payout is realized as business results start to improve.
Other findings from this study include:
- The most difficult-to-hire positions for IT organizations include project manager, web applications programmer, security analyst, database administrator and network engineer. The increased search for project managers, for instance, suggests that companies are starting to focus on more effectively managing and prioritizing projects that can deliver a competitive advantage for the business.
- The skills that IT organizations report having the greatest difficulty recruiting are PeopleSoft, J2EE Microsoft.Net, Java, Oracle, Visual C#.Net, SAP, XML and XML Web Services.
