Cautious businesses freeze IT recruitment despite skills gap
According to a selection of UK IT managers interviewed by Esteem Systems, when it comes to investing in recruitment, the general feeling amongst businesses is understandably one of extreme caution. Only three percent of UK businesses are planning to replace IT staff to fill the skills gap. However, 95 percent of the businesses questioned believe it’s vitally important to continue investing in IT solutions, with 61 percent citing managed services as a preferred approach.
Esteem says that businesses are putting IT at the heart of their recovery plans because it can provide better cost savings and efficiency compared with recruiting more staff which will not necessarily provide immediate efficiency gains, as it takes time to skill them up, plus companies will be tied into the cost of long-term contracts. Therefore, any skills lost due to cuts made over the past 12 to 18 months are more easily replaced by buying-in the expertise. Plus, many CIOs still fear a double-dip recession could be around the corner and therefore put pressure on their IT departments to investigate ways of either stripping the cost out of their existing system or considering alternative flexible solutions.
Analysts are also predicting a clear move towards managed services to make up the IT skills shortfall, with Gartner forecasting that worldwide cloud services will grow to around £46 billion this year alone. Many businesses will justifiably consider cloud computing, giving IT services players an ideal opportunity to develop current offerings.
“Introducing more managed services to bridge the skills gap is being considered by many businesses in the coming year, particularly those hit by recent government cuts – whether it’s for managing complex IT infrastructures or revamping a legacy system,” says Alastair Kitching, chief operations officer of Esteem Systems. “Businesses are also recognising that not only are the risks reduced but the investment is far less when compared with spending heavily on recruitment.
“It’s been a difficult year for many IT workers, some have already witnessed redundancies around them and may see managed services as yet another threat to their job security. This is largely because managed services is often tarred with the ‘outsourcing’ brush, and many workers worry that these new IT services are brought in to replace them.
“Senior management have a duty to reassure existing IT staff that these services are being implemented to drive business growth, rather than to directly replace staff,” concludes Kitching. “By communicating to staff that managed services will make their business more successful, current IT staff should be reassured that their jobs are more secure and that further jobs won’t be shed. Helping IT departments to understand the reasons why implementing services like these are a sensible move in the current climate will make for a much smoother transition and future working environment for all.”
