Friday, December 17, 2010

My Thoughts on 2010 - The playground of the Wgtn IT Recruitment Marketplace

The way we go about finding talent for permanent roles has changed dramatically. In the ten years I have been doing what I do, our percentage of placements in 2010 that have been made via headhunting / shoulder tapping increased dramatically. Looking back I think people are relying on being called vs. actively going out and applying to a role – thus meaning the ability of firms like ours to first identify the right people will come under the microscope and will be the making and breaking of some firms.

I would love to know the amount of IT contractors that are working at any one point in time! We think we know most people but then out of the woodwork we find another handful of outstanding contractors working within an organisation. Looking at 2010 I have seen the expectations on contractors from organisations increase, meaning that contractors cannot let their guard down or get to comfortable.

On that note we have seen many organisations that would not have entertained using a contractor actually engage in having a contractor or two involved in their projects.

There is now some obvious competition coming from the IT Vendors / IT Services firms (aside from the other IT Recruitment firms). Many government panel supplier agreements for ‘services’ are going to the IT Vendor / IT Services marketplace who either simply attempt to advertise themselves or come to us for people (in this particular instance the end user organisation effectively pays more than what they need to as two parties are involved in the transaction)!

I have also seen some parties who operate in the ‘consulting’ space effectively operating as recruitment firms. Fair play to them, but their clients might want to ask what additional value they are adding for their hefty prices, if they are simply body-shopping.

At the top end of the marketplace it is extremely competitive for CIO / IT Director positions. Recently I worked a CIO role which reported to the organisations CEO. We had over 100 individuals involved in this process, meaning that there were a few disappointed individuals. With a number of government departments being folded into other departments I can see that at the top end of the marketplace there will be a large demand for these types of roles.