4 Things Every IT Employer Needs to Know About Hiring

Finding the best tech talent to fill vital roles is a must for any IT employer seeking to expand their businesses in a competitive market. Between discipline-specific skill gaps that need filling and the availability of qualified candidates to meet your company's needs, the hiring process can seem arduous at times. Being armed with the right industry insights, however, can help you laser target your efforts and increase the chances of finding a perfect fit faster.

If you're looking to gain a competitive hiring advantage, our recent Tech Trends: IT Leaders and the Employment Market survey—which polled 500 key decision makers at a broad range of major IT employers—offers an in-depth look at the latest hiring trends in the tech world. It pulls back the curtain on the perspectives and hiring habits of other leading employers in the tech space. Here are four of the many useful takeaways you'll find in the survey results.

1. Cybersecurity skills are in high demand and among the hardest to find.

"Keeping your sensitive data safe from hackers is a major challenge for employers in today's hyper-connected world," says Jack Cullen, President of Modis. "It's no surprise that cybersecurity remains a growing focus in the IT industry, with 45 percent of our survey respondents ranking it at the top of their list of tech concerns. Taking measure to ensure your information is private and secure is imperative, and to do that effectively, employers aim to hire the best of the best."

The real rick for IT employers, according to those surveyed, is finding the right people to meet the growing need. 22 percent indicated cybersecurity roles are the toughest to hire for and finding qualified candidates with the right combination of security and infrastructure experience is difficult.

Hard tech skills aren't the only area where the survey showed hiring obstacles either. 31 percent of IT employers polled said interpersonal skills, including teamwork cohesion, are the toughest soft skills to find in candidates. Communication skills accounted for the third trickiest quality to find consistently in new hires, according to 26 percent of respondents.

2. Don't hesitate to offer a little more money for the right candidates.

Showing you're willing to sweeten the pot for the right candidate can be an effective strategy for securing ideal candidates who have an existing job to fall back on if your offer doesn't meet their needs.

"IT employers are finding it's worth spending a little more to bring top talent on board, especially when candidates are job hunting while currently employed," says Matthew Ripaldi, Regional Senior Vice President of Modis. "65 percent of people we surveyed said they'd be willing to offer, on average, at least a 6 percent salary increase for highly qualified candidates, and in some cases, they'd even go up 15 percent for the right hire."

Based on the survey data, 33 percent of those responding said they'd offer an average salary increase between 6 and nine percent for potential hires who are currently employed. Another 32 percent said they'd offer between a 10 and 15 percent increase in pay to retain a prime candidate.

3. Re-hiring is a valid strategy.

Having to re-train and acclimate new hires can be time consuming, but what if you could bring back a quality employee who's left the company and have them step back into their role effortlessly? It's not as uncommon as you might think.

"There are certainly many benefits to re-hiring previous high-performing employees who have since moved on from the company. The majority of employers we spoke to expressed an openness to re-hiring past employees, and it's an especially useful approach in situations where time is of the utmost important," says Jamie Seward, Director of Recruiting at Modis.

Only 12 percent of those polled said they wouldn't re-hire high performing employees who left the company. 35 percent said they'd gladly re-hire previous employees who had left within the previous 3 months, while an additional 33 percent said the length of time wasn't a concern when re-hiring past talent.

4. The tech world has a bright hiring future.

"Salary is clearly one of the biggest considerations for tech candidates seeking new jobs, but opportunities for advancement and flexibility to innovate are also prime perks that people look for while on the hunt," says Scott Zorn, Senior Vice President of Retail Engineering. "These are critical factors for attracting and retaining the high caliber tech talent that companies need to evolve and expand into the future."

Among the most popular locations for technology jobs, the survey identified Chicago, Houston and Boston as buzz-worthy locales for job seekers and employers in the IT industry. Chicago in particular ranked highly with the top city for sourcing talent in the technology field, though opportunities are on the rise across the country as new innovations spark the need for specialized professionals.

Want to learn more about the latest tech hiring trends and the average salary requirements for important roles across the industry? Request a copy of our 2017 Salary Guide today!