Pipeline preview: Hotspots in the IT labour market, where to find staff, what to pay them

In a CRN research project earlier this year, Australia's IT buyers revealed that the number one business benefit of partnering with MSPs is that those partners have access to critical skills which are in short supply.

To address this critical issue we have secured the nation’s top technology executive recruiter, Bridget Gray, the APAC VP IT Services at Korn Ferry, to deliver the first keynote speech of the CRN Pipeline 2022 conference on August 24. 

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Gray will deliver data about the hottest skills hotspots where the job market is tightest in Australia and the APAC region, discuss trends in salaries and packages and reveal the best practice approaches to attracting and retaining talent.

Getting tighter

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the business community expects to grow its workforces significantly, with estimates ranging from 17 percent growth this year in the mid-tier to 26 per cent for the enterprise. 

Even stronger workforce growth is expected in smaller companies.

Worse, these are net headcount increases, so the number of new staff needed is much higher. Average staff turnover across the Australian business landscape is predicted to reach 17 percent. The outlook for information technology staff is worse, with turnover predicted to be closer to 20 percent. There is one bright note: IT candidates tend to stick and pick once they take a job, with new-hire turnover rates are amongst the lowest in the country.  

It’s little wonder then that 34 percent of medium-sized businesses and 31 percent of large businesses report that they are experiencing workforce shortages. Covid may be less of a problem than it was a year ago but the issue is simply finding staff with the right qualifications.

Staff shortages

Skill shortages affect the velocity of a business and drive up costs. 

According to Human Resources Director Australia, “Australian businesses have been feeling the effects of talent shortages and high staff turnover where the cost to hire an employee has increased to an average of $23,000 per candidate – which is up from a typical spend of around $10K over the previous year. And it takes 40 days to fill a typical position.”

Wronger for longer

The problem is unlikely to abate soon. In its Future of Work survey in late 2021, PWC found that 38 percent of Australian workers were considering leaving their current employer within the next 12 months.

This has become a key leadership concern.

In 2019, recruitment didn’t even register as a key challenge in Australia – now it’s in the top six. Indeed, a quarter (24 per cent) of respondents said their top challenge for the next 12 months would be recruitment according to PWC. “This was a dramatic change from 2020 when recruitment was cited by just 13 per cent of respondents,” it stated.

To reflect this urgent priority, we have chosen the skills and capability crisis, and the strategies to address it, to be the focus of the opening keynote at this year's CRN Pipeline conference. After the keynote, a panel of channel leaders will discuss their experiences and the approach they are taking to mitigate the risk to their businesses.

After two extraordinary years of transformation, reconnect with Australia’s most influential channel partners to explore new ways of maximising revenues. Secure your CRN Pipeline ticket today. Places are strictly limited