In a year where we saw U2 give away their album to everyone on iTunes and we successfully landed on a comet, the IT skills gap and recruitment were major concerns for CIO’s, remaining unchanged from 2013.

With some trepidation, confidence started to grow among employers and we saw cautious investment in headcount at the beginning of the year.  As a result of the recovering job market clients were demanding more in a marketplace where skilled candidates were proving difficult to find.  As confidence grew further we were being asked to fill more and more vacancies created by expansion as opposed to replacing those that had resigned.  We also saw a reduction in contract requirements with companies preferring to recruit permanently to secure the best talent.

In a generally supressed candidate market, there was anticipation to take the plunge to change jobs.  The skilled candidates were staying put with security a high priority and the market became flooded with less skilled, immediately available candidates.  The skills shortage experienced in 2013 became much more previlant last year.  Online advertising simply wasn’t working anymore as the quality of those actively searching for employment dropped further.

This created an increase in the need for headhunting – I wonder how many times one of your team took a call from a headhunter last year?  Highly skilled candidates were being offered superb opportunities and were attracted to companies offering fantastic benefits packages, promotion opportunities and an emphasis on work-life balance.  Companies were having to work harder to ignite interest in the best people to consider making a move. 

Those skilled candidates that were motivated to move were in such high demand that they would receive 3-4 offers in a week and disappear off the market within the matter of a few days.  Companies would have to interview and offer quickly to be in with a chance of getting the best candidate and even then it wasn’t always guaranteed.  With companies keen to retain their IT team, 2014 saw the re-emergence of the counter-offer which saw many candidates decline offers after attempting to resign.

Despite technology, recruiting is still and always will be about the people and during this turbulent year, Langley James helped more client than ever recruit their superstar.  Our database means that we have access to some fantastic candidates who are unique to us and ensures that you Recruit Someone Worth Recruiting.