Dive Brief:
- As 2025 approaches, technology hiring managers and candidates are seeing notable shifts, including moving away from strictly traditional hiring criteria toward skills-based hiring, according to a Nov. 21 report by Motion Recruitment, a North American information technology staffing and consulting firm.
- Skills-based hiring has allowed tech companies to successfully address the IT skills shortage plaguing the industry, Motion Recruitment said in a press release; 89% of tech companies are happy with the approach, and tech workers without a traditional college degree are 20% more likely to stay in their jobs, the firm found.
- “To attract talent, companies must be quick to move on top candidates and flexible in their total compensation package,” Matt Milano, Motion Recruitment’s president, said in the release. “Job seekers should base their expectations on the current market, not past inflated figures – and be prepared to come in-office for a higher starting salary.”
Dive Insight:
Nearly all technology leaders are facing challenges with hiring top talent, according to a May report by talent solutions and business consulting firm Robert Half. The same report found that about two-thirds of tech leaders said they have a skills gap in their department, and 62% said the gap has a greater impact this year compared to a year ago.
This makes it critical for tech companies to have a talent strategy in place that aligns with their long-term vision and goals, a Robert Half technology talent executive stated in the firm’s report.
The IT talent shortage has resulted in an estimated $5.5 trillion in losses due to product delays, reduced competitiveness and lost business opportunities, according to Motion Recruitment.
Other research suggests the talent to fill those gaps exists, including an October Indeed survey that showed 34% of tech talent said they were actively looking for work now and 70% said they were likely to start looking if layoffs occur at their company, even if they were not affected.
While tech workers cite work-from-home flexibility as a priority in their job search, according to Indeed, they may find fewer options for full-time remote work. Only 10% of job postings now offer fully remote positions, and the average time spent in the office has jumped from 1.1 days per week in 2021 to 3.4 days in 2024, Motion Recruitment said.
Despite this, IT job seekers still have choices, the firm noted. There are 56% more tech job postings than five years ago, with 70% of IT job seekers receiving multiple offers.
There’s other good news for IT workers as, despite initial concerns, artificial intelligence is expanding the IT workforce. Almost half, 48%, of organizations plan to add workers due to an increase in AI investments, compared to the 19% looking to downsize, Motion Recruitment said. Additionally, industries outside tech have hired more IT workers this year as they adopt digital innovations, according to the report. The firm noted increased opportunities in other tech fields such as quantam computing, digital twins and green tech.
Meanwhile, IT companies are successfully tackling skills-based hiring by looking at track records and previous projects to gauge current skill sets and potential, Motion Recruitment said.
Though hiring is up and 87% of tech professionals feel secure in their current roles, per Milano, Motion Recruitment also found that average IT salary growth is nearly flat year-over-year, with only a 1% increase overall.
