IT skills shortage set to cost businesses £millions
~Limited number of qualified contractors and badly managed recruitment life-cycles put pressure on project budgets~
To avoid being hit by the current skills shortage in the IT market, Parity, the Business and IT Services specialist, is warning businesses that they may have to increase contractor pay rates by up to 15 per cent, or look at the option of employing professional staff on an assignment basis, through a third party, such as Parity – where the third party employs the professional on a permanent basis – giving the client the opportunity to switch on or off the resource as and when required.
With so many projects for such a small pool of contractors to pick and choose from, Parity believes that businesses will have to offer considerably higher rates in order to attract the best candidates. What’s more, without adequate forward planning, the shortage of skilled project and programme managers, as well as development staff in the IT sector, is set to cause serious delays in project implementation – fuelling costs even further.
“High demand means that contractors are once again finding themselves in the fortunate position of being able to pick and choose the projects they work on,” said Simon Wayne, Professional Services director at Parity. “Businesses therefore run the risk of losing out if they do not offer much more attractive day rates, confirm contracts more quickly, and secure longer term agreements.”
Wayne continues, “The alternative, is for businesses to choose the Professional Services option – whereby a company like Parity offers professionals on a switch-on switch-off basis to organisations. The professional is employed by Parity and sold out to our clients on an assignment basis. This option would be particularly favourable, should a business wish to retain employees longer than a single short assignment – therefore reducing an organisation’s employment risk, keeping control of delivering IT services on time. The Professional Services option also provides local people to their organisation who are motivated, loyal and are prepared to go that extra mile.”
“If contracts aren’t reviewed and renewed at least six weeks before the date they are due to expire, businesses are likely to find that their temporary staff will have accepted more lucrative positions elsewhere – taking away the key expertise and knowledge that they have gained from the projects they were working on. To safeguard against such losses, businesses will either have to bear the cost of higher rates, or manage their contracts more carefully so that they can retain staff at secured, affordable rates,” Wayne concluded.
Editorial notes: Parity is an IT and Business services organisation delivering technical, recruitment and training solution to the UK and Irish markets.
Parity’s expertise in Project and Programme Management minimises business risk associated with systems implementation, integration or business change for our clients. As agents of change, we provide the skills, competencies and concepts necessary to improved business performance for IT enabled projects, programmes and change initiatives.
Having been established for over thirty years, Parity has developed deep industry and expertise in Finance, Utilities, Telecoms and the Public Sector delivering, people, skills and concepts for IT enabled projects and programmes throughout the UK.
Parity believes that better relationships deliver better results. Many of our current client relationships span more than ten years, and clients include; Barclays Bank, British American Tobacco, BT, Department for Constitutional Affairs, Department for Work and Pensions, HBoS, Ministry of Defence, Northern Ireland Electricity, Royal Bank of Scotland, Scottish Power, The Cabinet Office, The Charity Commission and the NHS.
Contact details: For more information on Parity, visit www.parity.net or contact Caroline Overholt (c.overholt@parity.net) or call +44 (0)845 873 6942