How To Overcome The IT Personnel Shortage
Business Wire - January 13, 1998 16:08
%COMPUTER-ECONOMICS %CALIFORNIA %COMPUTERS %ELECTRONICS %COMED V%BW P%BW
CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 1998--Recruiting IS personnel and controlling recruitment costs have become major challenges in most large companies around the world.
Several trends are converging that compound these difficulties, including an increasing demand for IS staff, a decline in the number of college graduates in computer information systems fields, and increasing salary levels of almost all IS skill areas. In response to client request, Computer Economics conducted several focus groups to help IS managers devise ways to overcome recruitment obstacles and control recruitment costs.
Michael Erbschloe, director of corporate strategies at Computer Economics, conducted focus groups of IS managers and recruiters, professional recruiting firms, and university faculty and students. Research results clearly validate the frustration expressed by many IS managers. Erbschloe found that the organizations that are successful in achieving both their recruiting goals and controlling costs are combining new approaches with traditional methods and leveraging existing resources to help contain costs.
The general consensus among managers and project leaders is that the costs of recruitment efforts are soaring, traditional methods of recruiting are becoming increasingly less effective, and central human resource departments have improved only marginally over the last few years in their ability to facilitate recruitment. In addition, the option of outsourcing recruitment work to professional firms is only effective in some cities and regions and usually ends up costing far more than originally anticipated.
Interviews with university placement staff were not encouraging. With few exceptions, Erbschloe found that there is a lack of understanding about information systems skills and corporate needs. In addition, the efforts of most schools to determine what skills companies in their geographical area need were inadequate. Some schools conduct annual surveys but have little understanding of the results and most schools rely on U.S. Department of Labor projections of the job market which are very general and usually outdated before published. In addition, Erbschloe found that most university professors have little contact with corporate recruiters or IS managers.
The focus groups included more than 400 undergraduate students from seven colleges and universities. The results showed that, clearly, undergraduates do not understand how to plan or prepare for IS careers. In addition, they report almost universally that they were not provided with career planning information by their school placement offices or their professors. The general consensus among graduate students in adult-oriented evening programs was that they were in their degree program with the hope that it would help them get a better job. However, more than 60 percent of the students surveyed did not want to relocate, or live in a place other than their hometown area in order to pursue a career.
"Our work with the different focus groups clearly shows that many organizations have become stuck in old habits and rely on the preferred recruiting methods and patterns of their human resource departments," said Erbschloe.
Changing the way recruiting is done is a challenge that has frustrated many IS managers, but for those who managed to make changes, new methods have resulted in considerable success. "Some IS departments succeeded in making changes because central human resource departments have given up and let the department play a lead role in recruitment efforts," Erbschloe said.
Regardless of what mix of circumstances facilitated changes in the recruitment process, Computers Economics found that the change did not occur until the top IS executive got involved in reengineering the process. Simply stated, the weight of a project leader or functional manager was not a sufficient catalyst to produce change. In addition, the real costs of recruiting are not compiled in many organizations. A comprehensive economic appraisal of recruiting activities including advertising, interview and evaluation time, and the cost of recruiting campaign failures can have a sobering impact.
IS managers in the focus groups agreed that traditional recruiting methods of advertising, using an in-house or for-hire recruiter, and personal referrals remain effective. However, they also strongly agreed that these methods must be both monitored for effectiveness and applied in a proper balance to keep cost under control. "The IS managers who feel they have controlled costs applied these methods starting with the least expensive and graduating to a more expensive method during a recruiting campaign," Erbschloe said.
Leveraging the least expensive process, personal referrals were successful in several IS departments. This was done by turning the entire department into a recruiting machine with bonuses paid to staff that provided successful referrals. Bonuses were paid upon hire, after 90 days, and again in some cases after one year of satisfactory performance of the new hire. In addition, IS staff received bonuses for participating as recruiters in college campus visits or job fairs which resulted in successful new hires.
The use of advertising in the recruitment process is considered necessary by most of the IS managers in our focus groups. There was a consensus, however, that advertising costs can get quickly get out of hand. Several IS managers reported that they reduced advertising costs by purchasing smaller ads and referring potential hires to a Web site that provides detailed information about the position, requirements, and salary.
Circumstances are straining traditional recruitment methods and have required many companies to try new recruitment strategies. The Computer Economics focus group research, combined with its annual Information Systems Spending survey, can provide a basis for recruitment and personnel costs control strategies. The Computer Economics 1997 Information Systems Spending report provides a complete analysis IS personnel spending and salary trends. For more information about the report call 800/326-8100, ext. 157, or outside the United States call 760/438-8100, ext. 157.
From its international headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif., Computer Economics assists information technology systems professionals through timely, objective, and actionable strategic intelligence. Its staff and worldwide network of IS consultants, intelligence experts, and industry insiders serve customers in 89 countries and 82 percent of Fortune 500 companies. For further information please visit our Web site at computereconomics.com .
CONTACT: Computer Economics Inc.
Michael Erbschloe, 760/438-8100, ext. 157
E-mail: michael@compecon.com
Web site: computereconomics.com
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