News, views and new job opportunities with our exciting clients. Keep an eye on this page to stay abreast of all that is going on in the local IT and Technology market. Our quarterly updates can be found here along with any other snippets that we think you'll like.
5 Mar 23 by Sourced
Welcome to our end-of-Q1 update and a review of how 2023 is shaping up so far. We hope you're keeping warm in what's been a really unsettled March and look forward to giving you a peek into what's happening out there in the world of Technology
13 Jul 22 by Sourced
Welcome to our end-of-Q2 update and a review of how 2022 has been shaping up. We hope you're keeping warm and well, and we look forward to giving you a peek into what's happening out there in the world of tech recruitment. General Comments Salary
21 Dec 21 by Sourced
Welcome to our fourth quarter update and review of 2021 and the year that was. It's obviously been a really eventful one with various opportunities and challenges and we look forward to filling you in on the details. It's so lovely to see the summer
1 Jun 22 by Sourced
Welcome to our belated Autumn quarterly update for 2022, where we look back at the last quarter and review how the year has shaped up so far. As you'll no doubt be hearing, it's been an extremely busy time with a lot of permanent recruitment
11 Oct 21 by Sourced
Welcome to our third quarter round up on the local tech market, covering trends, activity and a general view of what we've been seeing out there over the past three months. We hope that this update finds you all well and look forward to chatting
29 Dec 22 by Sourced
Welcome to our fourth quarter update and review of 2022 and what a year it was. We've been asked a lot over the past month how our year has been and how we're feeling. In short, it's been an unprecedented year of busyness and we're all
13 Jul 21 by Sourced
Welcome to our mid-year round-up of the local tech market, covering trends, activity and a general view of what we've been seeing out there over the past three months. We hope that this update finds you all well and look forward to chatting with you
8 Apr 21 by Sourced
Welcome to our quarterly update for Autumn 2021! We hope you had a relaxing Easter long weekend and enjoyed the last of the warm weather before the cooler temperatures well and truly set in. It's been an extremely busy quarter here at Sourced, with
11 Dec 20 by Sourced
We made it! We've been enjoying a number of end-of-year functions and social catch-ups over the last couple of weeks and this definitely seems to be the prevailing sentiment at the moment – a sigh of relief that Christmas is approaching, the
9 Oct 20 by Sourced
Welcome to the latest Sourced Quarterly Market Update. We're looking forward to now being able to share with you all of the trends that have been developing post Level 4 lockdown, with our last update just being a bit too early to tell. We are
4 May 20 by Sourced
So, here we all are, on the other side of the COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown and partway into our time at Level 3. How are you all doing? We feel like it might be a struggle to try to encapsulate everything we're seeing in the market right now in
2 Jul 20 by Michelle Bishop
We have reached the halfway point of 2020, and are clearly in remarkable times. While we have been asked a lot of questions over these last few weeks about how the recruitment market is shaping up, there really is no one answer. We'll do our best
10 Jan 20 by Michelle Bishop
Firstly, a very Happy New Year to you all. January is always a time of adjustment as we come back from the lazy days of summer holidays, whilst ramping up quickly for the demands of the new year. Having enjoyed a well-earned break and launching into
4 Nov 19 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to the third quarter and the Spring market report for 2019. It's so lovely to see the cold winter days giving way to longer hours of sunshine, and we really are now officially on the countdown to Christmas! It's always hard to believe at
24 Jul 19 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to the mid-year update for 2019. It's hard to believe we're already over halfway through the year, although it's certainly been a very busy quarter for the team here at Sourced and the past three months have absolutely flown by. In this
28 Mar 19 by Jason Bishop
Sourced is proud to announce that we’re officially StaffSure certified! Developed by industry experts, StaffSure is a certification scheme which makes it simple for organisations and workers alike to find and partner with reputable Workforce
8 Apr 19 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to the first quarter report for 2019. It's hard to believe we're already close to Easter time. It's been a busy quarter for the team here at Sourced and the first three months have certainly flown by. In this quarter update, we look at the
1 Feb 19 by Michelle Bishop
Firstly, a very Happy New Year to you all. It's always an interesting time of year, longing for a return to the long and lazy days of summer holidays, whilst hitting the ground running and ramping up for a new year with energy and optimism. We are
12 Oct 18 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to Spring! It’s hard to believe we're entering the last three months of 2018 and are well and truly on the slippery slide to Christmas. We hope you're all enjoying the longer nights and warmer weather we’re experiencing on the
5 Jul 18 by Michelle Bishop
We hope you've been keeping warm and well in this last cold month. It’s safe to say we are all welcoming the occasional bursts of sunshine and hoping for a quick return to warmer weather. It's been a busy, busy quarter here at Sourced with an
9 Apr 18 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to Autumn! We hope you're enjoying the remainder of the warm weather as the days start to get shorter ahead of daylight savings. We hope that you, like us, enjoyed the time off over Easter and were able to relax and unwind over the break. In
24 Jan 18 by Michelle Bishop
First up, a very Happy New Year to you all. While no doubt there is still a longing to return to the long and lazy days of Christmas, at Sourced we are already forming plans and really ramping up for the new year with energy and optimism. We are now
9 Oct 17 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to our quarterly market update. Hopefully the warm weather and longer evenings are providing you with more opportunities to get out and about and welcome the incoming summer. An eclectic bunch here at Sourced, we're finding the return of
10 Jul 17 by Michelle Bishop
Goodbye Shortest Day! We hope you're keeping well and warm as we finally get past the hump of the shortest day. With the coldest days really creeping us on us we've all been spending a lot more time indoors, and making the most of the sun when it
31 Mar 17 by Michelle Bishop
Bring on Easter! We hope you've enjoyed the final days of Summer, as we reluctantly slip into Autumn with just a few warm days remaining to enjoy. With Easter just around the corner we're looking forward to taking a brief pause after what has been
26 Jan 17 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to 2017! First up, a very Happy New Year to you all. It's always an interesting time of year, a mix of longing for a return to the long and lazy days of Christmas, whilst already forming plans and really ramping up for a new year with energy
3 Oct 16 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to Spring! Welcome to our quarterly market update. We hope you're enjoying the first signs of Spring and the return to daylight savings with the promise of warmer, longer nights and great BBQs! October is always that time of year when we
1 Jul 16 by Michelle Bishop
Mid Winter has arrived - but will there be snow? Welcome to our quarterly market update. While we've had an incredibly long and warm Summer to Autumn transition, it feels like winter is finally upon us; and now the question on everybody's lips -
8 Apr 16 by Sourced - Christchurch IT Recruiters
Welcome to our regular quarterly market update. We hope you’ve enjoyed a relaxing Easter break, and the last of the long warm nights, as daylight savings has drawn to a close. Autumn is no doubt upon us, but as always it offers a new season
21 Dec 15 by Michelle
Sourced Quarterly Market Update - December 2015 Welcome to our year end quarterly market update. We at Sourced very much enjoyed the break after what has been a busy and eventful 2015. We may have all headed off in different directions, but all with
16 Oct 15 by Michelle
It's great to be in Canterbury at this time of year! Welcome to our regular quarterly market update. We hope you're enjoying the welcome return to the warm weather and longer days that Spring brings, and are making the most of the opportunities that
20 Jul 15 by Michelle
The shortest day has been, it's nearly Summer?! Welcome to our regular quarterly market update. We hope you're keeping warm and well, and indoors through this cold patch. We've all been watching out the window hopefully over the past week or two
31 Mar 15 by Jason
These six-monthly reports provide Canterbury employers an insight into the emerging trends in the Canterbury IT market. Competition is returning to the Canterbury IT sector and employees are upping their game in response, as expectations continue to
1 Apr 15 by Jason
Happy Easter! We hope the last few months have treated you well and you are looking forward to the long weekend ahead, and indulging in far too many eggs and hot cross buns! It's been a very busy few months for the Sourced team as we head into
1 Dec 14 by Jason
End of Quarter/Year wrap up. The end of year is nigh. Although we haven’t yet started the countdown to Christmas we’re all acutely aware that the year is wrapping up at a rapid pace, and the remaining days are filling up quickly. The
3 Sep 14 by Jason
Canterbury tech sector, August 2014 | The Sourced Report Infographic Here is the second in a new series of infographics that is designed to inform and guide business and individuals working in the Canterbury IT and tech scene. Released every 6
26 Sep 14 by Jason
Sourced Report | August 2014 Canterbury tech sector growth steady Download our infographic from http://sourcedreport.co.nz/ http://www.computerworld.co.nz/article/553897/six-monthly_report_shows_strong_hiring_trends_canterbury_region/ More than 85%
8 Jul 14 by The Sourced Team
End of Quarter wrap up We're putting this newsletter together at the end of a very cold weekend, which has come as a bit of a shock after an extremely temperate start to winter. If you're anything like us we've been making the most of the sunshine
14 May 14 by Jason and Michelle
As published in The Press, 14 May 2014 Re-engage re-energise tech staff Recruitment activity in Christchurch’s innovation and information technology sector is at an all-time high – 85% of employers are hiring to service unprecedented
1 May 14 by Michelle & Chris
Trimble Navigation is a leading provider of advanced positioning solutions, with products in use in over 141 countries around the world, with employees based in more than 30 countries. Though best known for GPS technology, Trimble integrates a wide
14 Apr 14 by Jason
The Canterbury IT and Technology scene is on a high! Welcome to Autumn! I know we're never ready for it, and the end of daylight savings often feels like the final goodbye to summer, but....moving right along! We really hope you've had a great start
20 Feb 14 by Jason
Is it too late to say welcome back? Welcome back anyway, we hope you had a great break over Christmas, New Year and Waitangi, and have recharged your batteries ready for the year ahead. We thought it would be a great time to both look back and
22 Jan 14 by Sourced
Huge growth in the CTCT division of Trimble The Caterpillar Trimble Control Technologies group, a division of Trimble Navigation, develops 3D positioning and control products for earthmoving machines in the construction and mining industries.The
19 Sep 13 by Sourced
Test & Compliance Engineer Hamilton Jet is the world leader in the design and manufacture of waterjet propulsion systems for high-speed marine craft. With over 50,000 waterjet propulsion units installed worldwide, Hamilton Jet represents the
5 Mar 23 by Sourced
Welcome to our end-of-Q1 update and a review of how 2023 is shaping up so far. We hope you're keeping warm in what's been a really unsettled March and look forward to giving you a peek into what's happening out there in the world of Technology Recruitment.
6-month FTC. This is a great opportunity for an experienced L1/2 Support Specialist ready to spend the next six months within a very professional, team-orientated business. This is a mix of desk-based and onsite support, helping internal users who are in the midst of a digital transformation program. $65k pro-rated.
Our client is about to undergo a significant transformation program which will run over the next two years. They are looking to add a Digital BA to their team supporting a wide range of internal users, working both on the transformation program and on broader business projects. $100-$130k.
Our client is about to undergo a very significant transformation program that will run over the next two years. They are looking to bring in an experienced BA Team Leader who will also act as the Technical Delivery Lead on their program of work. This is a really exciting opportunity within a growing team. $140k.
It was lovely to see our team of contractors at our recent 'what felt like winter' breakfast at Little Poms. Interestingly, 80% of attendees were Business Analysts! This wasn't intentional, but probably points to where the market is currently most buoyant.
Michelle and Andrea had the privilege of visiting the University of Canterbury to chat to final year Marketing and Commerce students about getting themselves ready for the transition into the workforce. They discussed using LinkedIn technology to build networks, promote their skills and experience, and have the best chance possible of securing great employment options. This has always been a cause very close to our hearts and it was great to talk to students about perceived challenges, getting noticed, developing specific employment goals and getting themselves out there.
Finally, we are absolutely delighted to announce that Olivia King has returned to Sourced, as our newest Recruitment Consultant. Many of you know Liv, who worked for us up until 2021 as our Candidate Manager. After a very successful period at ARA, Liv made the decision to re-join our team as a Consultant and we couldn't be happier to welcome her back.
Demand remains high right across the spectrum, with roles in the Infrastructure and Service Desk spaces continuing to be a market heroes both contracting and permanent. BAs remain in demand but this will likely never change, it just seems to be an ongoing theme in our market. Project, Program and PMO Specialists have also featured highly over the past three to six months. Test Professionals at a mid-level have been in demand in permanent positions, and otherwise, demand has been very broad across most disciplines. CIOs, as mentioned above, have been moving in very high numbers, and being at the top of the food chain, we expect to see themes in demand emerging over the remainder of the year.
We feel like we are doing less and less turnover recruitment now, with the bulk being new positions. There really doesn't appear to be any slowing down, with some significant projects and business improvement initiatives kicking off. Within Development, demand remains quiet and steady. .Net resources have not been in high demand, with a shift more to Cloud technologies and more but not significant demand for JavaScript/PHP/Python skills both contract and permanent.
In the contracting space, it has largely been made up of the usual BA roles, mixed with a range of helpdesk, Project/Program/PMO management, and systems engineering.
This year to date, we have seen a flow on of permanent recruitment activity from 2022 and staff retention consecutively at an all-time high. While multi-offer scenarios are now less common, negotiations around pay and work conditions are still in favour of the candidate. With candidates having moved around in significant numbers in 2022, this year will likely be more focused on cautious permanent candidates, international candidates and ex-pats.
13 Jul 22 by Sourced
Welcome to our end-of-Q2 update and a review of how 2022 has been shaping up. We hope you're keeping warm and well, and we look forward to giving you a peek into what's happening out there in the world of tech recruitment.
Salary movement
As you all know, this year started with a bang, with a surge of new positions coming to market in response to growth and new projects coming online, followed by ongoing recruitment for turnover. A significant number of candidates changed jobs in the six months between October 2021 and March 2022, with the tail of that movement still being felt. In addition, project work has continued to shape up and kick-off, driving ongoing buoyancy in both the contracting and permanent job markets.
It's been a really interesting watch. There is a definite sense of a softening of the manic six months mentioned above, and while higher salaries are still on the table, there is also a fair bit of push back from an employer point of view. Employers want to ensure those team members who are being paid over and above standard rates are able to add significant value, complement the existing team, and are not creating significant parity issues from a salary point of view.
Continued resourcing challenges
As was the case in Q1, with permanent recruitment continuing at pace, the contract market remains somewhat subdued, with the majority effort appearing to be in securing the best talent for permanent positions.
Resourcing continues to present a real challenge to meet the demands of our clients’ growth, and despite the recent opening of the Accredited Employer Scheme, we are seeing some reluctance from employers to utilise international talent pools, taking a 'wait and see' approach as this scheme beds in. We are seeing a significant upswing in candidates wanting to relocate to New Zealand and certainly hope these pools will be able to be tapped soon.
We have continued to see a slow down in candidates relocating into the Canterbury region from within NZ, particularly from Auckland, which previously had offered a great channel of talent into the city. We are still seeing a smaller trickle of candidates from Otago towards Christchurch chasing better work opportunities, this tending to be mid-level candidates with fewer family ties and seeking promotion opportunities.
Succeeding in the current market
We really feel for our clients, having weathered COVID-19 and now this talent storm. Many are having to reimagine what teams and talent look like, taking a much more flexible approach and considering remote working, flexible work arrangements and other incentives to ensure the ability to secure talent. Most have now engaged a recruitment agency partner to ensure they are first to new talent coming to market, and that their brands are presented as favourably as possible. While online advertising still has its place, it's that ability to get to candidates before they hit the open market that has really become key to success.
So, is it all doom and gloom from an employment perspective? No. Now that the heat is off slightly, we hope to see those international candidates becoming more viable, local candidates coming to market disappearing less rapidly, and with a little bit more time to breathe through the recruiting process.
Our client is a fast paced, fast-growing company that operates within key primary industries. They have a focus on sustainability and an excellent workplace culture. These are office-based roles, where you will be the face of IT and where your customer service focus and technical know-how will add value across the business. Experience in or a desire to learn Microsoft Admin Centre will be favourably considered as is a strong customer focus, problem-solving skills and the ability to identify and implement improvement opportunities.
This New Zealand company values its people and provides a great work environment. The development team is a hardworking and dedicated group of software professionals who all contribute to the ongoing success of the company and its intelligent solutions. Focusing on a great user experience, you will be responsible for developing high-quality, leading-edge web applications. Skills required include VueJs or React Js, Typescript, Restful API design and consumption and at least 3 years in commercial web development.
Our Christchurch based company has a fast-growing customer base in the US. This role will draw upon your extensive API development experience in a Real Time software environment. This company is well established, and its team environment is welcoming and diverse and values the skills, backgrounds and contributions that each member brings. Skills required include at least 3 years of experience developing APIs, Services and Message Queues, C#, .NET 6, SQL Server, Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines, Git Version Control, Typescript, Javascript, HTML, CSS.
It was lovely to see our team of contractors for our annual Mid-Winter get-together. This year we got together as a group at Winnie Bagoes for Pizza and Quiz night with some great success. We relish the opportunity to get our contractors together, not only to catch up with them – which is difficult during their busy work schedules – but also to have an opportunity for them to create new professional connections through our community.
We are looking forward to another of these events in a few months.
Unfortunately, with Orange COVID-19 restrictions we are still largely closed in the office to walk-in visitors but have managed to host visitors recently and look forward to this becoming more of the norm in the latter months of 2022.
In the Professional Services space, we have seen the biggest salary increases, particularly among BAs. These BAs remain in demand, with lesser need for Project and Programme Managers. Change roles continue to grow, with more and more coming through on both a permanent and contract basis. In the Test space, Test Strategy and Automation appear to be the most in-demand however not in huge numbers, and tending to be more mid-early senior level.
Within Development, demand remains very steady in the .Net space and also for JavaScript/PHP/Python skills, both contract and permanent. This is much the same as Q1 with roles typically being more operational than leadership and with more and more openness to training juniors and intermediates through, which is fantastic to see.
In the contracting space, it has largely been made up of the usual BA roles, mixed with a range of helpdesk, project management and systems engineering.
To date in 2022, we have seen permanent recruitment activity and staff turnover at an all-time high. Multi-offer scenarios have been the norm, but this is softening. Negotiation around pay and work conditions has been in favour of the candidate, and this has really driven candidate activity. For the first time since 2019, candidates have moved around in significant numbers, but with a majority of that now complete, how do we continue to grow as a tech community? This will be the one to watch.
Over the last quarter, we’ve written some new blogs. You can find them below:
Best Podcasts to Inspire Women in Tech
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Building a Successful Cyber Security Career
Curious about a career in cyber security? It's one of the fastest-growing areas in IT with generous salaries to match. Find out about some of the career paths available and the training options to help you succeed in the industry, here.
21 Dec 21 by Sourced
Welcome to our fourth quarter update and review of 2021 and the year that was. It's obviously been a really eventful one with various opportunities and challenges and we look forward to filling you in on the details. It's so lovely to see the summer days returning, and in these final days leading up to Christmas we have been doing our very best to catch up with clients, recently placed candidates and contractors who have all worked so hard this year.
Looking at the year as a whole, we have included in this report what's trending, who's in demand, who's moving and a general view of the market. We hope this is useful as an update to the Sourced report which came out in August, and as always, we encourage you to contact us if you're looking for any specific market intelligence. We're in a really unique position to watch the market as it evolves and are always happy to share these insights.
This year started with a bang, with a continuation of the post lockdown recruitment surge that had really ramped up by Q3 of 2020. This surge continued through the year with exceptionally strong demand for permanent and contract resources through Quarter 1-3, and with only a slight dip in Q4. Through Q4 demand has remained strong, however, activity is now starting to slow as we near Christmas. We expect this to pick up again in earnest by late January.
Resourcing has presented a real challenge to meet the demands of our client's growth, with borders remaining closed and retention holding strong. We are continuing to look further afield to source talent and are seeing a definite increase of candidates relocating into the Canterbury region, particularly from Auckland, chasing lower housing prices and equivalent salaries, and with the market being as buoyant as it is, we are also seeing a smaller trickle of candidates from Otago towards Christchurch chasing better work opportunities.
Contract Market Reigns
Within the Auckland market, more and more work is being driven towards the contract market, as permanent resources continually become more scarce. As a result, salaries continue to rise.
Permanent team members are looking at work from home options, working for organisations in other centres/countries, and the idea of a traditional 'in office' role is becoming less and less appealing. In both Auckland and Canterbury, while candidates may not be actively applying for new positions, they are very aware of the demand levels for their skills and are increasingly marking themselves as 'open for the right move'.
These candidates will tend to be more selective, more demanding in their salary negotiations and less prepared to move unless there is a significant incentive. With demand as high as it is, this is one we're watching with interest, particularly as recruitment picks up again in January.
Attraction and Retention
Staff turnover levels are rising, in line with the demands we mention above, and in contrast to earlier in the year we now see at least a 50/50 split between new roles coming to market and recruiting to replace existing team members.
Where we are recruiting new permanent roles, clients are now taking a much more flexible approach and considering remote working, flexible work arrangements and other incentives to ensure the ability to secure talent. Salaries are starting to lift, and unfortunately, we think this will continue into 2022.
All indications are for continued market disruption in 2022 and we will be working hard on quality, long term permanent placements, and experienced contract resources to ensure our clients have the very best chance of success in their appointments.
We are on the lookout for Junior - Intermediate Full Stack developers for our client, working on a range of really interesting and challenging government projects, within a fast-paced, private enterprise setting. This really is the best of both worlds - enjoying the culture and flexibility of the private sector, with the complexity of projects that the public sector offers. Tech stack includes Javascript, React, PHP, Python and there is great opportunity to grow and develop. $85k+, permanent.
We are on the lookout for an experienced Embedded Software Engineer to join our client, a household name in the NZ tech sector. This is a fantastic opportunity to work across Embedded and Application technologies, in a close-knit team environment, within a privately held business. There are significant opportunities for growth and development here as our client continues to push into new international markets. $80-85k.
You will be an integral Senior member of the Concentrate team, working alongside Kiwi business leaders and utilizing your expert level knowledge of CRM systems to guide the delivery and implementation of Hubspot projects. Fast-paced, but friendly and social work setting based in the heart of Christchurch City. $80-$100k.
If you've been in touch with us this quarter, you'll have no doubt chatted to our latest team member Andrea. Andrea has replaced Olivia as our Candidate Manager. Andy comes to us from MYOB and is already settled in and learning the ropes, with Olivia having progressed into a fantastic new role with ARA. Archie, our office Canine continues to entertain the office with his ball chasing tricks and providing pre-warning of incoming couriers.
Unfortunately, with Level 2 restrictions, we have largely closed the office to walk-in visitors, but have managed to host candidates recently with their own puppies for a work/dog date catch up.
Demand is high right across the spectrum right now, with roles covering Infrastructure, Development, Test and Professional Services. Contract has matched permanent, with some clients considering filling crucial gaps within teams. While new activity is now ramping down as we approach Christmas, we are expecting a quick return to activity from mid-late January.
In the Professional Services space, we have seen demand across both operational and strategic BA and PM work, with Programme Management and PMO roles beginning to flow through. In the Test space, Test Strategy and Automation appear to be most in demand, for both contracting and permanent appointments. Within Development, demand remains very steady in the .Net space and for JavaScript/PHP/Python skills, both contract and permanent. While earlier in the year, JavaScript/Python was in much less demand, this is now matching or exceeding demand for .Net and now with recent demands in the Java space.
2021 has really been the year of the candidate. There are opportunities available across most levels, and skill levels and competition is very high amongst employers. Salaries are on the rise and the availability of resources is low. It will be really interesting to see how this translates in 2022 as more and more employees become aware of their demand and potential worth.
From a permanent perspective, we are seeing an ongoing openness to recruiting when top candidates become available as opposed to waiting for specific roles to be framed up, and then recruiting to cover turnover. While we can't recruit talent from offshore, we continue to look at regional markets to bring in new talent. We expect to be continuing this drive across Q1 of 2021 with expat Kiwis and North Island residents chasing the lifestyle opportunities available in Canterbury, and candidates from further afield considering Auckland based roles on a fully remote basis, and conversely Auckland candidates looking at roles in other centres with a work from home option.
Work/life balance, learning opportunities, growth and development and a positive work environment are still top on candidates' wish lists, however, salary is now featuring strongly. We always expected this as salaries remained static across 2019, 2020 and early 2021, and in many ways, this was a long due adjustment.
We will watch with interest as we head into the New Year, but until then, we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Hope you take the time to enjoy a relaxing break with family and friends over the festive season!
1 Jun 22 by Sourced
Welcome to our belated Autumn quarterly update for 2022, where we look back at the last quarter and review how the year has shaped up so far. As you'll no doubt be hearing, it's been an extremely busy time with a lot of permanent recruitment happening, salaries on the rise, and a high level of staff turnover. Will we see this continue into the second part of the year, or are we at the peak of the wave?
Read on to find out.
This year started with a bang, with a surge of new positions coming to market in response to growth and new projects coming online, followed by ongoing recruitment for turnover, which is currently at an all-time high in the Canterbury and Auckland markets. If you pause on the street to look around, it's likely that one in three of the people nearby have moved jobs in 2022.
It's been really interesting to watch. As a significant number of newly created positions have come to market, candidates for the first time since 2019 are beginning to move in numbers, but are demanding higher salaries, and negotiating more favourable working conditions in the process. This has created competition between employers to secure this talent, and subsequently, more and more candidates are making themselves available to ride the wave of opportunity and better pay.
This has not largely affected the contract market – if anything it has subdued it, with the majority of effort appearing to be in securing the best talent for permanent positions.
Salary increases are being seen most acutely in the Systems, Business Analyst and Development areas, with Systems Engineer rates also on the rise. In the BA space, we have seen the largest salary spikes, with on average salaries lifting by $20-25k per annum.
The Race to Meet Demand
Resourcing has presented a real challenge to meet the demands of our client's growth, with borders up until now remaining closed. While we are continuing to look further afield to source talent, we have seen a slow down on candidates relocating into the Canterbury region, particularly from Auckland, which previously had offered a great channel of talent into the city. We are still seeing a smaller trickle of candidates from Otago towards Christchurch chasing better work opportunities; this tending to be mid-level candidates with fewer family ties seeking promotion opportunities.
Within the Auckland market, permanent recruitment again appears to be the drive and salaries also continue to rise. As we have continued to report, permanent team members are looking at work from home options, working for organisations in other centres/countries, and the idea of a traditional 'in office' role is becoming less and less appealing. In both centres, candidates are very active, but tend to be more selective, more demanding, and able to easily secure multiple offers allowing a ‘pick and choose’ scenario. As a result, the process is definitely in favour of the candidate.
A Cooling Market?
Staff turnover levels are at an all-time high, and clients are having to take a much more flexible approach and considering remote working, flexible work arrangements and other incentives to ensure the ability to secure talent. So, is it all doom and gloom from an employment perspective? Not necessarily.
While certainly the time to hire has probably been and gone in terms of locally available talent, the wave of demand is also showing its first signs of waning. A significant amount of recruitment has happened already, and this level of growth was never going to be sustainable all year, so we are predicting a cool-down period ahead.
We have an excellent opportunity for an emerging Intermediate level BA to join Nurse Maude. A fantastic charitable trust doing amazing things in the community, you will be working alongside experienced Bas in the business understanding, analysing and documenting requirements for change within critical business systems. This is a great development role for an up-and-coming BA.
We are looking for an Intermediate .Net Developer to join our client Vitro. Health is a fast-paced and rapidly developing sector, and this is your chance to be involved. Vitro is leading the way in Clinical Data Management & Electronic Medical Records (EMR) for Hospitals, and you can be a part of this.
We are looking for an experienced Programme Manager to work alongside a business looking to establish an internal PMO. You will work closely with the business to establish requirements and begin the introduction of PMO processes into their organisation. This is a contract role for at least six months, based in Christchurch.
If you've been in touch with us this quarter, you'll have no doubt chatted to our latest team member Diana. Diana has replaced Victoria, our Office Manager, joining us from MBIE. Diana is already settled in and learning the ropes, and is busy getting to know our ever-growing contractor community as their primary care contact. Archie, our office canine, is a huge fan.
Unfortunately, with Red and now Orange COVID-19 restrictions we are still largely closed in the office to walk-in visitors, but have managed to host visitors recently and look forward to this becoming more of the norm in the latter months of 2022.
Demand is high right across the spectrum, with roles covering Infrastructure, Development, Test and Professional Services. Contract opportunities have slowed, with the real focus being on new and replacement permanent recruitment. We do expect we've seen the peak, however, this doesn't mean we are expecting a quiet next quarter, just a slightly less frantic one.
In the Professional Services space, we have seen significant demand and salary increases across BA, Analysis and Project work, with Programme Management, Change and PMO roles flowing through. In the Test space, Test Strategy and Automation appear to be most in-demand, however not in huge numbers, and tending to be more mid-early senior level.
Within Development, demand remains very steady in the .Net space and also for JavaScript/PHP/Python skills, both contract and permanent. Roles are tending to be operational vs leadership with more and more openness to training juniors and intermediates through, which is fantastic to see.
In the contracting space, it has largely been made up of the usual BA roles, mixed with a range of helpdesk, project management and systems engineering.
To date in 2022, we have seen permanent recruitment activity and staff turnover consecutively at an all-time high. Multi-offer scenarios have been the norm, negotiations around pay and work conditions have been in favour of the candidate, and this has really driven candidate activity. For the first time since 2019 candidates are moving around in significant numbers, and we expect to see a settling in/calming down period from around June onwards.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
For further market insights or if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Over the last quarter, we’ve written some new blogs. You can find them below:
Best Podcasts to Inspire Women in Tech
Being a woman in tech has its challenges, from getting your foot in the door, to being acknowledged as a leader. In these six motivating podcasts, hear from female experts in the field about the obstacles they faced and how they successfully overcame them. Learn more, here.
Tech Employment Shapers – March 2022
When looking at market changes, we often see trends ramp up much harder and faster than we could have imagined or die out before they ever gain traction. So, how have the last few months shaped up, and what are we seeing in the current market? Michelle Bishop shares her insights.
Building a Successful Cyber Security Career
Curious about a career in cyber security? It's one of the fastest-growing areas in IT with generous salaries to match. Find out about some of the career paths available and the training options to help you succeed in the industry, here.
11 Oct 21 by Sourced
Welcome to our third quarter round up on the local tech market, covering trends, activity and a general view of what we've been seeing out there over the past three months. We hope that this update finds you all well and look forward to chatting with you in the lead up to Christmas.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you're looking for any information on salary surveys, role positioning, specific market intelligence or similar. We're in a unique position to watch the market as it evolves and are always happy to share these insights.
Roles in Demand
From a client point of view, over the past three months we have continued to see an almost unprecedented level of recruitment activity spanning both contract and permanent recruitment. Contractors are being held onto firmly and extended, and new contracts have continued to come to market in volume, particularly for Business Systems Analysts, Test Professionals and Helpdesk Support specialists. On the permanent recruitment front, we have been working on almost all role areas, though with a particular emphasis on Software and Business Applications specialities, and again, Helpdesk and Technical Support specialists.
The market for Business Analysts, in particular, continues to be extremely competitive, and contracts have been a flow-on effect from employers unable to secure these candidates on a permanent basis.
Business Activity
We are now seeing volume recruitment levels starting to plateau, with most of our clients now only recruiting between 1-3 roles at a time. Larger projects are no longer the norm, and activity is being driven by busier-than-usual periods of BAU or smaller ongoing improvement projects.
While through 2020 and early 2021 we saw many clients going through rightsizing exercises, reviewing and reorganising team structures, now seems to be the season of bedding in and making smaller gains. We are still not seeing any signs of this letting up, taking just as much activity into this next quarter as we have seen since early April. Activity still seems to be driven by business improvement projects, opportunities to grow and diversify, shore up existing systems or introduce new products and services to market. This is much the same as Q2 of this year.
Attraction and Retention
Staff retention levels are still relatively high, although we are certainly seeing more candidates being offered significant pay increases and work-from-home opportunities that are proving too tempting. We are seeing more and more requests from candidates interested in remote work opportunities and it is driving their choices when it comes to job offers.
The ability to work flexibly, from home, is very much in demand right now, and those employers offering this option really do have the leg up when it comes to attracting the top talent. It appears that gone are the days of 9-5 onsite being the norm, with more and more businesses moving to their own hybrid variations of on and offsite work arrangements.
A Dwindling Talent Pool
As many of you will have seen in the media, we are seeing a number of prospective candidates preparing to leave the country, or at least seriously looking at offshore opportunities, as their ability to secure permanent residence in New Zealand dwindles.
Many of the candidates we work with are post-study, on 2–3-year work visas or work holiday visas. The opportunities for this pool of talent to now secure longer-term working rights in New Zealand is getting significantly harder, and when teamed with the lack of homecoming Kiwis, we are seeing a candidate market stretched very thin.
BAU Recruitment
From an employer point of view, we are seeing a continued focus on developing and retaining tighter, more collaborative teams by promoting a strong internal culture. We are not seeing candidates affected by restructuring and redundancies, and most businesses have survived COVID-19 lockdowns well this time around. While last year saw a significant pause, this year it has been very much BAU and our recruitment continued through, with most employers happy to interview and appoint using online channels. It was great to have this focus through what is always an unsettling time and see our candidates now happily ensconced in their new team environments.
While pre-COVID-19, we were continuing to grow our footprint in the Auckland market, the rate has certainly slowed with the prolonged lockdown. Recruitment is tending to be largely contracted with little desire to commit to longer-term appointments while things are still very much up in the air. We watch this space with interest knowing that clients have some really significant growth plans coming once business as usual resumes.
We are looking for a Junior Technical Consultant to join our client, a growing ERP consultancy. This is an excellent opportunity for a candidate with strong technical and software development skills to grow towards an Implementation Consultancy role. Not a traditional software development role, you will be working with enterprise ERP systems, delivering solutions that meet customer needs. $50-$70k depending on skills and experience.
Our client is a leader in their field, and despite significant challenges through COVID-19, have grown and evolved both here in New Zealand and offshore. They are looking to add to their .Net Development Team (Web/Online) with an experienced C#.Net Developer. This is a great opportunity for a developer with an interest in Web and eCommerce technologies to work in a fun, inclusive, highly collaborative team environment. $70-$100k depending on skills and experience.
Nurse Maude is seeking a Senior Business Analyst with skills and experience in the CRM space to drive the success of their Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. This is an outstanding role encompassing internal customer engagement, BA and PM duties, working with the business to realise the benefits of this core enterprise system. This is a real mix of technical, business and delivery – and all within the Not-for-Profit sector. $100-$130k depending on skills and experience.
It was lovely to see another settled quarter with the team - with one glaring exception: Our Liv has left us to graze greener pastures and further her career with a Youth and Community role at Ara. The whole lockdown thing put a bit of a dampner on her final few weeks with us but we still think she is awesome and will do great things in her new role.
Which means we do have a new face in the team, that of Andrea (Andy). Having been thrown in the deep in the end with a ton of work and some of us out of the office, Andy has been quickly brought up to speed and is coping brilliantly. There is no word on how strong her pool game is yet though, so that may have some impact on morale if, in fact, she is a pool-shark.
Otherwise we are all thoroughly enjoying having Archie, our office dog, onsite and agree that the wellness benefits of having a furry friend available are outstanding! We continue to enjoy an office environment that is fun, high-energy, motivated, but mostly just really engaged.
In terms of candidates in demand, it feels like this never changes, however, (Helpdesk, Customer Support and Networking Engineering) has been emerging this quarter as a hot area of market demand, and a variety of programming specialists are also highly sought-after.
BAs really can pick and choose their projects, with salaries on the rise and hourly rates also beginning to lift. Those in contracts are being held onto tightly, and any BA looking for contract work now can expect to be in work within days.
Interestingly, we are still seeing a below-average demand for Project and Programme Managers, showing that BAs are taking on more and more responsibility, or simply that Project Managers are just not choosing to move. There has been very little movement in the Management/Team Leader space, although we are seeing Digital Transformation work continuing to bubble away within client sites, and that may well drive demand at a higher/leadership level.
It's still very much a candidates market right now, should they want it. The ability to work from home and work flexibly are top drivers, with salaries starting to come into the equation as employers begin to offer more and incentives to compete in a tough recruitment market. We continue to watch the border situation with interest but are realistic that this is not likely to change in 2021 or even potentially 2022. We are still looking at bringing candidates down from Auckland and seeing younger, more mobile candidates move North. While borders are shut, our candidates are looking at international remote opportunities or relocating domestically to continue to grow their careers.
So, on the whole, it's a busy time for recruitment, but a very tough market to recruit from. We are utilising all our networks, contacts and tools to uncover the best domestic talent and bring to them our clients in the very best light. Wish us luck as we enter the final three months of 2021!
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
Over the last quarter, we’ve published some informative blogs. You can find them below:
Simple Steps to Building Your Personal Brand
Whether you’re looking for a job or trying to establish yourself as a thought leader in your field, having a strong personal brand is now a vital part of professional life. But how do you curate a stand-out personal brand that will help you get ahead in the market? Find out, here.
LinkedIn Vs. CV: Three Key Differences You Should Know About
Is your LinkedIn profile a perfect copy of your current CV in digital form? If so, you could be missing out on some of the advantages this platform can bring to your Technology career. Find out how to use LinkedIn to its unique potential, here.
29 Dec 22 by Sourced
Welcome to our fourth quarter update and review of 2022 and what a year it was. We've been asked a lot over the past month how our year has been and how we're feeling. In short, it's been an unprecedented year of busyness and we're all exhausted! We're very much looking forward to a couple of weeks of well-earned rest over Christmas and New Year as it’s looking like 2023 is going to be more of the same.
Looking at the year as a whole, there is so much to cover. We've tried our best to contain this in the report by looking at what's trending, who's in demand, who's moving and a general view of the market. We hope this is useful as an update to our Tech Shaper's report which came out in September, and as always, we encourage you to contact us if you're looking for any specific market intelligence. We're in a really unique position to watch the market as it evolves and are always happy to share these insights.
State of the Market
This year started with a bang and never really stopped. In the first quarter of 2022, we saw more attrition than we had possibly ever seen as a business. It seemed that just about everybody had moved jobs between December 2021 and March 2022. With this came the obvious knock-ons of a huge demand for permanent talent, ever-increasing salary demands and a market that was at its wit's end to attract talent all in the face of closed borders and a severe talent shortage.
Resourcing has presented a real challenge to meet these demands all year, and unfortunately, until we see an even greater softening of immigration policy, we expect these challenges to remain. While the great shift around has undoubtedly allowed a lot of candidates to take on promotion opportunities, new professional development and realign salaries after a very flat 2019/20, most will now be settled into these new roles for the next 2-3 years, meaning recruiting local talent becomes harder still.
With this retention holding strong, we are continuing to look further afield and are seeing a definite increase in international candidates wanting to relocate to the Canterbury region. The challenge is, however, getting them here.
Permanent Market Reigns
While 2021 was the year for the contractor, 2022 was definitely the year for permanent appointments. Candidates have been demanding, and successfully obtaining, higher salaries and are now viewing hybrid work as almost non-negotiable. The idea of a traditional 'in-office' role is just no longer seen as acceptable and this will continue to challenge employers who are slow to adopt it. As with 2021, many candidates moved despite not actively applying for new positions. By becoming more aware of the demand levels for their skills and strong market conditions, they are taking the opportunity when approached to move.
From a Sourced perspective, we have found this all very fractured. There has been no clear answer to hanging on to talent and plugging the flood of those shifting around. Increasing salaries didn't at times seem enough, and there was simply an overall appetite to change it up and chase greener pastures.
We expect 2023 to be a year of review for employers, ensuring salaries are relevant to the new normal and placing culture and well-being front and centre. The hope is that recipe is right to encourage those who haven't moved yet to remain.
All this permanent movement did see a definite softening in the contractor market, with contractors other than BAs taking longer to find assignments and tending to stay in them for longer. BAs, as always, have been the exception to the rule and demand has remained as high as ever.
Interestingly, we have not seen the same increases in contractor rates as we have seen on the permanent side, with BA rates being the only ones to lift significantly in response to continued demand.
Manux Solutions is a great, locally owned but nationally operating MSP looking for their next Service Desk Specialist. More than your typical service desk role, this is a great entry point to future Sys Engineering roles and will have you hands-on with tech and working closely with a range of really engaged customers across New Zealand.
Foodstuffs SI Ltd are looking for a mid-level Data Migration Specialist to join an enterprise team, from January for three months. This will be a great piece of work for a strong SQL Specialist interested in working with an onsite project team on a complex migration project.
Reporting to the Managing Director, Hamilton Jet is seeking an experienced CIO to set and execute an IT strategy and vision for the future of their business. This is a rare opportunity to work within one of New Zealand's most iconic homegrown enterprises.
We were really pleased to recently both sponsor and attend the Canterbury Tech Summit and the New Zealand CIO Summit.
The CIO Summit in particular was an amazing opportunity to learn more about what is driving the IT Sector as a whole at the moment, and certainly, there were three key themes:
The CIO Summit was held in the amazing Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre and what an amazing asset this is for our city. It was great to see local faces at the CIO Awards Dinner also, although we're still unsure about Jason Gunn as an MC and Robbie Williams impersonator.
Demand is high right across the spectrum right now, with roles covering Infrastructure, Development and Professional Services. Permanent appointments are front and centre, Service Desk and Infrastructure featuring very heavily across the last quarter. Unlike previous years where new activity would now be ramping down as we approach Christmas, we are already locking in work to kick off in early January.
In the Professional Services space, we have seen solid demand all year across both operational and strategic BA work with demand for PM and Programme Managers beginning to return. The Test space has remained very quiet, including on the client side which perhaps shows a market that has bucked the trend and remained stable. Within Development, demand remains very steady in the .Net space, and with Cloud starting to emerge as a key demand area. We are also seeing this in the Infrastructure Space, with a lot now looking to DevOps, SysOps, AWS and Azure to ensure they are marketable in future.
As with 2021, 2022 has again been the year of the candidate. There are opportunities available across most levels and skill levels and competition is extremely high among employers. Anecdotally, many employers are simply giving up and looking at different ways to deploy resources from within, bring professional services companies in or simply park non-essential project work. There is little to no chatter about the recession this simply doesn't appear to be a factor. We would counter the candidate availability point that if you lift enough rocks, there are gems to be found, so be kind to your recruitment partner. We are in a great spot to uncover real gems; it just takes time and effort.
Work/life balance, learning opportunities, growth and development and a positive work environment are still top on candidates' wish lists, however, salary is now a predominant feature. We always expected this as salaries remained static across 2019, 2020 and early 2021, and in many ways, this was a long-due adjustment.
We will watch with interest as we head into the New Year, but until then, we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Hope you take the time to enjoy a relaxing break with family and friends over the festive season!
13 Jul 21 by Sourced
Welcome to our mid-year round-up of the local tech market, covering trends, activity and a general view of what we've been seeing out there over the past three months. We hope that this update finds you all well and look forward to chatting with you over the coming months.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you're looking for any information on salary surveys, role positioning, specific market intelligence or similar. We're in a unique position to watch the market as it evolves and are always happy to share these insights.
From a client point-of-view, the past three months have seen activity on an almost unprecedented level. This has been broad across both the contract and permanent markets and has touched on almost all role areas, though with a particular emphasis on project resources for Software Development and Business Applications delivery projects. The market for Business Analysts, Software Developers and Systems Analysts has been extremely competitive, and contracts have been a flow-on effect from employers unable to secure these candidates on a permanent basis.
A change from other periods of busyness, we have also seen a number of clients recruiting in volume. While through 2020 and early 2021 we saw many clients going through rightsizing exercises – reviewing and reorganising team structures – now seems to be the season of growth. We are not seeing any signs of this letting up, taking just as much activity into the next quarter. Activity seems to be driven by business improvement projects, including opportunities to grow and diversify, shore up existing systems or introduce new products and services to market.
From a retention perspective, we are seeing a relatively high level of staff retention, meaning recruitment is coming from those relocating from within New Zealand, such as people moving from permanent roles to contracting, expats returning to New Zealand, and in smaller numbers, those who perhaps had alternative plans such as travelling pre-COVID-19 and are now resettling into the local market.
We are certainly noticing that candidates that are moving off into new roles/new companies are carefully considering their options. They are feeling ready for a new challenge and are still seeking stability, interesting project challenges, work/life balance and growth opportunities. With a market that has offered little in the way of significant growth or exceptional projects over the past two years, this has been the main impetus for change. Salary levels remain fairly stagnant and are not a driving factor for candidates.
From an employer point of view, there has been a continued focus on developing and retaining tighter, more collaborative teams by promoting a strong internal culture. We are not seeing candidates who have been affected by restructuring and redundancies at present, and those that were affected through COVID-19 have well and truly been redeployed and are now enjoying interesting and challenging work with their new employers.
From a contract perspective, BAs can afford to pick and choose, with a significant number of opportunities available across a variety of sectors and applications. Business Systems, Business Process and Software Development BAs have all been well catered for and we have really struggled to keep up with demand. Where our preference is to always use contractors we have an ongoing relationship with, we have had to grow our pool quickly to keep up with the demand from the market.
We are continuing to grow our footprint in the Auckland and Wellington markets and are certainly seeing similar levels of activity in those markets. There appears to be a very strong post-COVID-19 bounce-back, with businesses rapidly accelerating their business improvement projects.
We have immediate openings for experienced Intermediate PHP/Python/JavaScript developers with a new client to Sourced. Offering an excellent mix of technically challenging projects and a genuine belief in work/life balance, this role ticks all the boxes for those looking to accelerate their career while still having time to pursue personal interests. Working in a services business, you'll be working on a range of clients’ projects, onsite from Ferrymead.
This large organisation has a significant programme of work underway. They seek intermediate and senior-level full-stack software engineers who are experienced in Kotlin/Java, Typescript and React. The programme of work is well-funded, cutting-edge and already boasts a multidisciplinary team of highly engaged software professionals who are enjoying technical challenge and collegial culture on offer.
This local software development company has a loyal Australasian client base. They have a vacancy for a senior full-stack software engineer to join their busy team in a Dev 2IC capacity. This person would be responsible for the development of their online platform as well as contributing to design, code review, testing, documentation and mentoring of the other team members. Tech skills required include Java, Angular, Javascript Typescript, Docker, CI/CD.
It was lovely to see another settled quarter with the team. We are all thoroughly enjoying having Archer, our office dog, onsite, and agree that the wellness benefits of having a furry friend available are outstanding! Otherwise, we continue to enjoy an office environment that is fun, high-energy, motivated, but mostly just really engaged. We're not corporate; we’re a family business, and we really have developed that culture internally.
In terms of candidates in demand, BAs, Technical Analysts and Systems Analysts are sitting right at the top in both a contract and permanent capacity.
In the permanent space, recruitment has largely been geared towards the Business Systems and Software Development/Applications side, with a below-average demand for Project and Programme Managers and continued demand for Developers. Infrastructure roles have been busier than usual, however, the activity is spread over a small number of employers.
As we have seen for some time now, there has been very little movement in the Management/Team Leader space. We have observed a very low number of Management/CIO roles coming to market; however, this was to be expected given the amount of movement and roles emerging in 2018.
On the contracting side, we are very heavily geared towards Business Analysis and Software Development (in far smaller numbers), with BI and Data Engineering requirements also coming into the frame. Requirements have been driven by projects of significant scale kicking off, as well as additional resources needed to get work across the line and to cover periods of absence. It's definitely a contractor's market right now, however, this is stifled by the lack of resources to keep up demand.
Candidates have the upper hand in the current market, should they want it. Unfortunately, this candidate's market coincides with a high level of staff retention, so we're having to be really creative with how we entice new talent into the market, from within the country and offshore. We continue to watch the border situation with interest but are realistic that this is not likely to change in 2021.
Work/life balance, learning opportunities, growth and development, and a positive work environment continue to sit at the top of candidates’ wish lists, with salaries still remaining static.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
Over the last quarter, we’ve written some new blogs. You can find them below:
6 Business Analyst Interview Questions and Tips for Answering Them
Whether you’re a seasoned pro or rookie Business Analyst, our top BA interview questions will have you prepared and ready to impress during your next job interview. Make sure all bases are covered so you have the chance to shine!
How to Create a Job Offer that Gets a “Yes”
In the highly competitive technology space, top talent can take their pick of job offers. That’s why it’s imperative your offer is so compelling, your ideal candidate just can’t say no. Consider these tips to help you craft an offer that’s too good to refuse.
8 Apr 21 by Sourced
Welcome to our quarterly update for Autumn 2021! We hope you had a relaxing Easter long weekend and enjoyed the last of the warm weather before the cooler temperatures well and truly set in. It's been an extremely busy quarter here at Sourced, with really strong growth in the permanent market both in Christchurch and Auckland. Contract opportunities also continue to bubble along, however, we face the hurdle of resourcing and relying wholly on domestic candidates, so suffice to say it's a challenging time! In this quarterly update, we look at who's who in the zoo, market activity, what to expect in the coming months, and provide a general overview of the 'state of the tech recruitment sector'.
We really hit the ground running upon returning from the Christmas holidays in January, with lots of clients ready to hire and others preparing to do so. Permanent recruitment has ruled, with a mix of new roles, along with hiring for attrition. It's been great to see that those hired on fixed-term contracts during the challenging period last year have all moved into permanent positions with their employers, again reflecting the rebound of the 2020 market. Our recruitment activity, rather than coming from just one or two key clients, has been from a very large number of organisations recruiting across Christchurch and Auckland. This recruitment has been in response to projects coming on stream, general business confidence, growth and attrition.
While borders remain closed, our biggest challenge will be continuing to try to grow the candidate market by bringing through graduates and juniors into more experienced roles, attracting candidates from other regions to Canterbury, and picking up the smaller number of local candidates re-entering the market for various reasons. We have talked a lot in the past about it, but we really do play heavily in the international market, with a significant number of our recruits (often over 60%) being new to New Zealand, returning Kiwis, or travellers to the country on working holiday visas.
From a contract perspective, as noted above, the level of demand for contract resource has held steady, with the predominant demand being in the BA, Product Ownership and Test spaces, as well as a small spike in Infrastructure Engineering/Support contracts. Contracts have tended to be reasonably contained, typically in the three- to six-month space and for specific, well-framed projects.
Our client, a family-owned MSP, seeks a level 1/2 Support Analyst to join the team on a six-month fixed-term contract. As the first point of call for their clients, this role requires first-class communication skills and a professional manner, as well as technical skills across O365 administration and support, PC and Server hardware and network diagnostics. Salary $50-60K. Immediate Start.
Opportunity to join an existing team driving improvement right across their national business. This is a genuine mix of business analysis, process analysis and business improvement within a unique, community-focused organisation. Very well suited to a BA in the middle to senior career stages. $80k+
We have several opportunities for experienced Product Owners right now, contract and permanent. Our permanent role is based here in Christchurch with a software house specialising in software for the automotive industry. They are a close-knit, professional team established for some years now and really innovating within their industry. This position is well suited to a developer who has moved through into BA and Product Owner duties and is keen to work within a smaller business where they can make their mark. Salary circa $115k.
It's been a really busy time these last three months with barely time to stop and take stock. We recently introduced our newest member to the Sourced team, Archer – a very happy little Schnoodle who has well and truly captured the hearts of the team and visitors to the office. Archer enjoys greeting candidates and clients, playing with the other hounds that work in our great office space, and chewing cables. Feel free to say “hi” to him next time you’re in!
In terms of candidates in demand, from a permanent perspective, there has been a very broad demand for skills across Business Analysis, Product Ownership, Software Development and Test. Permanent Electronics Engineering and Infrastructure roles have been quieter than usual but a little busier on the contract side. In Auckland, our efforts have been entirely focussed on Native Android roles at various levels and R&D Engineering, with nowhere near the span of demand we are seeing in Christchurch. Our recruiting clients have tended to be looking for experience over Graduates/Juniors, and with a very strong bent towards the Software Development space and the supporting roles around this.
Demand for Developers has been broadly across web and mobile, with a smaller than usual demand in the .Net space. BAs and Product Owners have been in very hot demand across both contract and permanent and this continues an ongoing theme we've seen over the past couple of years. ERP roles are down, with more general Software/Product Development leading the demand. BI/SQL has been another busy area, with both contract and permanent roles available at senior- and mid-levels.
We are continuing to see a level of stability in the management/team leader space, with retention levels being very high, and little in the way of new positions being created. Graduate/Junior recruitment has been represented in small numbers, however, recruitment continues to be at the experienced intermediate-senior level on the whole.
As mentioned, on the contracting side, this has been heavily geared towards Business Analysis as new projects gain traction and move through planning and approval processes.
Overall, demand is outstripping supply, and we are experiencing a much busier than usual period with no signs of a slowdown. Growth is happening across the sector, retention levels are lower than usual, and so this is also driving activity. Contractors and permanent staff members are in demand, and this is for a mix of BAU and projects. Business confidence remains very high, while salary levels remain static.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
For further market insights or if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Over the last quarter, we’ve written some new blogs. You can find them below:
3 Self-Care Ideas to Prioritise in 2021
Of the many lessons that came from 2020, the necessity of self-care is one of the most important – and often most underrated. With this in mind, here are three simple self-care ideas to put at the top of your priority list in 2021.
Attracting and Retaining Women in Tech
In today’s environment, tech companies need talented people more than ever, and top industry leaders recognise the impact a diverse workforce has on their ability to secure the best people, innovate and stay competitive. In honour of International Women’s Day, we explored data around women in tech from our semi-annual Sourced Report and provided three strategies to better attract and retain female in the sector. Learn more, here.
11 Dec 20 by Sourced
We made it! We've been enjoying a number of end-of-year functions and social catch-ups over the last couple of weeks and this definitely seems to be the prevailing sentiment at the moment – a sigh of relief that Christmas is approaching, the year is all but over and it's nearly time to put tools down and take a breather. And what a crazy year it's been!
We will do our best in this final report of the year to give you an overview of how the market has shaped up post-lockdown, along with trends, themes, and what we might expect as we look ahead to 2021. We encourage you to contact us if you're looking for any specific market intelligence, salary surveys, role positioning or similar in these last couple of weeks of the year, given our unique position to watch the market as it evolves. We're always happy to share these insights.
As we mentioned in our last update, by and large, our customers transitioned swiftly and reasonably seamlessly to work from home arrangements as the country entered lockdown in Alert Level 4 in March. Largely, these teams have now returned (or are in the process of returning) to office-based arrangements. We have seen some flexibility remain in terms of being able to work from home when needed, but overall the trend has been to relocate teams back into the office.
We also saw this post-earthquake in 2011 and wondered whether the same would happen this year, and it certainly did. While work from home has offered employees flexibility and better work/life balance, many have been quick to identify the impact on teamwork, collaboration and social interaction opportunities. While we expect to see some businesses continuing to offer work from home arrangements into 2021, we also expect this to become the exception rather than the norm.
Fortunately, the majority of our clients have recovered well through the second half of 2020 and recruitment levels have returned to a reasonably steady state. Fixed-term and contract roles have played a large part in this, with decisions to take on permanent staff members only really leading in this last quarter of the year.
We have kept busy over these last three months, however, in terms of quantity and domain, roles have been very varied, with no one client recruiting in significant numbers.
Something that we have seen as a roll-on effect from this year’s challenges is the number of candidates, who were disestablished during Level 4 lockdown, moving off into contract positions and fixed-term contracts (from permanent). We are still expecting to see a further bubble of activity when they re-enter the market in 2021, though if the market continues to trend the way it is, they may well be absorbed into their current roles where clients are realising there are still strong growth opportunities and feel more secure in making longer-term appointment decisions.
As the market has gained confidence, we have not necessarily seen this reflected in the employee market, with the majority in permanent employees reluctant to move jobs at this time. We find ourselves relying on Kiwis relocating back to Christchurch, those disestablished, those coming out of contract roles or people here on working holiday visas to fill vacant positions.
As with the last quarter, the contractor market continues to hum. We are seeing new projects coming through (particularly within system implementation and business improvement), with continued activity in the BA/Systems Analyst and Delivery areas.
On the whole, we can confirm that the market is very much back to where it was pre-lockdown, with all signs pointing to a confident continuation into 2021.
Bright, communicative and engaging candidate who has just finished their studies. Eager to get going, and brings knowledge in Java, C++, Python and SQL. Would slot into a team really easily. Available immediately, seeking market rates.
Extroverted, engaging and friendly candidate available immediately for permanent work. With experience as a Business Process & Project Analyst, this candidate is looking for a role where they can add value to business processes. Skilled in requirements gathering, stakeholder relation, process improvement. Seeking a salary circa $80k - $90k.
Intelligent and articulate candidate who will not be on the market long. Starting in software engineering and then moving into the product ownership space, this candidate brings a diverse skill set. A great team member and active contributor. Available in four weeks, seeking a salary circa $110k.
We have had a very busy year, and despite wondering how the second half of 2020 would play out, we are feeling really positive about the market as a whole and what's ahead for 2021. It has been an absolute pleasure to walk with our candidates through what have often been really tough times and watch them head off into great new roles where they now continue to flourish. 2020 has been a year to remember and we hold on to the pockets of impact we've been able to make, supporting candidates as they have taken their first steps into the contract market, gotten back on the tools for the first time in years or stepped up into leadership positions.
When we look back on 2020, a whopping 25% of our placements have been in the Business and Systems Analyst space. This has been followed by BI/Data and Development roles, however, it really has been a year for the BA. We have found that the role of the BA continues to evolve, and with the continued uptake of agile, begins to take on a lot more of what would traditionally sit with Project Managers and Product Owners. The demand we've seen has been broadly spread across fixed-term, contract and permanent, and has been both within application development setting and corporate business.
BI and Development roles have also been broad across contract and permanent, and have largely sat within the Microsoft environment, though mobile technology, specifically Android, has been a dominant feature this year. It has certainly been a year of demand for 'engineer' level, on the tool candidates, with leadership roles being a scarcity.
As we've covered, those candidates we saw coming into the market as a result of recent events have been redeployed, and we do see challenges ahead from a resourcing perspective. We are confident that the majority of our clients are back on track and returning very much to their usual levels of business. We do expect things to quieten as we head into Christmas but anticipate recruitment being back to full swing by early February.
For further market insights or if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Over the last quarter, we’ve written some new blogs. You can find them below:
Should You Hire an Overqualified Candidate?
In the current economy, it’s becoming increasingly common for people to apply for roles that appear to be below their skills and experience level, and while there are risks to recruiting someone who exceeds the requirements of the role, there are also many advantages if you approach it in the right way. Find out more about hiring an overqualified candidate and the key considerations that will ensure you get the best outcome if doing so.
How to Hire People with Resilience
The business landscape is shifting; organisations are faced with new demands and employees are experiencing more challenging circumstances than ever before. In this difficult climate, many employers are realising that a resilient team is key to business sustainability and success. But how do you identify and hire people with resilience? Read on to find out.
9 Oct 20 by Sourced
Welcome to the latest Sourced Quarterly Market Update. We're looking forward to now being able to share with you all of the trends that have been developing post Level 4 lockdown, with our last update just being a bit too early to tell. We are continuing to field a lot of questions about how the recruitment market is shaping up, so hopefully, this will go some way to answering that.
As always, we encourage you to contact us if you're looking for any specific market intelligence, salary surveys, role positioning or similar. We're in a unique position to watch the market as it evolves and are always happy to share these insights.
As we mentioned in our last report, by and large, our customers transitioned swiftly and reasonably seamlessly to work from home arrangements as the country entered lockdown in Alert Level 4. The majority of our clients’ employees were able to remain engaged in full-time work and business continued, albeit remotely. We had a very small number of clients who either ramped up rapidly or scaled down at equal pace, but the biggest change we saw was simply a move to digital working with Zoom and Microsoft Teams becoming standard communication channels and a really unique seven weeks of work from home.
Fortunately, those of our clients who were able to scale up during and beyond the lockdowns have picked up many of those left unemployed by businesses forced to downsize, so as is always the case, we have seen a balance. We are now getting to the tail end of candidates being affected by redundancy with the majority redeployed. We have noted with interest that Software Developers appear to have been the slowest to be redeployed, with both contract and permanent positions only 'average' in volume. Conversely, Business Analysts and BI/SQL Specialists have been in high demand and snapped up quickly for both contract and permanent positions.
Something that we will see a roll-on effect from is the number of candidates, who were disestablished during Level 4 lockdown, moving off into contract positions and fixed-term contracts (from permanent). As a result, we expect to see further bubbles of activity further downstream as these candidates return to market. We are finding that the local candidate supply is meeting demand and roles are being recruited quickly, with the average time to fill sitting at the four weeks and under mark.
As we talked about in the last update, we have been asked a lot about remote working and whether this will become the 'new normal', however, we are still seeing the majority of our clients returning to full-time office hours. There does appear to be a bit more flexibility around working from home 'when needed' but certainly not as a new norm.
While last quarter we saw the contractor market slow down quite dramatically both in Christchurch and Auckland, it is well and truly humming again. We are seeing projects that were shelved during Level 4 pick up again and new projects coming through (particularly within system implementation and business improvement), with lots of activity in the BA/Systems Analyst and Delivery areas.
On the whole, we can confirm that the market is very much back to where it was pre-lockdown, with all signs pointing to a quietly confident return.
Our client is seeking an enthusiastic, technically minded Java Developer whose real passion is to get under the hood, work out how and why things work in the world of web, and how they could be improved. Work with enterprise Java and open source technologies in a collaborative environment.
This is an outstanding opportunity for a mid-senior level .Net Developer to work in a very entrepreneurial, high tech environment based on the outskirts of Christchurch. Get right in the thick of development while working with a small, close-knit team.
This is an exciting hands-on role with leadership component. Guide, mentor and lead the engineering team, while being involved in the full lifecycle of products from design through to enhancement and maintenance of existing solutions.
We have had a very busy last quarter and are feeling really positive about the market as a whole. It has been an absolute pleasure to walk with our candidates through what have often been really tough times these last few months and watch them head off into great new roles. Many of these people have been return candidates of Sourced’s and occasionally past clients, and a number of them have branched out into quite different roles and responsibilities. Some have taken their first steps into the contract market while others have gotten back on the tools for the first time in years, and it's been fantastic supporting these unique journeys. We look forward to watching them flourish!
Our key demand areas right now remain across Business Analysis and BI/Data Engineering for contract roles, and Business and Systems Analysis and Software Development (mobile, cloud/open source and electronics) within permanent. Interestingly, Software Development roles have been almost entirely permanent in demand, with very little happening in the contracting space. Demand has been largely at a mid-early senior level with little at the Tech Lead/Architect level. We have also seen a small number of Team Lead roles come to market which have been quickly snapped up.
We are still seeing the shift from outsourced to in-house models, with internal teams of BA, PMs and delivery specialists growing and contract resources engaged for specifically targeted requirements. Our contractor base is quite aware of this and many are looking at longer-term options, however, again, there still seems to be enough work to go around and the general market feel is positive.
As we've covered, we have seen a large number of candidates coming into the market, but the majority are now redeployed. We are confident that those still looking will find solid employment as recruitment activity picks up to full pace. Fortunately, a lot of our clients rely primarily on the domestic market and a lot of delivery of services, so they have needed to pick up and move again quickly. We do expect things to quieten slightly as we head into Christmas, but for now (despite what you may be hearing in the media) it's a great time to hire and generally a perfectly safe time to be considering a move.
For further market insights or if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Over the last quarter, we’ve written some new blogs. You can find them below:
How to Successfully Manage a Hybrid Team: 4 Questions to Consider
Many businesses have been forced to embrace remote working and a result of this, we will inevitably see a rise in the adoption of hybrid teams going forward. This will be a steep learning curve for companies as they find new ways to tackle employment issues and manage performance within this team structure. Here are four questions you should keep in mind to get the best results from your hybrid team.
An Unprecedented Opportunity: How to Hire the Best People in Today’s Market
In the current environment, forward-thinking businesses that are embracing the future of the employment market will find top talent more accessible than ever. Those who are strategic and prepared will be able to snap up professionals that will be valuable assets to their teams for years to come. Find out more about how to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to hire the best Technology & Digital talent on the market, here.
4 May 20 by Sourced
We feel like it might be a struggle to try to encapsulate everything we're seeing in the market right now in this report, as there is so much going on and everybody's situation is just a bit unique, but here goes...
From a client point of view, 2020 was a mixed bag pre-COVID; stability and careful consideration in hiring were once again key themes, with very little staff turnover and muted growth levels. It was generally 'business as usual', with the market-driven by permanent requirements and a softening of the contract market. Where new contract positions were arising, they tended to be stop-gap measures – short-term gap fillers keeping the seat warm until more permanent solutions could be established. Large projects remained quiet in the Canterbury region, with only a handful of businesses undergoing significant business improvement programmes.
As we saw in the back half of last year, most clients have been keen to ensure they have the right energy going into the right outcomes, and the right people assigned to the right areas. From a retention perspective, we have continued to see the highest numbers in recent years within the Canterbury tech sector, with most recruitment having been achieved through sourcing candidates new to New Zealand or returning home, and placing candidates with new clients who have been affected by redundancy. Unfortunately, even pre-COVID, this did make up a small percentage of our recruitment numbers.
While it has been taking slightly longer for candidates affected by restructuring and redundancies to find new positions, most are now enjoying interesting and challenging work with their new employers. From a contract perspective, it was a quieter-than-average year, with a slight lift in demand since 2019. Primary requirements we have seen in the market have revolved strongly around Business Analysis with very little in the Project and Programme Management space. This really has become an ongoing theme.
Regarding what we are seeing in the market now, things have obviously taken a quick turn. Fortunately, for the majority of our clients, jobs are safe, business as (much as can be) usual continues and work-from-home transitions have been managed well. There have, however, in specific and hard-hit industries, been fairly quick and decisive restructuring activities, which have led to an unprecedented number of candidates looking for new positions. We have also seen a large number of contractors who have been let go early, as internal teams consolidate down to ride out market conditions. We have been working very actively with these candidates coming to market, as we try to get them back to work as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, working with essential services clients, who have actually scaled up permanent recruitment during the lockdown at Alert Level 4, has led to some being picked up quickly. We will continue to monitor this closely, and again work hard for our candidate base to make sure they have every opportunity to re-enter employment ASAP.
From a recruitment activity point of view, the majority of our clients outside of essential services have put recruitment on hold until we get to Level 2. There is a lot of uncertainty around how the national and global markets will rebound, and so a ‘wait and see’ approach is the predominant theme.
For our essential services clients, there has been strong demand for Business Analysis, Systems Analysis and Infrastructure Engineering expertise as systems are shored up, new projects ramp up quickly to meet escalating demands and opportunities for innovation are explored. On this, we have had a couple of really great wins for our clients, managing to work between companies who have had immediate workloads drop or have had to downsize, and transitioning their employees across to essential services clients for terms both short and long.
We had two companies offer up permanent staff temporarily to help on the front line supporting COVID-19 testing from a health tech perspective, and candidates within a very hard-hit industry joining one of our essential services clients for 12-month terms with the option to return to their original positions once the market rebounds. It's definitely been a time where we've been able to think outside the square and just get in and help where we can.
Our feeling as we go to Level 3 is that there will be little change from Level 4, and we don't anticipate a return to previous levels of recruitment until we're back to Level 2.
We are hearing from our Wellington recruitment partners that there has been a lull in contracting requirements in the capital city, with possible rate drops on the cards. Despite some onboarding challenges, permanent recruitment has continued as usual, with the government a 'semi-safe place' for employees and existing contractors. We certainly see this in Christchurch with our government clients here – good stability, the ability to work from home, and projects continuing as usual.
MongoDB / PHP Software Engineer
This is an exciting new venture by an established international company that operates in the FINTECH sector. Led from the front by a highly accomplished industry leader, this company has developed its own innovative software which they have commercialised for use by their clients. This role will be adding functionality and undertaking customisations. You will be part of a newly established, Christchurch-based team that will be part of a “follow the sun” development function.
Intermediate Systems Administrator
Based in North West Christchurch, this is a new role within the business. It will suit an experienced Systems / Network Administrator who can help out with customer support as needed. Our client has a really awesome collaborative environment that is fun and social and works closely with a range of big partner names.
Make your mark on a large and complex enterprise environment with significant project work underway. This is a role for an experienced HTML5/Android/Kotlin Developer, who has solid experience building business mobile applications.
Having opened our doors on the day of the February 2011 earthquakes, we have always been a business with a huge appreciation for cloud-based working and the ability to work anytime, anywhere. We have transitioned our team to work from home and are enjoying regular Zoom catch-ups. It's been a really good opportunity to spend some quality time with family around work commitments and on the whole, it's working well.
Our key demand areas right now are across Mobile and OpenSource (Android/PHP) Development for permanent roles, and Business and Systems Analysis, also permanent. We are seeing very little demand for contract resources, with those recruiting looking at opportunities to reduce contractor cost overheads and replace them with longer-term solutions. We have seen a slight spike in demand for Infrastructure Engineering talent, across both Network and Server Engineering, and at junior, mid and senior levels. Again, these have been permanent or at least 12 months long.
As we've covered, we are seeing a large number of candidates coming into the market, and a large number of clients putting their hiring plans on hold, however, we expect this to come back into balance when we return to Level 2. Fortunately, a lot of our clients rely primarily on the domestic market and their recruitment will resume as soon as face-to-face interviewing becomes easier. We will be working very closely with our candidate base to ensure they have every opportunity for redeployment and continue to look at the various ways in which our clients can engage these talent pools.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
Over the last quarter, we’ve written some new blogs. You can find them below:
If you have recently hired into your business or need to hire during COVID-19, the chances are you will be onboarding your people remotely, perhaps for the first time. Read our three-step guide on remote onboarding best practices, where we cover the importance of advance planning, a comprehensive schedule and plenty of communication.
Key Tips for Working from Home
COVID-19 has led people to work remotely – some for the first time in their career. If you’re not used to working from home or have only done so ad hoc, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with these top tips to help you make the most of it.
2 Jul 20 by Michelle Bishop
We have reached the halfway point of 2020, and are clearly in remarkable times. While we have been asked a lot of questions over these last few weeks about how the recruitment market is shaping up, there really is no one answer. We'll do our best here to give you some insights on what we've seen, what's happening now and our best guess on how this year will shape up.
As always, we encourage you to contact us if you're looking for any specific market intelligence, salary surveys, role positioning or similar. We're in a unique position to watch the market as it evolves and are always happy to share these insights.
Firstly, it’s important to address the current COVID-19 situation and its immediate effect on the employment market. By and large, our customers transitioned swiftly and reasonably seamlessly to work from home arrangements as the country entered lockdown in Alert Level 4. The majority of our clients’ employees were able to remain engaged in full-time work, and business continued, albeit remotely. We had a very small number of clients who either ramped up rapidly or scaled down at equal pace, but by and large, the biggest change we saw was simply a move to digital working with Zoom and Microsoft Teams becoming standard communication channels, and a really unique seven weeks of work from home.
Fortunately, those of our clients who were able to scale up during and beyond COVID-19 have picked up many of those left unemployed by businesses forced to downsize, so as is always the case, we have seen balance.
While we do still have a number of candidates on the market as a result of COVID-19-driven restructures and redundancy, many have now been picked up in contract, fixed term and permanent appointments, and we don't expect to see unprecedented levels of unemployment. We have had several clients bring their hiring plans forward to make the most of a fairly unique hiring market and have seen great success with this.
We have been asked a lot about remote working and whether this will become the 'new normal'. While we have seen a couple of large employer clients move to permanent flexi work arrangements, the majority are returning to full-time office hours. Certainly, the need to be able to work remotely when needed has become a priority, but we are not seeing this becoming the new way of working.
We have seen the contractor market slow down quite dramatically both in Christchurch and Auckland, however, all signs are pointing to a return. We are seeing projects that were shelved during Level 4 pick up again, and new projects coming through, both
system implementation and business improvement in focus.
On the whole, we can confirm the market is quieter than pre-COVID-19 levels, however, all signs are pointing to a quietly confident return.
We're working with an award-winning marketing agency who are looking to grow their specialist marketing team, bringing in a Content Specialist. You'll get to create high-quality content for a range of customers and help the team drive lead generation campaigns. This is a great graduate/junior opportunity within a supportive and successful company.
Join a cross-functional, agile development team where you'll have exposure to a range of awesome learning opportunities. Develop established products with a modern twist. C++ embedded development experience essential.
Exciting Auckland based technical leadership opportunity in a company that creates world-class, innovative technology solutions for organisations. We're looking for a capable leader and engineer with senior level development experience in .Net or Java frameworks to join this wonderful team and environment.
As we talked about in our last Quarterly Update, being a business that opened its doors on the day of the February 2011 earthquakes, we have always had a huge appreciation for cloud-based working and the ability to work anytime, anywhere. We have transitioned our team back to the office and are enjoying being together as a team, yet safe in the knowledge that if we do see a resurgence, we will be able to make a seamless transition as needed to new or remote ways of working.
Our key demand areas right now remain across Mobile and OpenSource (Android/PHP/Python) Development for contract roles, and Business and Systems Analysis across both contract and permanent. We are seeing quiet but steady demand for contract resources, yet with the overall driver still being employers looking to reduce contractor cost overheads where it makes sense and replace them with longer-term solutions.
We are definitely getting the sense that the market is turning from an outsourced to an in-house model and will watch this with interest. Get ready to see larger internal teams of BA and PM's and delivery specialists, and contract resources only engaged for specifically targeted requirements. Our contractor base is quite aware of this and many are looking at longer-term options, however, again, we also say the market always comes back to balance and we don't expect the contractor market to fall away altogether.
As we've covered, we have seen a large number of candidates coming into the market, and a large number redeployed quickly. We are confident that those still looking will find solid employment within the next few months as recruitment activity picks up to full pace. Fortunately, a lot of our clients rely primarily on the domestic market and their recruitment has resumed as face-to-face interviews have become easier. We are working very closely with our candidate base to ensure they have every opportunity for redeployment, and continue to look at the various ways in which our clients can engage these talent pools.
For further market insights or if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Over the last quarter, we’ve written some new blogs. You can find them below:
Returning to Work After COVID-19: 4 Things to Plan For
As organisations begin planning their transition back to the office, things are going to be different, and detailed preparations will be vital for helping employees adapt to new ways of working post-pandemic. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to planning your team’s return to work, we’ve outlined the key considerations to keep in mind, here.
Should I Hire a Permanent Employee or a Contractor?
The demands of the emerging economic picture will require a flexible and agile approach to risk and reward for all organisations, and this is also true of their recruitment activities. Here’s everything you need to know to make the choice between hiring a permanent employee and a contractor.
10 Jan 20 by Michelle Bishop
Firstly, a very Happy New Year to you all. January is always a time of adjustment as we come back from the lazy days of summer holidays, whilst ramping up quickly for the demands of the new year. Having enjoyed a well-earned break and launching into what's already a busy 2020, it’s now all hands on deck at Sourced. We had plenty of clients approaching us with recruitment requirements for the new year in mid to late December, so we have well and truly hit the ground running.
In this quarterly update, we’ll look back at 2019 to bring you an overview of the year’s key themes, as well as provide a sneak peek of what is to come in 2020. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you're looking for any information on salary surveys, role positioning, specific market intelligence or similar. We're in a unique position to watch the market as it evolves, and are always happy to share these insights.
From a client point of view, 2019 was a mixed bag; stability and careful consideration in hiring were the two key themes, with very little staff turnover and muted growth levels. It was generally 'business as usual', with little appetite for shaking the apple tree. It was a market-driven by both contract and permanent requirements – albeit, very widespread and in generally smaller numbers.
Few clients recruited in volume. We saw many clients going through rightsizing exercises, reviewing and reorganising team structures, without necessarily pursuing redundancies. Most were keen to ensure they had the right energy going into the right outcomes, and the right people assigned to the right areas. Whilst permanent recruitment continued at a slightly lower but constant pace across most areas of IT, there was a definite focus on growth in highly specific/targeted areas, and otherwise recruiting for attrition, which was a lot lower in 2019 than in the previous year.
From a retention perspective, we have seen the highest numbers in recent years within the Canterbury tech sector. Most recruitment has been achieved through sourcing candidates new to New Zealand or returning home, and in fewer cases, placing candidates with new clients who have been affected by redundancy.
As in the previous two years, candidates that have moved off into new roles/new companies have been carefully considering their options. They are feeling ready for a new challenge and are still seeking stability, interesting project challenges, work/life balance and growth opportunities. With a market that has offered little in the way of significant growth or exceptional projects, more care has been taken by candidates to fully evaluate potential employers, and salaries have not been a driving factor.
From an employer point of view, there has been a continued focus on developing and retaining tighter, more collaborative teams by promoting a strong internal culture.
As mentioned above, we have seen a smaller number of candidates who have been affected by restructuring and redundancies. Few have struggled to be redeployed, and most are now enjoying interesting and challenging work with their new employers.
From a contract perspective, it was a quieter-than-average year, with a slight lift in demand in the final quarter of 2019. Projects took longer than expected to gain traction or were temporarily shelved whilst budgets and business requirements were reassessed. The primary requirements we have seen in the market have revolved strongly around Business Analysis and Software Development, with very little in the Project and Programme Management space. This is a continuation of the same theme we see mirrored in 2018.
As mentioned above, we have been working with a mix of local job seekers and candidates returning home to Christchurch. In doing so, we’ve noted a below-average level of recruitment in the 'new to New Zealand' market. Certainly, there is still a strong interest in living and working in Christchurch for the international community, but that desire has not always been met by a willingness to employ by the local market, especially considering the availability of local employee talent.
All in all, we expect the majority of restructures to be behind us, and we look forward to a year of growth opportunities for many.
Digital Marketing Automation Specialist - We're working with an award-winning marketing agency who are looking to grow their inbound marketing team. Focusing on managing their automated technology, you'll be working behind the scenes implementing CRM, integrating apps and completing analysis of web metrics. This is a great graduate/junior opportunity within a supportive and successful company.
PHP Developer - We're on the lookout for an intermediate level PHP Developer to join a high-quality, Agile development team. Our client is developing an award-winning solution that you'll get to be part of; extending it with new features and managing the delivery of updates. This is an awesome role for a developer skilled in PHP, MSSQL, HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.
Data Scientist - We are looking for someone highly experienced in code, data and big data tools to join a unique company. Our client offers an incredible internal culture that is collaborative, encouraging, supportive and prioritises a work/life balance. You'll get to take on a significant level of responsibility within a larger international team.
It was lovely to see out 2019 as a team, notably one of the most engaged teams we've seen within Sourced walls. As many will know, getting just the right balance in the team can be hard, and we really feel like we've achieved that. We continue to enjoy an office environment that is fun, high-energy, motivated, but mostly just really engaged. We're not corporate; we’re a family business, and we really have developed that culture internally.
In terms of candidates in demand, 2019 was very much a broad market. In the permanent space, recruitment was largely geared towards the Software Development/Applications side, with a below-average demand for Project and Programme Managers and a continued but measured demand for Developers, Business Analysts and Testers. Infrastructure roles were quieter than usual and tended to sit at the Systems/Infrastructure Administrator level, with very little movement in the Management/Team Leader space.
We have observed a very low number of Management/CIO roles coming to market; however, this was to be expected given the amount of movement and roles emerging in 2018.
On the contracting side, 2019 was again very heavily geared towards Business Analysis and Software Development (in far smaller numbers). Requirements were driven by projects needing scoping, as well as additional resources needed to get work across the line and to cover periods of absence. It has not been what would be described as a 'contractor's market,' and we watch with interest to see how this evolves in 2020, given that this is a theme we have seen right through 2018.
For employers, 2019 was again a year of BAU and steady as she goes. There was a much higher level of staff retention than in 2018 and in general, project work has been low, so as a result, recruitment has been carefully considered and very targeted.
From a permanent perspective, we are already seeing a return to growth as we move into 2020, but this may be tempered by a resource shortage given the reluctance of candidates to move at this time. We expect to be driving hard within our international talent pools, expat Kiwis and, in a continued trend, North Island residents chasing the lifestyle opportunities available in Canterbury.
Work/life balance, learning opportunities, growth and development, and a positive work environment continue to sit at the top of candidates’ wish lists, with salaries still remaining static.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
Over the last quarter, we’ve written some new blogs. You can find them below:
Tips to Help Candidates Relax in Job Interviews
Picking the right IT candidate during interviews is tricky, especially when nerves play a part. That’s why it’s imperative to get candidates to relax during interviews and allow their true potential to come through. These five key tips will help you.
6 Top Tech Podcasts You Should Be Listening To
We know how important it is for tech professionals to keep building their industry knowledge and stay up to date with the latest developments. That’s why we’ve created this list of the best tech podcasts to help you get started. Find out more, here.
Should You Include a Photo in Your CV?
If you’ve ever wondered, “Should I include a photo in my CV?”, there are a few points to consider before getting out your camera and adding a professional photo to your next IT job application. Find out the answer, here.
4 Nov 19 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to the third quarter and the Spring market report for 2019. It's so lovely to see the cold winter days giving way to longer hours of sunshine, and we really are now officially on the countdown to Christmas! It's always hard to believe at this time of year that we're here again, so we hope you enjoy a bit of time to reflect on the year that's been and the remaining few months of 2019.
In this quarterly update, we look at the last three months of 2019, including what's trending, who's in demand, who's moving and a general view of the market. We hope this is a useful addition to the Sourced report, which came out earlier this year and as always, we encourage you to contact us if you're looking for any specific market intelligence, salary surveys, role positioning or similar. We're in a really unique position to watch the market as it evolves and are always happy to share these insights.
While 2019 really started with a bang, we noted a definite move into more of a 'business as usual' phase between April and June, and we've certainly seen this continue and with a shift towards business improvement. Talking to a lot of hiring managers over these past three months, there has been a real focus on efficiency gains, business improvement and finding better ways of working. In the last month or two, quite a number of businesses have been right-sizing, restructuring and ensuring resources are in the right places with the right focus, as we see the year out and look ahead to 2020.
Staff turnover levels remain low, which is a real salute to all of the effort that has been going into the culture, engagement and development of talent from within. Where we are recruiting new permanent roles, requirements are specific, more considered, and hiring decisions taking just a bit longer. Where replacement recruitment is happening, again culture is king, with many businesses prepared to wait or forgo tech skills for the right cultural fit.
While we have been consistently engaged across both contract and permanent recruitment, we have not seen the same urgency as in the first half of the year. Permanent recruitment is currently sitting slightly ahead of demand for contractors, with a real spread across Business Analysts/Product Owners (Business Process, Digital and Business Transformation), Developers (C#) and Testers (Automation). We have also seen new roles coming to the market across BI Management, Network Engineering and UX/UI – areas that have been very quiet throughout the year.
As noted above, we are continuing to see a reasonably flat market in terms of local candidates moving around, as well as an equal balance of candidates coming in from offshore and returning to employment after disestablishment and to a lesser extent, moving from one permanent role to another in Christchurch.
All indications from our clients are for a steady remainder of the year, with projects expected to keep things bubbling along, though without significant plans for growth.
Intermediate level
We're working with a market disruptor, growing their application development team with the addition of a further Developer. Working in the Cloud/SaaS space, this is an excellent opportunity for an experienced mid-level .NET Developer with an interest in Cloud technologies to get involved. This is a very fast-paced, dynamic environment requiring a high level of maturity, resilience and interest in emerging technologies.
Intermediate level
We are looking for a Market Insights Analyst for our global software client. This is a really interesting and different role that takes in marketing, data analysis and reporting. A great role for those keen on keeping a foothold in the tech sector, while applying their skills and helping drive targeted sales and marketing activity on a global scale.
Senior level
We are looking for an experienced Network Engineer with Palo Alto, F5 and Cisco experience to join our client, one of Christchurch's largest employers of IT talent. This is a genuine opportunity to get involved with design, architecture and engineering, and work in a collaborative inhouse team environment.
It's been a nice and steady quarter within the Sourced team, with not a huge amount to report. We thoroughly enjoyed hosting our contractors for a night of Ten Pin Bowling this month, with the Sourced Consultants taking the glory for top scores (depending on who you talk to). It's always a great opportunity to get everybody together, as well as for our contractors to network and meet others who may be working in completely different businesses and roles or have similar experience. We look forward to continuing these events in the future, with talk of BBQ or karting being thrown around!
Our internal team remains stable and engaged and have really enjoyed a productive 2019. We've all managed to enjoy well-earned breaks over the past couple of months, and everybody is refreshed and ready to crack on with the remainder of the year.
As mentioned above, we are busy across all role specialities, with a particular rise in the Product Owner/Digital/BA space and new demand in the Network Engineering, UX/UI and BI areas.
Development, Test and BA have kept us busy in the contracting space, but this is falling off now as we approach Christmas.
Demand remains very steady in the .Net Development space, both contract and permanent, with less demand for alternative web and front-end technologies such as PHP, React and Angular, which we'd seen at the beginning of the year.
2019 has meant all hands to the pump and it feels like right now there is a slight lull in that activity as our clients focus on getting their teams and structures right and on deliverables for 2020. Juniors through to seniors are all in demand, with only a small demand for management candidates. Contracting is lowering as permanent employment remains steady, and demand in the Software Engineering space is back, which is typical for Canterbury.
From a permanent perspective, we are seeing a conservative approach to growth as we see out the year, though, as yet, this hasn't really hampered our levels of recruitment activity. We expect to be continuing to drive hard within our international talent pools, with expat Kiwis and North Island residents chasing the lifestyle opportunities available in Canterbury.
Work/life balance, learning opportunities, growth and development and a positive work environment are still top on candidate's wish lists, with salaries continuing to remain static.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
Over the last quarter, we’ve written some new blogs. You can find them below:
Handling Salary Negotiations: Knowing Your Worth
So, you’ve been offered your dream role but the salary doesn’t quite match your expectations. Do you walk away or put your negotiating hat on? In our latest blog, we’ve put together some of our best tips on approaching this often-awkward subject with potential employers.
Should You Include a Photo in Your CV?
If you’ve ever wondered, “Should I include a photo in my CV?”, there are a few points to consider before getting out your camera and adding a professional photo to your next IT job application. Find out the answer, here.
6 Top Tech Podcasts You Should Be Listening To
We know how important it is for tech professionals to keep building their industry knowledge and stay up to date with the latest developments. That’s why we’ve created this list of the best tech podcasts to help you get started. Find out more, here.
24 Jul 19 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to the mid-year update for 2019. It's hard to believe we're already over halfway through the year, although it's certainly been a very busy quarter for the team here at Sourced and the past three months have absolutely flown by.
In this quarter update, we look at the first half of 2019, what's trending, who's in demand, who's moving, and a general view of the market. We hope this is a useful addition to the Sourced report which came out earlier this year, and as always, we encourage you to make contact if you're looking for any specific market intelligence, salary surveys, role positioning or similar. We're in a really unique position to watch the market as it evolves, and always happy to share these insights.
While 2019 really started with a bang, with recruitment on both permanent and contract fronts busy right from the get-go in mid-January, we have definitely moved into more of a 'business as usual' phase between April and June, with requirements becoming more specific, more considered, and hiring decisions taking just a bit longer. While we have been consistently busy across both contract and permanent recruitment, we have not seen the same urgency as in the first quarter of the year. Contracting is currently sitting slightly ahead of demand with Business Analysts (Business Process and Business Transformation), Developers (C#) and Testers being in hot demand.
We are continuing to see a reasonably flat market in terms of local candidates moving around, and continue to see an equal balance of candidates coming in from offshore, and returning to employment after disestablishment, and to a lesser extent, those candidates moving from one permanent role to another in Christchurch.
As with the first quarter of this year, we have seen a continued uplift of demand in the Infrastructure, Technical Support and Helpdesk areas, which had been quiet throughout 2018. This is also true of the contracting area, and has been largely driven by business change initiatives, new system implementations and product development needing an extra push.
All indications from our clients are for a steady year with projects expected to keep things bubbling along, though without significant plans for growth. Ones and twos across the board are what we're continuing to see in terms of hiring volume, as was the case with Q1, with a major portion of our clients currently hiring, or having already hired in 2019.
We certainly expect the majority of restructures (as seen late last year) to be behind us, and are looking forward to a more stable year ahead.
Junior level
Technical Support Specialist - We are looking for a keen, graduate-level Technical Support Specialist to join our client, Online Distribution, in a wholesale/warehousing environment. You will be providing critical application and technical support to users on the floor, and will enjoy a high level of variety and opportunities for growth and development. This is a permanent role, with a salary of $45k.
Intermediate level
.Net Developers, Zeevo - We are working with Zeevo, who are looking for intermediate level .Net Developers looking to give contracting a try. You will be joining a well-supported, structured Agile project environment, working on one of the largest product development efforts underway in Christchurch. You'll be working with some of the best in the business, on cutting edge .Net technologies, including cloud.
Product Owner, IAG - We are looking for an experienced Product Owner to join IAG, delivering through an agile development stream on a large Digital Transformation programme. You'll be working with teams both in Christchurch and Auckland and in a genuine, well organised Scrum environment.
It's been a nice and steady quarter within the Sourced team, with not a huge amount to report. Our team remains stable and engaged, and have really enjoyed a productive 2019.
As mentioned above, we are busy across all role specialties, with a particular rise in demand for IT Infrastructure, Technical Support and Helpdesk professionals at an intermediate level, and Software professionals across all disciplines - Development, Test, BA and Product Ownership. This has been both contract and permanent, and in higher volumes, with some clients hiring two or three at a time, though largely ones and twos.
Demand remains very steady in the contract .Net Development space, with less demand for alternative web and front-end technologies such PHP, React and Angular which we'd seen at the beginning of the year.
With the contracting space hotting up again with demand remaining solid for experienced Agile professionals who can slot into project environments and add immediate value, we would love to hear from anybody active in this space.
2019 has meant all hands to the pump. Juniors through seniors are all in demand, with still only a small demand for management candidates. Contracting is keeping pace and advancing ahead of permanent employment, and Infrastructure is holding its own against the traditional Canterbury demand for Software Engineering professionals.
From a permanent perspective, we are seeing a steady as she goes/conservative approach to growth as we move through 2019, and as yet this hasn't really hampered our levels of recruitment activity. We expect to be continuing to drive hard within our international talent pools, expat kiwis and in a new trend, North Island residents chasing the lifestyle opportunities available in Canterbury.
Work-life balance, learning opportunities, growth and development and a positive work environment are still top on candidate's wish lists, with salaries still remaining static.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
Over the last quarter, we’ve written several blogs. You can find them below:
Does the very thought of networking give you sweaty palms and shaky knees? The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way! Here are our tips to help you create valuable connections that will drive your IT career forward.
Do you know the main differences between your LinkedIn profile and CV? If not, you could be missing out on the advantages of an effective online presence for your IT career. Read more about the key traits that distinguish these two job search tools.
28 Mar 19 by Jason Bishop
Sourced is proud to announce that we’re officially StaffSure certified! Developed by industry experts, StaffSure is a certification scheme which makes it simple for organisations and workers alike to find and partner with reputable Workforce Service Providers (such as recruitment agencies) for all their recruitment needs. Through independent auditing against industry-specific standards, StaffSure is able to protect the broader integrity of the recruitment industry throughout New Zealand and Australia.
Whether you’re looking for the market’s top IT talent, or need support in your job search, you can be confident in our ability to work to the highest industry standards.
To read more about the StaffSure certification scheme, click here.
8 Apr 19 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to the first quarter report for 2019. It's hard to believe we're already close to Easter time. It's been a busy quarter for the team here at Sourced and the first three months have certainly flown by.
In this quarter update, we look at the first quarter of 2019, what's trending, how the year has kicked off from a recruitment point of view, who's in demand, who's moving, and a general view of the market. We hope this is a useful addition to the Sourced report which came out earlier this year, and as always, we encourage you to make contact if you're looking for any specific market intelligence, salary surveys, role positioning or similar. We're in a really unique position to watch the market as it evolves, and always happy to share these insights.
2019 has really started with a bang. While traditionally the market remains flat through January and into late February as school holidays and final Christmas holidays are finished up, this year, it's been busy right from the get-go in mid-January. This has been across both contract and permanent recruitment, and most role specialties and levels. Contracting has kicked off much earlier than usual, with demand steady for Business Analysts and Project Managers, and a small peak in demand for testers. We have also seen a return to demand for contract Software Engineers, predominantly in the C++ and C# areas.
We have not seen the traditional move around of local candidates that we often see at this time of year, although this was expected given the volumes who made the move in the last quarter of 2019. We have returned to an equal balance of candidates coming in from offshore, returning to employment after disestablishment, moving from contracting into permanent positions, and to a lesser extent, those candidates moving from one permanent role to another in Christchurch.
As we noted above, demand has been solid across most role specialties, however, we are seeing a higher than usual demand in the Infrastructure, Technical Support and Helpdesk areas, which have been quiet for some time. This is also true of the contracting area, and has been largely driven by roles being vacated, and hiring decisions deliberately being put on hold, with contractors being used to keep the seat warm.
All indications from our clients, who we've thoroughly enjoyed catching up with this quarter, are for a steady year with projects expected to keep things bubbling along, though without significant plans for growth. Ones and twos across the board are what we're seeing in terms of hiring volume, with a major portion of our clients currently hiring, or having already hired in 2019.
We certainly expect the majority of restructures (as seen late last year) to be behind us, and are looking forward to a year of growth opportunities for many.
Junior Helpdesk Support Engineer - We have a rare opportunity for a junior Helpdesk Support Engineer, ideally straight out of study, who’s looking to join a progressive, professional corporate environment that really grows and develops their staff. Outstanding opportunity for a graduate to kick off their IT career. $40-$45k.
Business Development Representative, Concentrate - We are working with Concentrate who are looking to recruit a Business Development Representative to drive inbound sales activity in this busy Technology Marketing Agency. Ideal opportunity for an Intermediate candidate with a strong sales and customer focus, looking to join a progressive, professional consultancy environment.
React Developer, Trineo - We are working with Trineo to recruit an experienced React Developer to join their Christchurch team. This is a great opportunity to work with a globally dispersed team on high profile, challenging technical projects, both leading and developing within the Agile environment.
It's been a busy but productive start to the year for the Sourced team. We have been delighted to introduce our new Candidate Resourcer Olivia to a number of clients, and she has settled in very quickly to the Sourced way of life. Olivia is proving instrumental in allowing us to provide an even higher level of candidate care to our permanent and contract candidates, and help to identify new talent coming into the market for our clients.
As of mid-February, Sourced went through the StaffSure assessment and we are proud to say we are officially StaffSure certified. This provides our clients and candidates confidence in our ability to work to the highest industry standards.
As mentioned above, we are busy across all role specialities, with a particular rise in demand for IT Infrastructure, Technical Support and Helpdesk professionals at a junior, intermediate and senior level. This has been both contract and permanent, and in higher volumes, with some clients hiring two or three at a time, though largely ones and twos.
Demand remains very steady in the Senior .Net Development space, with an emerging demand for alternative web and front-end technologies including PHP, React and Angular.
The contracting space is hotting up again with demand remaining solid for good experienced BAs, Project Managers and Test professionals who can slot into project environments and add immediate value. Interestingly, we are seeing more and more candidates coming home and heading straight to contracting as opposed to considering permanent roles, and they are successfully making this transition. The last half of 2018 was very quiet in the contracting space, so it's good to see a return to activity, generally indicating a good level of market confidence and growth.
2019 has meant all hands to the pump. Juniors through seniors are all in demand, with only a small demand for management candidates. Contracting is keeping pace with permanent employment, and Infrastructure is holding its own against the traditional Canterbury demand for Software Engineering professionals.
From a permanent perspective, we are seeing a good return to growth as we move through 2019, and as yet this doesn't appear to be tempered by a resource shortage. We expect to be continuing to drive hard within our international talent pools, expat kiwis and in a new trend, North Island residents chasing the lifestyle opportunities available in Canterbury.
Work life balance, learning opportunities, growth and development and a positive work environment remain top on candidate's wish lists, with salaries still remaining static.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
Over the last quarter, we’ve written several blogs. You can find them below:
Much has been said about the importance of cultural fit, yet its importance is just as prevalent today. So, how does an IT organisation go about assessing candidates with this in mind? We discuss what to look for, and some example interview questions, here.
Are references necessary in your CV? It’s the age-old question. Whilst there are many possible answers, it’s good to think over all the available options. Make sure you have all the facts by keeping these points in mind.
How do you ensure you keep your new employee “warm” between signing the contract and officially starting at your company? Here is a checklist on keeping your new IT hire engaged and interested before day one.
1 Feb 19 by Michelle Bishop
Firstly, a very Happy New Year to you all. It's always an interesting time of year, longing for a return to the long and lazy days of summer holidays, whilst hitting the ground running and ramping up for a new year with energy and optimism. We are now all back on deck at Sourced, having enjoyed a well-earned break and launched into what's looking to be a busy 2019.
In this quarterly update, we look back at 2018, bringing you a view of the year that was, and a sneak peak of what is to come. You may have also seen the latest Sourced Report, which we hope you've enjoyed (the 2019 survey is underway and closing soon!). If you're looking for any specific market intelligence, salary surveys, role positioning or similar information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We're in a unique position to watch the market as it evolves, and are always happy to share these insights.
From a client point of view, 2018 was a mixed bag – a market driven by both contract and permanent requirements – however, on the whole, it is best described as 'business as usual'. Whilst permanent recruitment continued at a constant pace across most areas of IT, there was a definite focus on growth in highly specific/targeted areas, and otherwise recruiting for attrition, which was a lot higher across 2018 than seen in previous years. From a retention perspective, we have seen the highest numbers in recent years within the Canterbury tech sector. We saw this as a natural cycle, given that 2016-2017 showed record high levels of staff retention, with very little movement, and most recruitment being achieved through sourcing candidates new to New Zealand or returning home.
We don't feel there is a great deal to be alarmed by. Candidates that have moved off into new roles/new companies have been carefully considering their options, are feeling ready for a new challenge, and are still seeking stability, interesting project challenges, work/life balance and growth opportunities. With a market that has offered little in the way of significant growth or exceptional projects, more care has been taken by candidates to fully evaluate potential employers, and salaries have not been a driving factor. From an employer point-of-view, there has been a continued focus on developing and retaining tighter, more collaborative teams by promoting strong internal culture.
Secondary to candidates moving roles within the Canterbury tech sector, we have also seen an above-average number of candidates who have been affected by restructuring and redundancies. However, few have struggled to be redeployed, and most are now enjoying interesting and challenging work with their new employers.
From a contract perspective, it was a quieter-than-average year, though there was a slight lift in demand in the final quarter of 2018. Projects took longer than expected to gain traction, or were temporarily shelved whilst budgets and business requirements are reassessed. The primary requirements we have seen in the market have revolved strongly around Business Analysis and Software Development, with very little in the Project & Programme Management space. This has been reflective of the project lifecycle, with many projects being scoped but not necessarily taken through to delivery.
As mentioned above, we have been working with a mix of local job seekers and candidates returning home to Christchurch, and have noted a below-average level of recruitment in the 'new to New Zealand' market. Certainly, there is still a strong interest in living and working in Christchurch for the international community, but that desire has not always been met by a willingness to employ by the local market, especially considering the availability of local employee talent.
Mid-Senior Developers, House of Travel - House of Travel is looking to grow its existing Software Development team by two Mid-Senior Developers. This is an outstanding opportunity to work in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, with a tonne of variety and an internal culture that is second to none. Work is broad, spanning web, integration and app development in C#.
Software Engineer - Xamarin, Trimble - Don't miss this opportunity to work with and learn from the best, join the GIS Data Collection group within Trimble Navigation. This is an excellent role for an intermediate level software engineer to work in a tight knit multidisciplinary team to develop solutions in C# on Xamarin.
Senior Developers, Pegasus Health - We are currently working with Pegasus Health to help continue to grow their software development capability. Developers are supporting existing software and developing emerging technology solutions for the Canterbury public health sector, and have the opportunity to make a real difference in their community. We have requirements in both the Integration and .Net space for Senior Developers.
It was lovely to see out 2018 as a team, but we did have to say a sad farewell to our candidate resourcer, Emma, who was offered a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity at the UN in Vienna. Very hard to beat that! We are really excited for Emma and look forward to keeping up-to-date with how she goes. We are otherwise business as usual internally, and are enjoying a busy return to the new year with a number of new contract and permanent roles already underway.
In terms of candidates in demand, 2018 was very much a broad market. In the permanent space, recruitment was very much geared towards the Software Development/Applications side, with a below-average demand for Project and Programme Managers, and a continued but measured demand for Developers, Business Analysts and Testers. Infrastructure roles were quieter than usual and tended to sit at the Systems/Infrastructure Administrator level, with very little movement in the Management/Team Leader space.
We have observed, for the first time in years, a very high number of Management/CIO roles coming to market, and quite a bit of shuffling is happening in this space. This was always coming, with a significant number of candidates in this space looking at new opportunities, but with no scope to move. The emergence of a couple of new roles coming to market has triggered a 'merry go round' effect, with CIOs moving from one local post to another. As a result, this year will likely see many new CIOs find their feet and start driving new improvement initiatives.
On the contracting side, 2018 was very heavily geared towards Business Analysis and Software Development (in far smaller numbers). Requirements were driven by projects needing scoping, additional resources needed to get work across the line and to cover periods of absence. It has not been what would be described as a 'contractor's market,' and we watch with interest to see how this evolves in 2019.
General Round Up
For employers, 2018 was certainly the year of BAU and steady as she goes. There was, however, a much lower level of staff retention than in recent years, so a significant amount of recruitment was driven by replacing departing team members. In general, project work has been low, and a number of key projects still lie in the wings, ready to go at some point in the first half of 2019.
From a permanent perspective, we are seeing the first signs of a return to growth as we move into 2019, but this may be tempered by a resource shortage given the movement of candidates that occurred across 2018. We expect to be driving hard within our international talent pools, expat kiwis, and, in a new trend, North Island residents chasing the lifestyle opportunities available in Canterbury.
Work/life balance, learning opportunities, growth and development and a positive work environment continue to sit at the top of candidate's wish lists, with salaries still remaining static.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
Over the last quarter, we’ve written several blogs. You can find them below:
Today’s candidates often talk about flexibility playing a critical part in their job search. With this idea featuring heavily in our latest Sourced Report, we take a look at what exactly candidates are looking for in an employer, and why being flexible with your ‘must-haves’ can be beneficial in the long-term.
Although you may have landed the interview, it’s not too late for simple mistakes to derail your efforts. We see them time and time again but with a bit of preparation, you’ll be able to avoid falling into the same trap. Read more, here.
How to Choose Between Two Great IT Candidates
Whilst having two equally promising candidates on the table is a fortunate position to be in, choosing the right person for the role can be challenging. Here are three methods to help you make the best decision for your business.
12 Oct 18 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to Spring! It’s hard to believe we're entering the last three months of 2018 and are well and truly on the slippery slide to Christmas. We hope you're all enjoying the longer nights and warmer weather we’re experiencing on the other side of daylight savings. It has been a productive three months for us at Sourced, with plenty to report on in this end-of-quarter wrap up.
The third quarter of the year started off on a slightly quieter note, which we were expecting given the sheer growth that our clients experienced over Q2. With so much permanent recruitment successfully packed into Q2, we always knew that Q3 would be slower to pick up pace and have really only seen the market starting to hit its straps again from early September. On the whole, permanent recruitment has continued to far outweigh contract, although contract has lifted as well.
We noted previously that right through 2017 and into early 2018, levels of staff retention had been very high, and we were largely reliant on candidates relocating to Christchurch from within the country and internationally to keep up with client demands. This trend has certainly shifted across both Q2 and Q3 of this year, with the number of candidates moving jobs within Christchurch now overshadowing those new to the market. In terms of what has been driving this internal movement, the most common motivators are still the same - more responsibility, more interesting projects, promotion and career advancement. With many employees having been in the same permanent role for 5+ years, this is a natural cycle, and decisions are being made on solid selection and motivation criteria. Salary is still not coming into the equation to a major extent for most candidates, other than the usual readjustment to market rates. We do expect levels of movement within the Christchurch tech sector to slow as we approach Christmas, and don’t anticipate them to rise again until early in the new year.
As we noted above, permanent recruitment has far outweighed contract recruitment across Q3, however, we have seen a slight uplift in the latter. This has been predominantly focused around high priority projects that need to quickly apply skilled resources, as well as short term pieces of work where there are insufficient internal resources for the requirements. We’ve seen a real increase in demand for a variety of contract skills, including Development, Testing, Database, Technical Writing and Business Analysis. However, the Project/Programme Management space remains very quiet as we've seen for most of this year.
Developer in Test - We're looking for a keen up-and-coming Developer in Test/Test Automation Specialist to join this employer. You'll be adequately experienced and will thrive in an environment that embraces agile processes, test-driven development and continuous integration/deployment. Along with being highly motivated and keen to work as part of a self-managing scrum team, the ideal candidate is a results-driven quick learner who is confident, flexible and willing to challenge ideas. You'll have hands-on experience with Java, JS, SQL, HTML, CSS, Scala, Groovy, Python and enjoy a team that celebrates success every day!
Business Solutions Project Manager, Nurse Maude - We’re seeking to appoint a Business Solutions Project Manager to help achieve Nurse Maude’s strategic objectives by ensuring the effective utilisation of IT platforms (Dynamics 365 CRM, Office 365, Pay Global etc). The role will be key in promoting and supporting Nurse Maude’s digital transformation strategy which will ensure we continue to play a leading part in providing effective and efficient community-based care for New Zealanders.
Software Development Manager, Zeevo - Zeevo is a well-established market leader in custom web solutions and software for business, based in the heart of Christchurch’s Innovation Precinct. Working closely with business owners, internal development teams and other stakeholders, Zeevo recognises that projects thrive on positive, focused collaboration, both internally and externally. The company is on the lookout for the right person to lead a team that gets a kick out of working with high-calibre clients and delivering projects which give clients and their business a leading edge in our ever-changing market.
It's been a steady and productive period for the Sourced team over the past three months. We thoroughly enjoyed this years’ Tech Summit, where we were once again a key sponsor and held a stand in the main display area. This event is always a fantastic opportunity to catch up with old friends, clients and candidates, and find out what's been happening over the past 12 months. This year, we were really impressed with the quality of the speakers and the number of smaller, emerging tech companies on display.
In terms of candidates in demand, from a permanent perspective we’re seeing a broad range of skills being sought-after across Development (Leadership and Hands-on), with Test Automation/Developer in Test, and Front-End/JavaScript skills particularly desired as the demand for talent surpasses supply. Business Systems Analysis and Electronics Engineering have followed closely behind with only a few clients recruiting in volume, and we remain busy in the .NET Development space as well.
Interestingly, Electronics kept us busy right through the second quarter within the Embedded Firmware, Hardware and Test areas. The R&D/Electronics space has always been a key market for us, but this year it has really taken centre stage as activity increases across both our large international clients and smaller startups/emerging tech companies.
For the first time this year there has been a lift in the Management/Team Leader space, with quite a bit of turnover both at the CIO and IT Management level. We haven't seen this in any volume through 2017/2018, so we’re anticipating upcoming changes in what has been a relatively stable market. We know of at least three CIO roles currently being recruited here in Christchurch and an equal number that have been recently filled. Watch this space!
On the contracting side, this quarter has been a real mixed bag, with recent demand across Business Analysis, Technical Writing, Software Development and Database Engineering. Resources have tended to be directed towards existing projects that need to pick up the pace, meet key deadlines or just get additional work across the line. New projects, on the other hand, are still proving to be slower to come onstream.
Overall, we are experiencing a busy period with no signs of a slowdown. Growth is still happening across the sector, while lower than usual retention levels are also driving activity. Both contractors and permanent staff members are in demand for a diverse mix of BAU and existing projects. Contrary to reports coming out of Wellington and Auckland, we are happy to reveal that business confidence remains very high, while salary levels stay static.
We hope you enjoyed this update and look forward to keeping you abreast with how the rest of the year evolves!
Over the last quarter, we’ve written several blogs. You can find them below:
When looking for your next hire, it’s not always the obvious choice that’s the best fit. By hiring for the future, you’re not only recognising people that have the potential to thrive in a new role, but also adding genuine value to the business in the long-term. Check out our advice to hiring for potential, here.
Whilst it could be tempting to jump straight into the job market, there are a few key things you should do before making a move. We’ve prepared some top tips to set you up for success. Read more here.
5 Jul 18 by Michelle Bishop
We hope you've been keeping warm and well in this last cold month. It’s safe to say we are all welcoming the occasional bursts of sunshine and hoping for a quick return to warmer weather. It's been a busy, busy quarter here at Sourced with an almost unprecedented level of activity in the permanent recruitment space, coupled with sustained demand for contractors in the Professional Services space.
In this quarter update, we look at who's who in the zoo, market activity, what to expect in the coming months, and a general overview of the 'state of the IT nation'.
The second quarter of the year ramped up even further on an already busy Q1 with an almost unprecedented level of demand across all IT disciplines. Rather than coming from just one or two key clients, we have had a very large number recruiting across the city, with recruitment being a mix of replacing outgoing team members and growth. Recruitment has been both in response to projects coming on stream and as a result of general business confidence and growth.
From a Sourced perspective, for the first time in over a year, 50% of permanent placements made in Q2 of 2018 were candidates choosing to move jobs within Christchurch. We have noted right through 2017 and into 2018 that levels of staff retention have been very high and we've largely relied on candidates relocating to Christchurch from within the country and internationally to keep up with client demands.
Salary has not really come into the equation to a great extent. Given the market as a whole has been very stable over the last year or so this cannot be unexpected, with candidates naturally starting to come out of a cycle of focus and contentment and starting to question 'what's next'?
As we've commented before, we’re continuing to see an upward shift in candidates moving to Christchurch from both within New Zealand and internationally. We're finding those new to New Zealand are coming directly to Christchurch rather than via Auckland, and those based in Auckland are working a lot more actively to get themselves to
Christchurch, chasing similar career opportunities and salary levels, with a significantly lower cost of living.
From a contract perspective, as noted above, the level of demand of contract resource has held steady with the predominant demand being in the BA and Project Management space, with a small spike in Infrastructure Engineering/support contracts. Contracts have tended to be reasonably contained, typically in the 3-6 month space and for specific, well framed projects.
Systems Analyst (Kathmandu) - We're on the lookout for an emerging Technical Business/Systems Analyst to work in an iconic Kiwi business, headquartered here in Christchurch. You’ll be junior - intermediate level with solid exposure to modern ERP systems, and a bright, enthusiastic, professional approach. Training will be provided for the right candidate.
.NET Developer, Invert Robotics - Invert Robotics is seeking a .Net Developer. This is a very unique opportunity to develop software solutions from the ground up in a .Net/Cloud environment and architect, design and develop future solutions.
Senior Electronics Engineer, Invert Robotics - We're in need of a Senior Electronics Engineer (also for Invert Robotics). Joining a local company making a huge impact on the global stage, you’ll be working across Firmware and Hardware Development within a dedicated Product Development team. This is a role with huge scope and would suit an all-rounder seeking greater independence, and the ability to work in a fast-paced Product Development environment.
It's been a very busy time these last three months with barely time to stop and take stock. We recently farewelled Jessica Massey from the Consulting Team who welcomed a wee boy to the world and has chosen to step back from agency recruitment to spend more time with her family. We have also welcomed to the team, Emma, who will be joining us in a Recruitment Support capacity, helping to continue to drive candidate engagement and supporting the great level of client service that we pride ourselves on here at Sourced.
In terms of candidates in demand, from a permanent perspective, there has been a very broad demand for skills across Business Analysis, Project Management, Electronic Engineering, Software Development and Test.
The R&D/Electronics space has always been one we've covered but has certainly taken centre stage these last few months, and within both our large international clients and smaller startups/emerging tech companies.
Demand for Developers in the .Net space has continued at steady pace, and we have also noted a spike in demand for Technical Business & Systems Analysts, both on a contract and permanent basis. ERP (in particular Dynamics AX) has been in hot demand across a number of clients, both for projects and ongoing support.
We are continuing to see a level of stability in the Management/Team Leader space, with retention levels being very high, and little in the way of new position creation. Graduate/Junior recruitment has been represented in small numbers, however recruitment continues to be at the experienced Intermediate - Senior level on the whole.
As new projects gain traction and move through planning and approval processes. We have otherwise seen a variety of roles recruited in ones and twos across Android/Cloud development, Network Engineering, Helpdesk, and Architecture.
Overall, we are experiencing a much busier than usual period with no signs of a slowdown. Growth is happening across the sector, retention levels are lower than usual, and so this is also driving activity. Contractors and permanent staff members are in demand, and this is for a mix of BAU and large projects. Business confidence remains very high, while salary levels remain static.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
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Over the last quarter, we’ve written several blogs. You can find them below:
Are you longing for a job that you feel passionate about? At Sourced, we’re pretty good at matching people with their dream IT jobs. If you’re looking for a change, here are two simple tips to finding a job you love. Read more here.
In an organisation’s transformational journey, there are a number of value killers (or risks). When it comes to the recruitment process, here are a few that have the greatest impact on tech companies, and how to avoid them. Read more here.
Nailing an interview is a daunting task at the best of times, but what happens when you’re not even going to be in the same room? We’ve got interviewees and interviewers covered with our dos and don’ts of a Skype interview. Read more here.
9 Apr 18 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to Autumn!
We hope you're enjoying the remainder of the warm weather as the days start to get shorter ahead of daylight savings. We hope that you, like us, enjoyed the time off over Easter and were able to relax and unwind over the break.
In this quarter update, we look at how the first quarter of the year has shaped up, and what we might expect to see in the coming months.
The year kicked off at a cracker pace, with permanent roles rolling over from December, and new permanent and contract roles coming to market from as early as week 2 of January. This was a particularly early start to the year for the contracting market, which typically does not come online until late February/March. Additionally, the flowover work from December coupled with new permanent roles brought forward recruitment. which usually starts to get busy towards the end of February.
There has definitely been a sense of urgency about to get new teams established and running, seats filled to meet project demands, and market optimism on the whole remains positive. From a retention perspective, it's still a very positive picture for employers, with valued team members broadly choosing not to look at the market and sourcing coming via a range of expat, new migrant, relocation and returning to work talent pools. There has been a small bubble of disestablishments and redundancies resulting in local talent becoming available but this has been only a small percentage overall of our active talent pool.
From a permanent perspective, demand is broad and from junior through to senior/specialist, and from a contract perspective, planning and ramp up of projects is well and truly underway, with a firm ongoing demand for Business Analysts and Project Managers being at the fore.
As mentioned above, we are continuing to draw heavily on international and expat candidate markets, with active movement within the Canterbury region low to steady. This has been a full year trend through 2017.
Technical Tester - Get involved in one of Microsoft's Top 5 Global Programmes currently underway, right here in Christchurch. A great opportunity for junior, mid and senior level technical testers to get involved with Functional, Technical, Integration and Automation testing. Fixed Term contracts available now.
House of Travel, Project Manager - Due to the pace and rate of change within our industry, our systems and technologies are constantly evolving to keep up. We’re a business that leads through technology, and with significant projects to deliver across 2018, we are looking for an experienced Project Manager to join our team.
Software Architect/Team Lead, VSS Trimble New Zealand - The candidate will have the opportunity to gain excellent on-the-job experience working for a fast-moving software division building full-stack microservices. You will develop performant, scalable applications that are translated into 23 languages and used in 192 countries. Applications run in Amazon Web Services and you will leverage AngularJS, WebPack, Bootstrap, TypeScript, NodeJS, C# .NET Core and Apache Kafka. Come join us if you like solving hard scaling problems that involve billions of rows of code.
It's been a busy quarter within the Sourced office with, as mentioned, activity at an above average level. We were thrilled to welcome Jess’s new baby, born in February, and otherwise our team has remained very much engaged and stable.
In terms of candidates in demand, from a permanent perspective, there has been a very broad demand for skills across Project Management, Electronics and Web Development (C#/JavaScript) and Systems Engineering. Coming out of a very quiet patch, Infrastructure roles have been on the rise, with the focus lying in the mid-experienced Windows Sys Engineering areas. We are continuing to see a level of stability in the Management/Team Leader space, with retention levels being very high, and little in the way of new position creation. Graduate/Junior recruitment has also only been represented in small numbers, with recruitment continuing to be at the experienced Intermediate - Senior level on the whole.
Web Development in the JavaScript and Front End areas has been very busy, as has broader Android/iOS Development opportunities, both permanent and contract.
There are a lot of organisations really pushing on into new technology stacks and pursuing aggressive product growth plans, which has really invigorated the market and introduced some really interesting opportunities.
On the contracting side, this has been heavily geared towards Business Analysis and Project Management as new projects gain traction and/or continue at pace from 2017. We are seeing a number of projects gaining momentum which will look to carry the contracting market through to at least the second quarter, and which may see a movement of permanent employees towards contract and fixed term roles.
Overall, we are experiencing a busier than usual start to the year, with a slight flattening as we see out the quarter, predominantly due to vacancies being filled quickly and teams getting up to speed/new starts inducted. Growth is happening across the sector, retention levels are high, and as a result we are continuing to grow the market with new talent. Contractors and permanent staff members are in demand, and this is for a mix of BAU and large projects. Business confidence remains high, while salary levels remain static.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
Over the last quarter, we’ve written several blogs. You can find them below:
With International Women’s Day last week, we thought we’d take a look at the data we’d collected in our Sourced Report survey, and examine the state of play when it comes to women in IT in New Zealand. While some great progress is being made, our results make it clear that there is still some way to go to achieve true parity. Read more here.
Taking a job within the New Zealand tech industry is an option many migrants would like to explore, especially given the sector here is thriving. But where do you start? If you're an offshore candidate, head in the right direction with these tips.
Are you back in the office and suffering from a serious case of “new year, same job”? You’re not alone. Take a look at our blog to find out how you can lay the foundations to take your career to the next level, and make the most of this new year!
24 Jan 18 by Michelle Bishop
First up, a very Happy New Year to you all. While no doubt there is still a longing to return to the long and lazy days of Christmas, at Sourced we are already forming plans and really ramping up for the new year with energy and optimism. We are now all back on deck and have had a busier than usual return to the year with both contract and permanent recruitment well underway.
In this quarter update, we look at the whole of 2017, bringing you a view of the year that was, and a sneak peak of what to look out for this year. We hope you enjoy it! You will see a Sourced report coming to you also in early 2018 but we encourage you to make contact with us if you're looking for any specific market intelligence, salary surveys, role positioning or similar. We're in a really unique position to watch the market as it evolves, and always happy to share these insights.
2017 really was a busy busy year, with little of the peaks and troughs we will often encounter across the four quarters. It was a market driven by both contract and permanent requirements, all within a quieter than usual local candidate market. This meant our candidate pools were tending to come from offshore, the regions (with a noted pickup of relocations from Auckland), and expats returning home to Christchurch.
While permanent recruitment continued at pace across most areas of IT in 2017, there was a definite focus on growth in highly specific/targeted areas, and with a spike towards the end of 2017 (and into early 2018) of newly created, more generalist roles, aimed at ramping up internal capability for our technology clients. Business confidence appears to be remaining high with the majority of new roles coming into the market for 2018 being new, and again responding to a need to tool up for upcoming projects and product releases. This is also driving contract market activity with contract roles coming to market earlier than we would typically see for this time of year, and in greater volume.
In terms of staff retention, it was a repeat of 2016, with very little movement in the local market, and candidates predominantly coming from outside of Canterbury. Where they are looking, local candidates are tending to be looking for stability first and foremost, interesting project challenges, the opportunity to work with new technologies, work/life balance, and professional growth opportunities.
In terms of staff retention, it was a repeat of 2016, with very little movement in the local market, and candidates predominantly coming from outside of Canterbury.
From a contract perspective, there was buoyancy across the year, with a particularly strong demand for Business Analysts, followed by Test Analysts and finally Project Managers. In 2016, coming off the back off of a BAU year, we were predicting 2017 to be a busy one for the Fixed Term and Contract market, and we have certainly seen this. This has been driven both by reasonably significant system implementation projects coming online, and generally holding the fort while plans were developed for longer term recruits.
As mentioned above, we are continuing to draw heavily on international and expat candidate markets, with active movement within the Canterbury region down. We have seen this right through 2016 and 2017, with those choosing to move within the Christchurch market tending to be moving for hands on/mid-senior level roles, or roles for which they have been specifically headhunted by clients for their skills and capability. There is a definite desire at the Senior/Management end of the market for change, and many are looking to new opportunities in the market. However, the market has offered very little in return, with minimal recruitment in this space across the year.
MCS Build & Test Engineer - Outstanding opportunity to join Trimble Navigation, specialising in Android manufacturing software technologies, on a 12 month fixed term contract managing build and test environments. Trimble are a leading global specialist in the navigation technology space, with an unrelenting focus on innovation and a strong presence in Christchurch.
Business Analyst/Product Owner - We seek to appoint a motivated, driven Business Analyst/Product Owner in a brand new role for Wellington Drive Technologies, a New Zealand owned, global market leading high tech manufacturing and SaaS business. Working between Product Management and an Agile Delivery team, you will provide the analysis and support integral to the successful delivery of this established and growing company’s Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.
Senior Web Developer - This is an outstanding opportunity for a skilled software engineer with a solid understanding of 3D graphics, interest in computational design, and experience in writing scalable web applications to join the Computational Design Group (part of Trimble Buildings) in beautiful Wellington. You will work in an environment offering the benefits of both a startup and established global business, becoming a core team member working on an ambitious project that is poised to transform manufacturing & construction, and reach millions of users.
2017 was a year of big change for Sourced, with several team members heading off overseas and as a result new team members coming in. In particular we farewelled Hannah Iranon, our very first Sourced employee, who headed off the the US with her husband. However, we're still in touch and enjoying seeing her flourish in a similar role in an entirely new market!
It was great to round out the year with a Christmas get-together with all of our contractors who have done such a great job across the year. With a number now working with us on multiple projects and across multiple clients, our contractors really are an extension of the Sourced family and it's always a great time to get them together in the same place at the same time.
Finally, as a Sourced team, we finished out the year in typical kiwi fashion with a Christmas BBQ with lots of kids, swimming, and terrible Christmas music. Fun times were had!
2017 was very much a broad market in terms of candidates in demand. In the permanent space, recruitment was (as with 2016) very much geared towards the Software Development/Applications side, with a continued but measured demand for Project Managers, Developers, Business Analysts and Testers. Infrastructure roles did show strength, however tended to sit at a Helpdesk/Support and Infrastructure Engineer level, with very little movement in the Management/Team Leader space.
We have certainly continued to see a level of stability in the Management/Team Leader space, with retention levels still remaining high, and little in the way of new position creation. This means we have a very deep candidate pool at this level, and really hope to be able to assist with new appointments this year. While it certainly presents some challenges for those looking to progress their careers, it remains a positive for employers from a team stability and leadership perspective.
We have certainly continued to see a level of stability in the Management/Team Leader space. This means we have a very deep candidate pool at this level, and really hope to be able to assist with new appointments this year.
For 2018 we are looking ahead with interest. We have clients with large projects well underway, and projects in the wings. Recruitment is already at full pace, and with local candidate retention at an all time high over the past two years, we may well see a movement of local permanent employees coming into the market. Watch out for continued demand in the BA, Development, Test, and Project Management space.
2017 was certainly a busy year of BAU and project recruitment, with 2018 looking busier still. Projects that ramped up in 2017 continue on, and demand remains high for quality permanent and contract candidates.
Work life balance, learning opportunities, growth and development and a positive work environment remain top on candidate's wish lists, with salaries still remaining static. This again has been the case for a couple of years now, so expect an upward swing across the year.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
Over the last quarter, we’ve written several blogs. You can find them below:
As another year goes by in tech, new technologies are opening up new opportunities for IT professionals. With a number of exciting trends on the horizon with the potential to disrupt the market, here are some of the areas that we expect more demand for in 2018 and beyond.
With the election still fresh in the memories of many of us around New Zealand, Sourced founder Jason Bishop has his say on what this means for the IT sector.
9 Oct 17 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to our quarterly market update. Hopefully the warm weather and longer evenings are providing you with more opportunities to get out and about and welcome the incoming summer. An eclectic bunch here at Sourced, we're finding the return of daylight savings is providing ample chance to pursue a range of personal pursuits from cycling to music, sports to beekeeping (see image right!). Within Sourced walls, October is always that time of year when we look backwards, look forwards and realise the year really has sped by and we're now in the final ramp up to Christmas. While it's far too early (isn't it?) to be talking Christmas, we're busy in the last push before 'the' holidays in December.
It's been a really busy last 3 months, with lots of activity, events, general community involvement and team growth all in the mix. We are continuing to find that our contributions to the Canterbury tech sector are growing well beyond traditional recruitment, and we've continued to build some really valuable partnerships and alliances over this past quarter. At Sourced, we have always firmly believed that we have an obligation to be great corporate citizens, active community members, and a source of up-to-the-minute information for anybody seeking it. We are always looking for new and different ways to participate, contribute and to give back.
As we look back over the past 3 months, we have seen a continued demand for contractors, a demand area that has now held steady since mid-year. Permanent recruitment has continued down the BAU path, however, conversely, we are recruiting full new teams in smaller numbers for new technologies/projects kicking off. This recruitment has been large volume within a small number of client sites, with the remainder of our permanent recruitment focus being BAU recruitment for growth in ones and twos, and replacements.
Larger projects in the market are few, however we do see this changing in the new year, with a number of businesses currently in the planning and preparation stages of ERP and large system replacement projects. We expect these to ramp up in earnest in the very late stages of Q1 2018 and beyond, with no real expectation of movement prior to that.
We expect big projects to ramp up in earnest in the very late stages of Q1 2018 and beyond, with no real expectation of movement prior to that.
We are continuing to draw heavily on international and ex pat candidate markets, with active movement within the Canterbury region still right down. Those choosing to move within the Christchurch market have tended to be moving for hands on/mid-senior level roles, or roles for which they have been specifically headhunted by clients for their skills and capability, and are otherwise those affected by planned or actual restructures. Employers are clearly doing a great job in their engagement and retention efforts and we are seeing a very satisfied local employee base on the whole.
Operations Analyst - Foodstuffs SI Ltd are offering a great opportunity for a Helpdesk Support specialist to take the next step up. This role is a really broad mix, including monitoring and maintenance of servers and backups, customer support and supporting cloud products. You’ll work closely with internal stakeholders assisting with projects from an operational perspective while assisting technical support teams. $55-$70k
Business Systems Analyst - House of Travel are looking for an experienced Business Systems analyst to work within a dynamic BA team, getting involved in requirements gathering, gap analysis, systems analysis and reporting. The role involves a high level of collaboration with internal support streams and third party vendors, working in a fast-paced Agile delivery environment. $80-85k
Web/UI Architect - A long standing employer in Christchurch, Trimble New Zealand offers career opportunities across a range of business units represented here, including GIS Data Collection, Heavy Civil Construction (Machine Control and Software Solutions), Precision Agriculture, and Land Survey. The Web/UI Architect is responsible for continuing to develop and evolve the software architecture that underpins world class user interface software, within a fast paced, dynamic environment. +$120k
The last 3 months have been a really interesting time for the Sourced team, with team movement and growth. On an extremely sad note, we farewelled our very first Sourced employee, Hannah Iranon. Hannah joined us in the first year of the Sourced business, presenting as a bright and ambitious Coffee Culture Cafe Manager with aspirations of a career in recruitment. Hannah went on to hold a number of roles in the business from Senior Recruitment Consultant to Operations Manager and literally worked alongside Jason and Michelle, forming the building blocks of the Sourced that we operate today. Hannah has headed off to the USA with her husband and has managed to secure an awesome role with a local recruitment company similar to Sourced in her new hometown of Spokane. We know she's going be a star.
We have welcomed Jessica Massey to the recruitment team, joining us here in Christchurch and a lot of you will already have had the pleasure of dealing with Jess. From a strong recruitment, technology and account management background, Jess has fitted into the team quickly and we look forward to introducing her to you over the coming months.
In September, we were once again represented as key sponsors and Trade Show participants at the Canterbury Tech Summit. This year again was an attendance sell out, with over 650 in attendance. It was a really worthwhile day; Canterbury Tech Summit is always 'the' event in the Canterbury national tech calendar (in our opinion), and feedback was very positive around the quality of speakers, venue, organisation, and collaboration and networking opportunities. As is our practice in inviting community groups onto our Tech Summit stand, we this year invited Code Club to share our stand and really enjoyed spending the day with Michael and Bryn and promoting the awesome work they do in getting coding and tech skills into primary schools across the country.
Demand continues in the contracting space, in particular for Business Analysts and Project Managers, with the majority of projects being short to mid-term, filling gaps in internal capability, getting projects across the line, and laying the initial foundations for future projects. This is very much in line with Q3 activity and we expect will start to quieten off as we move closer to the end of year. Contracting as a whole is about where we'd expect it for this time of year, though it has held consistency for some time now, not effected by the usual peaks and troughs we see in this market. We expect to see a strong pick up again in Feb-March of 2018 as businesses come back online in earnest.
On the permanent front, again this is best described as business as usual. Permanent retention remains high, and hiring that is underway appears to be in small numbers, for specialist roles and roles that have had real planning wrapped around them as opposed to pure organic growth. That said, we have a small number of clients that are growing significantly, and this is exclusively due to new products/technology sets and teams being built around this. Modern web technologies (Angular, React, JavaScript) and Embedded Engineering requirements are keeping us extremely busy, as is Infrastructure and Systems, an area that has generally been quieter throughout the year. Average appointing salaries have been sitting in the $80-100k range, with mid-senior level 'on the tools' candidates being most in demand. This is up on last year, where an average salary recruit at this time of year was sitting around $65-$80k.
The market continues to move along at pace both in contract and permanent recruitment. Staff retention is high, growth is well planned and scoped, projects are gathering momentum, with 2018 looking to continue on in earnest. We look forward to seeing how the rest of the year plays out, and will come to you with a final quarter/year wrap up in late December. We hope you enjoy the warmer weather coming, and look forward to seeing you in due course over the next few months.
Over the last quarter, we’ve written several blogs. You can find them below:
With this year being an election year, we took a look at how the major parties were approaching the tech sector, and what their policies meant for you. Now that it's all said and done (well, just about anyway!) you can take a retrospective look here.
As IT companies become more receptive to professionals with varied job histories, is having a stable work-history still a plus? In this blog, we dive into the benefits of job-hopping and long tenure and how you can ensure you’re doing what’s best for your career.
The IT sector has long been a hotbed for new, innovative approaches to leadership, changing the way that we look at leadership in organisations. As the landscape continues to change, do traditional leadership approaches still have a place? Read our latest blog to find out.
10 Jul 17 by Michelle Bishop
We hope you're keeping well and warm as we finally get past the hump of the shortest day. With the coldest days really creeping us on us we've all been spending a lot more time indoors, and making the most of the sun when it chooses to show itself! Right in the middle of a really hectic period internally, we've been working on a range of junior - senior, permanent and contract positions across Christchurch and Auckland, with no pause in sight. It's a busy time, and we look forward to filling you in on why!
In this quarter update, we look at how the second quarter of the year has shaped up, and what we might expect to see in the coming months.
The year continues at a cracker pace, with permanent roles continuing to being released and contract opportunities picking up with equal pace. There is definitely a sense of urgency about to get new teams established and running, seats filled to meet project demands, and market optimism on the whole remains positive. From a retention perspective, it's still a very positive picture for employers, with valued team members broadly choosing not to look at the market and sourcing coming via a range of expat, new migrant, relocation and returning to work talent pools.
There is definitely a sense of urgency about to get new teams established and running, seats filled to meet project demands, and market optimism on the whole is very positive.
From a permanent perspective, demand is broad and from junior through to senior/specialist, and from a contract perspective, planning and ramp up of projects is well and truly underway, with a firm ongoing demand for Business Analysts and Project Managers being at the fore.
As mentioned above, we are continuing to draw heavily on international and expat candidate markets, with active movement within the Canterbury region down. This has been a full year to date trend, and given we're already mid year, we do expect this sentiment to continue with recruitment activities predominantly aimed at building new teams, new capability and delivery projects as opposed to recruiting due to attrition.
In the year since we opened our Auckland office, the business continues to grow. We have been fortunate in establishing some solid partnerships with key clients as we work with them to manage their talent planning and pipelines, both in New Zealand and offshore.
With the overall technology market growth in Auckland - largely driven by organisations undergoing continuous digital transformation - we are seeing more businesses evolving to cloud-based platforms. In turn, this creates a higher demand for cloud specialists, big data specialists and analysts as organisations underpin their decision-making with measurable data.
Talent in demand continues to be at the senior level. With the demand/supply imbalance, good intermediate level candidates with attitude and an aptitude for knowledge and learning are often stepping up into these roles. Where niche skill sets are hard to come by, we rely on our border talent search to be able to keep up with the growth of Auckland.
Job-seeker trends - A growing number of job seekers are rating workplace flexibility ahead of remuneration.
Employer trends - Aside from the technical skill-sets, employers rate adaptability, cultural/team fit, business acumen and communication skills. Organisations which offer L&D opportunities are winning on the acquisition and retention front.
Hot Jobs
Junior Java Developer
We are seeking an enthusiastic, technically minded Java Developer to join our unique Christchurch-based client are the bright sparks behind the development of one of Europe's leading online advertising marketplaces. You'll be working at the cutting edge of Agile Development with a large team of highly skilled professionals, renowned for their fantastic culture and commitment to evolving software development methodologies. is the place to be to develop your enterprise Java skills.
This is a chance to join high profile organisation in the manufacturing industry based on the outskirts of Christchurch. In this role you'll be focused on a varied range of projects, juggling multiple projects at any given time and working with a talented and highly regarded project team. You'll be taking ownership of a number of projects to ensure they are delivered to the highest standard, whilst using your initiative to add value in this rapidly expanding environment. Opportunities on this scale are rare in the Canterbury market and we don't expect the position will be available long!
Senior Android Developer - Contract
We are seeking a Senior Android Developer to take on this contract role, working on greenfields development projects within a collaborative, high performing R&D team. Our client has a proud history of innovation and thought leadership, and are not afraid to use bleeding edge technologies to deliver innovative product solutions. In this role you'll have a genuine opportunity to influence the development of products and services, and contribute to new and exciting product offerings.
It's been a steady as she goes quarter within the Sourced office. We have been really thrilled to see our Auckland team continue to go from strength to strength, with a full team now actively engaged in the northern market. We recently all got together as a full team in Auckland, the first time we've stood proud as a 'national team', so quite a moment! We should probably mention this was as a result of being announced for the 3rd year running as Finalists in the RCSA NZ Recruitment Awards, for the Client Service award. While we weren't able to repeat last year's win, it was fantastic none the less to be recognised once again for all the work that goes on during the year.
In terms of candidates in demand, from a permanent perspective, there has been a very broad demand for skills across Business Analysis, Project Management, Web Development (JavaScript) and Systems Engineering. Coming out of a very quiet patch, Infrastructure roles have been on the rise, with the focus lying in the mid-experienced Windows Sys Engineering areas. We are continuing to see a level of stability in the Management/Team Leader space, with retention levels being very high, and little in the way of new position creation. Graduate/Junior recruitment has also only been represented in small numbers, with recruitment continuing to be at the experienced Intermediate - Senior level on the whole.
Coming out of a very quiet patch, Infrastructure roles have been on the rise with the focus lying in the mid-experienced Windows Sys Engineering areas
Web Development in the JavaScript and Front End areas has been very busy, as has broader Android/iOS Development opportunities, both permanent and contract. There are a lot of organisations really pushing on into new technology stacks and pursuing aggressive product growth plans, which has really invigorated the market and introduced some really interesting opportunities.
On the contracting side, this has been heavily geared towards Business Analysis and Project Management as new projects gain traction and move through planning and approval processes into delivery. We are seeing a number of projects gaining momentum which will look to carry the contracting market through to at least the fourth quarter, and which may see a movement of permanent employees towards contract and fixed term roles.
Overall, we are experiencing a busier than usual year in general, having worked at a consistent pace since January, and with no signs of a slow down. Growth is happening across the sector, retention levels are high, and as a result we are continuing to grow the market with new talent. Contractors and permanent staff members are in demand, and this is for a mix of BAU and large projects. Business confidence remains high, while salary levels remain static.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
We've seen a strong rise in the number of people looking to stay in their roles indefinitely (from 30% in September to 37%). This ties into the previous point that the IT market is growing, with new work coming in and making it more attractive for people to stay in their roles long-term. This coincides with less people being dissatisfied with their salary (down to 31% from 42%).
The IT market is growing, with new work coming in and making it more attractive for people to stay in their roles long-term.
Over the last quarter, we’ve written several blogs. You can find them below:
Is there an HR process that is more despised than the annual performance review? With technology allowing managers to gather real-time feedback, granular appraisals look like a no-brainer. Here’s why we think it’s not that easy.
Does your CV synergise with social media to create a unique experience that highlights why you’re the perfect candidate for the role? Don’t miss a trick, find out how you can bring your CV into the digital era here.
With a shortage of IT talent, it can be tempting to fall victim to the candidate who appears too good to be true at interview. But should you be wary of someone who performs too well during the interview? We take a look at the things you need to pay attention to, as well as the red herrings, here.
31 Mar 17 by Michelle Bishop
We hope you've enjoyed the final days of Summer, as we reluctantly slip into Autumn with just a few warm days remaining to enjoy. With Easter just around the corner we're looking forward to taking a brief pause after what has been an unseasonably busy start to 2017. With new team members in our Auckland team, projects ramping up within our Christchurch business, and little let up in activity between Christmas 2016 and the new year, it's been a really busy time!
In this quarterly update, we'll look at how the first quarter of the year has shaped up, and what we might expect to see in the coming months. You will see a Sourced Report has been released for early 2017, going into detail on a number of key industry trends. We also encourage you to contact us if you're looking for any specific market intelligence, salary surveys, role positioning or similar. We're in a unique position to watch the market as it evolves, and we're always happy to share these insights.
The year has gotten off to a cracker of a start, with permanent roles being released a lot earlier than we expect from January onwards and contract opportunities picking up with equal pace. There is definitely a sense of urgency about to get new teams established and running, seats filled to meet project demands, and market optimism on the whole is very positive. In terms of retention, it's still a very positive picture for employers, with valued team members broadly choosing not to look at the market in what is often termed a 'danger zone' period post the summer holiday.
There is definitely a sense of urgency about to get new teams established and running, seats filled to meet project demands, and market optimism on the whole is very positive.
From a Sourced perspective, only 10% of permanent appointments during the first quarter were candidates moving from one Christchurch employer to another, with 50% moving into Christchurch from other New Zealand centres and offshore, and 40% being in positions of redundancies, having taken breaks from working or returning from contracting to permanent employment.
From a contract perspective, planning and ramp up of projects is well and truly underway, with a firm ongoing demand for Business Analysts being at the fore.
As mentioned above, we are continuing to draw heavily on international and expat candidate markets, with active movement within the Canterbury region down. We do expect this sentiment to continue with recruitment activities predominantly aimed at building new teams, new capability and delivery projects as opposed to recruiting due to attrition.
The Auckland economy continues to grow and, along with it, many of our clients are in expansion mode. According to the March 2017 Infometrics Regional Perspectives Report, "Auckland is New Zealand's growth engine and is expected to outperform the national economy over the next four years," with nearly 85,000 new jobs forecast to be created by 2021. Job creation will be strongest in the professional, scientific and technical services sectors (16,450 jobs), healthcare and social assistance (11,050) and education and training sectors (8,200).
Talent and skills demand in the IT and Technology sectors continues to over-reach supply, reinforcing more than ever the importance of business investment in training and development. At Sourced, we are going some way to mitigating this challenge by working alongside our clients to understand their plans so we can proactively build talent pipelines.
The roles in hot demand and keeping us busy are in the digital strategy and transformation space (app developer gurus take note); software engineering and development; senior program and project managers; to name a few. We are also working on off-shore based roles with clients expanding into overseas markets.
Hot Jobs
e2 Digital - Customer Support Analyst
This role is all about providing the support clients need to operate at peak capacity. You'll action and resolve support requests via phone or our email support system (Zendesk) in a friendly, efficient manner. You'll be part of a talented in-house team of certified digital specialists working on an array of interesting projects for a range of great clients; a team dedicated to delivering amazing digital solutions by working collaboratively and utilising each member's unique skills.
Trimble - Software Engineer - C#/Automation
The candidate will be a member of an agile feature team working on creating and improving a distributed enterprise-level SaaS application. The candidate will focus on writing code to automate testing process and improving the automation test framework, and will be working with internationally distributed development teams.
Opmetrix - Software Development Team Lead
The candidate will be a member of an agile feature team working on creating and improving a distributed enterprise-level SaaS application. The candidate will focus on writing code to automate testing process and improving the automation test framework, and will be working with internationally distributed development teams.
Wellington Drive - Engineering Manager
Wellington Drive Technologies' mission is to deliver solutions to solve its customers' commercial refrigeration energy efficiency and system control problems, through the development of Advanced Electronic Motors, Airflow Solutions and Intelligent Refrigeration Controllers. Small, specialised, and focused, not a large faceless and diversified monolith, Wellington Drive Technologies are technology leaders with an engineering team among the best in the industry. This is your opportunity to be at the helm, managing day to day departmental operations, while driving successful new product development and product support project delivery within this global business.
It's been a busy start to the new year with projects kicking off, new team members coming in and little time to take a breath in between! We have been really thrilled to appoint an additional recruitment consultant to our Auckland office, joining our General Manager and resourcing team as this region continues to grow for our business. Within Christchurch, we've been a continued stable and cohesive unit, and really making the most of a busy recruiting period.
In terms of candidates in demand, from a permanent perspective, there has been a very broad demand for skills across Business Analysis, Product Ownership, Test and Product Ownership. Infrastructure roles have been extremely quiet, with the focus lying heavily on business-technical roles within enterprise businesses. We are continuing to see a level of stability in the Management/Team Leader space, with retention levels being very high, and little in the way of new position creation. Graduate/Junior recruitment has been represented in small numbers, however recruitment continues to be at the more experienced Intermediate - Senior level on the whole.
We are continuing to see a level of stability in the Management/Team Leader space, with retention levels being very high, and little in the way of new position creation.
On the contracting side, demand has been heavily geared towards Business Analysis as new projects gain traction and move through planning and approval processes. We are seeing a number of projects gaining momentum, which will look to carry the contracting market through to at least the mid-year, and may encourage movement of permanent employees towards contract and fixed term roles. This would certainly lead to a much more buoyant contracting market than we have seen in 2016. These are very large and high profile projects that will pick up a lot of resources from the local and national market, and may offer some really career-defining opportunities. Watch out for demand in the BA, Technical Analysis, Test, Project and Programme Management space.
Overall, we are experiencing a busier period than usual at this time of the year, with no signs of a slow down. Growth is happening across the sector, retention levels are high, and as a result we are continuing to grow the market with new talent. Contractors and permanent staff members are in demand, and this is for a mix of BAU and large projects. Business confidence remains high, while salary levels remain static.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
We've seen a strong rise in the number of people looking to stay in their roles indefinitely (from 30% in September to 37%). This ties into the previous point that the IT market is growing, with new work coming in and making it more attractive for people to stay in their roles long-term. This coincides with less people being dissatisfied with their salary (down to 31% from 42%).
This is a far lower disparity than previously. In February 2016, just 8% stated that they were interested in a move imminently, but by September 27% of respondents were in new roles. With 13% of respondents now saying they intend to stay in their role for up to 6 months, this might indicate that candidates are taking a more realistic view of their careers.
Over the last quarter, we’ve written several blogs. You can find them below:
A job interview can be nerve-wracking at the best of times, but thanks to the wealth of helpful information freely available on the internet, you no longer have to go in unprepared. Read more about the key to interviewing in the information age here.
Flexible working has become an increasingly popular concept, as the reality of working from any location suddenly appears more realistic through new technology. The big questions for employers, are: which roles are best suited, what will happen to results and is it a fad or a true benefit? Find out the answers here.
We've also recently released our latest Sourced Report; our biannual look into the Christchurch IT market. This year we've expanded our scope, and also examined the Auckland IT market. This has given us a great platform compare the two, giving us a wider understanding of what New Zealand's IT community looks like. For more insights, feel free to read it here.
26 Jan 17 by Michelle Bishop
First up, a very Happy New Year to you all. It's always an interesting time of year, a mix of longing for a return to the long and lazy days of Christmas, whilst already forming plans and really ramping up for a new year with energy and optimism. We are now all back on deck at Sourced, having enjoyed a well-earned break, and looking forward to a busy 2017 both here in Christchurch and Auckland.
In this quarter update, we look at the whole of 2016, bringing you a view of the year that was, and a sneak peak of what to look out for this year. We hope you enjoy it! You will see a Sourced Report coming to you in early 2017, but we encourage you to contact us if you're looking for any specific market intelligence, salary surveys, role positioning or similar. We're in a unique position to watch the market as it evolves, and always happy to share these insights.
With a market driven by both contract and permanent requirements, 2016 really was a mixed bag, however, overall, a market best described as 'business as usual'. While permanent recruitment continued at a constant pace across most areas of IT, there was a definite focus on growth in highly specific/targeted areas, and otherwise recruiting for attrition, which was very low across the year. From a retention perspective, it was a very positive year for employers, with valued team members tending to be looking for stability, interesting project challenges, work/life balance and growth opportunities. With a market offering little in the way of significant growth or exceptional projects, there has been very little incentive to consider a move in 2016 and this has resulted in tighter, collaborative teams promoting strong internal culture.
We are predicting 2017 to be a busy one for Fixed Term and Contract markets due to several very significant system implementation projects coming to the South Island.
We have certainly noticed that the recruitment we have had underway has been appointing candidates, who are new to Christchurch, into specific/targeted gaps. At the same time, we’ve also been redeploying highly skilled professionals who were affected by redundancy into new roles, and companies who have grown in small numbers (>5).
From a contract perspective, while the year started off very quietly, by the end of the 3rd quarter it was well and truly underway as plans started for some notable projects coming online in 2017. Coming off the back of a BAU year, we are predicting 2017 to be a busy one for Fixed Term and Contract markets due to several very significant system implementation projects coming to the South Island.
As mentioned above, we are continuing to draw heavily on international and expat candidate markets, with active movement within the Canterbury region down. Those choosing to move within the Christchurch market have tended to be moving for hands-on/mid-senior level roles. Otherwise, these candidates have been specifically headhunted by clients for their skills and capabilities, or are those affected by planned or actual restructures.
We certainly expect most restructures to now be behind us, and are looking forward to a year of growth opportunities for many.
We are looking for a Customer Support Analyst with the ability to build strong interpersonal rapport with customers and teams, alongside a ‘can-do’ attitude and strong attention to detail. A competitive salary is on offer with the chance to join a professional, motivated team that promotes team spirit and high quality results, in an internationally renowned organisation in a state of growth.
There is an outstanding opportunity for an experienced SharePoint Developer to join a successful, high-profile, and caring company. You’ll become part of an engaged workforce who encourages collaboration and communication, and embraces change and innovation. This role offers the chance to develop game changing applications that will change and enhance people’s lives.
We are looking for an ambitious, collaborative, and forward-thinking Lead Software Tester to join a highly successful, privately owned New Zealand enterprise. This role offers a fantastic chance to lead a close-knit testing team, whilst working closely with the wider Christchurch technology group. With high-profile projects that will shape the next 9-12 months due to kick-off shortly, this is a great time to come onboard.
It was lovely to see out 2016 as a team. We had a 'welcome-and-farewell' Christmas party, saying a sad farewell to two of our Christchurch team members who are heading off on international travels. We also welcomed in a new team member, who had returned from their international travels, joining us as our Office and Candidate Manager. It was a typical kiwi Christmas affair with family, a BBQ, backyard cricket and terrible Christmas music.
We’d like to take this opportunity to extend a huge welcome to Victoria Knopp – we’re really excited to have her on board and she is already an integral member of the team. We hope you'll enjoy working with her in the areas of candidate and contractor support.
In terms of candidates in demand, 2016 was very much a broad market. In the permanent space, recruitment was very much geared towards the Software Development/Applications side, with a continued but measured demand for Project Managers, Developers, Business Analysts and Testers. Infrastructure roles also remained constant, tending to sit at a Helpdesk/Support and Infrastructure Engineer level with very little movement in the Management/Team Leader space.
We’re certainly continuing to see a level of stability in the Management/Team Leader space, with retention levels being very high, and little in the way of new position creation. This does present some challenges for those looking to progress their careers, however it remains a positive for employers from a team stability and leadership perspective.
As we alluded to above, recruitment for 2016 was very well planned, targeted, and rarely in volume. On the contracting side, again this tended to come in ones and twos, and was heavily geared towards Project Management and Business Analysis. Overall, recruitment for this space was predominantly focused on planning for projects kicking off in 2017.
Watch out for demand in the BA, Technical Analysis, Test, Project and Programme Management space.
This year, we are looking ahead with interest. We can see very large projects for the market on the horizon, which may see a movement of permanent employees towards contract and fixed term roles. This would certainly lead to a much more buoyant contracting market than we have seen in 2016. These are very large and high profile projects that will pick up a lot of resource from the local and national market, and really offer some career-defining opportunities. Watch out for demand in the BA, Technical Analysis, Test, Project and Programme Management space.
Overall, 2016 was certainly the year of BAU and steady as she goes. We see 2017 as the 'Year of the Project', but how quickly these projects ramp up is yet to be seen, with all of them still in their planning stages.
From a permanent perspective, we are seeing the first signs of a return to growth, but will this be tempered by a resource shortage in the wake of large projects soaking up talent pools? Watch this space. Not everybody is driven by the pace, challenge, and change of large scale projects. Work life balance, learning opportunities, growth and development and a positive work environment remain top on candidate's wish lists, with salaries remaining static. With retention having been at such a high level, clearly employers are putting in the work to ensure they have highly engaged, rewarded, and fulfilled teams.
We look forward to keeping you abreast with how the year evolves!
Since the last quarter, we’ve written several blogs. You can find them below:
Hiring someone who is a bad team fit can have a negative impact on your company and your team. If you need help finding the right employee, take a look at our top tips on how to hire for team fit.
As a new generation joins the workforce and a large portion of Kiwi’s aged 65+ work past retirement age, New Zealand’s workforce is becoming multigenerational. Check out what you can do to ensure collaboration between different generations.
If you feel that your career is on halt, or if you’re unhappy in your role, it's good to reassess your goals to get you back on track. Find out how to successfully defrag your career.
In the workplace, making a great first impression is important. Find out our top tips on how to do this successfully in your new IT job.
With technology constantly shifting, and new roles cropping up, now is a great time to acquire new tech skills. Upskilling yourself can make you stand out as a valuable employee. Find out how to upskill yourself for 2017's tech jobs here.
Setting your sights on breaking into IT management? Click here for six crucial traits to possess before you can prove that you have potential to become a great Manager
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3 Oct 16 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to our quarterly market update. We hope you're enjoying the first signs of Spring and the return to daylight savings with the promise of warmer, longer nights and great BBQs! October is always that time of year when we look backwards, look forwards and realise the year really has sped by and we're now in the final ramp up to Christmas. We realise it's far too early to be mentioning a certain Santa, but we have it on good authority that Advent Calendars are already in stores!
It's been a really busy past 3 months within Sourced, with lots of activity, events, general community involvement, team growth, and an expansion into the North Island all in the mix. We are continuing to find that our contributions to the Canterbury tech sector are growing well beyond traditional recruitment and we've continued to build some really valuable partnerships and alliances over this past quarter.
At Sourced we have always firmly believed that we have an obligation to be great corporate citizens, active tech and business community members, and a source of relevant and up to the minute information for anybody seeking. We always strive and are always looking for new and different ways to participate,
contribute and to give back.
We're also delighted to announce that we are once again a finalist for the SEEK Annual Recruitment Awards in the Agency of the Year category! Thank you to SEEK judges for choosing us amongst the finalists, and thank you to all of our clients and candidates for working with us and enabling us to provide you with an award-worthy service.
As we look back over the past 3 months, we have seen a continued swing back towards demand for contractors, an area that as mentioned previously has been quieter than usual since the last quarter of 2015. While we started to see a move away from 'BAU' recruitment to recruiting for larger projects coming online in the second half of the year, this appears to have stalled slightly, with more time being put into planning and preparation and looking to ramp up in earnest in the very late stages of the year, and early into 2017. Again, ERP and system replacement projects appear to be driving future demand, but we do expect this demand to be coming online a little later than anticipated. This said, plans can often change and quickly, and we may see this activity push towards a busy end of year. Watch this space!
We are continuing to draw heavily on international and expat candidate markets, with active movement within the Canterbury region down.
We are continuing to draw heavily on international and expat candidate markets, with active movement within the Canterbury region down. Those choosing to move within the Christchurch market have tended to be moving for hands on/mid-senior level roles, or roles for which they have been specifically headhunted by clients for their skills and capability, and are otherwise those affected by planned or actual restructures, Speaking of this, we have seen a small amount of activity in the restructuring/reorganisation and disestablishment space, however largely those affected are either being redeployed within their existing businesses (ideal) or being snapped up quickly by local organisations.
We are looking for a Second Tier Technical Support person to fast growing company in a competitive industry. This is a chance to work with a company that really goes the extra mile to make their workplace a fantastic place to be. You would provide second tier technical support to the Business, Customer Support and Infrastructure teams, manage and maintain desktop operating systems and applications and ensure the support, services and functionality provided to the company are of a high standard.
We are looking for an Intermediate BI Analyst to take an active hand in the development of Business Intelligence solutions within a medium sized local organisation, who are part of a larger global group. Located in the central city you will enjoy the support of a collaborative environment that values innovation and the need for Business Intelligence within their core product offering. There is currently scope for this role to become permanent for the right person.
We are looking for a Senior UX Designer to join the world's leading designer and manufacturer of electronic controls for power wheelchairs and scooters. You will be responsible for UX design and improvements on both new and existing applications and product development; taking ownership of the overall design of the product, presenting designs in the form of best practice UX methods and ensuring compliance with UX design and brand requirements.
The last 3 months have been a really interesting time for the Sourced team, with team movement, growth and a brand new location! Based on an ongoing demand from national clients to expand our services, we have taken quiet steps into the Auckland market, servicing existing clients with North Island representation and also growing organically into new areas. Our focus remains very firmly in the IT & Technology space, but we're now looking to grow our capability further with teams, clients and networks and spread nationally. If you're going to be in Auckland and would like to meet with one of our team, please get in touch with Michelle to arrange this!
We have taken quiet steps into the Auckland market, servicing existing clients with North Island representation and also growing organically into new areas.
On a less fortunate note, we say goodbye to two of our Christchurch team members this quarter, both heading off on international travels. Hamish Calder, who has been with us for the past year as a Recruitment Consultant, is heading off to Canada with his partner to follow outdoor and travel pursuits, while our very long serving Office Manager, William Huang, is following his partner to China as she pursues her career in International Business Banking. We are very sad to see them go, William was our second employee at Sourced and has really grown with us over the years; he and Hamish will be missed!
We were once again represented as key sponsors, and Trade Show participants at this year's Canterbury Tech Summit. This year was a record turn out at the Wigram Museum Convention Centre, with 650 in attendance and a further 50-100 on the waiting list to attend! It was a really worthwhile day, always 'the' event in the Canterbury national tech calendar, and feedback was very positive around the quality of speakers, venue, organisation, and collaboration and networking opportunities. As is our practice in inviting community groups onto our Tech Summit stand, this year we invited Renea Mackie and students from the Kohknowco Lab.
If you haven't heard of Kohknowco before, Kohknowco is an innovation framework, designed through practice, to support kids to do what they love; collaborate, work in teams, and develop their own startups. With an experimental Lab running at Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery School, the Lab runs just like any other class, but in their class, they have designers, artists, music producers, coders, film makers, writers, and all sorts of colorful characters! If you'd like the opportunity to visit Renea and her students at Kohknowco they are always very welcoming of industry visits. Just let us know and we can arrange this!
Demand remains strong in the contracting space, in particular for Project Managers, Developers, Business Analysts and Testers, with the majority of projects being short to mid term, filling gaps in internal capability, getting projects across the line, and laying the initial foundations for future projects. This is very much in line with Q3 activity and we expect this will start to quieten off as we move closer to the end of year. Contracting as a whole is about where we'd expect it for this time of year, and we expect to see a stronger pick up in Feb-March of 2017 as businesses come back online in earnest, and look to hit key KPIs before end of financial year.
Recruitment has been adding capability to existing teams, replacing the occasional departing team member and largely tweaking existing structures.
On the permanent front, again this is best described as business as ususal. Permanent retention remains high, and the hiring that is underway appears to be in small numbers; for specialist roles and roles that have had real planning wrapped around as opposed to pure organic growth. As we commented last quarter, recruitment has been adding capability to existing teams, replacing the occasional departing team member and largely tweaking existing structures. Areas of activity have been in the UX/UI (contract and permanent), Business Analysis (contract and permanent), IT Technical Support & Engineering and Testing. Average appointing salaries have been sitting in the $65-$85k range, with mid to senior level 'on the tools' candidates being most in demand.
The market continues to tick long nicely. Staff retention is high, growth is well planned and scoped, projects are gathering momentum, with 2017 looking to start on a high note. We look forward to seeing how the rest of the year plays out, and will come to you with a final quarter/year wrap up in late December. We hope you enjoy the warmer weather coming, and look forward to seeing you in due course over the next few months.
We've written a number of blogs over the last quarter, which you can find here:
Being between jobs can often leave you drained and deflated, making staying motivated difficult. Although job searching takes time, non-stop scrolling through job boards isn’t the way to go, so check out our 8 tips on how to stay productive.
With the widely discussed "talent shortage" being the biggest concern for employers in today’s job market, retaining your top staff is more important than ever. So, what can you do to keep your employees better engaged? Read more here.
What your referees say about you has the power to help you win or lose the job of your dreams. If you need some tips for picking the right people to advocate for you, click here for our guide to picking a winning reference.
In the fast paced IT industry, a well-designed onboarding strategy can help you retain top talent and decrease staff turnover. Click here to read through our guide and download our onboarding checklist.
In many organisations hiring someone that is a team fit is considered to be just as important as getting the job done. So what exactly is team fit and why should you know about it? Find out more here.
1 Jul 16 by Michelle Bishop
Welcome to our quarterly market update. While we've had an incredibly long and warm Summer to Autumn transition, it feels like winter is finally upon us; and now the question on everybody's lips - will there be snow? Having a 3-year-old in the family certainly makes it that bit more exciting, although if first attempts at an introduction to snow are anything to go by, we definitely have a summer child.
It's been a busy past three months within Sourced, with lots of activity, events, fundraising, and general community involvement going on. We are finding that more and more our value and contribution to the Canterbury tech sector is growing well beyond traditional recruitment and into areas such as start-up business and tech strategy, organisational structure and creating strong delivery teams, supporting and developing next generation tech professionals, and building connections and formal mentoring programmes through our networks - to name a few. This is where we really find our passion, being able to exist and grow as an integral and contributing member of our community, giving back to an industry that we are extremely passionate about.
As we look back on the last quarter we have seen a heavy swing back towards demand for contractors, an area that has been much quieter than usual since the end of 2015. We are also seeing a move away from 'BAU' recruitment, towards starting to ramp up for larger projects coming on-line in the second half of this year. ERP and System replacement projects appear to be driving future demand, and with this we expect to see an even larger demand for specialist contracting resource.
We are continuing to draw heavily on international and expat candidate markets, however these numbers have balanced out against candidates moving from within New Zealand and within the Canterbury region. Those choosing to move within the Christchurch market have tended to be moving for hands on/mid-senior level roles, or roles for which they have been specifically headhunted by clients for their skills and capability.
Being located in the centre of the Innovation precinct, it has been really great watching so many businesses returning to the CBD or reestablishing themselves here.
Being located in the centre of the Innovation precinct, it has been really great watching so many businesses returning to the CBD or reestablishing themselves here. We were recently able to complete a tour through the new Kathmandu building which is a cornerstone of the Innovation precinct, and with Environment Canterbury in, and Vodafone and Wynyard soon to follow, the inner city is looking forward to a really exciting phase of transformation.
If you wander down Cashel Mall now there is a definite sense of our major retailers returning and a vibrancy that is starting to emerge. We are really looking forward to the opportunities of working in a brand new and evolving CBD, where small, large and enterprise tech companies are all co-existing in really unique spaces.
We are currently recruiting a Graduate Front End Developer on a 12 month contract. This is a chance to make your mark on a large and complex enterprise environment, with significant project work underway. This is a role for a smart grad with strong interpersonal and problem solving skills, who is able to work independently.
We are currently recruiting an Intermediate Test Analyst. This is an opportunity to join a global leader in their field while enjoying the benefits of working with fantastic technology in a fully functioning Agile environment. You will get to work with cross-functional teams to develop a wide range of skills while having the chance to learn advanced test techniques from senior team members and to hone your mentoring skills by guiding the junior members.
We are currently recruiting a Senior Big Data Developer. This is your opportunity to join a growing organisation who are ready to take their product to market. With an impressive list of clients already established in the US they are in an excellent position to take the world by storm. There is a strong emphasis on big data and cloud services, ensuring their solutions remain cutting edge and ahead of the trends. Now is your chance to get on board with the ongoing development of their product, in an autonomous environment that welcomes innovation, new ways of working and thinking, and good work-life balance.
We are extremely fortunate to have built a highly engaged, committed team at Sourced, and we are extremely proud of the hard work of the team which continues to build our reputation for excellence and genuine engagement in the community. We recently traveled as a team to Auckland for the RCSA (Recruitment and Consulting Services Association) New Zealand recruitment industry awards, where we were nominated for the Excellence in Client Services award, having been named as a finalist against Tradestaff New Zealand. We were thrilled to take away the win, particularly with this being a New Zealand-wide, all industries award, and getting recognition for the work we do to build meaningful and long term relationships with our clients. A great night was had - ball gowns, suits and all.
We also recently hosted the Canterbury Women in Tech Meetup, which is a monthly event aimed at bringing existing and emerging women in tech together to learn, develop and network. This month's topic was 'Opportunities for Learning and Development through Mentoring' and we enjoyed bringing together a really interactive session with guest panellists Charlotte Walshe (CEO, Dynamic Controls), Renea Mackie (co-creator, Kohknowco Innovation Framework, Kohknowco Lab - Unlimited) and Jess Downs (Head of Tech Girls, ARA). This was hosted at the EPIC Innovation Centre, always a great venue for larger events. The event sold out in 48 hours, which just goes to show the increased level of connection and involvement of women in tech in Canterbury.
Following on from this, and something we'd be really interested in talking to you more about, is the evolution of a Sourced Mentor Connection Programme. We are very fortunate to sit in the centre of a really rich network of skilled employees, contractors, managers etc., and a network of up and coming talent who could really benefit from, and are starting to seek out professional mentoring/coaching. We have recently matched up a Senior Project Manager with an Intermediate level PM who was looking for perspective outside of her current company, and this has been a really valuable partnership for both parties. If you are interested in becoming a mentor, or are looking for an opportunity to be mentored please let us know - we can help!
From a philanthropy perspective, this quarter we decided to support the Chomondeley Children's Centre, with a 'Finding Dory' movie night at Hoyts Riccarton. It was really great to see so many clients, candidates, contractors and their families all coming together to support such a great cause. We are always looking at new and different ways to give back to the wider community, so if you have any specific charities of choice or causes that we can contribute to in some way, we'd love to hear about them!
We also supported the Ronald McDonald House Christchurch once again, with 2 dinner programmes bringing together clients, contractors and Sourced team members to serve up meals to approximately 50 family members staying at the house. This was a follow on from our involvement last year; we really enjoy supporting such a fundamental service, and having the opportunity to meet family members needing support at a really critical time.
Demand is up in the contracting space, in particular for Project Managers, Developers, Business Analysts and Testers, with the majority of projects being short/mid term, filling gaps in internal capability, getting projects across the line, or laying the initial foundations for future projects. Contracting as a whole is still slightly down on what we'd expect at this time of year, but is showing more confidence as new budgets are approved, the new financial year kicks off in earnest and serious planning is underway for the year ahead. Expect to see some larger projects coming to market in the second half of this year, particularly in the new systems implementation space.
Permanent retention is remaining high, meaning that recruitment that is underway is focusing on adding capability to existing teams, replacing departing team members or tweaking existing structures.
On the permanent front, this is best described as business as ususal. Permanent retention is remaining high, meaning that recruitment that is underway is tending to be ones and twos, adding capability to existing teams, replacing departing team members or tweaking existing structures. Candidate confidence is actually lower than expected, which is an interesting insight, given the continued talk of 'talent shortage' and a general impression among employers that recruitment permanent staff, particularly in the software space, is a very tough undertaking. We are finding that candidates that are actively looking may be affected by redundancy, have just returned back to Christchurch, or are reevaluating careers, and are more flexible than you may think in terms of salary, position, level of responsibility, and their level of flexibility in terms of considering 'out of the box' opportunities.
While internal staff retention is high, this does mean that there is a degree of selectiveness that we're seeing from our clients in terms to bringing in new team members, but again with a work force prepared to be flexible, not pushing for inflated salaries or senior position titles, it makes for a very balanced market where both employer and employee are very carefully considering their market position.
The market continues to hold buoyancy, and has steadily ticked away as we've moved towards mid year. Permanent has been far more predominant than contracting opportunities, however we expect to see that swing back as we move out of a 'business as usual' phase, with an expectation of larger projects starting to ramp up from July onward particularly in the ERP space.
We are watching the Brexit situation with interest, as, along with a number of other factors, the UK ex-pat and UK-New Zealand new migrant market appears to be one building steam. On the whole our major international workforce are still in the 25-35 year age gap and tend to be working and travelling prior to settling and starting families, or travelling through and opting to stay on, in favour of making New Zealand 'home'.
We look forward to keeping in touch with you over the coming months, and as always encourage you to connect with us for whatever it is you may need or wish to contribute.
The way in which people are engaged with and interviewed can sometimes prevent an IT company from securing a great hire. Check out these three steps that can bring you closer to closing the deal, and retaining that top candidate. Read more here.
Starting a new job can be tough, but approaching your current employer and co-workers to resign can be worse. With so much on the line, how do you avoid damaging the reputation you spent years building when jumping ship? Click here for more.
Job rejection shouldn’t leave you disheartened. In fact, it can be a chance to make yourself more appealing to employers and lead you to securing the role you want. Click here for our guide on how to use rejection to further yourself.
Choosing the right recruitment agency can be tricky. Here are our top 5 tips to ensure you select the agency that best matches your needs. Find out more here.
Much has been made recently of the talent shortage, especially in the technology sector. However, is there really less talent available than previously, or are we as employers simply not doing enough to attract it? Read more here.
8 Apr 16 by Sourced - Christchurch IT Recruiters
Welcome to our regular quarterly market update. We hope you’ve enjoyed a relaxing Easter break, and the last of the long warm nights, as daylight savings has drawn to a close. Autumn is no doubt upon us, but as always it offers a new season and opportunities to look ahead to what is shaping up to be a busy year.
The past 3 months have proved very interesting, with some variation on what we would typically expect of market conditions for this period. We’ll look forward to filling you in on this, and general market news, during this latest quarterly market update.
The market has gotten off to a slightly quieter start than we would typically see for Q1, influenced heavily by a late surge in permanent recruitment in November/December, and a quieter than usual contracting market. With permanent recruitment projects completed in late 2015, carry-over recruitment has been minimal and organisations have been able to focus on inducting new team members, resource planning for Q2, and as we typically expect of the January/February period, spending time with family and enjoying well earned breaks before the year kicks off in earnest.
The market remains heavily in favour of permanent recruitment, with contract recruitment just starting to come back online; a market which has been subdued since the end of Q3 2015. Recruitment of permanent positions is tending to be well planned, highly targeted and either replacing departing team members (and looking for like-for-like) or adding very specific skills to existing teams. Software Development, Business Intelligence and Professional Services have been our 3 key recruitment areas, with a small bubble of Senior/Leadership positions, which is great to see given the scarcity of these opportunities in late 2015.
The drop off of contract resource demand in 2015 is slowly returning to balance with a lot of our experienced/Senior level contractors now re-engaging in local projects. We are not seeing a huge volume of growth in the project space, with contractors being used more regularly to lead, engage in or support existing projects needing extra resource or smaller projects that are not able to be resourced internally. Testers, Business Analysts and Project Managers are first off the rank, with little movement in the contract software development market right now.
As with 2015, we are continuing to recruit a strong volume of candidates from offshore, new to Christchurch, or returning home, as those employees now in work locally keep their heads down. There has been little appetite in the new year for local employees to move about, and now is the time we would typically see this movement, which speaks volumes of the market, the efforts of local employers to improve reward and retention strategies, and the opportunities already in play within our tech sector. Our local candidates that we are recruiting are tending to be those returning home, moving from contracting into permanent positions, those affected by redundancies in 2015 or moving from study into full time employment.
A trend we have been watching with a lot of interest is the movement of our Senior Leaders, CIO’s and Technology Managers moving out of the permanent market and looking to embark on solo projects, consulting engagements or just taking the time out to reflect, re-energise and reengage. We openly recognise that there remains a ceiling in the Canterbury tech sector market for our aspiring leaders, and we wonder what the answer to the ‘where to from here’ question will shape up to be, because there are many people asking it. This seems to be particularly true with those who have risen through the ranks quickly, and have perhaps discovered there is more they are looking for. But where does that ‘more’ exist? Many are answering it in many different ways, from starting new consulting businesses to taking a full change in career direction, to simply stepping back to spend time with family and reevaluate. If you have a take on this, we’d love to hear it.
We are currently recruiting a Junior - Intermediate .NET Developer for Orion Health. This role predominantly entails Windows application development in C#, working on a very large and complex product that is being implemented right here in the South Island. Great culture, very mature Agile development processes and access to global projects!
We are currently recruiting a Technical Support Specialist for Trimble Navigation. The Support Engineer is responsible for providing high-quality technical support for the Trimble Connect SaaS application. This person will also work on other documentation projects as required. Support Engineers deliver effective technical customer support to our rapidly growing customer base, delivering solutions to both technical and non-technical end users while also supporting a wide range of technologies.
We are currently recruiting a BI focused Business Analyst for McKesson group. This is a great opportunity to combine your BA, Agile and BI skills into a role that traverses both external consulting and internal development. Lead a proactive TDD Agile development team delivering quality BI solutions to Australasian companies.
We all enjoyed a very well deserved break across Christmas/New Year and have come into the New Year rearing to go. Our team remains stable with an Operational/Leadership and Consulting team of 7 and while we expect further growth this year, we are enjoying a stable and highly engaged team who work exceptionally well together.
We are looking forward to some upcoming community events, which we really enjoy getting involved with, including hosting two further Ronald McDonald dinner programme nights, where we will invite a number of clients to join us in feeding the families of the house, and a Hoyts Premiere Screening night, raising funds for Cholmondeley Children’s Home - a fantastic organisation really making a difference in the community.
In late March, we were pleased to promote the Canterbury IT industry at the Lincoln University Careers Exhibition. Alongside companies from a variety of industries, we chatted to the next generation of IT people and spread the word on current IT demands and trends. It's always great to be touching base with the new influx of Canterbury IT talent and helping them understand the market as they transition from academia into the commercial world.
Since January our Operations Manager, Hannah Iranon, has joined one of the oldest and most trusted IT bodies in New Zealand: the Institute of IT Professionals (IITP). As a coordinator for the Christchurch region, she is contributing to the betterment of the Christchurch IT community through assisting the IITP in improving the education and professional development of IT professionals as well as working with the government and the education sector to further promote and advocate for the IT industry in New Zealand.
We really enjoy opportunities to engage with industry and the community above and beyond our day to day work, and these are just a few examples of how we’re doing it.
As with Q4 of 2015, demand remains very much focussed on Software Development, with an increase in demand for BI (contract and permanent), Project Management (contract and permanent) and Leadership roles. Permanent recruitment is far outweighing contract, and roles are tending to be at a mid-Senior and Management level.
Contract requirements are tending to be in the Test, PM and BA space, but we are seeing many contractors returning to previous projects, adding support or bolstering existing teams as opposed to being heavy influencers.
The market continues to hold buoyancy, however it would best be described as 'stable’ as opposed to in growth mode, with demand leaning heavily towards permanent, and candidates reasonably available provided there is flexibility to consider non-New Zealand natives. There is little movement within Christchurch unless candidates are ‘actively sought’ and there remains a really untapped market in the mid level, new to New Zealand candidate market. These individuals are bringing in excellent technical skills and experience, and a desire to learn and grow within an NZ workplace.
Many of our leaders are on the move, or looking for the next move, so we watch with interest as this has the potential to have a significant impact locally, and also affords rare new opportunities to those on the cusp of leadership.
We expect Q2 to gain pace as we move into the new financial year, planning is completed and projects start to come onstream. While possibly at a slight pause point, the market does look set to go again and we will look forward to updating you on this is in our next report.
There have also been some interesting shifts in the demographics of the Christchurch IT market. We have seen a 26% increase in women participating in our Sourced Report survey, which is testament to the greatwork that local organisations are doing locally to attract a greater level of diversity to the Canterbury technology sector.
We have also seen a rise in the number of 31-40 year old respondents to the survey, rising by 35%. This is likely due to a bubble of people making the jump from the 20-30 year old demographic. When looked at in the longterm, this change also explains other trends, such as the importance of pay as a motivator decreasing as the workforce ages, with that generation starting to get married, buy houses and have families.
This has also had an effect on the other end of the age scale, with the numbers of respondents over 50 years old having dropped by 19%. This is something the industry needs to be cautious of as this trend continues to develop.
21 Dec 15 by Michelle
As we look back over the last 3 months of the year, there has been a continuation of the heavy swing back in favor of permanent recruitment over contract recruitment with a continued ongoing demand for mid-senior level Software Developers and Software Testers. Recruitment remains a direct result of increased confidence and strong pipelines of work that necessitate the growing of internal teams, and we are not seeing any let up in this as we move into 2016. Contract opportunities are still there in ones and two's, however for now, it is most definitely a permanent employment market. While we recruit predominantly in the Canterbury region, our reach continues to grow, with Dunedin becoming a real emerging market as their market and economy continue to boom. Again, recruitment is mostly geared towards permanent roles, however watch this space as the early months of the new year will often see a sudden and short spike in demand for contract resource.
We are continuing to draw heavily on international and ex-pat candidate markets, but these numbers have balanced out against candidates moving from within New Zealand and within the Canterbury region. Those choosing to move within the Christchurch market have tended to be moving for Senior/Executive roles, very specialist roles, or roles for which they have been specifically headhunted by clients for their skills and capability. On the whole, there is still a high level of stability and low staff turn over in the Christchurch market and little appetite to be moving, which we would always expect for this time of year.
We expect to see a flurry in activity in the early months of 2016 as people come back from breaks away and start to consider their futures, so it's a timely reminder to be thinking about engagement, retention and reward strategies to ensure high performing teams are in place for the year.
Junior level
Service Desk Analyst (Level 1 & 2)
Email and telephone based, you will be the customer support lifeline. You will offer 1st and 2nd line analysis, support, and fault resolution where applicable. This is a great mix of hands on, customer support and fault analysis, and will expose you to a broad range of systems and technologies
Intermediate level
Embedded Control Systems Engineer
This interesting and challenging role is focused on the post-release product life cycle for Hamilton Jet's electronic control system products. We are looking for an intermediate level electronics engineer to provide high level technical and systems support for product applications, manufacturing, supply chain and field support.
Senior level
Software Tester
Working alongside the Test Team Leader, you will be assisting with the continued development of first class test practices, providing mentoring to other team members as needed, and working as an active team member on enterprise scale Agile development projects. Projects are varied, with a mix of web, enterprise application, and BI focus, and testing is across smoke, functional, regression, load, and acceptance testing.
We are extremely fortunate to have built a highly engaged, committed, fun team at Sourced, and we've had a great 3 months. As a group we have bedded in our two new consultants and really grown as a team. As you'll no doubt understand, teams can often be hard to build and even harder to retain, particularly in competitive markets. So we feel very fortunate to maintain both a high level of team retention, and growth this year that has also added to the internal dynamic.
We have further growth plans for 2016 as demand for our services increases, and we look forward to keeping you abreast of this as the year progresses. We have just wrapped up our CIO and senior management recruitment project for the Dunedin City Council, which has been hugely successful. We were really impressed with the calibre of candidates expressing an interest in the DCC, and have recruited people from Hungary, the UK, Australia, and the North Island and Southland, so there's a very broad range coming in. Dunedin is such an exciting, emerging city and offers significant lifestyle benefits which were very easy to present to potential candidates. Feedback has been really positive around the outdoor opportunities, family friendly facilities, cost of living benefits and the ability to grow meaningful careers without the drawbacks of large city life.
We recently celebrated a year in our new office on St Asaph Street, and it's definitely been an eventful year in terms of new bars, restaurants, offices, and other businesses joining us in the central city. The Innovation Precinct will next year welcome Vodafone, Wynyard and Kathmandu, and we have watched with interest the building of the new eCan facility drectly opposite us which will bring several hundred staff back to the city. For those with more of a family focus, we are also very excited about the opening of the new Margaret Mahy central city play space, and the return of families to the city as it begins to find it's feet once again.
A big thank you to our Sourced Contractor crew who joined us this month for an end of year/Christmas celebration in the office. It was really great to see you all, and to celebrate all that this year has brought, and have a chance to meet each other, given the diversity of the organisations we currently engage contractors for.
As with Q3, demand is still very much focused towards Software Development and Testing, and predominantly on a permanent basis. We have had a burst of Senior Management/Executive recruitment, including the Dunedin City Council, however most recruitment has been at the operational/development level.
We have seen an increase, which has been a purposeful focus shift for Sourced, for permanent resource in the R&D/Embedded Technologies space. This is very much a growing market for us and we have been delighted to work with a number of established and growing R&D organisations growing their permanent embedded team base.
Contracting is still very quiet at the moment, with permanent recruitment far outweighing requirements, and we expect this to be the case into the first few months of the new year, however watch for that spike in contract requirements around February/March time.
The market continues to hold buoyancy, and has steadily built as we've moved towards the end of the year. We expect this to continue in earnest as we enter 2016, with demand leaning heavily towards permanent, and candidates reasonably available provided there is flexibility to consider non-New Zealand natives.
As we talked about in our last report, there is still a really untapped market right now in the mid level, new to New Zealand candidate market, where individuals are bringing in excellent technical skills and experience, a desire to learn and grow within an NZ workplace. While there is always perceived risk, we have some really great success stories coming out of this candidate market, which we'd be happy to share should you wish to chat about this further.
The Sourced office will be closed from the end of Wednesday 23rd December, and reopening on Tuesday 5th of January. As a team we will be returning between the 5th to the 18th of January, however there will be full operational support available from the 5th.
Find out more in this past September's Sourced Report, and keep an eye out for the next one that comes out in March.
16 Oct 15 by Michelle
Welcome to our regular quarterly market update. We hope you're enjoying the welcome return to the warm weather and longer days that Spring brings, and are making the most of the opportunities that the new season provides.
The past 3 months have been a really positive period of growth for the Sourced team including some new faces, new clients and some really great high profile projects.
The market has really swung heavily back in favor of permanent recruitment over contract recruitment in the past month, after a 6 month period of confidence in the contracting market.
We have also seen a strong return to recruitment of mid-senior level Software Developers and Software Testers, coming off the back of a period of intensive demand for BA and Project Management skills. Recruitment is as a direct result of increased confidence and strong pipelines of work that necessitate the growing of internal teams. We have also seen a number of clients recruiting in bulk, and a number of Senior/Executive level roles coming to market, which is reasonably rare for this time of year.
We really enjoyed the recent opportunity to partner with the Dunedin City Council on a number of senior roles including CIO as they prepare for some significant transformational change. While we recruit predominantly in the Canterbury region, our reach continues to grow, with Dunedin becoming a real emerging market as their market and economy continue to boom.
The drop off in contract resource demand this last month has been quite definite, coming off a very busy recruitment period in the preceding 6 months. While we had previously seen a very solid demand for contract Business Analysts, Project Managers and Testers, projects also appear to have slowed, with work more focused on longer term objectives and business-
as-usual activity. Whilst our contractor base continues to grow, we are most definitely moving towards a model where the majority have completed assignments with us before and come highly recommended and are able to be deployed as opposed to growing to keep up with a buoyant market.
We are also continuing to recruit an increased number of candidates from offshore, new to Christchurch, or returning home; as those employees now in work locally keep their heads down and focus on projects ahead, having little appetite to change employers at this stage of the year. This may well change, though this has been the norm for the past 5-6 months and heading towards Christmas we don't expect to see a lot of movement here. February-March time is typically when we will see a level of churn at the local level, so now is a good time to be reflecting on staff retention and engagement initiatives.
Junior level
Javascript Developer
With a strong focus on service quality and delivery, our client develops applications for a global client base. To continue to deliver a superior user experience we need a Software Engineer to work with other developers and UX designers to bring designs to life as scalable and secure web-based software. This is a unique opportunity to sharpen your development skills in an advanced technical environment using JavaScript, CSS, SASS and HTML5.
Intermediate level
Mobile Developer (contract to perm)
Our client is a leading developer of augmented reality (AR) hardware, software and experiences. They are now building a development centre in Christchurch, focused on open-source development of the foundation layer of future AR systems, and we are seeking world-class developers to join the team. For the role of Mobile Developer – iOS we’re seeking a developer with strong iOS development skills, and experience in augmented reality, virtual reality, computer vision, or other real-time software. Essential skills and experience include Strong C and Objective-C skills, 3D graphics and OpenGL, experience with imaging on mobile platforms, a strong problem-solving mentality, professional approach to relations with colleagues and customers, and the ability to take on varying roles in a small team.
Senior level
Senior Infrastructure Specialist
This is an outstanding opportunity to join an established Infrastructure Support & Engineering team, as a Senior Infrastructure Specialist. You can expect to be hands on with latest version enterprise Microsoft technologies, Sharepoint, and moving to Azure cloud technologies in the very near future. You could be an experienced mid level Systems Engineer ready to take the next step, or a Senior Systems Engineer/Administrator looking to move into a fast paced, rapidly evolving technical environment with this progressive Australasian business.
You will act as a Senior Engineer within the Infrastructure team designing, implementing and supporting a large and geographically dispersed corporate IT environment. Sitting within a team of Tier 2 Technical/Desktop support administrators and systems administrators who are supporting enterprise applications and systems such as Microsoft Office 360 and Windows 8, you will mentor and support more junior team members while taking on technical leadership responsibilities.
As mentioned above, we have been very fortunate to be able to grow the Sourced team in a short space of time this quarter, bringing two new recruitment consultants into the team. Hamish Calder has come across to join us from Enterprise Recruitment where he had successfully built a portfolio of IT clients, and we have also welcomed Carolyn Esterhuizen who was recently arrived in New Zealand from South Africa. We look forward to being able to introduce Hamish and Carolyn to you as the opportunity presents itself. This brings our total team to 7 now, servicing clients right across the South Island, as always with a predominant focus on the Canterbury region.
You may have seen us at the recent Canterbury Software Summit, an event we are very pleased to be able to sponsor on an annual basis, and possibly the pinnacle of the Canterbury tech sector annual calendar. This year was an outstanding success with around 550 attendees. Once again you would have found our stand in the exhibition space this year and we really enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with clients and candidates alike including many faces from the past!
Back in the Sourced office, we are continuing to enjoy the increasing pace of the rebuild here in central city, and trying out the local eateries and cafes that are popping up with increased frequency. Right opposite the Sourced building, we have been watching the rapid construction of the new Environment Canterbury HQ which will bring back several hundred employees into the central city. They will no doubt enjoy our favorite Indian Restaurant downstairs, Coriander's, on their arrival!
The latest instalment of the Sourced Report was released earlier this month, you'll note that we've also pulled the reports into the main Sourced website to make it easier to read.
Demand has very much focused back towards Software Development and Testing over the past 3 months, after a period of sustained demand in the Professional Services space. Currently, recruitment is predominantly on a permanent basis, with a burst of Senior Management/Executive recruitment, including the recruitment of the new CIO for the House of Travel Holdings Group and Dunedin City Council.
Contracting has quickly gone very quiet, however it has been very buoyant when looking back over the last 6 months. In current conditions, permanent recruitment far outweighs contract requirements.
As it was at the end of the last quarter, the market continues to hold buoyancy,
while best described as 'balanced' with demand leaning heavily towards permanent, and candidates reasonably available provided there is flexibility to consider tho
se from further afield.
As we head towards Christmas we expect contract requirements to fall off further, whilst permanent recruitment tends to remain steady right up until the break with a view to starting new team members in the new year. This is a great example of how quickly things can change around us, as the eagle-eyed of you will note that our most recent Sourced Report discusses a period where contracting has been uncharacteristically strong (data gathered in the period up to early September).
We hope to have the opportunity to catch up with you before the festive season is upon us, and as always if we can help in any way feel free to call, email or visit us in the office for a chat.
Did you know?
30% of Christchurch technology professionals moved jobs in the past half-year. This figure is significantly more than the previous period through to March, increasing by 9%. This indicates that employees are increasingly prepared to look externally for new challenges and opportunities if these are not available with their current employer.
Read more of the latest Sourced Report here.
20 Jul 15 by Michelle
Welcome to our regular quarterly market update. We hope you're keeping warm and well, and indoors through this cold patch. We've all been watching out the window hopefully over the past week or two looking for snow, but it would appear we are only going to be treated to cold temperatures and the odd sleety shower, as opposed to the white stuff!
The past 3 months have been a busy period for the Sourced team on a work and home front. We have enjoyed the pitter patter of new feet in the office (all four of them), have been active outside of work with some really great community focussed initiatives, and while the market appears to have dipped slightly, we have been enjoying a strong mix of contracting and permanent roles coming to market, keeping our feet firmly in both camps.
The market appears to have stabilized as we've hit mid year, with a lot of planned growth recruitment complete. Projects are either in ramp down or in the early stages, and a high level of employee retention means roles that we are recruiting have tended to be specialist, in direct response to discrete pieces of work, or planned recruitment without the absolute urgency we have seen earlier in the year.
We have definitely seen a lift in demand for contracting resource, again as employers look further out and identify that requirements are discrete, well packaged pieces of work that do not warrant permanent investment in, or where specialist skills are required to be injected to get work across the line. We have thoroughly enjoyed maintaining a committed group of specialist contractors/consultants who we have been able to move from one project to another, ensuring we are delivering a continued level of service, and our contractors enjoy the benefits of the client network we have built over the past few years. While we continue to grow our contractor base, we are most definitely moving towards a model where the majority have completed assignments with us before and come highly recommended.
We are recruiting an increased number of candidates from offshore, new to Christchurch, or returning home, as those employees now in work locally keep their heads down and focus on projects ahead, having little appetite to change employers at this stage of the year. This may well change, however for now we are seeing that staff turnover is very low and we are predominantly recruiting into new positions across the board.
We have seen an interesting bubble of candidates coming to us from South America, meeting and/or placing at least 8 individuals over the last 3 months being from the Argentina/Brazil areas. We're not quite sure what is driving this, however we have had some really great talent arriving from the region.
Some interesting points to come out of CDC's recent Economic briefing:
Another week, another big announcement about the growth of the IT sector here in Christchurch. Minister Steven Joyce was on hand last week to announce two new ICT graduate schools: one to be established in Auckland, and another in the Innovation Precinct right here in Christchurch.
The South Island school will be called the South Island Graduate Network and Lab (SIGNAL), hosted by the South Island Tertiary Alliance—a partnership of the University of Canterbury, Christchurch Polytechnic and Institute of Technology (CPIT), Lincoln University, Otago Polytechnic and the University of Otago.
Once fully established, these graduate schools are expected to train in excess of 350 students per year. Here at the Christchurch school, programmes will focus on key ICT areas relevant to the regional economy, including agri-tech, health technology, and communications products and services.
Our industry needs these skilled graduates to keep feeding our growth. The 350 per year expected to graduate from these schools are a good start, but we’ll need even more yet to become the economic powerhouse in New Zealand that we know the tech sector can be.
It’s also another welcome cornerstone tenant in the burgeoning Innovation Precinct, joining the Lightning Lab, Wynyard Group, Vodafone and others as key tenants at the eastern end of the CBD. With progress well underway on the new construction in this area, we’re entering perhaps the most exciting phase yet of the rebuild for this zone.
Junior level
Junior - Desktop Support Engineer (6 Month FTC)
Working in a close knit, dedicated team of Desktop Support Engineers, you will be acting as an escalation point for any desktop issues, providing break fix support, assisting with desktop projects and contributing to the stability and robustness of the desktop environment, within an enterprise business setting.
For more information contact Michelle Bishop (+6434202999)
Intermediate level
McKesson - Applications Analyst
This is a role that has a stronger emphasis on L2/3 technical analysis, including tracking of issues, testing, documentation and working with the development team to address critical fixes.
You will be working with end user customers both by phone and email, triaging issues as they present, working through the best route to resolution with the support of the local development team. As the applications our client delivers are heavily data driven, experience analysing, testing, and resolving issues within a SQL database/datawarehouse environment would be highly regarded.
For more information contact Michelle Bishop (+6434202999)
Senior level
House of Travel - IT Director
At House of Travel we're travellers at heart, passionate about seeking out new experiences and sharing them with fellow Kiwis. This is an exciting and rare opportunity for an experienced, ambitious IT Director to join New Zealand's most successful kiwi-owned travel business.
The IT Director role is well positioned to make the most of an established, yet continually evolving wider group strategy, with a focus on executing against long term business objectives. Working closely with the Group Strategy Director, the IT Director will consult and feed into the group strategy, specifically in the area of technology and innovation.
For more information contact Michelle Bishop (+6434202999)
As we alluded to above, there has been the pitter patter of new paws in the Sourced office, with Ted the Black Russian Terrier finding his puppy feet with us over the next month or two. While we have managed to keep him behind doors, he is available to meet and greet on request. We are expecting to announce a new addition to our consulting team over the next month or so also - so please watch this space!
We really enjoyed hosting a number of clients recently for our Ronald McDonald House Dinner programme, where we served up dinner to 45 family members staying at the house. Many of our clients weren't aware that The House relies on businesses and local individuals to provide meals to the house every night of the week, and they are not always able to achieve this. We thoroughly enjoyed our two nights, meeting the parents and kids staying at the house, and coordinating feeding many hungry mouths, with just an hour and a half to plate up. Many of our clients commented that they would be taking this programme back to their own work places, so we really felt that this was a great result.
We are just starting to look ahead to the second half of this year and how we continue to get involved with our local community. If you have any great ideas you'd like to contribute please let us know!
Otherwise we have been business as usual here at Sourced, enjoying the increasing pace of the rebuild here in central city, and trying out the local eateries and cafes that are popping up with increased frequency.
Lookout for us as sponsors at Canterbury Software Summit, which is approaching with increasing pace. The Lightning Lab Business Accelerator 2015 program is looking for interns at the moment - head to the link (Facebook page) for more info.
Demand has been broad and varied over the past 3 months. We appear to have had a bit of a bubble in the demand of Level 1 & 2 Applications Support Analysts at a technical level, and for contractor and permanent staff in the Data Migration, SQL, BI space.
Contracting on the whole has been buoyant with demand for Testers, BA's, Project Managers and BI Specialists. On the permanent front, other than Application Support Analysts, we have been busy across the usual Developer/QA areas with a slight dip in Engineering/Infrastructure requirements.
We have seen some great specialist and Senior Management roles coming to market, recently recruiting in the PreSales space for a brand new vendor to New Zealand, and we have underway recruitment for the new IT Director at House of Travel group.
The market continues to hold buoyancy, while best described as 'balanced' with demand even across contracting and permanent, and candidates reasonably available provided there is flexibility to consider non-New Zealand natives.
There is a really untapped market right now in the mid level, new to New Zealand candidate market, where individuals are bringing in excellent technical skills and experience, a desire to learn and grow within an NZ workplace. While there is always perceived risk, we have some really great success stories coming out of this candidate market, which we'd be happy to share should you wish to chat about this further.
As always, keep in touch and we look forward to catching up with you soon!
31 Mar 15 by Jason
These six-monthly reports provide Canterbury employers an insight into the emerging trends in the Canterbury IT market.
Competition is returning to the Canterbury IT sector and employees are upping their game in response, as expectations continue to rise around Christchurch’s role as New Zealand’s tech-hub.
To put some actual shape around what we often report as the state of the Canterbury IT scene, we have created the Sourced Report which features the results of a six-monthly survey sent to a database of Christchurch IT employers, employees and job seekers registered with Sourced. While it restates what we continue to talk about, having the data to back us up is proving invaluable for some customers who are using the findings to formally support business decisions where people from outside of Christchurch or New Zealand are involved.
Besides, who doesn't love data?
The report can be seen below, but also downloaded as a PDF or read again from http://sourcedreport.co.nz
For the first time since the earthquakes, the IT sector is experiencing a significant boost in competition within the industry. The rebuild has brought some good opportunities, but also a good deal of competition for roles, and employees are upping their game in response and taking the chance to demand more from their employers.
The uncertain period since 2011 led to many employees place job security above anything else, but there is a sense that employees are now seeking more challenges, opportunities and remuneration.
There is new evidence that businesses have become comfortable with their wage rates, but as the sector grows employees will be looking for more competitive offers. Most employers believe they are paying the market rates, but the past 12 months have seen an increase to 35% of employees saying their salary does not meet their expectations (based on their skills and the industry average).
While survey responses generally acknowledged a dip in the importance of salary after a significant time in the industry (seniority) and after a certain salary level was reached, it would seem that the importance of strong remuneration has generally increased in importance (to 85%) for those considering employment opportunities. Indications are that this is for purposes of family provision, keeping up with increasing living costs in Canterbury and inflation. Many employees noted the importance of fair remuneration in comparison to market rates and the desire to have steadily increasing remunerations (ideally annually).
Christchurch employees appear to be settling into working life and are placing a greater demand on their employers for professional development. Since August 2014, there has been a 10% increase in people benefitting from professional development at work, while there has been a small drop in those having flexible working hours. However, employees still feel more training is needed to help in-house progression, as only 47% currently benefit from professional development. The sector has also seen a 4.5% increase in staff churn since August, and employers could expect to see this rise if employees’ development needs are not met.
Christchurch has a small but steadily increasing pool of IT contractors and employers are becoming more open to using them. The significant amount of project work available means demand for talent is high but varied, meaning employers are not always in a position to appoint a full time role.
Businesses’ intentions around employing contractors have remained steady over the last 12 months, with 96.8% preferring to fill roles with permanent staff. However, employers have indicated that an increase in the contract talent pool would continue to make contracting a more attractive and viable option to them.
Key reasons for hiring
The past 12 months have seen a significant increase in the percentage of employers filling vacant roles through internal promotion, from 24.1% in February 2014 to 50% in February 2015.
As business continues to return to normal, postearthquake, this is a sign that the IT sector is maturing and in-house professional development is preparing employees to take the next step in their career.
While this is great for businesses, some employees who are looking to progress outside their organisation or are new to the Christchurch market are indicating that companies tend to be insular in their recruitment and are primarily promoting from within. There is however, a steadily increasing trend indicating that the Christchurch market is becoming more hospitable to career minded employees.
New projects are continuing to drive IT recruitment in Christchurch, as over two thirds of the total hiring intention within the next six months is to meet this demand. Evidence for this is also seen in the types of roles employers are looking to recruit, with software developers still in highest demand. In addition to this the percentage of employers needing project managers has doubled in the last six months, while the need for help desk/ support roles has tripled, indicating a number of projects are reaching implementation phase and additional resource is needed for customer support as other roles experience increased workload.
As Christchurch continues to grow, more and more startups and SMEs are popping up in the city. IT support is still significant for the success of these businesses, and those working in the sector have started seeing the outcomes of some of their initiatives.
1 Apr 15 by Jason
You will hopefully have received your Sourced Report this week (http://sourcedreport.co.nz/) which we run biannually, and gives you a really informative view of what's been happening in the Christchurch tech sector, themes, intentions and general confidence levels. Thank you to everybody who participated in the survey which pulls this data together, and hope you find it to be a useful tool.
The last 3 months have been a busy time for the team, with a constant flow of both contracting and permanent opportunities, and a definite trend of movement within the local market from candidates both moving to new permanent and contracting roles. We are expecting to see this continue towards mid year as employee and employer confidence remains high and companies continue to grow and offer outstanding opportunities to the market.
General Comments
When we look over the past 3 months, a really interesting trend has continued to hold, which has been the majority of Sourced permanent placements a result of individuals moving within the city. Now we have seen a number of people unfortunately fall victim to redundancies, come off fixed term contracts or make the decision to transition from permanent to contracting work or vice versa, so this should not make employers too nervous. On the whole, retention remains high among the majority of our clients, and the majority of those moving about locally are doing so for very specific reasons.
A really interesting statistic that has come out of the Sourced report is the significant increase in the percentage of employers filling vacant roles through internal promotion, rising from 24.1% in February 2014 to 50% in February 2015. We have also seen a return to optimism in terms of 'how easy is it to grow your career within Christchurch' within only 35% of respondents in February noting that they still found it hard. We are really pleased to see this as it feeds into the key drivers we are seeing for employees seeking new positions - career development, recognition. long term prospects and work life balance.
In terms of what is actually driving the recruitment market, we are seeing a very equal balance of contracting and permanent positions. In the contracting market, we have not been able to keep up with the shear demand for Testing resources, with demands from junior through to test team leadership. This has been followed by a mix of BA and PM requirements, technical writing, project support, web and engineering. We are finding that a lot of organisations are experiencing short term spikes of work, may not have the long term view to appoint permanently, or simply the time, and with contractors being available to start at very short notice and add immediate value, it's a very attractive offering.
In the permanent recruitment space we are seeing a real range of opportunities coming to market. It has certainly been a very busy time in the IT Management/Senior Team Leadership space with an unprecedented number of opportunities coming to market in the year to date. This has been met with enthusiasm from the market as these roles have historically been rare, and highly contested. Through these recruits we are getting exposure to the real depth that the market has to offer, the level of skills and experience that we hold locally, and how they contribute to the success of some really key local businesses. We are finding again that a lot of leaders have come to market through restructuring, reorganisation, or simply a time to reevaluate and so the impact on businesses losing leaders has actually been quite minimal, but the opportunity for hiring companies to pick from the cream of the crop has been exceptional.
We are also seeing an ongoing permanent demand for testers, software developers and technical engineers. Roles are tending to be very 'middle level', with only minor demands a the junior/grad and lower team lead/management levels.
From a client activity perspective, recruitment has been steady and focused, with a mixture of recruitment for projects coming onstream, growing existing teams, and some employee turnover. As we commented last quarter, a very measured approach has been taken with clients taking the time to ensure business requirements are well understood, technical and cultural fit aspects well assessed, and long term candidate motivations well understood to ensure a sustainable solution. Recruitment has been equally spread between permanent and contracting opportunities, with skill demands right across the board.
Junior level
Junior - Intermediate Software Tester
You will be responsible for analysing, designing, developing and maintaining test systems in a continuous improvement environment. You will ensure that functional and non-functional requirements are implemented in accordance with business and technical specifications and get exposure to both manual and automated test methodologies
For more information contact Chris Woods (+6434202999)
Intermediate level
CCL - Systems Engineers
This role will specifically suit a high caliber Engineer looking for a great new environment, without the handbrake of bureaucracy. Company culture is important, therefore this role will only suit you if you are genuinely flexible, personable and can leave your ego at the door. We’re after an Engineer who can demonstrate talent, is willing to share their expertise with colleagues and clients, and who truly enjoys working in a team.
For more information contact Rachel Brown (+6434202999)
Senior level
CCC - IT Service Manager - Intergration and Interoperability
As the IT Service Manager - Integration & Interoperability your team of technical specialists will develop, deliver and support the Council's integration, and master data management capability, creating an open data environment where the community, other agency, business partners, can 'plug and play' to gain easy access to the Council's services and data. This newly created position is truly greenfields, with the opportunity to turn 'nothing into something', working from a blank sheet transforming the Council's current integration capability, with significant support from the CIO.
For more information contact Michelle Bishop (+6434202999)
We are now well and truly settled into our new office space at Level 1, 222 St Asaph Street. With purpose designed boardroom, meeting rooms and a larger space to accommodate the team, it’s been a fantastic move and we’re really pleased to seeing the ongoing developments within the CBD from our new space. We are however, eating far too much curry. If you are in the area, we can highly recommend Coriander's downstairs!
The Sourced team remain stable as we settle into the year and don't have any further plans for growth at this stage.
We are really looking forward to supporting Ronald McDonald House in May, inviting a number of clients to join us to cook an evening meal at the House through the Family Dinner Programme. As many as 26 families could be staying at Ronald McDonald House (South Island) on any given night. For some it is just an overnight stay, while for others it is a ‘home away from home’ for many months and frequent visits. We will be making the meal, setting the tables, serving the meals and then eating with the families. We have two nights booked in, and are really looking forward to it.
Once again Sourced has signed as sponsors for the Startup Weekend and the Canterbury Software Summit. We have added another event to our list this year and are programme sponsors of the Lightning Lab Business Accelerator 2015
In the permanent space, demand has been broad and varied, with only two positions really standing out as volume recruitment efforts, These have been in the Senior Management/IT Management/CIO space and test areas.
In the software development space, demand has actually been quite stable with a quiet demand for .Net and web development skills, however with no significant volume or urgency. These roles tend to be based on decisions to bolster teams further, and so are more considered and tend to take a bit longer to come to market.
In the test space, the primary driver in the permanent space has been mid level Functional test expertise, with some automation. In the contracting space, demand has been at all levels, with particular call for seniors and test leads. These demands have been in response to key projects hitting roadblocks, needing additional support, guidance, or simply bums on seats to get work through.
In the professional services space, demand for BA’s and PM’s has been average, with a larger demand in the contracting space than permanent. We have certainly found in the PM space that supply currently outweighs demand, however this is a timing issue and we expect the pendulum to swing back by early new year.
In the infrastructure/engineering area we have again experienced an average level of demand, with a mix of contract and permanent opportunities, with more roles towards the level 1 Desktop Support end than Senior Systems Engineering. Helpdesk and Desktop level 1 roles have certainly picked up, predominantly in the contract and fixed term spaces, and usually to support critical periods of organisational busy-ness.
We continue to encourage graduate recruitment, but this is not a time we expect significant activity.
Overseas recruitment remains steady, with a number of returning kiwis, and new migrants seeing the opportunities on offer in Christchurch. While these numbers are not in significant volumes, they are rising, and we believe in response to the increased optimism in the local economy, employment market, the progression of the rebuild and the lifestyle benefits that are starting to return.
As we speed towards winter, we expect to see a consistent pace of recruitment across both contracting and permanent roles. There appear to be no signs of the current pace slowing, and we are looking forward to bringing you some great opportunities over the next few months as well as celebrating with clients as they grow their businesses and deliver on really key project milestones.
We are really enjoying the opportunity to work in a market that is buoyant, stable, mature and well organised.
The Sourced office will be closed for both Good Friday and Easter Monday, returning to BAU Tuesday 7th May.
As always, keep in touch and we look forward to catching up with you after a nice, loong weekend!
1 Dec 14 by Jason
The end of year is nigh. Although we haven’t yet started the countdown to Christmas we’re all acutely aware that the year is wrapping up at a rapid pace, and the remaining days are filling up quickly. The last few months have been, to be honest, a bit of a blur in the Sourced office, but one very important stand out has been our recent success at the annual Seek SARA Awards.
For you who have been with us since the beginning, you’ll remember that we have been twice runner’s up, so it was with a huge amount of pride, relief and excitement that we were this year recognised as winners of the new format Seek SARA ‘Most Innovative Use of Insights’ award. Specifically recognising Jason’s work on the FluxNZ initiative (www.fluxnz.com), and the Sourced Report (http://sourcedreport.co.nz/), this award means a huge amount as it highlights the effort and committment Sourced pay to keeping our market up to date with participation, activity, movement and trends in the local IT sector.
FluxNZ and the Sourced Report are your key tools to understanding who’s who, developing what, moving where, seeking how much, and moving why. All available free to you. We hope you’re making the most of these essential resources. Watch for an updated Flux poster this week, showing the changes and additions since our launch earlier this year.
Our second major news, is the long awaited move into our brand new premises at 222 St Asaph Street (upstairs from the new Coriander’s flagship restaurant). Purpose built to accommodate our team and growing visitor volumes, we’re thoroughly enjoying the new location, although having to watch our waistlines at the same time (best Indian food in Christchurch is downstairs, in our humblest of opinions)!
The Sourced offices can be found in the top left of this picture - access is via the carpark found on Welles St.
The last 3-6 months have otherwise been a busy time for the team, with a constant flow of permanent recruitment requirements, an uplift in contracting opportunities, and a definite trend of movement within the local market from candidates both moving to new permanent and contracting roles. We are expecting a quiet start to the new year as clients and candidates take a well earned break, with the bulk of activity kicking into gear by early February.
When we look over the past 3 months, a really interesting trend has emerged, with a huge 86% of permanent placements a result of individuals moving roles within the city. 8% were candidates returning home to Christchurch from oversea’s and 6% coming to Christchurch from overseas, specifically for work. These candidates were moving for a mixture of reasons, however when we compare this to the same time last year, when 41% of candidates placed in permanent work had not lived or worked in Christchurch previously, it’s a really interesting trend to be observing. It certainly confirms our finding in the lastest sourced report (http://sourced.nz/news/14/canterbury-tech-sector-august-2014-infographic/) noting that 72% of IT Professionals planned to start actively looking for a new role over the next 12 months. It’s certainly not a trend we’re encouraging given the ongoing shortage of talent in the region, and our focus remains firmly on talent growth from graduate pools and even earlier stages (http://www.codeclub.org.nz/), offshore recruitment, and encouraging professional development and promotion opportunities within organisations ensuring high levels of employee satisfaction and retention.
From a client activity perspective, recruitment has been steady and focused, with a mixture of recruitment for projects coming onstream, new teams being created, and employee turnover. A very measured approach has been taken with clients taking the time to ensure business requirements are well understood, technical and cultural fit aspects well assessed, and long term candidate motivations well understood to ensure a sustainable solution. Recruitment has leaned towards permanent, however contracting opportunities have been very steady with key demands in the Development, BA and Infrastructure spaces.
In the permanent space, we have been recruiting right across the board with the usual developers and testers (automation) in higher demand. Demand for BA’s and PM’s has been average with key opportunities on projects and within growing teams. Systems Administration & Networking roles have been busier than usual, all being recruited to replace departing team members, either moving on to other opportunities, or other centres. Longer term sustained growth, and replacing outgoing team members have been the key drivers for recruitment, and again a steady approach has been applied to recruitment.
We have seen some restructuring across a number of organisations, however largely they have retained the majority of team members, and external movement has been more reflective of team members taking the opportunity to consider their options and look to new challenges for the new year. Candidates who have been affected by disestablishment have been picked up very quickly and have progressed on to other great roles, which is a great reflection of the overall buoyancy of the local market.
Junior level
Precision Tracking - Junior Java Developer
Precision Tracking develop highly accurate GPS mapping and vehicle tracking solutions. They can help organisations to keep track of every vehicle in their fleet, easily pinpoint where vehicles have travelled, identify fastest-route options, track off-road kilometres, use for accurate RUC rebate claims and keep accurate records of jobs completed. We are looking for a Graduate or Junior Developer to assist the current development team with maintenance and BAU. Development is in Java, C++, Ruby , and an interest in GIS is ideal.
For more information contact Chris Woods
Intermediate level
Diligent Board Books - Intermediate/Senior .Net Developers
Diligent are the creator of the world's most widely used board portal, Diligent has pioneered ease of use, stringent security and superior training and support since 2001. Boardbooks helps improve governance by facilitating communications and enabling a timely view of current and historical company information. Administrators can efficiently produce board materials, drastically cutting the time needed to prepare for a meeting. Moving from paper to portal also eliminates printing, shipping and travel costs while freeing up internal admin, IT, and support time. Diligent are recruiting at pace for Intermediate and Senior .Net Developers with experience in back end C#.Net application development, an interest in SAAS technologies, and a passion for Agile.
For more information contact Rachel Brown
Senior level
Trimble Navigation - Xamarin Developer
Though best known for GPS technology, Trimble integrates a wide range of positioning technologies including GPS, laser, optical and inertial technologies with application software, wireless communications, and services to provide complete commercial solutions. Its integrated solutions allow customers to collect, manage and analyze complex information faster and easier, making them more productive, efficient and profitable. We are looking for an experienced C#.Net Mobile Application Developer, ideally with Xamarin experience with a contract position starting immediately. Experience in C# coupled with Android or iOS development would also be highly regarded.
For more information contact Michelle Bishop
As mentioned above, we have just in the last month moved into our new office space at Level 1, 222 St Asaph Street. This is our second and hopefully final move for the Sourced business and has been well over a year in the making. With purpose designed boardroom, meeting rooms and a larger space to accomodate the team, it’s a fantastic move and we’re really pleased to seeing the ongoing developments within the CBD from our new space.
In the permanent space, demand has been broad and varied, with only two positions really standing out as volume recruitment efforts, These have been in the Development and Test Automation areas.
In the software development space, demand has again been broad, across mobile application, front end web, Java and .Net development, and as a result of projects, new teams being built, and staff turnover.
In the Test Automation space, there has been an uplift in demand for Test Automation engineers, those equipped to not only administer, but actually architect, develop and delivery full automated test suites. A very tough skill to find, we are increasingly looking offshore for this talent set.
In the Professional Services space, demand for BA’s and PM’s has been average, with a larger demand in the contracting space than permanent. We have certainly found in the PM space that supply currently outweighs demand, however this is a timing issue and we expect the pendulum to swing back by early new year.
In the Infrastructure/Engineering area we have again experienced an avergae level of demand, with a mix of contract and permanent opportunities, ranging from level 1 Desktop Support to Senior Systems Engineering. Helpdesk has been a very quiet area, as has architecture, with the predominant demand in mid-senior level hands on Microsoft engineering skills.
We continue to encourage graduate recruitment, and have been leveraging a number of graduates into temporary contracting roles as a way of securing first commercial experiences. This has been highly successful and acts as a really important feeder into the permanent market.
Overseas recruitment has been quieter in the last 3 months of this year, however we expect this given we are so close to Christmas and would be looking to the new year and beyond to ramp up in this area.
As we speed towards Christmas, we expect to see a rapid wind down of new opportunities to market, and a focus on finishing up exisiting recruitment projects and planning for the new year.
We remind clients that there is a really great opportunity in the late December/early January time frame to be advertising ahead of any requirements for the first quarter of 2015, as this is a time where typically candidates are quite active and recruitment activity quite low. If you’re keen to get ahead of the game, this is the time to do it.
We are really enjoying the opportunity to work in a market that is currently very buoyant, stable and well organised. Solid decision making processes are in place for hiring decisions, and we’re seeing some great candidates move off into really exciting new roles.
We expect 2015 to be another busy year, and are looking forward to connecting with you all when we return in January.
The Sourced office will be closed from December 24th - early January.
As always, keep in touch and we look forward to catching up with you, rested, relaxed and revitalised in January.
3 Sep 14 by Jason
Here is the second in a new series of infographics that is designed to inform and guide business and individuals working in the Canterbury IT and tech scene.
Released every 6 months, the Sourced Report will highlight the changes in the industry as the year progresses, ensuring that those involved in the local scene are up to date with the moods and attitudes of all contributors, employees, employers and jobseekers alike.
If you would like to be part of these results, please click through to let us know.
The report can be seen below, but also downloaded as a PDF or read again from http://sourcedreport.co.nz
26 Sep 14 by Jason
Download our infographic from http://sourcedreport.co.nz/
More than 85% of Canterbury employers are planning to recruit new IT personnel in the next six months as businesses move into an active growth phase, according to new research data.
The six-monthly Sourced Report from Christchurch’s specialist IT recruitment agency Sourced, shows hiring intentions locally remain very high, up around 1% since February, with 62% of employers recruiting for new projects.
“Indications from the data are that businesses are moving forward from planning into action and growth,” says Sourced Director Jason Bishop.
“Along with most employers recruiting for multiple roles, we’re seeing an overwhelming need for software developers and other results-driven roles such as network engineers and web and multi-media developers. Businesses are moving forward.”
Job security is also high in the region with more than 92% of employers hiring for permanent positions reflecting long-term growth commitments and 8% for contractors; a dynamic that differentiates Canterbury from New Zealand’s other main IT centres where contracting is significantly higher.
However, staff churn is up with 46% of employers hiring to replace staff, compared to 22% in February, and 40% of employees planning to look for new work in the next few months compared to 25%.
Bishop says the data reflects the cyclical nature of job churn, which tends to peak mid-year, and should be used by employers to support continued investment in their workplace culture.
“It’s a risky time of year for staff churn, so employers need to be zeroing in on their teams, communicating collectively, supporting people and actively building motivation and engagement.”
Indeed, the survey shows the vast majority of employees (81%) see professional support from management and leaders as the most important part of a workplace culture, followed by professional development opportunities and flexible working hours.
“Clearly that support and connection from management is critical.”
However, Christchurch is still not seen as a great place to progress an IT career, despite the abundance of opportunities that have developed across the full breadth of sectors, creating one of the most diverse IT centres in the country.
But, there’s a sense that employers are over-focused on qualifications when hiring and often reluctant to cross-train existing employees into progressing their roles and skills.
“Employers can learn a lot by taking note of what’s happening in Canterbury‘s buzzing tech sector. As well as support and training, IT professionals are hungry for opportunities to interact with their peers. There’s a running calendar of tech cluster events happening and employers should be encouraging their people to get out, share, learn and grow.”
The survey also shows that employers and professionals alike feel more could be done to support start-ups with a strong call for financial support such as subsidies and tax incentives along with free services ranging from broadband through to conferences and showcases.
“The strongest message from the survey is that Canterbury’s tech sector is critical not only to growth and to attracting investment and talent to Christchurch, but as a growing hub of knowledge and innovation nationally.”
The Sourced Report is a survey-based insight of the Christchurch IT sector, highlighting local employment trends and market expectations. It is published every six months by Sourced, Christchurch’s specialist IT recruitment agency.
http://www.sourced.kiwi/
For more information contact Jason Bishop, APRCSA
Sourced Director
t +64 3 928 2315
8 Jul 14 by The Sourced Team
We're putting this newsletter together at the end of a very cold weekend, which has come as a bit of a shock after an extremely temperate start to winter. If you're anything like us we've been making the most of the sunshine and getting out and making the most of it. Who knows when the first winter snow falls will make an appearance!
The last 3 months have been very busy for us with the launch of FluxNZ, some minor reshuffling internally, and a new team member coming onboard (read more about this further down) and we can see by the way the market is moving that this level of busyness is not going to let up.
We are very encouraged by the sheer number of projects coming onstream in the local tech sector and at the same time acutely aware of the growth that will be required to satisfy this. We are continuing to focus very strongly on international and where possible graduate recruitment, and really starting to ask the hard questions of ourselves and our clients around 'where do we source our talent'.
As we like to move at pace, Sourced was also the first official sponsor of Code Club (more to be announced soon). Keep an eye on @CodeClubNZ to see news on their new website go-live, but spread the word also:
A nationwide network of volunteer-led after school coding clubs for children aged 9-11
To get on their mailing list or for more info: team@codeclub.org.nz
As mentioned above, we are now seeing a large number of projects either preparing for, or already in, full swing, and with a limited population to deal with this growth, we are increasingly looking to offshore, and where possible graduate talent pools to satisfy demand. We are having to work more creatively with clients around how and who they source, and at the same time really focusing on keeping their existing teams engaged. While we have not seen any significant lift in salaries yet, we are starting to wonder how long this will hold.
In the permanent space, while the usual Developers, Testers and BA's are in high demand we are also seeing a significant lift in demand for Service Desk, Desktop Support and Systems Engineering specialists. As with last quarter, project work continues to dictate demand, and these projects are long term/multi year, meaning demand is really in the permanent space.
The local candidate market is a really interesting one right now. As we have continued to highlight, with the demand for skilled talent being as it is, it's a really important time to be focusing on engagement and development opportunities internally. If we look at candidates who are currently active in the local market, time and time again the reasons are the same: internal culture, lack of development opportunities, work life balance, older technologies. Something to be thinking about in the year ahead.
We are finding candidates who are more passive in the market are really taking their time to make the right decision/find the right 'fit' which is really encouraging. There seems to be little appetite for moving around and we are really working to ensure that candidates and clients are making informed and honest decisions about their futures together.
Service Desk Engineer - Computer Concepts Ltd
Computer Concepts Limited (CCL) has forged an enviable reputation for providing innovative, cost effective engineering-powered IT expertise nationally backed with strong customer service. Due to ongoing business success, CCL is establishing an additional and entirely new Service Desk Engineering team. Be part of it!
For more information contact Rachel Brown
Intermediate Mobile Developer - Trimble Navigation.
The Trimble Navigation Mobile Computing Solutions group develop innovative products that enable mobile workers to be more efficient in extreme outdoor and industrial environments. Their suite of rugged handheld computers help users collect accurate field data and work more productively in any outdoor or service-related application.
We are looking for an Intermediate .Net/Mobile Application Developer to join their team.
For more information contact Michelle Bishop
Intermediate Test Analyst - House of Travel
The House of Travel offers a workplace second to none. Their staff turnover is extremely low, and they are continuing to grow due to the fast paced and competitive nature of their industry. Staff are regularly rewarded through incentives and rewards and they really go the extra mile to make their workplace a fantastic place to be.
We are looking for an Intermediate - Senior Level Test Analyst to join their team.
For more information contact Michelle Bishop
You'll no doubt be aware of our new web address? sourced.kiwi officially went live with our new look website which has been in development since the middle of last year. The site is built in the latest technology, using HTML 5 and local storage, and has been designed with smoothing the user experience on all devices in mind. Basic job searching and job alert functionality as well as finding or calling us can all be done with your thumb!
As a very early adopter of the .kiwi TLD, we secured a number of domains pre-sunrise period by having all trademarks registered with the Trademark Clearing House last year.
If you were at the May Software Cluster gathering at Trimble Navigation you would have seen the first public launch of the FluxNZ Canterbury Technology and Innovation Sectors report, a joint venture between Sourced and Memia Ltd, with support from the Canterbury Development Corporation.
Profiling Canterbury's Technology and Innovation sectors in depth, the report represents many months of effort scouring websites, social media and interviewing many of the individuals who make this industry so exciting to work in locally. The result is a substantial deliverable which shines a light on the scale, diversity and quality of commercial technology innovation which is happening right here in Christchurch and Canterbury.
The FluxNZ report has been widely reported over the past month across print, online and radio media and is now available for download by visiting us online at http://fluxnz.com/
Flux has generated significant local and national media interest, and if you were listening carefully you may have even heard Jason discussing the report on Newstalk ZB a few weeks back! We are really looking forward to keeping in touch with future progress on Flux as it continues to grow.
At an internal level, you may have heard that Hannah has decided to return to study part time to complete her degree at Canterbury Uni, and as a result will be moving to a more behind the scenes role at Sourced. She will still be just as active in the business, just with a slightly different focus.
We are very pleased to welcome Chris(tine) Woods to the team, who has been busy over the past couple of months working with Hannah and our clients to get up to speed. Chris has many years of local recruitment experience across a number of domain specialties, and has already rediscovered a few familiar faces out there. You can read more about Chris here: http://sourced.kiwi/
The second SourcedReport is underway and we are asking people to once again complete the survey ( this takes less than 5 minutes!)
We have designed this survey to further increase and build our industry's understanding of the local Christchurch IT market, and we're confident that our findings will continue to provide a valuable insight for you and the wider IT industry.
Both job seekers and employers have been invited to participate. All responses are strictly confidential and we do not use this information for recruiting purposes.
Please head over to the survey to complete it, and be sure to share it around https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PXGWV66
This last quarter has been a very broad and very mixed bag. We are seeing really good demand for contracting resource in the .Net Development, Mobile Development and BA areas, and recruitment for permanent staffing across almost all disciplines.
In the Infrastructure/Engineering area we have a small number of clients growing in quite signficant numbers, offering great opportunities in the Service Desk, Desktop & Network Engineering and Systems Engineering areas. These are client facing roles and in direct response to market growth.
In the development space, clients have been in full recruitment mode for projects and growth, with a spike in demand for mobile application development expertise, which has generated a good amount of interest.
Test Analysts remain in high demand with a focus change to looking at testers interested in TDD, and a much more consultative role in testing. Testing in many companies is beginning to drive development and in a growing number of companies, the face of testing is really changing!
In the professional services/leadership space, we have seen a small but steady demand for Team Leaders/Programme Leaders/ Team Managers, and again across project teams. At a lower level demand for Project Managers has been low, with demand more so for BA's in both the contract and permanent spaces and at business and technical level.
We have been really encouraged to see some graduate recruitment underway this quarter in the Development area, and we continue to talk to clients about not overlooking this valuable talent. We can not continue to expect to fish from the same pool, while not being prepared to develop that pool. It just isn't sustainable. Thankfully many of our clients agree and we've had some outstanding success stories.
As we march full steam into the second half of 2014 we expect to see a below average level of employed local IT Professionals looking to move about, and a continued demand for this same talent. We expect to be continuing to develop our wider networks and really promote Christchurch as a lifestyle location with a level of role quality easily comparative to our north island compatriots.
We are really enjoying the level of focus companies are placing on their professional brands and internal engagement levels, and encourage this to continue. Christchurch is a competitive market right now and a company's ability to keep their best speaks volumes.
We'd like to remind you that we are available at any time to elaborate of what we've spoken about here, to provide updates, insights or focused/specific stats on the shape of the local market. If you'd like more information on FluxNZ please feel free to contact Jason - this is an initiative we expect you'll continue to hear more about this year!
As always, keep in touch and we look forward to catching up with you over the next few months.
14 May 14 by Jason and Michelle
As published in The Press, 14 May 2014
Recruitment activity in Christchurch’s innovation and information technology sector is at an all-time high – 85% of employers are hiring to service unprecedented growth across the sector and the region.
Suffice it to say, it’s a vibrant ‘tech sector’ job market. New projects are the main driver of recruitment and with 97% of roles on offer for permanent positions we’re seeing growth commitment and increased job security.
And there are a lot of really exciting and challenging roles emerging in everything from agri-tech and health-tech, high-tech manufacturing and IT services through to the thriving start-up scene which now makes up about 18% of the market.
In total, the local tech sector comprises 6% of Canterbury’s GDP and employs around 12% of the national tech workforce.
That's 7,000 people, and it's forecast to double in size by 2031. For employers, the challenge is not only to find the right talent but keep current employees engaged and energised – particularly at this time of year when there’s an increased risk of job turnover.
People have settled back in after summer breaks and if they've not yet re-engaged with enthusiasm about their current role, they'll be looking elsewhere.
There are plenty of opportunities to tempt them away, so it’s a critical time to focus on ensuring your team is energised which will help create a strong workplace culture – culture drives behaviour, which drives productivity and is a competitive advantage.
So what defines a strong workplace? Our Canterbury tech sector survey, the Sourced Report, shows what matters to job seekers and how employers should respond to that. The top three qualities job seekers look for in a Christchurch IT role are work/life balance (80%), challenges (70.7%) and career
opportunities (69.3%).
Not surprisingly, those who are currently in employment said the aspects of their workplace they enjoy the most are variety of work (66.7%), flexible hours (58.7%) and access to good technology (56.7%). This tells us how important it is for employers to maintain and build their identity and
culture to attract the right people.
Interestingly, remuneration is not at the top of the list which reflects the strong team-driven innovation culture in Christchurch. But, we are expecting to see salary increases as business move out of recovery and into growth, which makes it a great time to be here. Around 10% of job seekers also want stock/equity options with their employers, which tends to be readily available among the smaller and start-up organisations that make up such a big chunk
of the market. And, both employers and employees want to see greater investment in up-skilling employees, very promising for job seekers.
Alongside these research-based insights into what the market expects of a good workplace, we can offer some general guidelines around how to re-engage and re-energise your team:
We know that Christchurch wants and needs ambitious people who are great communicators, collaborators and want to be part of a team that is helping to make a difference. We also know that right now, employers are most interested in finding people who are team-players. In many cases, employers will actually invest in training these people rather than hire someone who is qualified but not the right ‘fit’ for an organisation.
The bottom line? Building and maintaining a strong and inspired workplace culture is one of the best investments a business can make.
If you want to be a part of the Christchurch IT sector, get in touch on (03) 420 2999 or visit www.sourced.kiwi for more information, including the latest Sourced Report.
1 May 14 by Michelle & Chris
Trimble Navigation is a leading provider of advanced positioning solutions, with products in use in over 141 countries around the world, with employees based in more than 30 countries. Though best known for GPS technology, Trimble integrates a wide range of positioning technologies including GPS, laser, optical and inertial technologies with application software, wireless communications, and services to provide complete commercial solutions.
A long standing employer in Christchurch with over 210 employees based locally, Trimble New Zealand offers career opportunities across a range of business units represented here, including GIS Data Collection, Heavy Civil Construction (Machine Control and Software Solutions), Precision Agriculture, and Land Survey.
Employees are recognised through a range of benefits including comprehensive Medical, Life and Disability insurance, profit share, stock purchase programs and an active social club, and enjoy the career development opportunities associated with working for a global business.
Trimble's Geospatial group focuses on developing web and desktop solutions for the GIS and Survey sectors. They are in a growth phase and have a permanent vacancy for an experienced engineer to join their development team with a focus on managing and maintaining build systems and development and production servers.
The Caterpillar Trimble Control Technologies group, a division of Trimble Navigation, develops 3D positioning and control products for earthmoving machines in the construction and mining industries. The products are used in a range of applications where the operator of the machine benefits from having accurate horizontal and vertical blade guidance and where machine activity data must be collected for display to site or mine management personnel.
For more information on working with Trimble Navigation, please contact Michelle Bishop or Chris Woods at Sourced on 03 420 2999, or click through to job and type in your keyword.
14 Apr 14 by Jason
![]() The Canterbury IT and Technology scene is on a high!Welcome to Autumn! I know we're never ready for it, and the end of daylight savings often feels like the final goodbye to summer, but....moving right along! We really hope you've had a great start to the year and if our recent experience is anything to go by there's been plenty to keep to you all busy. The first quarter of 2014 has followed the trend we would typically expect which was quieter to start as business came back online, last ditch holidays were held and then a quick and urgent ramp up as projects and follow on work from 2013 moved ahead in earnest. Both contract and permanent opportunities have been on the rise, with a spike in demand for Senior Management/Leadership roles and Mobile Development Technology opportunities. These are tending strongly towards newly created positions and with some very progressive, high profile companies. We'll expand on this trend this further through the update. There is a high and continued level of interest from migrants looking for opportunities, specifically in the South Island, and more and more companies engaging with these candidates prior to their arrival in Christchurch. Images courtesy of christchurchnz.com
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20 Feb 14 by Jason
Welcome back anyway, we hope you had a great break over Christmas, New Year and Waitangi, and have recharged your batteries ready for the year ahead. We thought it would be a great time to both look back and forwards, bringing you a snapshot of the year that was, and the year that 2014 is shaping up to be! This update is a little late due to us wanting to include information about some interesting work we completed in the last quarter of 2013 - click through to the Sourced Report now, or read more about it below, first.
The final three months of 2013 were extremely busy for Sourced, particularly in the permanent space, as a significant number of clients ramped up for recruitment in the new year. Many clients even continued on their recruitment activities through the Christmas period, ensuring top talent was secured for the first few weeks of January. We even had some job offers going out on Christmas Eve!
As we expected, it's been a hit the ground sprinting scenario, as we pick up on the activity that occurred over the break and move these processes forward. Permanent recruitment is absolutely the focus, with only a small smattering of contract opportunities in the mix.
In the permanent space, the usual skillsets remain in high demand - Developers, Testers, BA's and Product specialists, with a continued lift in demand for Systems & Network specialists. While projects do seem to be quietly lifting again, after a period of predominantly BAU work, most recruitment is in response to long term planning and strategic decision making.
The local candidate market is still generally quiet with the vast majority of candidates recruited in the second half of 2013 coming from offshore, or local but in positions of redundancy, returning to workforce, or transitioning from contract to permanent. This is a really great statistic, when we consider it is a direct nod to workforce retention and higher levels of staff engagement.
A lot of our clients have been surprised to learn that we did not note any significant lift in salaries for the year, with primary candidate motivations still being around work life balance, flexible work opportunities, professional development and team/culture considerations. Agile is becoming a 'must have' in potential employers in the Software Development space, and there is very much a 'what's in it for me' sentiment if candidates are going to consider a move of any description.
2013 was a bumper year for the Sourced team, with the addition of a new family member (Samuel James born February 13th), the arrival of our Principal Consultant Rachel Brown, and more recently Jess Eastmond coming on board to broaden our capabilities in the Engineering/Technical IT space.
To put some actual shape around what we often report as the state of the Canterbury IT scene, we have created the Sourced Report which features the results of a six-monthly survey sent to a database of Christchurch IT employers, employees and job seekers registered with Sourced. While it restates what we continue to talk about, having the data to back us up is proving invaluable for some customers who are using the findings to formally support business decisions where people from outside of Christchurch or New Zealand are involved. Besides, who doesn't love data?
Click the image to the left to read/download this. Please keep an eye open for the survey and be sure to run through it if we send it to you!
The end of 2013 was punctuated with some great events, the first off the rank being our much anticipated Hacktivate. With close to 200 spectators on the night, it was an extremely well received event, and well attended by a number of local software development houses and individuals.
We also held two great networking events for our clients, which were both a chance to meet one another, but also as a thank you from Sourced for their partnership throughout the year.
We held a Strawberry Fare Ladies Bake Night in late November which was a real hit, baking up a range of treats including sauces, Gateaux, Cheesecake and mudcake. Lots of fun, though admittedly a little too much sugar and chocolate!
We also treated a number of clients to hot laps around Ruapuna Raceway in a Porsche GT3 which proved to be an experience of a lifetime. Be sure to check out our facebook page for photos of both events.
For the first quarter of 2014 we have planned a Women's Charity Networking Breakfast, with the focus being women's health awareness, with a presentation from, and proceeds going to the NZ Gynaecological Foundation. We are hoping for a great turnout!
Recently we launched a Sourced 'channel' on LinkedIn. Through this tool you will be able to see some of the roles we are working on but more importantly, will allow you to quickly share anything we post with any of your friends or family. Remember, we do have a referral scheme that works very well for those that use it.
Speaking of new stuff (there is a theme here?!), the website and online presence has undergone a major transformation with some excellent enhancements to the site functionality across any device - but you have to check out the job board when it goes live. Search, save and sign up for job alerts like never before. As with anything at Sourced, this will continue to evolve based on feedback andt there are still a few features that are in development so keep an eye on it
Finally, we have new cars. You'll see us zipping about town in these little Fiats >>>>
Carrying through from 2013 we are seeing the demand for BA's, testers and developers continue, with network and IT support roles on the rise. We saw a spike of demand for systems analysts and implementation consultants towards the end of 2013 but this has quietened down again. While contract positions are presenting, the predominant demand is for permanent resource and we are not expecting to see that change in the short term.
January - March is proving to be a very busy time, with a number of new roles being presented to market. With an international focus we are seeing some great opportunities for travel, upskilling and development, and are finding it becoming increasingly easy to market Christchurch not only as a lifestyle location but as a genuine career location.
We hope you all get a great start to 2014, from the team at Sourced.
22 Jan 14 by Sourced
The Caterpillar Trimble Control Technologies group, a division of Trimble Navigation, develops 3D positioning and control products for earthmoving machines in the construction and mining industries.
The products are used in a range of applications where the operator of the machine benefits from having accurate horizontal and vertical blade guidance and where machine activity data must be collected for display to site or mine management personnel.
With a significant growth path ahead, expanding our core technical platform, and pushing into new technologies including Android, we are looking for a number of team members including:
UX Analyst – Now closed
C++ Software Engineer – Now closed
Software Test Automater – Now closed
Technical Writer – Now closed
To register your interest in these positions please call Michelle Bishop or Hannah Iranon at the Sourced office 03 4202999
Remember to follow @SourcedChch on Twitter and Facebook – most of our roles can be found on either of those channels
19 Sep 13 by Sourced
About the Role
****This role is now closed****
We are looking for a Senior Electronics Test Engineer to fill a key new position in our control systems engineering team, working on design verification and production test equipment development as well as compliance related activities.
Our Test Engineer will have outstanding technical capabilities in test system development and operation for embedded electronic control system products and will be highly self-motivated and able to build sound relationships with engineers, PCBA suppliers, production engineers, contractors and compliance organisations.
This is a senior role in a relatively small team and so will provide the opportunity to make a very significant contribution to our products and business.
A salary and benefits package reflective of experience will be negotiated.
What do you need to do?
Sourced are working on this role exclusively, so if this is of interest to you, don’t hesitate to call Michelle on 928-1402 (Christchurch) for a confidential discussion about further job details.
Remember to follow @SourcedChch on Twitter and Facebook – most of our roles can be found on either of those channels.