Sourced 2014 – What’s ahead for Canterbury IT?

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.

General Comments

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.

Within Sourced’s walls

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.

SourcedReport.co.nz

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 >>>>

Who is in demand?

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.

General Round Up

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.