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 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.General CommentsThe 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.From Auckland’s PerspectiveThe 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.Within Sourced Walls 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.Who’s in DemandIn 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.General Round UpOverall, 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!Did You KnowWe’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 could mean that companies are accepting that they might need to pay slightly higher salaries in order to attract and retain top talent. In our previous report, 12% of people stated that they were looking to change role in the next 3-6 months, and this time around we can see that 23% of respondents have been in their roles for 6 months or less.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.
