Rather than dangling expensive salary and benefits packages in front of potential new staff, recruitment agencies are suggesting that spending more to train those already onboard is a more cost-effective way of overcoming the challenge.

Throughout Australia, companies are reporting ongoing problems in finding sufficient, qualified staff to meet their needs. This shortage is putting upward pressure on salaries, as many IT professionals finding themselves in the enviable position of being able to play prospective employees off against each other.

In the recently released Michael Page Technology Salary Survey for 2007/08, the company estimates salaries for IT staff will increase by between 5 and 7 per cent during the next 12 months. For those with hard-to-find specialty skills, rises could be between 15 and 20 per cent during the same period.

“Recognising talent, investing in professional training programs and demonstrating career development opportunities are powerful business strategies in a tight labour market,” says the report. “Companies that fail to address these issues will be forced to offer higher salaries in order to recruit new employees in a competitive employment market.”

General manager with Dimension Data Learning Solutions, Steve Ross, says that as well as training staff in core technical competencies, companies also should consider higher-level skills such as ITIL and Prince2.

“ITIL in particular is in very strong demand at the moment,” he says. “Also, if you want to deal with government, it’s looking as though you will eventually have to be ITIL compliant.”

Ross says it can make more sense to train people already within an organisation in skills such as ITIL, rather than trying to attract new, already trained people.

Training provider Excom Education’s national sales manager Paul Athanasakos agrees, saying there has been a notable shift away from focusing all training efforts on “nuts and bolts” skills with more being invested in things such as ITIL.

“Employers that invest in training don’t have chops and changes in staff - they have more longevity,” he says. “We’re finding that training is coming more and more into the negotiations between employers and employees. Having a structured training program in place has definite payoffs.”

This attitude is backed by the Michael Page research report. When those surveyed for the report were asked for their motivations for changing jobs, 29 per cent nominated career development while only 9 per cent said money.

Other recent research clearly highlights the overall IT skills gap that exists in the Australian market at the moment. The most recent quarterly Olivier Internet Job Index found there were 35,975 IT&T jobs advertised online in June. While this was down slightly from the previous quarter it represented a 45.62 per cent increase compared with the same time last year.

Of the particular technology skills in greatest demand at the present, recruitment companies point to Microsoft SharePoint, SQL Server and Vista desktop are examples of where supply of skilled staff is particularly tight.

Technologies such as IP telephony and business intelligence applications are also in strong demand.

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Ian Grayson  Jobs  Microsoft  Recruitment  Vista  Windows