South Florida IT Leader Concerns Grow Over Losing IT Staff

Online, April 7, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Two surveys just released by the Boca Raton based Information Technology (IT) search and staffing firm, reveal that technology hiring continues to strengthen with 65% of IT Leaders planning to hire.

"We are seeing very strong demand for several specific career disciplines with especially high demand for software engineers and web developers." stated Deborah Vazquez, PROTECH CEO.

Average 2014 IT budgets continue to increase but at a slower pace (an average of 9% versus 11% last year). While 63% of IT leaders (up from 47%) stated that current budgets are not adequate in relation to actual needs. The 12th Annual Tech Leadership survey also revealed 65% of IT leaders are concerned about losing IT staff, a big jump from last year's 53%.

The top reason for their concern continues to be compensation (a 70% response up from 67% a year ago) followed by lack of career path with an 18% response. Company culture and work environment made it for the first time as one of the top three reasons why Tech leaders say they are losing staff.

The Tech Talent survey results further confirm this with 87% of employees willing to change employers citing top reasons being salary, followed by lack of career path, and corporate culture (moving to top three from fifth last year).

Employees received an average 2013 pay increase of 6%, up from 5% in 2012. "Salaries continue to increase, and so do the number of employees who say they are willing to leave their current employer for a better opportunity. This is making it very difficult for employers to retain key staff with specialized, in-demand skills," said Vazquez.

PROTECH surveyed over 800 IT Director to CIO level executives for its 12th annual Tech Leadership Survey; and over 21000 IT professionals for its 10th annual Tech Talent survey. All participants are located in the South Florida tri-county area.

The top three technology-related priorities for 2014 are "Infrastructure Upgrades" (34%); "New Large Applications Development endeavors" (28%) and "ERP upgrades" (21%).

We continue to see a shift to direct hire from contract employment. Flextime and Telecommuting continue to be considered best perk offered by a past/present employer (41%) followed by company equity (12%). Salary, followed by company stability and benefits are cited as most important when considering a new job.