Almost 80% of CIOs plan to up-skill their staff in 2015: Greythorn

CIOs are up-skilling existing IT workers to deal with the shortage of staff with experience in business development, digital, big data, and cloud, according to executive recruiter, Greythorn.

The recruiter surveyed 249 CIOs and IT directors and found almost 80 per cent plan to train their existing staff this year to meet their project deliveries.

CIOs are increasingly hiring new IT staff based in their ability to learn new skills, Greythorn said. Multi-talented professionals who are not so niche are also becoming more attractive to CIOs, the recruiter said.

“Having the right calibre of talent within an organisation and, in particular, on developing projects, can be a distinct competitive advantage or conversely a big headache if the wrong decisions are made,” Richard Fischer, Greythorn MD for APAC, said in a statement.

The survey result show 41 per cent believe skill shortages will directly impact their business this year, while 38 per cent said it will impact project delivery.

The 457 visa will still be considered an option for a third of CIOs, with Greythorn citing figures from the Australian Government Department of Immigration and Border Security showing ICT project managers on this visa increased by 19 per cent in 2014 from the previous year.

Greythorn said the Asia, India, the UK and New Zealand are the top countries CIOs look to for international talent.