One in seven Kazan managers think deficit of IT workers serious problem for businesses

A shortage of IT specialists became more noticeable in the last few years

In the last two years, a deficit of specialists in information technologies has been notable in the Russian market. First of all, workers have paid attention to the lack of IT staff, some of them considered this situation as a real problem for businesses.

Most managers in the Tatarstan capital have paid attention to the tendency for a smaller number of IT specialists, 39% of respondents of a survey done by analysts of Platforma и hh.ru Realnoe Vremya was provided with reads. According to the results, just one in five Kazan managers expressed confidence about the deficit of IT workers, 20%. Another 16% of respondents claimed they didn’t see a staff problem in IT. The majority started to see a lack of IT specialists recently. So 43% of Kazan citizens said they had paid attention to the situation less than a year ago, that’s to say, in 2021. Another 35% were concerned about the deficit of IT employees one or two years ago. However, the tendency for a staff shortage outlined much earlier. So 16% of the respondents in the capital of Tatarstan admitted the lack of IT workers started to be seen 3-5 years ago.

The deficit of IT specialists isn’t desirable for businesses. Many fear a situation when it will be tough to find an IT specialist for the team. 38% of surveyed Kazan managers expressed such an opinion. The same amount of respondents don’t see this situation as a problem.

IT vacancies rose by 85%

According to her, during the year, the number of IT vacancies has increased. In late November-December, employers placed over 143,000 ads with jobs for IT workers for their teams. This is 85% more than the number of vacancies published at the end of the autumn during the pandemic in 2020.

Ignatova paid attention that in general the year is characterised for a truly explosive growth of open IT vacancies:

“The annual growth pace is 76%. At the same time, a big deficit of IT staff remains, CVs increase by 5% on average,” she specified.

Not all people are ready to trust IT rookies

To close the vacancy of an IT worker in their company, workers in this situation are ready to employ jobseekers without experience. However, at the moment a minority — 19% of the respondents — are ready to risk by hiring an inexperienced person. At the same time, compared to last year, the number of vacancies an employer doesn’t have requirements for experience has grown by 72%.

Another 43% of the respondents were ready to consider hiring an IT rookie, including a university graduate. And just 7% firmly demand experience and aren’t ready to trust novices despite the staff deficit in the labour market. According to a survey, more than half of managers (55%) are ready to fight for a good IT worker offering the jobseeker a high salary.

Teams solve the problem of the shortage of IT specialists with other methods too. For instance, in some companies, top managers purchase courses and seminars for their employees, 23% of the respondents noted this. The same amount refers workers to take refresher courses, another 8% said they hired highly qualified mentors.

Other companies develop incentive programmes (22%), while some, despite the coronacrisis, are ready to raise specialists’ salaries (16%). Another 6% of the surveyed top managers claimed they attracted new people or kept old IT staff by buying new equipment designed precisely for them.

Employers appreciate logic and analytics

Besides the experience and competency, employers as a rule have requirements for other qualities in jobseekers. So in IT workers they, first of all, appreciate logical thinking, 39% of the respondents noted it.

Love for analytics and big data are the second most important requirement. This quality matters for 32% of surveyed employers. Stress-resistance was named by 29% of respondents, 25% did perseverance and responsibility. 18% want to see a “flexible” IT worker on their team.

IT specialists’ salary starts with 50-100,000 rubles a month. 29% of surveyed employers are ready to pay such a salary. Only 3% offer IT workers a salary of 500,000 rubles.

At the same time, the staff is ready to pay novices less. Most respondents (31%) are ready to pay beginners from 20 to 40,000 rubles a month. Just 3% of the audience offers more than 100,000 rubles. Another 5% of the employers are ready to pay an IT worker from 80,000 to 100,000 on the onset of their career in the company.

1,201 entrepreneurs and managers older than 18 years from Russian cities with a population of more than 100,000 people participated in the survey done in November 2021.