IT employers willing to shell out higher premiums to attract top talent: study

Improved employee benefits and flexible work arrangements are used to retain top talent.

Information technology (IT) employers are willing to a pay a premium to staff with teams with the best talent with almost half or 47% of chief information officers (CIOs) offering higher remuneration to attract top IT talent, according to research commissioned by recruiter Robert Half.

“Money talks in a market where jobs are aplenty and skilled candidates in short supply,” Robert Half Singapore’s managing director Matthieu Imbert-Bouchard said in a statement. “Companies, however, also need to think beyond salary. Whilst salary is a key component of an overall remuneration policy, companies realise they also need to diversify their incentives offering to not only attract the best talent but also to retain them.”

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According to Imbert-Bouchard, companies with the lowest turnover rates are those who have an ongoing conversation with their staff about what motivates them and act on it. “Those who continuously benchmark salaries, provide challenging work and are able to tailor the remuneration package to the individual employee’s needs will be most successful.”

Besides a higher salary, 43% of CIOs also offer additional training and development opportunities to attract talent, whilst 37% promote an enhanced work culture such as health and wellbeing programs, the survey found.

In terms of retaining talent, the research found that Singapore’s IT employers are being proactive with initiatives focused on employee benefits, professional development and flexible working arrangements. This further suggests that non-financial benefits are key to retain top performers, the firm noted.

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“With more than eight in ten (83%) CIOs saying it is more challenging to attract qualified IT professionals to their organisation compared to five years ago, companies need to adjust their staff attraction initiatives in skills-short market,” the firm stated.

The annual study was conducted in June 2018 surveying 75 CIOs and chief technology officers (CTOs) in Singapore.