Majority of large enterprise CIOs aim to increase their IT headcount in 2023: Gartner

As the skills crisis continues, IT leaders are still on the hunt for top talent, a new survey from Gartner shows that 81 percent of large enterprise CIOs plan to grow their IT headcount for the remainder of the year.

From the survey, it highlighted that only 14 percent of CIOs expect their staff to decrease and 5 percent expect no change to their headcount.

Jose Ramirez, senior principal analyst at Gartner said attracting and retaining technology talent remain critical areas of concern for CIOs.  

“Even with advances in AI, Gartner predicts that the global job impact will be neutral in the next several years due to enterprise adoption lags, implementation times and learning curves,” he said.

Enterprises have undertaken various digital initiatives over the past two years, with operational excellence and customer or citizen experience being the most popular, according to Ramirez.

“Still, these initiatives often do not meet enterprise needs quickly enough,” he said.

The survey noted 67 percent of large enterprise CIOs plan to grow their IT headcount in 2023 by at least 10 percent to support their enterprise’s digital initiatives.

While CIOs are looking to expand their IT teams, many have faced roadblocks in hiring due to economic conditions.

Due to prevailing economic volatility, 41 percent of large enterprise CIOs report slow hiring for IT roles, 35 percent report decreasing overall IT budget and 29 percent report an IT hiring freeze.

Ramirez said CIOs are taking proactive steps to combat economic volatility by relaxing geographic and role requirements to expand their IT talent pipeline.

“Some organisations have found success by hiring early-career technologists and providing upskilling opportunities to fill critical technology needs,” he added.

With the growing demand for IT talent, the most important candidate qualities large enterprise CIOs look for during the hiring process are having the requisite technical skills, soft skills (e.g., communication, relationship management) and cultural fit. 

Gartner said large enterprise CIOs cite cybersecurity, cloud platforms and customer/user experience as the three most critical technical skills in 2023.

According to the Gartner survey, nearly half of large enterprise CIOs plan to invest in training programs to upskill and reskill IT staff to ensure teams have the relevant roles, skills and capacity to meet enterprise objectives. Forty-six percent of CIOs also plan to establish fusion teams, and the same percentage plan to automate workflow to free up IT time.

Recruiting the right IT expertise takes time and planning, especially for skills in architecture, cybersecurity, cloud computing and agile software development, Ramirez said.

“Ensure that IT has relevant roles, skills and capacity to meet enterprise objectives. This may require embracing a blended workforce model of IT and business domain roles," he ended.