A few weeks back we reached out to our client base—300+ Southern CA Software and Technology hiring managers—and asked for their input on hiring plans for the remainder of 2009 and 2010. We’d like to share the results with you.
1. In 2009, have you added staff, reduced staff or remained the same?
20% of responding companies have added staff, 55% reduced staff and 25% stayed the same.
2. Are you planning to hire additional technical staff members before end of 2009?
Before year-end, 20% plan of responding companies plan to add staff, 20% may add staff and 60% do not plan to add additional staff. Numbers ranged from 1-5.
3. Are you planning to hire additional technical staff in 2010? If so, how many?
The majority of responding companies (55%) are in the planning and budgeting stages for 2010, but will likely add staff. 35% are budgeted to add staff and 10% of responding companies are planning no hiring in 2010.
4. If planning to hire in 2009 or 2010, what are your primary reasons to add additional staff? Ie: growth, replacement, new product development, etc.
The 85% of responding companies who are planning to hire or likely to hire in 2010 cited growth as their major reason for adding staff, due to new clients, new product development and expansion. Other reasons include replacement and balancing the workload, as many departments are currently understaffed due to downsizing and lack of hiring in 2009.
5. What do you consider to be your greatest challenge in hiring good employees?
By far, most hiring managers are concerned with finding top quality candidates in general, and fear the competition for good candidates will get tougher when overall hiring rebounds in 2010. 80% of respondents cited “finding highly qualified candidates” as their major challenge, with the balance stating that financial conerns such as the economy, budgets, sales growth, etc. are their biggest challenge moving forward.