Financers leaving IT hires to the last

A last-minute dash to secure IT staff who can start work at short-notice is the financial services industry's next challenge, assuming the recovery holds.



Fresh research from Parity shows that 86 per cent of financial firms are yet to find IT workers for projects they plan to begin if conditions remain the same or improve.



Only 14 per cent of the firms the recruiter questioned said that their human resources team had been briefed on the company's staffing needs for future IT-led projects.



Separate figures from Powerchex, a pre-employment screening firm, confirm that September was a quiet month for contract IT staff hoping to hear from financers.



The number of IT contractors through the firm's doors last month asking to be screened for a role at a financial organisation fell 50 per cent on August's number.



The research shows job offers in September were harder to come by for financial IT contractors than they were for mangers of investments, hedge funds and insurance.



Overall, recruitment by financers since June is down by more than a third on last year, but offers to IT contractors have, until now, been picking up slowly, Powerchex said.



However, IT directors at financial firms appear divided about whether their department will need more skills on swift and cost-effective basis.



Almost half of the financial technology chiefs that Parity said the upturn would not put pressure on their department to quicken or cheapen their IT performance.



This highlights just how "short-sighted" some IT leaders are, said Alwyn Welch, chief executive, particularly as 38 per cent of the respondents were running a slimmed down IT team, having made headcount reductions in the last year.



"Ultimately, if your IT function is not ready to go when the green light is pressed on a project, you won't be able to react quickly enough to market changes," he said.



"Financial organisations talk about moving on from the credit crunch, but until that message gets through to their IT department, they will stay in recessionary mode."