From all of us at Vertex IT Solutions, we would like to wish you all a Happy and more importantly a Healthy New Year. We were hoping to get back into the office this week, but sadly that has not been possible. But we remain optimistic for 2021. After all, it can’t get any worse, can it?
Due to the exponential spread of the new strain of Covid-19, businesses across the UK are forced to either close or send workers home where possible to work remotely again. For a lot of IT workers in general this has little impact on their day-to-day role. But it does make a difference to IT workers who are employed by businesses that are hugely impacted by the lockdowns. It also has a substantial part to play in mental health and team collaboration and management of projects or programs, as well as causing projects to be delayed or even cancelled all together.
So, what is the affect of all of this? Well, like all commodity based markets, the IT Jobs market has seen a downturn in demand, which means a reduction on contract rates, plus even an impact on salaries for permanent roles. More importantly it has created a larger competition for places, with experienced contractors applying for permanent roles they would have not previously considered for example. Along with this we have IR35 being implemented from April this year. This may all sound like doom and gloom, but with change comes opportunity. What we are also finding is a lot of cross-training is taking place as well as organisations being more flexible with working conditions, which opens up roles that previously would not have been obtainable.
Moreover, we still see this year as a growth year in the IT Jobs market. With the following being the most in-demand skills.
IT JOBS – MOST IN DEMAND SKILLS OF 2021
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- IT Support
- Software Development
- AI (Artificial Intelligence) / ML (Machine Learning)
- Cyber Security
- Project Management
- Cloud Computing
- Data Science
- Data Analytics
- Business Process Mining
- RPA – Robotic Process Automation
There will be a follow up blog to discuss these in demand skills, as well as another regarding IR35, but in the meantime, we wanted to make the point that although on the face of it the market looks a little slow and volatile we believe this year will see a substantial up-turn in demand.
To support this, we are interviewing the majority of our candidates virtually and encouraging our clients to hold all of their interviews in this way too and even where it would be beneficial to add virtual skills tests. All of which is easily manageable by our experienced team of recruiters.
How do we Recruit Virtually?
Our key message is that we should not let Covid-19 defeat us, we have many ways to support our clients and candidates alike and even if dinosaurs like us (our 20th birthday was last October) can modernise fairly archaic processes, then anyone can.
If you have IT Jobs that you need help with please contact us by completing the form below.