STUDY: CEOS HUNTING FOR TALENT

A new Deloitte survey shows that CEOs in technology industries increasingly are saying that their most pressing concern is hiring the right employees, a task made more challenging by the fact that many qualified candidates left these industries completely during the recent economic decline.

Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 CEO Survey reported that 27% of respondents said “finding, hiring and retaining qualified employees” presents them with their biggest operational challenge. “Developing a strong sales and marketing strategy” came in second at 21%, a weaker result for that category than in past years,” said Tony Kern, deputy managing partner of the Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group at Deloitte & Touche. The firm has been conducting the CEO survey for the past five years.

Kern said a number of factors contribute to the concern CEOs have for hiring the right people. They are under pressure to stay ahead of increasingly rapid technology innovation cycles, a pressure being driven in particular by upstart technology companies in Asia.

However, doing so is more challenging than ever because the economic decline during the first few years of this decade affected technology companies even more harshly than other industries, and as a result, many qualified job candidates departed these industries for greener pastures, Kern said.

“Some people just got fed up and left altogether,” he said. “Now there is more competition for the people who still work in technology.”

CEOs in the Deloitte survey also said they are increasingly consumed with finding the right people for corporate leadership positions, an attitude that may reflect the aftermath of recent corporate scandals, and the corporate leaders brought to trial and, in some cases, convicted for their roles.

“There is a heightened sense of awareness among these CEOs to draw the best talent they can, especially for financial and operational positions,” Kern said.

Meanwhile, the concerns that CEOs have about hiring stand somewhat in contrast to the increasingly rosy employment picture in some technology sectors, such as wireless. TelecomCareers. net recently released information from its latest Job Seeker survey, conducted during last month's Wireless 2005 trade show revealed that 74% of more than 600 people taking the survey rated the current job market as “strong” or “growing.”

Carriers such as Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile also have been announcing plans in recent months for more hirings to support growing operations in states such as Arizona, South Carolina and Maine.

“Wireless continues to make a lot of noise and boost the number of jobs out there,” said Quinn Jones, president of TelecomCareers.net.

Deloitte's Kern said this also may be because of the innovation factor.

“The innovation cycles are getting much shorter, a trend that shows itself most clearly in the wireless industry,” Kern said. “There is fragmentation in devices, audiences and content, and CEOs are trying to hire the right people to stay ahead of that. CEOs in the wireless industry are also trying to look more generationally at their customer bases to appeal to the different demographics.”

In the five years that Deloitte has been conducting its CEO survey, issues of utmost concern have swung from the sluggish economy to terrorism and, this year, to job recruiting.

“There have been economic changes, and terrorism has fallen off as a concern. Right now, most CEOs are optimistic about the economy for the first time in several years,” Kern said.

In fact, the specific issue of debt reduction is so little on the minds of some CEOs that only 1% of those taking the Deloitte survey listed it as their most pressing financial concern. The top financial issue instead was improving sales, listed by 54% of respondents.

“This is partly a sign that many technology companies are maturing,” Kern said. “They are getting past the economic problems, and they are realizing that their future success lies in being able to grow their markets.”