Employers are facing increasingly stiff competition in hiring IT professionals over the year ahead as many are opting to leave permanent employment and move to better paid contracting roles.

According to a survey undertaken by recruitment consultancy Hays IT, skills shortages will be particularly marked in areas such as information security, business intelligence and programming, with mobile application developers and those with experience of Java and .Net being in particularly high demand. Workers with experience of infrastructure technologies such as remote access and virtualisation will also be hard to come by.

Andy Bristow, manager at Hays IT, said: “Some employers in the IT sector are showing a worrying complacency towards their employees. We would urge them to get to know their employees better, particularly key staff, and make sure they receive the support and development they call for.”

The survey revealed that 61% of respondents were unhappy with the benefits they received, with 15% proclaiming themselves ‘very dissatisfied’. Two out of five said that they had never received a pay review and 35% no performance review and so had only a poor idea of how they were performing at work.

A huge 84% wanted more annual leave, while 73% were keen to work under flexitime arrangements, although only 59% did so. In contrast, a mere 39% were interested in shift working, but 71% had to do it.

“The mis-match between what employers are offering and what candidates consider important shows that many employers are out of touch with the benefits that candidates find useful,” Bristow said, indicating that the situation raised concerns for organisations wanting to recruit permanent staff over the next 12 months.

“Many IT professionals will be looking to take advantage of the more competitive salaries and benefits found in contract-based roles. Employers have very high expectations of candidates and look for those that meet all their criteria. But as more IT professionals switch to better paid and more flexible contract roles, they may struggle to find people to fill permanent positions,” Bristow added.

The survey showed that 71% of IT contractors earn about £50,000 per year compared with 26% of permanent staff. Some 27% of respondents said that three months was the minimum length of contract they would consider for short-term roles.