Survey: Recruiting a struggle for IT departments

IT may be a popular career path for Millennials as well as older adults, a growing number of IT professionals say it's hard to recruit people with the right set of skills for their company. That's the takeaway from the new "Money, Minds and the Masses: A Study of Cybersecurity Resource Limitations" report.

by Kristina Knight

In addition to finding the right staff, more than one-quarter (24%) they either do not have full control over the IT budget or that their control is 'little'. Meanwhile, about one-third say they aren't sure what skill sets they need to look for in future hires.

"The shortage of staff able to solve complex security issues is an industry problem that continues to worsen, but the way organizations are going about filling this void is all wrong," said Chris Schueler, Trustwave Senior Vice President of Managed Security Services. "Typical recruiting methods are not proving fruitful yet we keep seeing enterprises simply throwing bodies at the problem when what is really needed is a better staff training, more budget support to hire the right personnel and additional assistance from experienced third-party experts to help amplify the more complicated and demanding areas of security like testing, monitoring and incident response."

Osterman Research conducted the survey. Other interesting findings from the report include:
• 57% report struggling to find the right employees for IT
• IT experts believe fewer than half of department staff have the 'right training/skills'
• 36% say IT turnover is higher than in other departments