Outsourcing IT Labour Becoming More Popular

The annual State of the Australian CIO Research reveals two important trends relevant to the IT recruitment community.

Firstly, it appears that IT departments’ love affair with outsourcing continues. The number of CIOs planning to outsource their in-house IT function has increased significantly. When asked the question – are you planning to outsource any significant IT function currently being managed in-house in 2010? A quarter of respondents replied yes, which is an increase from 18% in 2008. There is no change in the number of CIOs who are planning to bring a previously outsourced function in-house.

Secondly, only a small percentage (roughly 9%) do not outsource their IT labour. The majority (roughly 34%) outsource between 1-10% of their IT workforce. In 7% of the companies, a large 50-60% of their IT workforce is provided by outsourcers.

As is often the case, recruitment firms are major suppliers of contractors to outsourcing and contract service providers. The more organisations outsource their IT labour the more it fuels contracting, and the subsequent need for the services of recruitment firms.

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Chart: What percent of your total IT labour is provided by outsourcers or contract service providers?