Gartner Survey Reveals Over Half of CIOs Plan to Increase Full-Time Employees in IT to Accelerate Digital Initiatives in 2021
“The critical role IT played across most firms’ response to the pandemic appears to have had a positive impact on IT staffing plans,” said Matthew Charlet, research vice president at Gartner. “The initial pessimism around the 2021 talent situation that many CIOs expressed mid-2020 has since dwindled.”
Among the CIOs surveyed, the need to accelerate digital initiatives is, by a large margin, the primary factor driving IT talent strategies in 2021. This is followed by the automation of business operations and increase in cloud adoption.
Figure 1. Expected 2021 IT FTE Change in IT Activities
Source: Gartner (March 2021)
“While CIOs plan to hire more staff in several areas critical to meeting changed consumer and employee expectations, most will not be able to meet their planned talent strategy goals without also upskilling or refocusing their existing teams,” said Mr. Charlet.
