gcsltd.com/technology SALARY GUIDE 2015

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SALARY

GUIDE

2015

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When putting this report together, one thing became incredibly clear - the market has changed hugely since we released our last industry report. Back in 2013, the UK was still in the early stages of recovery after the recent recession and businesses were cautiously starting to invest in new products and projects. As confidence in the UK’s economy continues to grow, an increasing number of companies are taking bolder steps forward and this has been clearly visible in recruitment activity.

Our survey of candidates and clients, completed by more than 2,000 technology professionals, paints an interesting picture of the industry. In 2013, the majority of clients expected to recruit within a year. In 2015 a similar majority say they will need to recruit within the next three months. However, despite the market showing a clear shift in levels of demand for talent, some things haven’t changed. There is still a disconnect in terms of businesses understanding what their staff look for in a benefits package.

With almost half of the UK’s permanent candidate base feeling that there are more jobs available now than there were last year, this growing feeling of unrest amongst permanent workers may well benefit the many companies looking to hire new people.

The key to staff retention is engagement. Obviously no company can keep all of its staff happy all of the time but there is much that can be done to ensure that a business maximises its chances of holding on to its best workers in this increasingly competitive market. It doesn’t have to come down to money - whether offering flexible hours or flexible benefits, there are many initiatives that cost little but are of great value to workers.

I hope you find this report informative and useful when it comes to your own recruitment practices and planning. If you would like to discuss any of the areas covered or if you have any recruitment questions, please feel free to contact me on the details below.

DAVID BLOXHAM

MANAGING DIRECTOR

E: [email protected] T:07841 843818

“THERE IS MUCH THAT

CAN BE DONE TO ENSURE

THAT A BUSINESS MAXIMISES

ITS CHANCES OF HOLDING

ON TO ITS BEST WORKERS

IN THIS INCREASINGLY

COMPETITIVE MARKET.”

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CONTRACT GROWTH

In 2013, 49% of businesses recruited either a majority of contractors or a mixture of permanent and contract. Now, this figure has grown to 61%. Another key statistic demonstrating changed attitudes towards contractors is that, in 2013, 39% of employers said they were likely to hire contractors within six months whereas, now 67% of employers intend to hire a contractor within the next three months.

CONTRACT SECURITY

Working as a contractor seems to offer a marginally greater level of job security now than when compared to two years ago. Previously, 57% of contractors said they had worked in the same role for six months or more. This year, the percentage of workers who have remained in a single contract for more than six months has increased to above 60%.

Despite these indicators of an increase in activity within the contract market, it is encouraging to see that there has been minimal change in the attitude of contractors. Of the 40% of contractors who have changed assignments in the last six months, 75% have left only because the project finished. This is a similar statistic to 2013, where 81% of role-switching contractors moved due to their contract coming to an end.

However, these figures do suggest that, overall, one in ten contractors will move jobs before the end of their contract. For those who want to ensure they are doing all they can to retain their existing contract staff, our survey showed the five factors most likely to cause a contractor to leave an assignment before their scheduled finish date. Of the estimated 10% of contractors that leave an assignment before completion, the reasons are: FLEXIBILITY IS KEY

The ever-evolving technology market has seen new roles and skills appear at a greater pace than any time since the late 1990s, so it’s no wonder that workers now prioritise training support to ensure their skillset remains relevant. An increase in market activity has also led to increased demands on workers to the point that 66% of permanent workers report they have had to take on extra work without reward. This clearly links with the increased desire for overtime payment or time off in lieu. Flexibility has become of great importance to workers. Given the technological advances in cloud computing, remote operation and portable devices, it has never been more feasible for the business world to embrace this. This is one area where companies appear to be getting it right, with nearly half of the permanent workforce now receiving the option of flexible working. BENEFITS DISCONNECT

The three most desired benefits in 2013 are now far less in demand. Share incentives, previously the most desired benefit, is now 8th. A non-contributory pension, previously 2nd, is now 9th and family health insurance falls from 3rd to 7th. Despite drastic changes in what matters to employees, little has changed in what permanent workers are offered. The three most commonly received benefits from two years ago remain the same today - a contributory pension, life insurance, and personal health insurance.

There is still a disconnect between what employees want and what they are given. The three most offered benefits are, according to our survey, the three least desired whilst two of the four most wanted benefits (car benefits and training support) are amongst the least offered - this suggests that many businesses are not in tune with what their employees value most. As the competition for staff increases, it will be the companies who get this right that will have the best chance of acquiring and retaining top talent.

BENEFITS

CONTRACTOR

RETENTION

27% HIGHER RATE 21% BETTER LOCATION 18% BETTER ROLE 20% BETTER COMPANY 8% SECURITY (LONG TERM CONTRACT) 6% BETTER SECTOR MOST DESIRED BENEFITS:

2015 2013

1 Training support 1 Share incentives 2 Paid overtime/time off in lieu 2 Non-contributory pension 3 Flexible working 3 Family health insurance 4 Company car or allowance 4 Training support 5 Flexible benefits package 5 Individual bonus

MOST RECEIVED BENEFITS:

2015 2013

1 Contributory pension 1 Contributory pension 2 Life insurance 2 Personal health insurance 3 Personal health insurance 3 Life insurance

4 Flexible working 4 Flexible working 5 Non-contributory pension 5 Rail season ticket loan

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1

2

3

4

5 Rate

WHAT CONTRACT JOBSEEKERS LOOK FOR:

RATE AND LOCATION ARE KEY FOR CONTRACTORS

The major misunderstanding here is that clients believe contractors are not concerned about where they work, providing the job offers enough security and money. This is not the case - with more companies increasing their contract headcount, jobseeking contractors will often have their pick of several offers and the lure of a well-paid role with an easy commute is something that will overcome the offer of a longer term contract.

In fact, of the factors that might cause a contractor to leave an engagement early, a longer-term contract is the least likely to have an impact. Ultimately, it all comes down to the money and location - and any hiring manager would be well advised to ensure that they put the focus on these elements when looking to maintain an edge over their competitors in attracting the best candidates rather than hoping their company reputation and the job itself will overcome a better fiscal and geographical offer from elsewhere.

Given these statistics, it’s clear that jobseekers in general give very little weight to the sector of work in their decisions but, somewhat worryingly, clients believe that market sector is the single most important factor in attraction of permanent staff. Even more worrying is the fact that many clients appear to be under the impression that salary and location are the least important elements in employee attraction.

PERMANENT JOBSEEKERS ARE MISUNDERSTOOD

When faced with two job offers, it is not uncommon to see a candidate accept a permanent job if the lower financial offer comes with a number of attractive benefits - however, our experience indicates that £5,000 is usually the ‘cut off point’ where money talks louder than anything else. In a nutshell, even if a company has great benefits, a more interesting role, an amazing reputation and is in the ‘right’ market sector, an offer of £5,000 more from another company will usually win out. Given the results here, it appears that many companies are also overestimating the impact of their reputation as a candidate attraction tool. 82% of businesses believe this, but only 27% of permanent workers consider company reputation ‘very important’ when choosing where to work.

Conversely, clients seem to have a fundamentally sound understanding of what attracts contractors. When looking for a new position, the elements of a job

in which candidates show the most interest are similar irrespective of whether the jobseeker is looking for permanent or contract work. According to our survey results it all comes down to money and location, with salary on permanent and rate on contract being the most important factors in attraction. The location of the work is a strong secondary consideration.

ATTRACTION

1

2

3

4

5 Salary

WHAT PERMANENT JOBSEEKERS LOOK FOR:

WHAT CLIENTS THINK ATTRACTS PERMANENT JOBSEEKERS:

1 Market sector

2 Job role/technologies used 3 Role responsibility

4 Company reputation 5 Benefits package

WHAT CLIENTS THINK ATTRACTS CONTRACTORS: 1 Contract length 2 Pay rate 3 Company reputation 4 Market sector 5 Location Location Job role/ technologies Role responsibility Benefits package Location Contract length Company reputation Role responsibility

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THE MONEY

London is a good place to be right now for junior developers, with salaries increasing in the web development, iOS, and Java sectors. Similar salary increases in the Thames Valley junior and mid-level iOS niche underscore how important businesses consider it to attract new talent to this particular area.

The Thames Valley has also seen a great deal of progress in contract rates as the region looks to lure contractors away from the City, especially as more businesses outside the capital look to get into the mobile market. Meanwhile, many London-based permanent workers have taken the opportunity presented by a buoyant market to switch over to contracting.

This influx of resource within the contract market has meant that, for now, there is enough talent to cover the increasing demand, generally keeping rates static. The loss of resource within the permanent market has, however, led to companies needing to increase salary levels in order to attract and retain vital personnel. Permanent salaries have also risen outside of London, making it still tougher for businesses in the capital to acquire the talent they require.

THE MARKET

The development market has gone in two key directions over the last year; front end and open source. The story is the same whether you look at the permanent market or within contracting; clients are looking for people who have front end skills and knowledge of the technologies that can be used without license. Of particular note is the increasing need for front end developers to show something of a flair for design, as many clients are now looking to recruit talent who marry Javascript, HTML and CSS skills with experience of Adobe Creative Suite and UI design principles.

Other skills that have experienced an increase in popularity over the last year are Drupal, which offers speed, quality and is eminently scalable, as well as Titanium and Phonegap, both cross-platform development tools. Moving forward, key skills that will likely become increasingly prominent over the next year are Scala, Angular JS and Symfony.

The skillsets that will be less in demand are those of native mobile developers, as well as those still coding in Perl. Whilst a number of companies still swear by it, Perl is not something that is generally taught to the newer generations of developers and, as the existing talent base switches to more in-demand languages such as Ruby, Java or Scala, numbers of Perl developers dwindle. The move towards open source technology, a cost saving measure employed by many companies including the influx of start-up businesses located in and around the Silicon roundabout, has also led to a move away from Java and .Net. This has not yet affected demand or rates either positively or negatively - but it is very likely to do so within the next few years.

APPLICATION

DEVELOPMENT

THAMES VALLEY LONDON

Junior Mid-Level Senior Junior Mid-Level Senior

.Net Developer £25,000 £40,000 £50,000 £30,000 £45,000 £65,000

Web Developer £24,000 £35,000 £47,000 £30,000 £50,000 £65,000

iOS Developer £30,000 £45,000 £60,000 £35,000 £50,000 £75,000

Java Developer £27,000 £45,000 £60,000 £35,000 £45,000 £65,000

PHP/Ruby/Perl Developer £26,000 £40,000 £50,000 £35,000 £45,000 £60,000 Flash Actionscript Developer £25,000 £35,000 £45,000 £27,500 £35,000 £50,000

UI Developer £25,000 £40,000 £50,000 £30,000 £45,000 £65,000

UX Designer £25,000 £35,000 £45,000 £27,500 £35,000 £50,000

.Net Developer £240 - £300 £300 - £380 £380 - £450 £250 - £300 £300 - £400 £400 - £500 Web Developer £250 - £300 £300 - £350 £350 - £450 £200 - £250 £250 - £350 £350 - £450 iOS Developer £225 - £300 £300 - £400 £400 - £500 £250 - £300 £300 - £400 £400 - £500 Java Developer £270 - £320 £320 - £380 £380 - £520 £250 - £300 £300 - £400 £400 - £500 PHP/Ruby/Perl Developer £275 - £325 £325 - £400 £400 - £500 £250 - £350 £350 - £450 £450 - £600 Flash Actionscript Developer £225 - £275 £275 - £325 £325 - £450 £250 - £300 £300 - £375 £375 - £500 UI Developer £250 - £325 £325 - £400 £400 - £500 £250 - £325 £325 - £400 £400 - £500 UX Designer £250 - £300 £300 - £400 £400 - £500 £250 - £300 £300 - £400 £400 - £500 P ER MA N EN T CO N T R A CT

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THE MONEY

Although the fledgling DevOps area continues to see increases in both salary levels and contract rates, several other disciplines within the support market have gone in the opposite direction with noticeable rate decreases in London contracts, particularly within the service desk area. The reason for this is a combination of outsourcing, businesses attempting to steer workers towards permanent employment and the increase in virtualisation capabilities leading to less need for the ‘in person’ approach.

The overall contract market within the Thames Valley appears more stable, especially in voice engineering. This particular skillset has also seen gains in value within the London permanent market at all levels. The Thames Valley permanent market has become a strong area for information security workers, with solid salary increases at mid and senior levels.

The realisation that virtualisation, cloud computing and DevOps will all create ongoing, long-term requirements has led to increased determination to hire permanent workers with clients raising salary levels in most areas of support to attract and retain the best permanent talent.

THE MARKET

The support sector has evolved more in the last three years than it did in the previous decade; right now, the focus is on cloud computing and virtualisation, and the legion of Linux systems administrators who are - rightly or wrongly - upgrading their professional profile to market themselves as DevOps consultants.

Considered a potential fad in 2013, DevOps has now been accepted as something with definite practical advantages and worth investing in for companies of all sizes. Given the substantial gap in earning potential of a Linux systems administrator and a DevOps consultant, it is little wonder that such a substantial portion of the Linux market has sought to upgrade their status. Those with appropriate experience have been able to effectively set their own price, driving the market averages up substantially. The focus on virtualisation seems set to continue with many companies switching to Hyperviva from VMWare. Other skills becoming more in demand (mainly due to DevOps) are Puppet, MackIOS and all flavours of Linux. With the increase in need to ensure network security that comes with cloud computing, VPNware and Checkpoint have also seen a surge in demand.

A skill that is becoming less visible in the market is Juniper, which appears to be being outmuscled by Cisco. Aside from this, the skills that are less in demand are to do with the legacy systems such as JD Edwards and Novell. Soon to join that list is Windows XP, with the support cycle having stopped recently. This will, in turn, lead to increased demand for Windows 8 engineers over the next few years.

IT SUPPORT &

INFRASTRUCTURE

Service Desk Analyst £20,000 £24,000 £27,500 £24,000 £27,500 £32,000

Desktop Support £25,000 £30,000 £34,000 £27,500 £32,000 £37,500

Infrastructure Engineer £30,000 £37,500 £50,000 £37,500 £45,000 £55,000 Network Engineer £32,000 £40,000 £50,000 £35,000 £47,500 £60,000

Voice Engineer £30,000 £37,500 £45,000 £45,000 £55,000 £65,000

Information Security Engineer £34,000 £45,000 £55,000 £45,000 £55,000 £65,000 System Admin (Windows/Linux/Unix) £30,000 £37,500 £50,000 £35,000 £45,000 £55,000

DevOps Engineer £35,000 £45,000 £65,000 £45,000 £55,000 £70,000

Service Desk Analyst £130 - £150 £150 - £180 £180 - £200 £130 - £160 £160 - £200 £200 - £230 Desktop Support £160 - £180 £180 - £200 £200 - £250 £160 - £200 £200 - £250 £250 - £280 Infrastructure Engineer £220 - £260 £260 - £310 £310 - £350 £180 - £225 £225 - £300 £300 - £400 Network Engineer £220 - £270 £270 - £350 £350 - £500 £250 - £325 £325 - £400 £400 - £500 Voice Engineer £220 - £300 £300 - £350 £350 - £425 £225 - £300 £300 - £375 £375 - £450 Information Security Engineer £300 - £350 £350 - £450 £450 - £500 £325 - £400 £400 - £475 £475 - £550 System Admin (Windows/Linux/Unix) £200 - £250 £250 - £300 £300 - £400 £250 - £325 £325 - £400 £400 - £550 DevOps Engineer £200 - £300 £300 - £400 £400 - £500 £275 - £325 £325 - £400 £400 - £550 P ER MA N EN T CO N T R A CT

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THE KEY

TO STAFF

RETENTION IS

ENGAGEMENT

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THE MONEY

Remaining a contract test analyst in London is beginning to look like a challenge, with a decrease in rates at all levels of the market. The Thames Valley has also seen rate decreases for junior and mid-level test analysts, as well as junior website testers. It’s not all bad news for testers though; many other areas within contracting have seen increases, most notably within the mobile automation test market.

As demand continues to increase for skills within automation test, the best permanent candidates will inevitably turn to contracting in order to maximise earning but, for now, the permanent market has remained stable in the Thames Valley and made notable gains in London, particularly at the senior level within test analysis as this particular skillset appears to be shifting from being a contract commodity to predominantly permanent.

THE MARKET

Similar to previous years, there is a continuing trend associated with automation based requirements. Selenium, in particular, has become a red hot skill due to a marked increase in companies placing great emphasis on updating their web presence. Given the need to write automation testing scripts in object oriented code, there has also been an increase in Java, C# and Ruby, in order of how popular (and available) these technologies currently are within the development market.

We have noticed a significant decline in demand for QTP outside of the financial services sector - most modern apps are created to be web based and, due to Selenium’s open source nature that works for web based apps and is hugely cost effective, that is the direction most will go. Whilst a large percentage of the talent within the industry still have QTP skills, increasingly more testers are cross-training in Selenium. A recent trend has been following the BDD method of development, which has led to increased demand for BDD tools such as Specflow and Cucumber/Cucumber-JVM.

Over the next few years, as more companies link the online elements of their business together (such as Ebay and Paypal), we expect an increase in demand for candidates with experience of testing services which integrate third party technologies, as well as BDD. As a result, those with experience of working with Webservice technologies will be even more sought after.

TESTING

& QA

Website Tester £22,000 £29,000 £34,000 £30,000 £35,000 £45,000 Test Analyst £25,000 £35,000 £42,000 £30,000 £37,500 £50,000 Automation Tester £35,000 £45,000 £50,000 £35,000 £45,000 £55,000 Manual Tester £27,500 £35,000 £45,000 £30,000 £40,000 £55,000 System Tester £30,000 £40,000 £55,000 £30,000 £40,000 £55,000 Mobile Tester £32,500 £42,500 £57,500 £35,000 £45,000 £60,000 Performance Tester £32,500 £42,500 £57,500 £35,000 £45,000 £60,000

Programme Test Manager n/a n/a £60,000 n/a n/a £65,000

Test Lead n/a n/a £50,000 n/a n/a £55,000

Test Manager n/a n/a £60,000 n/a n/a £65,000

QA Director n/a n/a £67,500 n/a n/a £75,000

Website Tester £100 - £150 £150 - £300 £300 - £330 £140 - £240 £240 - £360 £360 - £450 Test Analyst £80 - £150 £150 - £225 £225 - £350 £130 - £200 £200 - £275 £275 - £350 Automation Tester £120 - £150 £150 - £325 £325 - £400 £175 - £220 £220 - £350 £350 - £500 Manual Tester £125 - £200 £200 - £250 £250 - £325 £175 - £250 £250 - £325 £325 - £425 System Tester £125 - £225 £225 - £300 £300 - £350 £160 - £250 £250 - £325 £325 - £425 Mobile Tester £150 - £225 £225 - £300 £300 - £375 £200 - £275 £275 - £360 £360 - £490 Mobile Automation Tester £225 - £300 £300 - £400 £400 - £475 £250 - £320 £320 - £400 £400 - £500 Performance Tester £250 - £325 £325 - £375 £375 - £450 £300 - £360 £360 - £400 £400 - £550

Programme Test Manager n/a n/a £350 - £500 n/a n/a £475 - £650

Test Lead n/a n/a £325 - £475 n/a n/a £410 - £500

Test Manager n/a n/a £375 - £525 n/a n/a £500 - £675

QA Director n/a n/a £500 - £750 n/a n/a £620 - £1,000

P ER MA N EN T CO N T R A CT

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THE MONEY

Clients are evidently investing for the medium term in the Business Intelligence sector - the permanent BI market has seen solid increases in salary at all levels and across all skillsets in both London and the Thames Valley. Whilst not as uniform, the contract market has also seen rate increases, particularly within the junior and mid-level QlikView area in the Thames Valley.

The interest in this particular skill is best shown by the dramatic increase in rates for junior QlikView developers, with the increase slowing down at the more senior levels. There have been no major rate changes elsewhere within the BI contract market in either location.

THE MARKET

In London, the skills that have seen the largest increase in demand over the last year have been Hadoop, NoSQL and MongoDB, whilst in the Thames Valley the greatest demand has been for QlikView and OBIEE.

At present, there is a notable demand for BI professionals with reporting skills, particularly SSRS. As with other areas of the technology market which have leaned towards using open source software, the BI & Database market is also trying to economise and, due to lower pricing as compared to its main competitor, Microsoft’s SQL Server is a more cost-effective solution which is increasingly being embraced by clients across the UK.

Two skills that have been in less demand over the past year are Cognos and Informatica. This is primarily due to the fact that QlikView offers an efficient but cost-effective ETL tool to replace these fading technologies. Cognos, in particular, seems to be increasingly considered an old-fashioned technology which will vanish as soon as the current users either cross-train into other skillsets or leave the market. Clients who are looking for permanent Cognos workers generally either have to hire on contract, where the few remaining Cognos developers maximise their earnings, or look to amend their requirement to another system (usually SQL Server).

BI &

DATABASES

Database Administrator £35,000 £45,000 £60,000 £35,000 £50,000 £65,000 SQL Server BI Developer £35,000 £45,000 £65,000 £35,000 £45,000 £65,000

OBIEE Developer £35,000 £45,000 £60,000 £40,000 £50,000 £60,000

QlikView BI Developer £35,000 £45,000 £65,000 £45,000 £55,000 £65,000 BI Architect / Consultant £35,000 £50,000 £70,000 £45,000 £55,000 £70,000

Database Administrator £225 - £275 £275 - £350 £350 - £450 £250 - £300 £300 - £400 £400 - £500 SQL Server BI Developer £225 - £275 £275 - £400 £400 - £500 £300 - £350 £350 - £400 £400 - £550 OBIEE Developer £250 - £325 £325 - £400 £400 - £500 £300 - £350 £350 - £400 £400 - £500 QlikView BI Developer £275 - £375 £375 - £450 £450 - £525 £300 - £350 £350 - £400 £400 - £500 BI Architect / Consultant £375 - £450 £450 - £550 £550 - £650 £350 - £400 £400 - £500 £500 - £700 P ER MA N EN T CO N T R A CT

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THE MONEY

Rates and salaries have increased over the last two years; it varies from skillset to skillset but, in certain areas, there have been fiscal gains of up to 25% - the contractors who have been working in the Big Data area since its beginning have so few peers who can compete with their level of experience that they can, effectively, set their own price when the more cash-rich companies come calling. There are clear indications in salary levels that suggest clients are placing more value on certain skill sets when it comes to permanent hiring - the most notable of these is with Chief Data Officers. Wanting to make sure that their data function is overseen by a full-time member of staff who will, in theory, remain with the company indefinitely, businesses are offering salaries above £100,000 (and this isn’t including benefits packages either) in London and close to the six figure mark elsewhere in the country. Despite there only being a 10% pay discrepancy between CDOs and Data Architects on contract, this discrepancy rises to above 20% at least on permanent. The fact that contract CDOs are paid at the same level as contract Data Developers indicates that clients are trying to steer Data leaders towards employment rather than interim roles.

THE MARKET

Big Data has been big news for several years and this is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future, with 82% of companies planning to utilise Big Data within the next two years.

This said, Big Data hasn’t taken off quite as quickly as was initially expected, largely due to the fact that businesses in the UK aren’t sure how to utilise the technology to monetise the information yet. Continued progress in this area on the west coast of the United States will increase confidence in the UK and this, combined with more data scientists and analysts in possession of what, right now, is still something of a fledgling technology skillset, will lead to a drastic increase in UK Big Data projects over the next few years. In terms of in demand skills, Hadoop has been the primary ability that clients look for when it comes to data developers but, moving forward, this is likely to be rivalled by Spark over the next couple of years. However, given that both frameworks are open-source, they will both be in demand as the market grows.

Despite there being high demand for contractors, the market is currently tending more towards permanent recruitment when it comes to Big Data. This permanent focus is a combination of consultancies taking on full time employees in order to keep intellectual property “in house” and then charging their workers out at consultancy rates, as well as companies looking to hire the first members of their Big Data teams. However, as businesses begin to better understand how to monetise all the data, they will rapidly begin expanding their Big Data departments, leading to an increase in contract requirements.

BIG

DATA

Senior Senior

Data Architect £72,500 £80,000

Data Analyst £35,000 £42,500

Chief Data Officer £90,000 £110,000

Data Developer £50,000 £67,500

Solutions Architect £65,000 £70,000

Big Data DBA £50,000 £60,000

Business Analyst £47,500 £55,000

Senior Senior

Data Architect £400 - £600 £500 - £800

Data Analyst £300 - £500 £350 - £550

Chief Data Officer £450 - £650 £700 - £1,000

Data Developer £450 - £650 £450 - £650

Solutions Architect £450 - £650 £500 - £700

Big Data DBA £350 - £550 £500 - £600

Business Analyst £325 - £525 £400 - £650 P ER MA N EN T CO N T R A CT

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THE MONEY

Project management has been static on contract, with rates unchanged in both London and the Thames Valley. However, there have been sizeable increases in areas of the permanent market, with five-figure gains for mid-level and senior project managers in London, as well as for Thames Valley-based senior business analysts. This has had a knock on effect in the less experienced end of the market where companies are looking to attract their next generation of business managers by increasing permanent entry-level salaries substantially, with junior business analysts now earning up to £7,500 more than last year.

Rates on contract have, however, shown no change over the last twelve months. This is expected to change during 2016 due to a combination of increased all-round activity within the technology sector and companies becoming more amenable to the idea of using contractors in project management positions - something that hasn’t been widespread for the better part of a decade.

THE MARKET

The biggest skills trend within the sector over the last year has been that businesses are keen to engage universal project managers who have both functional and non-functional aptitudes. Those candidates who combine business and technical backgrounds are proving to be invaluable to companies and find themselves in increasing demand.

Providing a contractor is willing to join a company at the planning stages of the project and make a solid medium term commitment (usually 12 - 18 months), clients are becoming more open to engaging a contractor to lead a project from beginning to end. From the perspective of the candidate, this is appealing since it offers reasonable job security whilst maximising earning potential. As a result, it is likely that a reasonable percentage of permanent project managers will try their hand at freelancing over the next few years.

Moving forward, timing will be of the essence. As activity increases across the technology sector as a whole, the pace of work will also pick up. Project deadlines are becoming tighter so getting the ball rolling quickly and efficiently is vital. Recruiting a permanent project manager can mean either picking from the redundancy pool or waiting for a notice period to expire - both of which limit options. As such, looking to the contract market offers businesses a wider selection of more readily available candidates who can get their projects started on time and without complication.

PROJECT

MANAGEMENT

Business Analyst £30,000 £38,000 £55,000 £37,500 £50,000 £65,000

Project Manager £35,000 £42,000 £65,000 £40,000 £60,000 £75,000

Enterprise Architect n/a n/a £75,000 n/a n/a £80,000

Business Analyst £250 - £300 £300 - £400 £400 - £550 £250 - £325 £325 - £450 £450 - £600 Project Manager £250 - £300 £300 - £400 £400 - £600 £250 - £325 £325 - £450 £450 - £700

Enterprise Architect n/a n/a £450 - £850 n/a n/a £500 - £1,000

P ER MA N EN T CO N T R A CT

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Without a doubt, there is going to be an increase in recruitment in 2015 and 2016 - 60% of employers expect to recruit more people than they did last year. In the next quarter alone, 67% of organisations expect to hire contractors and 62% believe they will recruit new permanent employees. This enthusiasm for recruitment is supported by responses to the question as to how hiring managers would deal with a skills shortfall in their department - the vast majority of people stated they would hire people with the skills required rather than training internally or outsourcing the work.

It seems that they will have a good resource pool to choose from; the prime candidates will be the 29% of permanent workers who reported they feel less valued now than they did this time last year. Other statistics worth noting on the permanent front are that a strong majority (61%) believe their workload has increased and 54% also state that stress levels have increased. Conversely, there is greater satisfaction amongst contractors; 40% have had an increased workload and only 31% report increased stress.

There is confidence in ability amongst our technology workers – nearly 90% of all technology professionals believe they are skilled enough to progress their career. However, the percentage of people who feel that their place of work does not offer enough scope to progress is worryingly high - 55% for contractors and 63% for permanent workers.

The increased interest in Cloud Computing and DevOps no doubt contribute to almost half of UK

businesses saying recruitment within networking and support will be their priority, whilst development

appears to be moving back towards the web after several years where apps have been the hot topic. Given these statistics and the increase in demand and rates in several areas of the contract market, the likelihood is that increased confidence in the stability of the jobs market will combine with what workers see each day – that the technology industry is growing again – to make the idea of switching jobs appealing to dissatisfied workers. With benefits packages not catering to what is important to permanent employees, and companies now more open to hiring on a contract basis, it is likely that many who have previously considered becoming a contractor will finally try their hand at contracting over the next year.

This is all excellent news for UK Plc. Recruitment often acts as a barometer for the economy; businesses only recruit when there is money to spend and work to be done. After a trying few years, it appears that cautious optimism in the British technology market can be replaced with enthusiasm. It is vital, however, that businesses look at their attraction and retention practises to ensure their company offers a competitive and engaging work package to existing and potential staff - because businesses who refuse to acknowledge that workers have more options now than in the dark days of the recent recession are likely to see their talent go elsewhere.

LISA FORRESTER - HEAD OF SALES, READING E: [email protected]

T:0118 956 3900

LOOKING

FORWARD

Areas in which companies will recruit first:

42% IT SUPPORT 33% WEB DEV 25% APPS DEV

We understand that finding and retaining individuals with the relevant skills and experience is what every business aspires to do. At GCS, we have been helping organisations to do just that since 1991.

Whether you need contract solutions or permanent results, require one individual or a whole project team, we have the level of expertise to help secure the best people for your organisation. Quite simply, we recruit and inspire the best to ensure that our customers recruit and engage with the best.

LONDON: T: +44 (0)20 7710 4141 E: [email protected] 2nd Floor 9 King Street London EC2V 8EA READING: T: +44 (0)118 956 3900 E: [email protected] 2 Wesley Gate 70-74 Queens Road Reading RG1 4AP DUBLIN: T: +353 (0)1 447 5262 E:[email protected] Camden Business Centre 12 Camden Row Dublin 8

NEW YORK:

T: +1 (646) 751 7892

E:[email protected] 300 Cadman Plaza West, One Pierrepont Plaza, 12th Floor, Brooklyn, New York, 11201

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gcsltd.com/technology SALARY GUIDE 2015

SALARY

GUIDE

2015

CONTENTS

“THERE IS MUCH THAT

CAN BE DONE TO ENSURE

THAT A BUSINESS MAXIMISES

ITS CHANCES OF HOLDING

ON TO ITS BEST WORKERS

IN THIS INCREASINGLY

COMPETITIVE MARKET.”

BENEFITS

CONTRACTOR

RETENTION

1

2

3

4

5

Rate

ATTRACTION

1

2

3

4

5

Salary

APPLICATION

DEVELOPMENT

IT SUPPORT &

INFRASTRUCTURE

THE KEY

TO STAFF

RETENTION IS

ENGAGEMENT

TESTING

& QA

BI &

DATABASES

BIG

DATA

PROJECT

MANAGEMENT

LOOKING

FORWARD

WORKING

WITH