Companies look overseas to secure talent

01.07.2005
Von Michael Crawford

Fully-accredited security professionals are so hard to find in Australia that companies are being forced to look overseas in a bid to secure talent.

Martin Retschko, Hudson Recruitment IT&T practice head, said companies are importing security professionals with Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley experience from Europe and the U.K.

"Large organizations in Australia are playing catch-up as most of these measures have already been implemented overseas," Retschko said.

"Because local candidates are difficult to source, standard recruitment practices aren"t likely to get the best results, forcing companies to look outside of Australia."

Hudson released its Employment Expectations report last week which painted a positive picture for both permanent and contracting IT staff.

The survey of more than 8,000 Australian employers found 38 percent plan to increase permanent staffing levels during the September 2005 quarter, and more than 27 percent have already boosted number of contractors.

Temporary employment has increased by 9.7 percent over the last three consecutive years.

Previously, Retschko said, contractors were moving into permanent roles due to a lack of opportunity in the market, but new figures show good returns for the career contractor particularly for .Net, C#, Java and J2EE developers.

Ambition IT recruitment director Jane Bianchini said an unprecedented demand for security personnel has led to the supply-demand gap widening. Bianchini said some organizations have tried to overcome the shortage by building on skills in-house.

"Many organizations are looking to improve Web services security and improve security architecture as emerging vulnerabilities, threats, complex networks and increasing regulatory requirements have a drastic affect on the way organizations approach risk mitigation," Bianchini said.