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TEKsystems survey finds 42% of healthcare IT leaders to hire more temps

April 06, 2015

As more work is done to make the most of investments in business intelligence/big data, security, mobility and consumerization of IT/“bring your own device,” organizations will need to at least maintain their full-time and contingent workforces in order to cultivate efficiency and make progress, according to TEKsystems’ review of its 2013–2015 annual IT forecasts. While retaining top talent by increasing salaries will be a key tactic, new staff will need to be brought on as projects expand.

The study found 42% of healthcare IT leaders — CIOs, IT VPs, IT directors, IT hiring managers — expect hiring for contingent IT staff to increase, while 52% expect hiring to remain the same. Only 6% expect to see a decrease in contingent IT hiring.

According to the report, 51% named project managers as the most critical to enabling success, followed by help desk/technical support at 47%. Programmers/developers and IT managers followed at 45% and 40% respectively.

The survey found 55% of healthcare IT leaders expect salaries to increase for project managers, 53% for software engineers and 52% for programmers and developers. Approximately one-third, 34%, expect increased salaries for help desk/technical support.

Additionally, 43% of healthcare IT leaders expect hiring for full-time IT staff to increase, while 52% expect hiring to remain the same and 5% expect to see a decrease.

The report also found 51% of respondents expect their organization’s healthcare IT budget to increase in 2015, down from 68% that said the same entering 2014, and closer to the 52% seen entering 2013. Thirty-eight percent expect IT budgets to stay the same, a significant increase over 23% in 2014 and similar to 41% in 2013.

“Last year, we saw an early surge in the numbers of healthcare IT leaders expecting to see budget increases due to the overarching mandate to meet the former ICD-10 implementation deadline and to get new healthcare technology initiatives off the ground,” said Ryan Skains, executive director of TEKsystems Healthcare Services. “We are seeing those numbers level out as organizations not only make headway on the projects they have begun, but as they increasingly become confident in their staff’s expanding expertise and ability to meet major deadlines. Moving forward, the focus will be on refining systems and processes to increase efficiency and growth opportunity.”