A TEKsystems survey found fewer IT leaders plan to increase contingent hiring this year when asked in the middle of the year compared to a similar survey conducted before the start of the year in December 2015.

TEKsystems’ midyear “reality check” survey of more than 300 IT leaders in June found 33% planned to increase temporary hiring, down from 41% in the December survey. More IT leaders also plan to decrease temporary staff: 17% in the June survey compared to 8% at the start of the year.

However, 50% of IT leaders planned to keep temporary hiring the same when asked in June, similar to 51% at the start of the year.

IT leaders expecting to increase in hiring of traditional full-time IT staff rose to 48% in June from 43% in December. Sixteen percent now plan to decrease staff, up from 10% in the prior survey; 36% expect hiring to stay the same, down from 47%.

As organizations transition from implementing new initiatives into maintenance of existing programs, the need for contingent hiring has dipped slightly, according to TEKsystems Research Manager Jason Hayman.

“If IT leaders aren’t experiencing these trends yet, they should be on the lookout for how they could affect their organizational needs,” Hayman said. “IT leaders should leverage this insight and proactively seek out the business leaders in their organizations to understand projects and initiatives for the remaining half of the year. This insight will help IT leaders better align their workforce planning efforts to ensure they have the necessary personnel in place to support the business demands that are sure to come.”  

Other findings in the survey include:

• The percentage of IT leaders that realized budget increases is higher than originally anticipated: 48% versus 37%.
• IT leaders expressed confidence about satisfying core and line-of-business IT initiatives but are losing confidence in ability to meet demands of new initiatives.
• Impact areas have remained relatively consistent, led by security, mobility and cloud computing respectively. However, data center consolidation jumped from No. 4 at midyear from No. 11 just prior to the start of the year.
• Skills associated with starting projects (architects) and leveraging data (big data analytics) are increasingly seen as difficult to obtain.

TEKsystems, part of the Allegis Group, is the largest IT staffing firm in the US. The survey was conducted in June, and included more than 300 IT leaders — CIOs, IT VPs, IT directors and IT hiring managers.