'Recruitment has been twice as hard during the pandemic' - Top Global CIO reveals the difficulties experienced by IT departments

Steve Capper, global CIO of professional services firm SNC-LAVALIN explains which IT roles are especially hard to fill, and how to retain and motivate existing staff

IT recruitment has been harder than ever during the Coronavirus pandemic, with some roles remaining open for over a year.

That's according to Steve Capper, global CIO of professional services and construction firm SNC-LAVALIN.

Speaking to Computing recently, Capper gave details of his organisation's struggles.

"Recruitment has been twice as hard during the pandemic," said Capper. "We're in global construction which isn't always seen as that sexy for IT people. We also have offices all over the world. Look at places like Canada we have peopole like Google on our doorstep and staff want to gravitate to places like that. However I believe they'd have a better career with us because we're doing so many fantastic projects around digital."

He continued: "In any one period we have 30-50 open roles in IT. Filling those, especially around security, is taking months. We have some roles open for over 12 months. One role has been offered three times. People say they're coming and they never turn up."

Several other technology leaders have echoed Capper's comments, as previously reported by Computing.