77% of executives plan to hire in the months ahead, according to a new poll

Image: GettyImages/Ezra Bailey

Last week, The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest employment concern summary with the U.S. system adding 850,000 jobs successful June. On Thursday, West Monroe published its Quarterly Executive Poll detailing hiring expectations for the months ahead, cybersecurity preparedness, investments to digitize concern operations and more.

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Executive hiring plans

Overall, the West Monroe canvass included responses from 150 U.S. executives. A information of the canvass asked respondents to item their third-quarter hiring plans. More than three-quarters of respondents (77%) said they expect to prosecute further workers successful the 3rd quarter. About one-in-five respondents (19%) expected "little to nary change" successful the 3rd quarter, and 4% said they "expect to laic disconnected much people."

"Increased hiring volition bring further impacts and challenges arsenic organizations are inactive trying to pivot toward their hybrid enactment models," said Mike Hughes, managing partner, advisory and translation astatine West Monroe. "Organizations volition request to equilibrium bringing connected caller endowment portion they are besides "reboarding" oregon adjusting their existent worker basal to caller ways of working."

Hughes described this concern arsenic a "double whammy" of sorts for "HR, IT and concern leaders who are already exhausted from helping their businesses accommodate during the pandemic."

Hiring and resourcing challenges

The survey besides asked respondents to supply feedback astir the "biggest situation successful hiring and/or resourcing" successful the 3rd quarter. About fractional of respondents (51%) said "not capable radical with the close accomplishment set" and 16% said "heightened contention from different employers" were the biggest third-quarter hiring and resourcing challenges. Not being capable to "keep up with turnover/attrition" (11%) and "paying radical their asking salary/wage" (9%) were different apical responses.

"The "not capable radical with the close accomplishment set" situation is simply a culmination of galore factors: Millions of radical changed occupations and employers during the pandemic, populations person shifted from municipality to suburban and agrarian areas, and caller accomplishment sets are successful higher demand," Hughes said.

These factors person heightened the "focus connected skilling, reskilling and upskilling a company's existing workforce oregon incoming workforces to summation the skills it needs to support up with user needs and demands crossed industries," Hughes continued.

Opportunities and threats

Respondents were besides asked astir the "biggest threat" to their businesses and institution opportunities successful the 3rd quarter. Nearly fractional of respondents (49%) selected "hiring/retention of workforce" arsenic the biggest menace to their concern with different apical responses including cyberattacks (13%), ostentation (10%) and "adapting to caller remote/hybrid work" (9%).

Overall, mergers and acquisitions topped the database of opportunities for 18% of respondents, followed by "connecting and utilizing caller integer technologies" (17%) and "market enlargement owed to much digital/remote business" (17%). One successful 10 respondents said "accessing and utilizing information to marque real-time decisions" was the biggest third-quarter opportunity.

Cybersecurity and IT budgets

In caller months, a drawstring of high-profile cyberattacks has caused disruptions crossed captious infrastructure and proviso chains. The West Monroe survey asked respondents whether they'd been "hit by a cyber attack, ransomware oregon breach" this year.

While the immense bulk of respondents (81%) said they had not suffered a breach, cyberattack oregon ransomware onslaught this year, 16% said they were deed by specified an incident. Despite these risks, 32% of respondents said they had not conducted a cybersecurity incidental effect drill this year.

The power to afloat distant and hybrid enactment models presents caller cybersecurity challenges for companies and IT teams arsenic employees log connected from their location networks and idiosyncratic devices. Marc Tanowitz, managing partner, advisory and translation astatine West Monroe discussed the imaginable for accrued IT budgets successful the months ahead.

"Many of our clients person spent the past respective years transforming their IT operations to alteration much of a self-service attack and to automate galore of their activities. This has created scalability to let them to proceed to work their interior stakeholders arsenic the concern evolves," Tanowitz said.

SEE: Juggling distant enactment with kids' acquisition is simply a mammoth task. Here's however employers tin help (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

While companies that person "transformed their IT organizations whitethorn not find that it is indispensable to summation unit depending connected the efficacy of those investments," Tanowitz said, IT organizations that person not invested successful these transformations "will apt find the request to summation the standard of their staffing levels to conscionable concern demands."

"Companies that person not invested successful automation and self-service whitethorn request astatine slightest 1 further IT extremity idiosyncratic enactment assets for each 100 to 125 employees they are required to support," Tanowitz said.

Digitizing operating models

The canvass asked respondents astir institution investments to marque operating models "more digital." More than fractional of respondents (60%) said they are investing successful "automated, iterative, data-driven management" and 53% are utilizing "cloud-based platforms leveraging communal frameworks" to digitize their operating models

In order, integrated experiences (49%), "broad entree to information and decentralized determination making" (47%) and "real clip information drives algorithmic determination making" (36%) circular retired the apical 5 investments.

Also see

• 1 successful 3 employees volition discontinue "if WFH ends," according to a caller survey (TechRepublic)
• Working from home: How to get distant close (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
• Contract enactment policy (TechRepublic Premium)
• ZDNet's apical endeavor CEOs of the 2010s (ZDNet)
• CXO: More must-read coverage (TechRepublic connected Flipboard)