Majority of CIOs expect to grow their IT team in 2023 - Gartner

Findings show that large enterprise CIOs are using several tactics to execute their talent strategy and meet critical skills demands

Despite the global cyber skills shortage, 81 per cent of large enterprise CIOs plan to grow their IT headcount in 2023.

According to a recent survey by Gartner, only 14 per cent expect their IT staff to shrink and five per cent expect their headcount to remain the same.

Meanwhile, just four per cent of CIOs surveyed reported AI-augmented workers as a resource producing technology work today.

"Attracting and retaining technology talent remain critical areas of concern for CIOs," said Jose Ramirez, senior principal analyst at Gartner.

"Even with advances in AI, Gartner predicts that the global job impact will be neutral in the next several years due to enterprise adoption lags, implementation times and learning curves."

The Gartner survey was conducted from October through November of 2022 among 501 respondents, 182 of which were large enterprise CIOs in North America, EMEA and APAC region.

The large enterprise segment consists of enterprises with a total annual revenue of $1bn or more.

Why CIOs plan to increase headcount in 2023

While CIOs are looking to expand their IT teams, many have faced roadblocks in hiring due to economic conditions, Gartner said.

Due to prevailing economic volatility, 41 per cent of large enterprise CIOs report slow hiring for IT roles, 35 per cent report decreasing overall IT budget and 29 per cent report an IT hiring freeze.

"CIOs are taking proactive steps to combat economic volatility by relaxing geographic and role requirements to expand their IT talent pipeline," Ramirez added.

"Some organisations have found success by hiring early-career technologists and providing upskilling opportunities to fill critical technology needs."

The survey also found that full-time equivalents (FTEs) do the majority of tech work in the enterprise. Full-time IT employees perform 56 per cent of the work, while technology advancements such as automation and AI-augmented work account for just over nine per cent of work today.

"This reliance on FTEs to meet the demands of digital transformation explain why large enterprise CIOs plan to increase IT headcount in 2023," said Ramirez.

How CIOs plan to upskill talent

Nearly half of CIOs plan to invest in training programs to upskill and reskill IT staff to ensure teams have the relevant roles, skills and capacity to meet enterprise objectives.

With the growing demand for IT talent, the most important candidate qualities CIOs look for during the hiring process are having the requisite technical skills, soft skills (e.g., communication, relationship management) and cultural fit.

CIOs cite cybersecurity, cloud platforms and customer/user experience as the three most critical technical skills in 2023.