IT industry: HR trends are shifting

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In the past 15 years, employee recruitment and retention have changed massively – also in the IT and telecommunications industry. What has remained unchanged is a gap between words and actions on major HR topics.

Companies in the DACH region have become significantly more cautious in their personnel planning in recent years: The proportion of companies currently hiring has fallen from 66 percent to just 41 percent since 2012. At the same time, the number of companies planning no hires at all has doubled in the same period, from 15 to 31 percent.

“Hesitation in new hires reflects the economic uncertainty as well as the expected automation of many activities by AI,” says Imke Mahner from the recruitment firm Hays. Hays is one of the largest personnel service providers worldwide with around 13,000 employees.

IT industry more robust

In the IT and telecommunications industry, the proportion of companies recruiting new personnel has decreased from 68 to 44 percent, according to Hays. At the same time, the proportion of companies with planned hires increased from 14 to 25 percent. This means the industry exhibits more robust hiring behavior than the overall market.

“Over the years, there has been no linear decline in hiring in this industry, but rather an increasing shift in the timing between planned and actual hires – especially in economically uncertain phases,” says Andreas Sauer, Head of Technology at Hays.

“It is also striking that personnel expansion in this industry more often occurs through planned hires and reacts less cyclically,” says Sauer. In phases of uncertainty, such as 2020, 2021, and 2026, it remains significantly more resilient, while the overall market cuts planned new hires more drastically.

Hays publishes an annual report on personnel topics and, in cooperation with the Institute for Employment and Employability (IBE) at the University of Applied Sciences for Business and Society Ludwigshafen, has analyzed how the world of work has changed since 2011. From leadership and corporate culture to employee retention, securing skilled workers, and flexibility: the analysis makes it clear how priorities for HR departments are shifting and which trends are shaping companies in the long term, according to the IBE.

Personnel trends shifted

This is also true for IT and telecommunications, as an analysis looking at the industry's development shows, which Hays and IBE prepared exclusively for heise online. According to this, the focus on Human Resources has shifted significantly in the past 15 years. Recruitment, employee retention, and flexible work structures are important today. Leadership and corporate culture, which were significantly more in focus in the past, are losing weight accordingly.

The trend towards employee retention is particularly strong. As early as 2011, it was among the most important HR topics for 43 percent of respondents; in 2026, it will reach the highest value in the time series with 55 percent. IT and telecommunications have developed in exactly the opposite direction: in 2011, it had a higher proportion than the overall market at 53 percent; in 2026, it will have a lower proportion at 45 percent.

While employee retention has increased overall, it has fallen in IT and telecommunications. This is primarily since many large companies are currently fundamentally reviewing and consolidating their IT structures, and partially downsizing them strategically, according to Sauer: “In this process, the focus shifts from long-term employee retention to efficiency, cost optimization, and strategic reorientation of the IT organization.”

Talking instead of acting

A discrepancy between words and actions runs through all Hays reports of the past 15 years: Many companies talk more about the major HR topics than they actually tackle them. Thus, implementation is a central weakness. This gap between aspiration and reality is evident, for example, in leadership, work-life balance, and learning.

“Many companies prefer to stick to familiar paths,” says Jutta Rump from IBE. She is a professor at the University of Applied Sciences for Business and Society in Ludwigshafen for General Business Administration with a focus on International Human Resource Management and Organizational Development.

Companies do adopt new technologies and organizational approaches. “However, instead of developing new business models, they optimize the existing business with its established processes and workflows,” says Rump. There is often a lack of courage to consciously take risks and establish new solutions.

The time series also suggests that HR has fundamentally changed its role in the company over the past 15 years. In earlier reports, HR managers focused on central employee topics. Today, they orient themselves much more strongly towards the perspective of senior management, especially on strategic topics such as performance, transformation, and culture.

This reorientation could indicate two things, according to Hays representatives: Either HR professionals adopt management's opinion because these topics are outside their competencies. Or they have moved closer to the strategy table and have become business partners to top management.

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