Half of Irish companies (50.9pc) are planning to hire staff this year, a survey by IT services company Origina suggests.
Of extreme importance to survey respondents is finding skilled employees (56.4pc), and retaining them once they’re on board (71.4pc).
Some 32.7pc think finding skilled employees is important, compared to ‘extremely important’.
When it comes to training, 38.5pc of respondents believe that training in their organisations will increase slightly over the next 18 months, with a further 17.3pc believing there will be a definite increase.
While 37.5pc of respondents saying training is extremely important and a further 37.5pc saying it is important, Irish organisations’ biggest barriers to the training of staff are lack of funding (53.1pc) and lack of time to conduct training (57.1pc).
“According to the survey, 75pc of respondents said that training was either important or very important to their organisations. This is a positive outlook. Irish organisations are beginning to realise the importance of training to help their growth. It is terrific to see companies investing in people,” said Hilary O’Sullivan, head of training and renewals in Origina.
“Lack of time for businesses to complete training is a common problem in Ireland as our work lives get busier. We have identified this as an issue and now we work with our clients to create bespoke courses which are customised around the clients’ available time, and providing trainers’ onsite to reduce travel time, helping to reduce overall course times.”
Origina surveyed 57 senior management Irish executives online in February 2011. Respondents were primarily in management positions in IT departments and from Irish organisations of all sizes and sectors.
