Prosperity Recruitment’s annual report for 2022 looks at how Ireland’s digital sector adapted to the challenges and changes caused by Covid-19 and its effect on salaries. Coinciding with the removal of government restrictions and the improved economic outlook, the second half of 2021 saw a big rebound in hiring as businesses adapted to new ways of working.
As employees began to gain the confidence to look elsewhere for jobs and change careers as part of the ‘great reshuffle/resignation’, qualified and experienced candidates in the digital sector became scarcer, leading companies to react with improved salaries, conditions and career development to both retain existing employees and hire new talent.
With the market on their side going into 2022, skilled and experienced digital workers are likely to command higher salaries and more flexible conditions than in 2021 as demand remains high for these professionals. Prosperity Recruitment’s Gary Mullan (pictured) says while employers faced many challenges last year, the outlook remains positive.
The report’s key findings:
- Salaries will see a general uptick of 12 per cent for 2022. Interviews with CEOs and hiring managers in the digital sector suggest that many companies have felt compelled to increase salaries in 2021 to both retain existing talent and attract new staff, and it is a trend that is likely to continue this year.
- The highest paid roles are marketing director (up to €150,000), followed by head of ecommerce, head of search/SEO, and creative directors (all up to €120,000).
- UX and product design will continue to grow fast this year, with demand pushing salaries up by 18 per cent and many companies setting up separate departments in this area, meaning experienced professionals in Ireland are becoming increasingly scarce.
- Demand and salaries will continue to grow for talent specialising in specific platforms, such as Amazon, HubSpot, Magento, Shopify, WordPress or Salesforce.
- Candidates now expect clarity on working arrangements as a must-have before they even apply for a role. In 2022, the priorities for employees will be a flexible approach to office work, career progression, work-life balance and even sustainability.
- Nearshoring will become more widespread as a solution to worker shortages. The pressures of covering a broad base in SMEs have seen workers with broad digital marketing skills jump ship to larger companies to specialize, leaving the smaller companies with big gaps in their teams, having to resort to hybrid models, outsourcing and especially nearshoring.
- In 2022 many large Irish companies will realise the benefits of building an in-house marketing team, fuelling strong growth in both technical and strategic marketing roles.
- At the other end of the spectrum, SMEs are still growing strongly, but are hamstrung by resources, meaning digital professionals are needed to cover more bases such as content, SEO and PPC management, as well as overall strategy and execution.
Mullan said Prosperity Recruitment have expanded overseas and now have a staff of 10 working in their Barcelona office. The company is also working with clients in France, Spain and the UK. Mullan intends to appoint an internal full-time talent acquisition specialist to help the company hire recruiters.
To download the full salary report, click on… https://www.prosperity.ie/digital-salary-survey-ireland-2022?hf=69376020&utm_campaign=website&utm_source=Herefish&utm_medium=Email
Credit: Courtesy of Prosperity.ie, Ireland’s specialist recruitment agency to the web sector
