Telecoms Resource
Year in review 2011 / Predictions for 2012
Glotel is a leading international telecommunications recruitment consultancy
specialising in placing professionals into permanent, temporary, interim and
contract roles.
The company specialises in the provision and support of telecommunications
professionals for customers anywhere in the world quickly and compliantly.
Glotel operates in over 50 countries globally from its London office.
Telecoms Resource – Year in review 2011 / Predictions for 2012
Year in review 2011
Arab Spring destabilised hiring market
“Progress of the roll out of more advanced telecoms technology slowed significantly
in the first quarter as the Arab spring propagated across Africa and the Middle East
and employers’ concern for employee safety increased. This resulted in many hiring
freezes across North Africa and the Middle East.”
Smart phones and contactless payment were critical
growth areas in 2011
“With heavy investment being made in smart phones and contactless payment,
research and development specialists became hot property globally with software
developers and embedded software engineers in particularly high demand.”
Security concerns around contactless payment boosted
R&D roles
“R&D candidates were in strong demand as contactless payment development
gathered pace. With consumer concerns over the security around contactless
payment, we saw higher levels of demand for research and development roles
focusing specifically on contactless payment and RFID.”
Infrastructure remained central to hiring strategies
“Infrastructure build continued to generate vacancies in Africa & the Middle East. In
2011, we saw a demand for niche engineering roles – particularly radio transmission,
civil works and telecoms implementation – within operators.”
European solutions providers hired early in the year
“Some telecoms solutions providers recruited heavily in the first half of 2011 but
applied the brakes latterly, implementing hiring freezes as funds dried up.”
2G/3G/4G projects boosted demand globally
“Upgrade and implementation projects across the Middle East and Europe drove
demand for talent globally. 4G upgrade projects boosted European contractor
demand, and we saw an increase in the number of vacancies for RF planning, design
and implementation roles to support 3G and LTE trials. This was largely because
South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya have been upgrading from 2G to improve network
performance for consumers.”
Telecoms Resource – Year in review 2011 / Predictions for 2012
Predictions for 2012
European recruitment set to pick up in the New Year
“We anticipate hiring amongst telecoms solutions providers to pick up across Europe
in early 2012 as new budgets are released. They recruited heavily in early 2011 and
ran out of budget towards the end of the year.”
More projects for 2012
“Almost half of hiring managers (48.5%) surveyed by Glotel said that their
organisations are planning more projects in 2012 and 2013 than they did in 2011.
These projects are most likely to be the launch of new technology or software,
maintenance of existing infrastructure or large incremental upgrades with East
and West Africa billed as the next global hotspot.”
Latest technology to heat up competition for roles
“We anticipate that the global war for telecoms talent will heat up significantly in
2012 as contractors and permanent employees compete for the opportunity to work
on the latest technology.”
Middle East stability set to bring recruitment boom
“There is now an expectation that we will see a recruitment boom as stability
returns to the Middle East market where we expect recruitment to be centred on
existing infrastructure – there will be fewer new projects started over the next 12
months and most work will be maintenance of existing infrastructure.”
R&D roles will be challenging to fill
“Hiring managers will continue to find it hard to recruit a number of functions in
2012. Demand for research and development staff is set to remain high with almost
two thirds of hiring managers (61%) saying they find it hard to attract these roles
whilst over half (51%) find it hard to attract OSS/BSS staff in a recent survey.”
Contractors will be needed to ensure network efficiency
“There is an increasing need for network operators to ensure their networks are up
to date and operating at maximum efficiency. With this, we expect hiring managers
to increase their use of contractors who can bring the skills required to operate
newer equipment effectively.”
Competition to heat up across Africa
“We expect to see continued growth in Africa throughout 2012 as operators and
vendors turn up the heat on their competitors. However pressure to cut or reduce
costs might result in these organisations hiring fewer contractors as they endeavour
to deliver the most competitively priced products and services to consumers.”
Glossary of terms:
RFID Radio Frequency Identification
2G Second generation
3G Third generation
4G Fourth generation (LTE)
LTE Long Term Evolution (4G)
OSS Operational Support Systems
BSS Business Support Systems
More information:
For more information, please contact:
Emma Bowden or Daniel Rolle at MHP
Communications.
E: emma.bowden@mhpc.com
T: 020 3128 8145
E: daniel.rolle@mhpc.com
T: 020 3128 8199
