June 11, 2026

Hiring in Tech: What’s Driving Today’s Talent Challenges?

5 min read

New Zealand’s tech sector is on a serious roll. Now our third-largest export earner, it employs over 119,000 people and contributes $24 billion to GDP, cementing its place as one of the country’s fastest-growing industries. Globally competitive and increasingly vital to our economy, the sector’s continued success will rely on ongoing investment in skills, talent, and forward thinking.

So, what is happening beneath the surface? In this blog, we unpack insights from a question we posed to tech employers in the annual TIN Report survey: “When it comes to effectively delivering on digital strategy, what people challenges will be the most important for your organisation to overcome?”. Drawing on responses from leading organisations, we explore where pressure is building and the themes emerging across the industry.

A Note on Data

Absolute IT has partnered with TIN (Technology Investment Network) for over a decade. For the past 22 years, TIN has delivered definitive data and insights through its annual report. The findings presented here are based on responses from 55 TIN200 companies representing around 30,000 employees, providing insight into the people challenges facing some of New Zealand’s leading technology businesses. These insights feed into the TIN Report, widely regarded as the leading independent analysis of New Zealand’s technology sector. The report also ranks the top 200 tech companies by revenue, providing a clear view of where growth is happening and how the market continues to change. As part of our partnership, we contribute a question focused specifically on people and workforce challenges. Here is what the data tells us from that question.

Skills and Talent: Still the Biggest Blockers

When survey respondents ranked their people-challenges, two issues rose to the top. The data is pretty clear on where the pressure sits with ‘Skills Availability’ and ‘Talent Attraction’ revealed as the leading challenges across the survey.

44% of respondents ranked ‘Skills Availability’ in their top three people-related challenges.
15% of companies ranked ‘Talent Attraction’ as their single biggest challenge.

Also appearing, and not far behind comes ‘Compensation and Benefits’, which is a good reminder that in a competitive market, remuneration is always a consideration. For more insight into what employees want, you can check out our previous blog on creating an EVP.

As the percentages reveal, skills and securing talent were really the headline act, which will not be a surprise to those tasked with hiring over the last few years. This is not a new challenge, and despite higher unemployment, there has been little relief from talent shortages across the tech sector. Immigration has also yet to fill the gap. According to the NZTech Key Metrics Report, 729 visas were approved for ICT in 2024, which is down 67% on the previous year.

It depends on where you’re at

One of the most valuable aspects of the TIN Report survey data is the level of segmentation it provides. Workforce priorities can look very different depending on a business’s size, growth stage, sector, and location. Let’s break it down below.

By life-stage

Early-stage companies are focused primarily on attracting talent into the business and building leadership capability. This makes sense; when in the commercialisation phase, it’s essential to get the right people in place, and to ensure there’s strong leadership to guide them. ‘Talent Attraction’ appeared within the top five priorities for 86% of companies in this phase.

At the other end of the scale, larger organisations are dealing with a different problem. 53% of companies with $100m+ in revenue identified ‘Skills Availability’ as one of their biggest challenges. When you’re operating at scale, capability gaps become harder to manage, and more costly to ignore.

By growth

Fast-growing companies feel the skills squeeze most acutely. 62% of rapidly growing companies identified ‘Skills Availability’ as a key challenge – higher than any other segment. As these businesses integrate new technologies and scale at pace, the need to upskill existing employees becomes urgent.

Notably, these same companies were less worried about ‘People Leadership’ and ‘Compensation and Benefits’, suggesting that for fast-growth firms, the immediate priority is closing capability gaps, rather than sorting out structure or changing their leadership approach.

By sector

There are interesting differences between sectors too. For example, Biotech companies are significantly more focused on ‘Training and Upskilling’ than their ICT and High-Tech Manufacturing counterparts.

Percentage of respondents with ‘Training and Upskilling’ in top three:

Biotech- 57%
ICT – 29%
High-Tech Manufacturing- 20%

ICT and High-Tech Manufacturing, on the other hand, are more focused on building headcount: 47% of ICT companies and 45% of High-Tech Manufacturing companies ranked ‘Talent Attraction’ in their top three, compared with just 29% in Biotech.

Across all three sectors, ‘Compensation and Benefits’ shows up consistently, with 57% of Biotech companies, 37% of ICT, and 35% of HTM identifying this factor as a key challenge.

By location

For organisations with both onshore and offshore teams, retention is proving considerably tougher closer to home. TIN data shows that locally based staff experience higher levels of turnover on average. ‘Employee Retention’ and ‘Talent Attraction’ are 14% and 10% more pressing, respectively, for onshore hiring compared with offshore. If you’re managing a New Zealand-based team, holding onto good people needs to be a deliberate focus.

What this means for Tech Employers in Aotearoa

The most important takeaway from this data is that people-challenges are not one-size-fits-all. Where a business sits in terms of size, growth stage, and sector, potentially changes the prioritisation of investment into the different aspects of the workforce.

For example, if your organisation is scaling fast, it’s likely that closing capability gaps is your most pressing issue. In contrast, if an organisation is in its early stages, then embedding leadership, and overall attraction of great talent should be at the forefront. For a larger organisation, skills availability at scale is where investment may be needed. And if you’re managing onshore teams, a deliberate, proactive retention strategy will be very important.

The data points in the same direction across all segments: being intentional about your people strategy is what separates the organisations that grow well, from the ones that struggle to keep pace.

The Bottom Line

New Zealand’s tech sector growth story is genuinely exciting. We’re seeing high levels of revenue, strong export performance, and more companies reaching scale than ever before. But people-challenges will shape how far, and how fast that growth goes.

If you’d like to talk through what these insights mean for your organisation, whether you’re trying to attract the right people, close a capability gap, or reduce retention risk, please get in touch with the Absolute IT team. We’re across what’s happening in the market, and we’re here to help.

Hayley Sharp

Senior Consultant

Hiring, Retention, and Employee Value Propositions

5 min read

What NZ Tech Employers Need to Know in 2026

Job ad volumes are up, business confidence is slowly returning (albeit unevenly), and delayed projects are finally starting to move. Overall, the mood feels like it’s shifting towards cautious optimism. But if you ask most tech employers how hiring is going, you’ll get a similar answer: competition for the right people is still as tough as ever.

The Challenge for Employers

This aligns with the data from our latest IT Job Market & Salary Report, which shows that the top hiring challenge for tech employers in 2026 is general availability of talent in the NZ market (see page 20). It’s also reflected in what I’m seeing as a recruiter in the market. In fast-moving areas like cyber security, cloud, and AI, demand continues to outstrip local supply.

The issue isn’t a lack of candidates overall, it’s the gap between who’s available, and who you actually need. That’s why standing out as an employer matters more than ever – especially if you want to attract people who aren’t actively job hunting, but could be tempted by the right opportunity.

How Hiring and Retention Overlap

At the same time, this increased demand means that some of your best people might already be quietly weighing up their options. In fact, 61% of tech professionals we surveyed were considering moving workplaces this year, with 44% of those already looking – even though 84% consider their current workplace a good place to work (see pages 26 & 24).

This is where I see attraction and retention overlapping. To me, they shouldn’t be seen as separate challenges, but as two sides of the same coin. Both can be addressed by having a clear, credible employee value proposition (EVP).

What an EVP is and How it Can Help

We’ll be deep-diving into EVPs in an upcoming blog, but basically an EVP “captures the set of attributes that external talent and internal employees perceive as the value they gain by working in an organisation” – Gartner.

That includes salary and benefits, but also less tangible factors like culture, leadership, flexibility, and growth opportunities. An EVP shouldn’t be a static document that gathers dust – it needs to be revisited regularly and communicated consistently, both internally and externally.

We’ve said it before in a previous blog, but EVPs are still relatively uncommon (or at least good, clearly defined ones are), so it’s a great way to set your organisation apart. It helps top talent understand why they should choose you over other employers, and reinforces why existing employees should stay, even in a job market full of other good options. And the key to building a strong EVP? Knowing what people truly value.

Understanding What Tech Talent Want

A strong EVP can’t be built on assumptions. It needs to reflect what tech professionals genuinely value at different stages of their careers – what draws them in, and what makes them think twice about leaving.

The best EVPs are informed by feedback from your own people, but our IT Job Market & Salary Report is a strong external reference point. It’s based on insights from over 1,000 tech professionals across New Zealand, covering a wide range of roles and industries. It provides a clear picture of which benefits matter most, what impacts job satisfaction, and how employers are benchmarking salaries (including contractor rates).

Creating an EVP – What the Data Says

While our report offers more detail and specific numbers, there are a few themes I think are especially important when shaping your EVP:

Salary is still the number one reason tech professionals change jobs and accept new offers. If your salary bands sit below market, that’s the first issue to address. Once your salaries sit within a competitive range, they become a threshold, rather than a differentiator. That’s when other factors (like benefits or culture) start to influence decisions, and can be the deciding factor between you and a competitor.

Career development remains the most important non-financial factor for tech professionals considering a new role. This has been a consistent theme in the data for several years, yet it still doesn’t feature in the top three benefits offered by employers. In my experience, tech professionals want visibility – clear pathways, opportunities to build new skills, and assurance that their growth is a priority. Investing in internal progression reduces your reliance on external hiring, plus it sends a clear message that people’s futures matter.
Flexibility and hybrid working are now standard across most tech roles. Where I see employers continuing to stand out is not whether flexibility is offered, but how well it’s supported in practice. Flexibility can mean many things, from remote work and flexible hours to leave policies or workload autonomy. You can use our report to see how your policy compares to what other employers are offering.
Workplace culture and management are playing an increasingly important role in job satisfaction and decision‑making. Tech professionals don’t just want better titles or higher numbers on their payslip, they want positive day-to-day experiences – good managers, clear communication, and supportive team environments. This has a direct impact on engagement, performance, and long-term retention.
Upskilling is growing in importance, particularly as AI, automation, and data capabilities are starting to become baseline expectations, rather than specialist skills. Employers that invest in building these capabilities are addressing two challenges at once – closing skills gaps and giving employees a compelling reason to stay. Our research shows that structured training is far from universal, organisations that lean into this have a real opportunity to stand out.

Together, these elements form the backbone of a credible EVP. None of them are particularly new ideas, but I’ve seen firsthand that organisations that deliver on them consistently are far more likely to attract and keep the talent they need. As Gartner puts it, the best organisations focus about 80% of their effort on fulfilling EVP promises, and 20% on defining them (not the other way around).

Turning Insight Into Action

Our 2026 IT Job Market & Salary Report has the data behind everything I’ve covered here: salary benchmarks by role, benefits analysis, hiring trends, retention risk insights, and a snapshot of what tech professionals and employers across New Zealand are planning for the year ahead. You can download it here.

And if you’d like to talk about how these insights apply to your organisation, whether that’s refining your EVP, planning for hard‑to‑hire roles, or reducing retention risk, feel free to reach out. I’m more than happy to help!

Paul Kelly

Business Manager & Principal Consultant

As a Recruitment Consultant, Paul Kelly believes the right people are the most important asset in any business.