Key Findings 

■ Eighty-eight percent of MSE CIOs plan to grow their IT headcount in 2023. In contrast, only 4% of MSEs expect IT headcount to remain flat, and 8% expect a decrease of IT staff from 2022.

■ MSE CIOs report being effective at fulfilling demand for critical skills that are wellscoped and clearly defined, including cybersecurity, cloud and project management.

However, skills like business intelligence (BI), analytics and data science remain harder to fill.

■ MSEs CIOs rely on traditional hiring and upskilling full-time IT employees to fill skill gaps, rather than experimenting with more dynamic ways to meet demand.

■ Fifty-two percent of MSE CIOs provide flexible work locations and 48% report providing flexible work hours to attract prospective candidates.