That’s because the most talented employees in IT  could soon be in high demand.  While the IT job market has been steadily improving over the last several months, hiring is set to take a big leap soon, as 71% of companies plan to add IT staff in the second half of 2010, according to a recent survey by IT job board Dice.com.

More than half of those businesses say they’ll add 10 or more new IT staffers. Those findings are backed up by a similar study from IT service provider CDW.

According to that survey:

1. 37% of large companies plan to add IT staff in the coming months (up 11% from a year ago), and
2. 29% of IT decision makers in the federal government plan to hire new tech staffers this year (up 9% from April).

Also, pay for all employees is set to raise next year, according to a survey by consulting firm Mercer.

Nearly all (98%) of employers plan to raise base pay in 2011. Just 2% plan to enact or continue wage freezes, compared to 13% in 2010 and 31% in 2009. On average, pay will increase 2.9%.

The bottom line for managers: Employees who have dealt with decreased or frozen pay, along with increased job responsibilities, may feel the grass is greener on the other side as more companies offer open positions.

While the IT job market has been steadily improving over the last several months, hiring is set to take a big leap soon, as 71% of companies plan to add IT staff in the second half of 2010, according to a recent survey by IT job board Dice.com.

More than half of those businesses say they’ll add 10 or more new IT staffers.

Those findings are backed up by a similar study from IT service provider CDW. According to that survey:

1. 37% of large companies plan to add IT staff in the coming months (up 11% from a year ago), and
2. 29% of IT decision makers in the federal government plan to hire new tech staffers this year (up 9% from April).

Also, pay for all employees is set to raise next year, according to a survey by consulting firm Mercer. Nearly all (98%) of employers plan to raise base pay in 2011. Just 2% plan to enact or continue wage freezes, compared to 13% in 2010 and 31% in 2009.

On average, pay will increase 2.9%.

The bottom line for managers: Employees who have dealt with decreased or frozen pay, along with increased job responsibilities, may feel the grass is greener on the other side as more companies offer open positions.

Companies should take steps now to keep their best tech employees:

1. Review salaries to make sure they’re still in line with market data
2. Keep that data in mind when planning salary budgets for next year, and
3. Consider boosting retention efforts to grab top talent now before competitors do.

A recent poll by Gartner asked IT pros to rate which was most important to them, and most likely to keep them in their current jobs:

1. Job security
2. Company-funded training and certification courses
3. Flexible work hours, or
4. Recognition from upper management.

The results: 35% said job security was number one. Training and flexibility came a close second and third, respectively, with 32% and 31% of the votes.

Very few (2%) feel recognition is most important.

These days, job security can’t be easily guaranteed, and there’s little room in most companies’ budgets for extra training. But flexibility is a cheap benefit that can be offered in many cases. And going the extra mile to provide training could worth it in some cases to retain top-performing employees.

The folks at ITBusinessEdge.com are offering a free calculator — really a few Excel spreadsheets with built-in formulas — that can help you figure out if a program’s worthwhile.

Well, it’s sort of free. You have to be willing to give up some basic info to get a site membership and download the calculator.

The tool’s based on a  business model where employees who previously worked at your facility now work at home on a full-time basis, with only occasional visits to the office.

The big savings: Space. This kicks in only if you have eight to 12 offsite workers, which will save about 2,000 square feet of space, the smallest parcel that can be sublet.

But as noted in previous posts here at FinanceTechNews, the big advantage is retention, recruitment, morale and productivity — all of which get a big boost by offering flexible work arrangements.

And in this day and age of wage freezes and layoffs, all of those things can add up to big savings for the bottom line.

But it’s necessary to avoid the fines that’ll come when your company fails to meet your industry’s retention compliance requirements.

Here are some tips to writing a policy that covers all the bases:

• Different industries have different retention requirements, such as the healthcare industry’s HIPAA regulation, so tailor a policy to what’s required of your company.
• Talk with the experts about what material should be included. Outside legal counsel, regulatory tool kits and fellow IT managers can tell you what documents to include in your policy.
• Make sure your policy states the reason for retention of each type of document (HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley rules) and adjust the policy when changes in laws are made.
• Identify which staff members should have read and write permissions to documents.
• Don’t mix documents with different retention requirements. Keep documents with 10-year requirements in one section, and documents with 20-year requirements in another.
• Let each division or office set the retention policy for their own operational documents, as long as they don’t conflict with existing requirements.

In a perfect world, you might have more choices like this one: We’ll give you a decent raise, or you can pass up the money and work from home some of the time.

A recent poll by the National Association of Wholesale-Distributors found that more than half of workers would pass on the raise for the opportunity to telecommute — at least occasionally:

That can be good news in these tight economic times, when companies are struggling to keep afloat and hang on to their valuable employees

One way more and more employers are trying to lower workers’ costs and increase flexibility is to let some employees telecommute at least one day a week.

That can be a big boost to recruitment, retention and employee satisfaction, but it also comes with several challenges.

IT is usually charged with making telecommuting work and finance is dedicated to controlling costs, so you might keep want to keep in mind:

1. Security — In some cases, employers can be held liable when personal information about employees or customers is stolen. Managers need to work closely with IT to make sure employees have a secure set-up before they do any work from home.

2. Ground rules — Establish some firm guidelines from the outset, such as:

• no working on public wireless networks
• family members or others don’t use company equipment, and
• any data in physical form (CDs, paper documents, etc.) must be kept in a secure place.

3. Safety – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) won’t inspect home offices – or require employers to inspect them. Still, employers should be ready to handle claims of injuries from people working at home.

4. Discrimination –- As with any benefit, there’s always a chance someone might claim discrimination when some employees get the offer and some don’t. A clear policy on telecommuting based on objective criteria can avoid this problem. IT can help establish which tasks can be performed remotely and which can’t.

5. Technology choices — Picking the right tools for telecommuters will require an understanding of roles and responsibilities. Working closely with managers to pick the right tools will be IT’s job.