Dara Mullen is Director, People and Talent, with I.T. Alliance Group and has overall responsibility for the group's people strategy, which spans 500 people spread across the UK and Ireland. His role encompasses the group's partner project and services delivery business, Alliance Resourcing Services and the group's cloud services business, Auxilion.

MARKET REBOUND Large IT projects shelved during the recession are now being revisited. There is more buoyancy in the jobs market, meaning that employers competing to retain and attract talent need to up their game. We are seeing an increase in turnover in recent months and this is the first that we have seen in a number of years. People are more confident in the recovering market and they are looking at opportunities across the market.

SKILLS DEMAND We manage large IT projects for the top services companies, so we are always on the lookout for really good project managers with strong ICT backgrounds. Service delivery and operations staff are also in demand, as are senior IT staff such as technical architects, business analysts and people with cloud solutions experience.

GOOD RECRUITERS Emotional intelligence, excellent people skills, communication, negotiation, sales and interpersonal skills are essential, as is a proactive and positive approach to their work. A good network is also useful if they have one but the right attitude also makes a difference.

CANDIDATE PRIORITIES Pay and benefits are important but we find it's the non-monetary rewards such as empowerment, training, development and career progression that are more likely to help keep talent and be the company people want to work at. Flexibility is also very important in the workplace today.

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OUTLOOK It's a great time for our business and that's really encouraging to see. It is also great to see people getting new opportunities to move. People are reinventing themselves and this is a plus for business as you get a broader skill set to choose from. Jobs are not for life any more, so it is up to us in the organisation to plan for a more mobile workforce.