According to Network World’s Carolyn Duffy Marsan, IT staff retention is going to be one of the biggest challenges facing CIOs in 2012.

Three trends are contributing to this situation:

1. Corporate IT hiring is on the rise, tempting IT professionals with higher pay and opportunities for advancement.
2. Younger techies change jobs frequently, averaging only a year or two in a position before switching.
3. Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age.

CIOs are seeing a significant amount of turnover among Java developers in particular, who are staying with a company for an average of one year or less. A lack of experienced resources is having an impact on companies as they are unable to meet some of their growth objectives that rely on having a core team of experienced staff in place. With the number of IT job opportunities set to remain plentiful in 2012, staff turnover will remain a challenge for CIOs.

Lily Mok, research vice president at Gartner, says CIOs need to evaluate their staff and figure out which personnel are critical to the IT department’s success because of their skills and experience and make sure those people feel valued. “You need to know who is leaving and why they are leaving,” Mok says. “Even if you have 1% turnover, that might be too much if these 1% are in critical roles and have critical skills.”

In a December survey of 1,200 IT hiring managers, Dice.com found that 65% will add IT professionals in the first half of 2012. Dice.com also reported IT shortages in many states, including California, New Jersey, Texas and New York.

Mok recommends that CIOs compile a workforce plan two or three years into the future, including the most critical roles, the demographics of the people in those roles, and the risk to the organization if those people leave. She says CIOs should make an effort to have Baby Boomers transfer their knowledge to younger staff before they retire.