Chinese technology companies are always worried about having their top employees poached by rivals, but now they also have to fear the human resource departments of companies outside the tech sector.

Traditional enterprises are developing their own technology departments, so they are fighting over the same talent pool that previously only looked to startups and Zhongguancun as career paths. Big data, cybersecurity, and mobile development are some of the key hiring areas for these companies.

Chinese IT professionals will see an increase in their salaries in 2016, with the average IT salary expected to rise between 5% and 12%, according to ZW HR Consulting, a Chinese/Singaporean recruitment company that specializes in information technology.

Some key findings from ZW HR Consulting's latest report show that candidates with a R&D and IT product design background are the generally the most difficult to find. And the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou and other tier-two and -three cities such as Ningbo, Fuzhou and Nanjing can be challenging places to spot good talent. Guangzhou and the neighboring city Shenzhen are big manufacturing centers with nascent Internet of Things companies popping up too.

The past few years have seen talented foreigners depart China because of China's increasingly poor environmental standards, increased taxation, decreasing quality if life, and rising inflation. The report shows that multinational companies are finding it difficult to adapt to rapidly changing trends, leaving human resource departments struggling with compensation policies and salary bands that are already outdated.