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Lee Kirby
November 2020
Two Birds
One Stone
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Context and Problem
What’s the problem?
- Data center industry talent shortage
- Veteran unemployment/underemployment
What was the scope?
- Enormous scope from physical to logical environments
- Chronic problem for 10+ years continuing to grow
- Pace of change with new technologies
- Pace of growth in the industry
- Becoming a root cause in incident analysis of outages
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Context of Analysis
How to solve?
– Find a market need that can be satisfied with resources that are rapidly trained
and transitioned from another industry
– Develop training programs that rapidly produce competent personnel that can
operate safely in this environment
– Define sustainable development program to ensure increased competencies
and adaptability to new technologies and industry change
– Choose the optimal industry (resource pool) to draw from in order to focus
recruiting efforts
– In math, two negatives multiplied result in a positive outcome…
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Training investment already made
Experience operating in any environment (austere, hostile)
Ingrained characteristics:
− Leadership
− Disciplined execution within strategic framework
− Outcome driven (mission first mind set)
− Cognitive abilities:
− Critical thinking
− Adapt & learn quickly and constantly
− Problem solving
− Continuous improvement mind set
− Teamwork – lead, follow, collaborate
Size of the US pool (200K+ transitioning per year, 800K+ reserves)
Why the Military as a Resource Pool?
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Barriers & Constraints to Address
Veterans %
Unqualified BUT Trainable 50%
Related Experience* JUST Cross
Train
45%
Qualified AND Ready <5%
“Navy Nukes” <1%
Data Center Industry %
Will Train Veterans With No
Experience or Training
<1%
Will Cross Train Veterans 20%
Will Hire Qualified Veterans and Orient
to New Role
80%
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Objectives
Develop service offerings in response to industry demand = Remote Hands
Foundation
– People: The advantage of the veteran resource pool
– Process: Rigorous flexibility
Training
Services
– Technology: Transparent efficiency
Time
Budget
Workmanship
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Alternatives Considered
Recruit & train model
Traditional staffing model
Traditional functional model (Sec, CE, IT)
Dispatched support model
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Approaches/Strategies Used:
Workforce development strategy was key
– Backwards planning
– Incremental development (crawl, walk, run)
– Integrated training program
Considers candidates' skills and experience
Continuous development
Operations synchronization
– Continuous client/market feedback
Boot strap entrepreneurs means “Just in Time” investing
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Technologies Leveraged
Off the shelf tools & SaS
– HR - ADP
– Finance - QuickBooks
– Sales - Zoho
Custom built
– Training management
– Project management
– Workforce enablement
– Workforce management (contact tracing)
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Challenges
How to define a training program that would accommodate all levels of
experience and produce consistent results
– Common core (Safety, Culture)
– Graduated curriculum (Pre-test to define starting point)
– Ongoing professional development
– Tightly integrated with operations
How to afford the training program
– Initial investment
– Ongoing business growth
– Balancing the supply chain
– External perception
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Results
New services model adopted by industry
– Reduced on site staff & improved operational efficiency
– YoY sales growth & competitive landscape changed
Training integrated to Operations resulted in:
– Customer satisfaction & quality of service
– Rapid transition and deployment of new personnel
Work force supply chain balance
– Training: Initial = 10%; Intermediate = 15%
– Ongoing professional development = 75%
Diversity & inclusion naturally
Since 2013 - 10 countries, 400+ full time staff, 2,000+ to the industry
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Lessons Learned & Recommendations
Commercial success can be a means to an end
Development driven by market demand produces tangible results
Workforce development is key to solving the talent shortage in our industry
The scope of the talent shortage goes far beyond what Salute has achieved but
the lessons learned here can be leveraged from physical to logical functions
(cyber, apps, devops, etc.)
Editor's Notes Presenter's Name
Presenter's Name