The document discusses strategies for IT leaders who feel overwhelmed by hiring challenges. It identifies four primary barriers to effective hiring: lack of time for hiring in IT departments, financial constraints, talent shortages, and candidates' desires for flexibility. It then provides five strategies to help with hiring: building a stronger business case for hiring, streamlining hiring processes, focusing current staff on higher priority "big rocks" and using contractors for other tasks, using staff augmentation more strategically to address capacity issues, and partnering with staffing vendors who understand needs. The strategies are aimed at helping IT leaders feel less overwhelmed and better able to hire effectively.
Bill Craib
Vice President of HCI's Center for Human Capital Excellence (CHCE)
With the flux in economies around the world, the style of talent used inside of organizations is a hot topic. Yet many organizations still see contract labor as a short-term solution rather than an integral part of their talent management strategy. In this original research & presentation from the Human Capital Institute, we'll address how factors like economic conditions, unemployment, and contingent program maturation influence why and how companies use contract talent.
Bill Craib
Vice President of HCI's Center for Human Capital Excellence (CHCE)
With the flux in economies around the world, the style of talent used inside of organizations is a hot topic. Yet many organizations still see contract labor as a short-term solution rather than an integral part of their talent management strategy. In this original research & presentation from the Human Capital Institute, we'll address how factors like economic conditions, unemployment, and contingent program maturation influence why and how companies use contract talent.
Guide EmployeesThrought a Successful Merger - Construction Business Owner's M...Kweiss
When two firms merge or one company acquires another, the business owners often neglect their employees' concerns- this is especially true in small- and medium size firms that have limited resources and time. But in mergers and acquisitions", the people factor" is vital. To complete a successful merger or acquisition, follow these steps.
Commentators are currently polarised around the future of the HR function. Some suggest that the function is about to enter a boom period as after several years of cajoling, organisations are placing far greater emphasis on talent management and putting strategic HR activities at the heart of the business. On the other hand, others believe that HR is still struggling to rise to the challenge and is destined to remain a transaction based cost centre for the foreseeable future. As with most things, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. This article explores the evidence for both perspectives and suggests that solving apparently intangible human capital problems is the best way for HR to profit given current circumstances.
Maps matter. They are the frameworks that guide talent management practice. But if we use the wrong maps or don\'t know how to read them we will find it difficult to get to our destination.
Guide EmployeesThrought a Successful Merger - Construction Business Owner's M...Kweiss
When two firms merge or one company acquires another, the business owners often neglect their employees' concerns- this is especially true in small- and medium size firms that have limited resources and time. But in mergers and acquisitions", the people factor" is vital. To complete a successful merger or acquisition, follow these steps.
Commentators are currently polarised around the future of the HR function. Some suggest that the function is about to enter a boom period as after several years of cajoling, organisations are placing far greater emphasis on talent management and putting strategic HR activities at the heart of the business. On the other hand, others believe that HR is still struggling to rise to the challenge and is destined to remain a transaction based cost centre for the foreseeable future. As with most things, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. This article explores the evidence for both perspectives and suggests that solving apparently intangible human capital problems is the best way for HR to profit given current circumstances.
Maps matter. They are the frameworks that guide talent management practice. But if we use the wrong maps or don\'t know how to read them we will find it difficult to get to our destination.
Omixon accurate variant detection slideshare version 2011 aug 17Attila Berces
This presentation describes some of our results in genomic variant detection. Using Omixon software we find variants not found by other software. We introduce a new short read mapping for Illumina, Ion Torrent and 454 for highly sensitive mapping and alignment especially for repeats. This is an excellent way to correct for homopolymer errors in 454 and Ion Torrent data. For a free download visit http://www.omixon.com/omixon/abouttoolkit2.htm .
Recent HPC trial of MIKE 21 Flexible Mesh Series in the UK gives impressive results (DHI).
MIKE by DHI 15th UK User Group Meeting - Tuesday 19 March 2013
Dominance of Automation over Traditional Managerial Practicesijtsrd
Human resource management is an essential part of every company. Whether it's hiring new employees, training, or ensuring that local labour laws are complied with, HR processes are a vital part of every company. But hour has typically been thought of as a extremely manual department method. They are used to rolling up their sleeves and getting the job done themselves. But all that's changing. Automation is invasive the hour area, and very soon everything that can be automated, will be automated. Current HR staff needs to adapt to the coming changes or get left behind in the dust. What will this mean for hour currently and within the future Are workers going to become obsolete Are they going to find their job roles differ from what's typically expected of them Let's take a closer look. Prof. Manoj Jagnade | Vaibhavi Anil Dhotkar | Tanmay Chhapparghare | Pratik Wankhede | Shantanu Zade | Kartik Salve "Dominance of Automation over Traditional Managerial Practices" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-1 , December 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd29658.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/management/hrm-and-retail-business/29658/dominance-of-automation-over-traditional-managerial-practices/prof-manoj-jagnade
Data Integration: Huntflow and PowerBI | Case Study | Software Development Co...*instinctools
What problems can flexible and detailed analytics tackle in recruitment?
Here is the case study on data integration from Huntflow, a professional recruiting CRM system, with PowerBI software, that provided informative dashboards and helped:
✔️ Recruiters to get a clear picture of the talent pipeline, showing the path of every candidate from every source through every stage of the hiring process;
✔️ The company to fill the positions 21% faster than it used to;
✔️ C-levels to make the necessary adjustments to the wage scale.
Reach out to *instinctools Business Intelligence experts if you have a similar project idea or challenge with data integration > contact@instinctools.com
12 Chapter 5 • Forecasting and Planning 127
Chapter 5 • Forecasting and Planning 127
The competition for good employees is particularly fierce for smaller companies, who, despite providing the majority of new jobs in the United States,8 have a more difficult time hiring in general. Forecasting and planning let firms better manage talent shortages and surpluses. By understanding business cycles, the business needs of their firms, the current talent in their firms, and the pipelines for finding future talent, HR professionals can proactively reduce the impact the greater competition for talent will have.
Workforce planning is a strategic process that allows an organization to predict and manage its talent supply and demand. The goal of this process is to enable the organization to attain its business goals and execute its strategy. Because business leader input is as important as HR input, workforce planning is an organizational initiative, not something solely done by HR.
Despite the clear advantages of forecasting and planning, many organizations respond to their staffing needs reactively rather than proactively. In other words, they do little planning and simply work to fill positions as they open up. Jim Robbins, the former president and CEO of Cox Communications, put it this way: "We spend four months per year on the budget process, but we hardly spend any time talking about our talent, our strengths and how to leverage them, our talent needs and how to build them. Everyone is held accountable for their budget. But no one is held accountable for the strength of their talent pool. Isn't it the talent we have in each unit that drives our results? Aren't we missing something?"
At Corning, a leader in specialty glass and ceramics, talent planning is the "bridge that translates business strategy into talent strategy."10 Corning knows that its talent portfolio influences its success. Over- or understaffed units affect the company's cost structure, cash flow, and ability to deliver its products. The wrong skill mix can mean missed market opportunities if the workforce is underskilled or, if the workforce is overskilled, cost structures that undermine profitability. To keep its skill mix optimized, every spring Corning models its future talent needs across multiple scenarios and then analyzes strategies to close any gaps.11
In this chapter, we discuss the importance of understanding the organization's business strategy, goals, and competitive environment to identify what talents the firm will need. Ensuring that the right people are in place at the right time requires forecasting the firm's labor demand and maintaining an awareness of the relevant pipelines for its labor supply. Action plans can then be developed to address any gaps between the two. After reading this chapter, you will have a good understanding of the workforce forecasting and planning process.
THE WORKFORCE PLANNING PROCESS
The workforce planning process, which is illustrated.
Checklist:
1) Establish where your business is going.
2) Understand where the labor market is going.
3) Understand your future talent demands.
4) Assess your current talent inventory.
5) Identify your talent gaps.
6) Implementation.
Offboard trains leaders and team members on how to make employee transitions easy, minimally disruptive to business goals, and mutually beneficial for a long term relationship.
Predicting potential - Assessing Cognitive Ability in RecruitmentGavin Lamb
Employees with strong cognitive ability are a competitive advantage to an organisation - particularly when they are in
roles that require quick learning, first-time problem solving, thinking ‘on your feet’ and dealing with ambiguity. People who
score well on cognitive ability tests are more likely to develop a greater knowledge of the job more quickly, make effective
decisions and successfully reason and strategise to solve problems. In fact, a landmark study reviewed 85 years of research and found that higher cognitive ability is linked with higher productivity and performance.
The quest to define IT’s relationship with the business has gained new momentum over the last few years, primarily due to a more difficult economic climate driving the need for transparency in spending decisions. The momentum is manifested in a fundamental awareness, developed since the technology hype of the late 90’s, that IT organizations must be integrated more closely with the businesses they support. Management teams in many organizations are focused on defining a better Business-Technology partnership, which is shining the spotlight on a new discipline -- Project Portfolio Management (PPM).
The correlation between stress and deadlines has been established pretty well,
through . While it spurs some to action, others
might find the pressure debilitating. Teams might not finish the project on time
due to the inability of one or more team members to meet their assigned
deadlines, customers can become dissatisfied with delay in services, and the
organization may lose goodwill in the market if they are consistently failing at
fulfilling their promises. The as deadline
approaches, and failure to achieve deadlines can result in teams losing their
morale and motivation – a double edged sword.
How can you meet deadlines at work? Meeting deadlines is essential for the smooth running of your organization. However, many employees still struggle to be consistent in meeting deadlines, to overcome this situation in this ebook we have shared a detailed guide for beginners.
Keeping documentation of employee leaves may be tedious. UpRaise makes it easier with the Leave management tools of Jira. Learn More: https://upraise.io/core-hr-add-on-jira/leave-management/
This Learning Assessments contains Roadmap with
• 12 New HR Trends and predictions for 2022 you should plan
• Use Online Assessment tools to create a greater impact on L&D 2022
• Creating an assessments toolkit for data driven L&D in 2022
• How will AI/ML Define the Future of Recruitment in Tech?
• A Successful Plan for Your Next Campus Recruiting Strategy
• How to Conduct Coding Interviews – Cheat Sheet
For more Information visit on https://yaksha.com/?utm_source=Referral&utm_medium=SEO+Submission&utm_campaign=Doc
Strategic workforce planning (also known as strategic staffing, talent demand planning and workforce shaping) is used by organisations to help them understand the workforce they will need in the future to execute on their planned strategy.
Similar to Final It Whitepaper For Distribution (20)
PPMA Annual Seminar 2015 - The Future of HR strategic workforce planning
Final It Whitepaper For Distribution
1. TOO OvERwHELmED TO
HIRE RIGHT?
Hudson finds IT leaders are moving too fast
to follow hiring best practices. Inside we offer
5 strategies to help see the light at the end
of the tunnel.
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES
2. ExEcUTIvE SUmmARY
AT A GLANcE
4 Barriers to IT hiring (pg 4)
5 Strategies for improving talent acquisitions (pg 7)
15 Waysto improve results from your staff augmentation vendors (pg 10)
Doing more with less. That seems to be To gain insight into this serious quandary, Hudson interviewed technology managers from
the prevailing dilemna keeping today’s IT organizations all over the country and captured their thoughts about this troubling state of
hiring managers up at night. Less time, business. Here’s what we learned:
less money, fewer resources…and tighter
deadlines. The pressure is relentless, and • imeisnottheonlyscarceresource.
T • candidates are demanding more
IT departments are struggling to cope. Budget dollars and talent constraints control over their careers and are
are also impeding many IT departments’ lesswillingtotoleratedelays
On a positive note, budgets are finally ability to get things done. inthehiringprocess.
unfreezing and allocations are being
made for both contract and full-time • Despite all the press about high unemployment, • IT departments need help, but they
hires. Yet that may not be enough. toptechnicalprofessionalsremainscarce. have notimetoplanandnotime
tohire.
There is a pervasive sense among workers
in general—and IT professionals in
particular—of being absolutely overloaded.
Of barely keeping up with the tasks and
projects that need to be done. Technology
professionals feel that they “should”
be able to complete tasks quickly and
instantly, and end up feeling inadequate
that they cannot.
This is not the usual “too much to do and
too little time to do it” archetype of recent
years—this is palpable despair of
– being overwhelmed,
– feeling incapable of meeting
expectations and,
– seeing no clear way out or
solution for the problem.
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES
3. ExEcUTIvE SUmmARY
Based on this input from IT leaders, Hudson identified four primary barriers to hiring, along with five strategies for overcoming the
constraints, minimizing the stress and finding the time to hire right. The remainder of this paper confronts these issues and explains how
some managers are coping with the current state of affairs. Highlights of our recommended strategies are shown below.
5 STRATEGIES TO HIRE “RIGHT”
1 uildabetterbusinesscasefor
B 4 sestaffaugmentationmore
U
hiring. strategically.
Show executives how hiring full-time and Implement better workforce
contract staff will directly correlate to planning to eliminate capacity
improvements in efficiency, productivity constraints, shorten learning curves
and profitability. and accelerate productivity.
2 treamlineyourhiringprocesses.
S 5 topgoingitalone.
S
Become more proactive in your Invest time to train staffing vendors
approach to candidate selection to to enable them to be more proactive
accelerate decision-making and and accurate in providing the talent
improve your access to top talent. you need.
3 tartwiththe“BigRocks.”
S
Approach task management more
intelligently by better matching people
to tasks. Use contractors to backfill
your need to complete lower level
work and routine maintenance activities.
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES
4. 4 BARRIERS TO HIRING “RIGHT”
when it comes to the success of technology projects, the three most critical elements are planning, process and people. But if you don’t hire
right, or staff sufficiently, no amount of planning or process can compensate for your talent deficiencies.
while no organization sets out to hire wrong, the challenges of any fast-paced—and budget constrained—IT department often preclude best
practices in hiring and staffing. consider the following issues:
BARRIER1:Managershavelittletimeandnoaccommodationsaremadeforhiring.
Tight deadlines abound. Expectations for getting things done “yesterday” are rampant. IT managers must deal with huge project backlogs
(backlogs possibly created because departments don’t have enough IT talent to complete them—an ironic feedback loop if ever there was
one). But hiring is a time-intensive process. Even with the assistance of the human resources department, hiring places a significant burden
on IT managers. consider the steps in the hiring process:
• Hiringrequirementsmustbedefined.
Often job descriptions are little more than a list of duties and necessary skills. But a well-defined job requisition delineates the experience
and personality traits of your ideal job candidate. After all, all the skills in the world won’t matter if the person you hire can’t work with your
team.
• Candidatesmustbesourced.
For junior-level positions this may mean no more than writing and posting a good job listing. But for highly specialized skills and
leadership positions, you need a well-conceived recruitment strategy—determining where you can find the people you need and, just as
importantly, how to get them interested in your firm.4
• Resumesmustbescreened. No job opening ever returns just the right number of responses. Either you’re inundated with resumes to
review or you’re scrambling to find any with the requirements you need. Either way, it’s a tedious process that often cannot be done
without significant involvement from the IT department.
• Candidatesmustbeinterviewed. Before you can interview, questions must be developed, scoring systems should be defined and
interviewers must be trained. To compound matters, interviewing most often is not a one-time event, but a multi-step process involving
multiple managers, multiple departments and multiple rounds of interviews.
• Assessmentstestsandbackgroundchecksmustbeadministered. According to HireRight.com, 4 percent of job applicants lie
on their resume. To hire right, skills must be tested, backgrounds must be verified and references must be checked.5
• Offersmustbenegotiated. compensation is one of the trickiest and most dangerous parts of the hiring process. Offer too little and
you’ll never attract the talent you want. Offer too much and you run the risk of creating division in your organization because the salaries
you pay your employees have a habit of becoming “public knowledge.” Long-time workers receiving less than new “stars” can become
embittered and disengaged over what they perceive as an inequity. The challenge is to do your homework to put forth the compensation
package that best fits the candidate’s needs and your company’s constraints.
• Newhiresmustreceiveproperorientation. Onboarding is a critical process. Even the most talented new hires don’t show up ready
to master your systems. Fail to provide a proper orientation and you’re going to suffer reduced productivity and often more turnover.
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES 4
5. 4 BARRIERS TO HIRING “RIGHT”
BARRIER2:Financialconstraints
Sometimes, there’s just no budget to hire. This especially has been the case for the past two years (009-010). This seems to be
changing, however, as a third quarter 010 cIO.com Economic Impact Survey6 found that “[o]ver half of IT leaders plan to ramp up
budgets in the coming year, with only 16 percent planning cuts.” Still, of the 50 cIOs surveyed, just “5 percent plan to increase
spending on full-time in-house workers.” (many plan to keep their contract hiring steady in 011, the report said.)
This budget crunch also creates another problem. managers find that they only have funding to hire one person, while they actually
need three people. Therefore, they are tempted to craft a complex role combining pieces of various positions into one new role. These
“hybrid” positions are not only abnormal to manage, they are unattractive to highly-talented individuals who will ascertain they are being
asked to do the impossible.
In addition, financial constraints also may force HR and IT to set compensation targets that are not sufficient for attracting the right
people, slowing the hiring process, with disappointing results.
BARRIER3:Talentshortages
The “good guys” still are hard to find. many average or low-performing IT professionals lost their positions during the recent recession
while companies tended to retain their highest performers. As the recession wanes and IT hiring picks up, companies are finding
themselves flooded with applications of those currently unemployed—generally the low-performing and average.7 But hiring
underperformers can be worse than not hiring at all. mediocre employees require more supervision, more training and they create
more disruption and substandard work than their peers. In fact, a study by mcKinsey company found that top performers increase
productivity, revenue and profit by between 40 percent and 67 percent. So when it comes to hiring, you simply cannot afford to settle
for less than the best.
BARRIER4:Candidates’desireforflexibility
IT professionals want elasticity in their job and career options. Top IT talent knows they are in demand, and they continually look for
their next “hot gig.” companies wishing to make offers to these stars need to do so quickly. we’ve seen many IT managers miss out on
their opportunity to hire top people (this includes full-time hires and contractors) due to delays in the assessment process and/or their
hesitancy in making an offer.8
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES 5
6. THE IRONY OF TEcHNOLOGY IN IT HIRING
STRESSINTODAY’SWORKPLACE STRESSANDOVERWORK STRESSANDPRODUCTIVITY
• 34percent of employees cite too
many job demands or overwork as • 40percent of employees report
their most common cause of stress. losing an hour or more a day in
productivity due to stress.
• 66percent of employees who feel
• 5percent of employees are
5 overworked report feeling nervous • 0percent of employees say they
2
stressed to the point of feeling or stressed. 4 miss more than six work days a year
extremely fatigued and out of control. due to stress.
• 26percent of employees felt
• 42percent of employees report an overwhelmed by the amount of work • 25percent of employees say they
increase in errors in their workplaces they had in the past months either come to work five or more days a
due to stress. often or very often. year too stressed to be effective.
The recent Great Recession (December This has resulted in a pervasive sense
2007-June 2009) was different than any among workers of being utterly inundated.
other and not just because it was the And it’s more than just feeling there’s too
worst recession on record: unlike other little time to do too much—there’s a real
recessions, in which American productivity sense of futility and a feeling of being
rises when workforce numbers are cut, incompetent:** These tools exist to make
productivity during the recent recession me more productive. The tool can allow
actually decreased.* me to send a message in less than a
minute; it can allow me to create a
American workers have hit capacity. document in less than five minutes. Yet I
Companies truly are understaffed am not able to get it to you now. I have 25
and existing employees are things on my to-do list to complete in the
utterly overwhelmed. next hour. Yet if the tools exist, I should be
able to complete them. But I can not.
What’s exceptionally ironic, of course, Therefore, I am inadequate. And not just at
is how much technology—which was my job: I am lacking as a human.
supposed to help us work less and
relax more—actually has exacerbated
our stress. Smartphones, e-mail,
Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., have become so
ingrained
into our daily lives that we can’t imagine
living without these tools. But we can’t
live with them either! Technology has
made us so connected that employers
have developed untenable expectations
regarding our responsiveness. We are
expected to be always on, always available
and always ready to respond. After all, if
I can send you an e-mail in less than a
minute, why can you not send me the
report I need in two?
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES 6
7. 5 STRATEGIES TO HELP EASE THE LOAD
STRATEGY1:BuildaBetterBusinessCase.
If you need to hire but management says, “No—no budget,” show the following:
• How hiring additional IT talent will eliminate capacity constraints.
• How hiring the right talent will improve productivity.
• How deadlines will be met—and the economic benefit to the firm of getting projects implemented faster.
• How bringing in expertise—even on a contract basis—will shorten the learning curve for new technology.
In building your business case, look for the hard costs of IT shortages, and then demonstrate the ROI of eliminating these shortages.
For example, you might evaluate:
• The average response time to problems in your network or application.
• System downtime and the impact on sales, service or operations.
• The number of help desk calls you’re receiving.
• The backlog of work accumulating because staff is overwhelmed.
• The average output of your current employees and the subsequent gains that could be achieved by bringing in the
right supporting skills and experience.
Executives understand how technical inefficiency increases costs and can result in the loss of clients, revenue and even internal staff.
Be proactive and present a cost-benefit analysis to your firm’s leadership showing how hiring staff (either full-time or contract)
will improve your firm’s ROI through cost reduction and/or an increase in productivity and revenue.
STRATEGY2:StreamlineYourHiringProcess.
As mentioned in one of the previously outlined hiring challenges, too many companies are taking too long to finalize hiring decisions
and extend employment offers. The best IT professionals do not stay on the market for long. If your hiring process is inefficient, you
will lose top talent.
Instead, work with your human resources department to find ways to make the hiring process faster. These could include:
• Having great job descriptions prepared for all critical positions.
• creating a clearly defined candidate evaluation process, including systems for resume scoring, interview evaluation and assessment
testing.
• Providing better training to department managers on the hiring process (how to spot the best resumes, how to interview better, how to
negotiate salary, etc.).
• Preparing interview questions specific to IT professionals and having them ready before you ever need them.
• Improving communication between your department and human resources to avoid bottlenecks.
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES 7
8. 5 STRATEGIES TO HELP EASE THE LOAD
STRATEGY3:StartWiththe“BigRocks.”
Stephen covey discussed this in his book, First Things First, describing an individual’s “big rocks” as those tasks or projects that are
the most critical to do in terms of results desired and goals to meet. Placing your “big rocks” into a container first allows you to fit the
less-important-but-still-vital things (what covey described as the “sand, gravel and water that fits between the spaces”) around the
rocks. Doing so, covey says, ensures that the critical things get done first.
How do you do this yourself? By doing what the staffing industry labels “backfilling:”
• Identify the “big rocks”—the critical tasks that you want to assign to your best people.
• Identify the “sand and gravel”—the smaller “grunt work,” routine maintenance and other low-level tasks that distract—
and detract your top people from focusing on the “big rocks.”
• Determine which of the sand and gravel tasks can be offloaded to contractors or lower-cost administrative support.
• Bring in short-and/or long-term contractors to do the “sand and gravel” work.
• challenge your star players to put more effort into the critical projects.
STRATEGY4:UseStaffAugmentationMoreStrategically.
Basically, this means bringing in outside personnel to augment your current staff, more proactively. For example, by analyzing
your project load, in-house resources, upcoming projects and capacity constraints, you can:
• Eliminate capacity constraints on your current staff by providing just-in-time access to additional technical resources.
• Shorten learning curves. Bringing in contractors with specialized skills allows those projects needing those skills to be
completed—without having to keep someone on payroll for the times those specialty skills are not needed.
• Staff up to meet deadlines.
• Accelerate launches for new projects.
• Reduce the negative impact of system upgrades.
JUST ONE HOUR mORE SPENT wITH YOUR
IT STAFF AUGmENTATION FIRm PROvIDING
THEm wITH SPEcIFIc INFORmATION ABOUT
wHAT DOES AND DOESN’T wORK FOR YOUR
cOmPANY cAN PAY FOR ITSELF EASILY wITH
FASTER FILLS, BETTER HIRES, LESS TURNOvER
AND mORE PRODUcTIvE EmPLOYEES AND
cONTRAcTORS.
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES 8
9. 5 STRATEGIES TO HELP EASE THE LOAD
STRATEGY5:StopGoingItAlone.
Partner—really partner—with the IT staffing firm of your choice. Take just one extra hour up front to confer with the staffing manager to
educate him or her on your company and its needs. This is a simple step that you can take to save significant time down the road. In fact,
it is critical that you dedicate this time to achieve the efficiencies you seek in using a staffing partner. Your two-way conversation with the
staffing manager should cover topics such as:
• Your firm’s culture. what kind of personality best fits at your firm? Do those who enjoy set parameters thrive, or are your
company’s stars more the types who act first and apologize (if necessary) later? Are you willing to hire for attitude rather than skill?
• What have other staffing firms done right? what have they done wrong? For example, are you a financial institution that needs
IT professionals with industry expertise, but your IT staffing firms keep sending you IT professionals with little, if any, financial
industry knowledge?
• Competitive intelligence on salaries. what is the norm for IT salary expectations in your industry? How do the specific duties and
responsibilities of this role add or detract from the salary norm? A good staffing firm will be able to share salary benchmarks for peer
firms in your industry, as well as explain how your specific position may vary from the norm and the resulting implications.
• Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your current team. what skill sets do you already have on your team? At what level?
where does this leave a gap in overall organizational knowledge and performance? Your staffing partner can help you assess the best
mix of capabilities and work styles to increase the productivity of your entire team by the addition of a new member(s).
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES 9
10. cONcLUSION: IT PAYS TO HIRE RIGHT
Sourcing, vetting and hiring IT talent
has never been a greater challenge.
IT managers must overcome financial
constraints, talent shortages, demanding
candidates and, most significantly of
all, a lack of time to hire well.
But hiring right is not just a good idea,
it’s essential to the long-term success
of any IT department or, for that matter,
any company. Information technology
is the core of innovation, efficiency,
business intelligence and long-term
competitive advantage.
considering that top IT professionals can
be 1,000 percent more productive than
their peers, hiring right should be the wE REcOmmEND THE
single most important goal of any
technology manager. FOLLOwING TIPS FOR IT
mANAGERS:
1 learly define and demonstrate to senior management the link between
C
hiring and productivity, efficiency and your company’s bottom line.
2 eengineer your hiring process to improve sourcing and minimize delays.
R
3 ire contractors for lower-level work and put your stars on your
H
critical projects.
4 hink strategically about your staff augmentation efforts.
T
5 ducate your IT staffing partner(s) as to what you really need in IT
E
talent. Give them the information they need—and the mandate—to be
more proactive.
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES 10
11. HOw TO wORK wITH AN IT STAFFING vENDOR
For those who deal with IT staffing Setexpectationsfromtheoutset. Defineyourexpectationsforcandidate
challenges every day, a strong • Define your expectations for vendor orientationandtraining.Whatcould
relationship with a staffing service performance. What are your typical yourstaffingvendor(s)dotohelp
employee requisition lead times? What maximizeproductivity?
that specializes in information
do you expect for response times? • How much and what type of quality
technology talent can be a How do you want the staffing firm to control checks and follow-ups do you
great asset. communicate with you? need or prefer?
• Define quality standards. Provide a clear
Communicateyourneedsclearlyto
This whitepaper touched a bit on (and detailed) list of requirements for every
staffingservicestaff.
partnering with an IT staffing firm. job order, and ask the IT staffing firm not
• Develop a relationship with a recruiter
to under-fill or over-fill positions.
we’d like to offer the following you trust. You’ll save time in ordering
more detailed suggestions here. Beproactiveaboutplanning. and increase the quality of service and
• Develop as accurate a forecast as you can candidates.
for your project staffing needs. Consider • Learn the names of other managers and
your current project load, expected new recruiters in the staffing firm who will
initiatives and your current talent to be able to help you should your main
determine the types of technical skills you contact be unavailable.
will need, the number of people you will • How do you prefer to place orders? Do
need and the likely timing of your needs. you wish to call, e-mail or use an online
• Meet with your preferred staffing order form to submit your needs? How
vendor(s) so that they can be proactive do you want the staffing service to contact
about recruiting. you? When is the best time to do so?
• Provide as much lead time as you can for
DevelopingITstaffingstrategies.
each job requisition.
• Analyze your workflow to look for
TrainyoursupplierofITtalent. opportunities to improve staffing
• Teach your staffing vendors about your efficiency (get your key people working
projects and objectives. Make sure they on the “big rocks”).
understand what you want to accomplish • Evaluate current and potential staffing
and your time and budget constraints. issues, such as turnover, morale and
• Educate staffing vendors about your work other staff problems.
environment. What types of people are most • Create strategies for the recruitment
likely to succeed? What are the personality and training of IT talent under best and
styles of your managers and supervisors? worst case growth plans.
What are they looking for?
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES 11
12. cITATIONS
1 5
* Productivity Decline Adds to Worries “Dwindling resources, hiring freezes, The Truth About Resume Lies. By charles
About Job Market, cNBc.com, August administrative policies, and new state Purdy, Yahoo!HotJobs, April 010: http://
10, 010: http://wwcnbc.com/id/3863 mandates often dictate much of the agenda hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-the_
9614/Productivity_Decline_Adds_To_ for the information technology professional. truth_about_resume_lies-1194
Worries_About_Job_Marketw A feeling of ‘loss of control’ is voiced both by
6
managers and their subordinates. Sometimes, http://www.cio.com/article/618267/IT_
Productivity Decline Suggests Hiring information management specialists joke Spending_Continues_to_Rise
Needed, AP.com, August 11, 010: that the most important skill of their trade is
7
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/ organizational politics.”, Emotional Climate in “with many unemployed IT people today,
index.ssf/2010/08/productivity_falls_ the Informational Technology Organization: one would think that finding a suitable
09_percent.html Crisis or Crossroads? By margaret G. massey candidate has become easier, but it has
and Deborah w. Stedman, http://net.educause not…There are very few [IT candidates]
Productivity and Costs, Third Quarter .edu/ir/library/pdf/CEM9543.pdf who have everything we look for or need.
2010, Preliminary, Bureau of Labor
Statistics, November 4, 010: http:// Challenges of Information Technology “I would say there is a shortage of good
www.bls.gov/news.release/ Management in the 21st Century, Page 7: IT professionals today. By good, I mean
prod2.nr0.htm http://books.google.com/books?id=J1u7Mb highly-skilled, consistent performers who
5 kmWgCdq=information+technology+wo are willing to tackle new applications—
** A 010 Farleigh Dickinson University rker+stresssource=gbs_navlinks_s or new to them.”, Haley IT Staffing
report states that “workers are on the Interviews with Information Technology
brink of a meltdown.” Fairleigh Dickinson How to Stop Making Staffing Mistakes, cIO. Executives, October/November, 010
University reports that 75 percent of com, November 9, 007: http://www.cio.
8
workers in the United States describe com/article/160050/Staffing_How_to_Stop Hudson IT Leadership Series white
their jobs as stressful, and estimates _Making_Hiring_Mistakes Paper: 5 Emerging Trends Affecting
that workplace stress and the related IT Staff in the Recovery
4
physical problems cost American “There really is a critical—and worsening—
employers approximately $00 shortage of IT professionals today. Because of
billion annually. the Baby Boomer drop off effect. It’s becoming
increasingly hard to find a combination of
*** Work Stress—What is It? catalyst.org, good technical skills and communication skills.”,
march 009: http://www.catalyst.org/ Haley IT Staffing Interviews with Information
publication/231/work-stress Technology Executives, October/November,
010
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES 1
13. ABOUT HUDSON IT
Hudson IT provides solutions necessary for IT leaders to deliver business value. Our IT consulting services bring expertise to assess, manage,
develop and maintain your critical initiatives, while our staffing services provide specialized professionals on an as-needed basis, allowing you
to maintain IT service levels with reduced fixed costs. Backed by global recruitment resources, we draw upon our multiple capabilities to design
the best solution for each company’s need. Hudson IT is a part of Hudson (NASDAQ: HHGP) with nearly ,000 professionals serving clients in
more than 0 countries.
Find more “Tips for IT Leaders” in our Resource center online: us.hudson.com/IT | @HudsonIT
HUDSON IT LEADERSHIP SERIES 1