This presentation discusses set of topics related to human resources (HR) who are working in data-centers. A common HR life cycle approach was followed that starts by hiring, developing and/or managing, and ending by transitioning datacenter worker to a new stage that might include rotating to another job within the organization. HR Planning is based on business requirements, nature of technology implemented and available budgets. Some best practices for hiring and managing human resources were discussed including organizing, motivation and risks optimization. The paper includes lots of globally accredited best practices and controls that facilitate operations excellence.

1. Human Resources Management at
Data Center
By
Aqel M. Aqel, OCP, CISA, CSSGB, MBA
Information System Audit And Control Association – Riyadh Chapter
aqel.aqel@gmail.com
10th of Dec 2013
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2. Content
Introduction
A. Planning
Business requirements
Implemented technology
Available budget
B. Hiring
C. Development / Management
a. Organizing
b. Motivation
c. Risk optimization
D. Transitioning
a. Rotating
b. Promoting
c. Releasing
d. Retiring
E. Q & A
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3. Introduction
• Information technology is
– No more a tool for business,
– or even an enabling factor,
– It is becoming highly intermingle with business at
strategic and operational levels.
• Datacenters are becoming more important in
sharpening organization’s competitive
advantage.
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4. Introduction
• Firms are pursuing a path to ensure:
– appropriate levels of IT service delivery,
– maintaining cost efficiency, and
– alignment to business goals,
• decision makers may focus on technology,
equipment, operating processes but less on
human resources.
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5. Introduction
• Increasing demand for computing and
connectivity
• IT consumerization” Trend:
– Blending personal and business use of technology.
– “consumerization is going to be the most
significant trend affecting IT in the next 10
years."
Gartner, 2005
– Example the “take home PC”
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6. Introduction
• Is Technology staff different?
1. Self confidence: controlling high technologies.
2. Self learning capabilities: diversity of parameters in
tech environment.
3. Belonging to professional communities. Less Loyal.
4. Natural since of globalization: IT technology is
independent of nation’s cultures,
5. More ready to accept change: Risk of obsoleteness if
they fail to renew their knowledge and expertise.
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7. HR Phases
A. Planning
Business requirements Implemented technology Available budget
B. Hiring
Collect Resumes Evaluation Criteria Background Check Orientation
C. Development / Management
a. Organizing b. Motivation c. Risk optimization
D. Transitioning
a. Rotating b. Promoting c. Releasing d. Retiring
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8. Planning
• Conduct an assessment for capabilities
needed to operate the datacenter
1-business requirements,
2-implemented technology,
3-available budget.
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9. Planning – Business Requirements
• Datacenter is A service unit responsible for
information custodianship.
– Service catalog, SLA, time to market
• Plan HR expansion parallel with the growing in
the demand for IT services.
• Risks related to IT, business unit’s tolerance,
and possible mitigation plan.
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10. Planning – Business Requirements
• Informational model is a key factor in
designing operating requirements:
– Number of redundant datacenter
– Remote branch connectivity and infrastructure.
• No recommended mix of capabilities could be
easily adopted.
• Seek cost effectiveness while balancing
performance with real business needs.
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11. Planning – Implemented Technology
• Technological directions is supposed to be
identified earlier (COBIT APO02 – manage strategy):
• Operating requirements must be assessed
• Staffing depends on project stages and contracts
sourcing.
• Do Not:
– depend strategically on temporary teams
– depend on immature capabilities while transitioning
between technologies,
– underestimate security issues while trusting people to
work in your datacenter.
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12. Planning – Implemented Technology
• Number of resources needed?
– measuring performance according to defined
processes and tasks
– Actual versus ideal ratio of internal end-users to
technical support employees:
• Mean response for Actual was 136:1
• Mean response for Ideal was 82:1 (close to Gartner
average which was 87:1)
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13. Planning – Implemented Technology
Resources
Periodic Tasks / Processes Projects
Task A Task B Task C … Task n Project 1 Project 2 Project 3 … Project n
Skill 1 Skills
needed
and
Weekly
hours
Skill 2
Skill 3
.
.
.
Skill n
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14. Planning – Available budget
• Minimum IT requirements will lead to the
needed budget
• Available budgets are mostly less than the
dreamed ones!
• Unlimited budget is the worse
• Utilization is a managerial excellence.
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15. Planning – Available Budget
• Staff Salaries should budgeted wisely :
– According to market fair salaries
– relies on accredited salary surveys
– Less / more encounters some risks
– Develop your own ranking scheme that includes :
• Long term employment
• Retention plans,
• Career development,
• Deferred benefits
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16. Hiring
• Capacity building starts by hiring completive
candidates:
– Owns knowledge &
– Positive attitudes
• Streamlined hiring processes will attract
qualified resources
• Establish an attractive work environment in
the datacenter
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17. Hiring
• Collect some resumes
• Hiring skills.
– All datacenter staff should participate.
– Share experience and build best practice.
– Entry level versus highly skilled workers
– Hand Over before joining
– Background check
– Singing NDO
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18. Hiring
– Orientation period
• Introducing business objectives and organization structure,
• explaining key activities
• sharing him current and previous success,
• meeting with some decision makers according
• Detailed skill assessment after hiring supported with
training will reduce risks.
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19. Hiring
• Outsourcing
– Outsource when you add value e.g. performance,
excellence of operation, reduce risks, and optimize
costs.
– spend enough time in writing down good agreement:
• Make sure it will fulfill your objectives,
• Clarify roles and responsibilities before defining penalties
• Include an exit door.
– Monitor performance and watch behaviors
– all security consideration should be implemented.
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20. Hiring
• make candidates understand that:
– You have a career path in mind for them.
– You will invest in their future
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21. Development / Management
• “You manage assets; human must be led”
• Management Part: associate HR with the
assets in order to keep it up and running
• HR is more important than assets
• Will discuss
a. Organizing
b. Motivation
c. Risk optimization
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22. Development / Management
Organizing
• Internal structure inside the datacenter
• IT function positioning in the bigger structure
• Internal organization is tightly coupled with
the external
• Hierarchical versus team approach
– Rigidity versus dynamicity
• Best structure is that best utilize the resources
• Staff capability matrix.
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23. Development / Management
Organizing
• Skills matrix
• The matrix will show the skills needed at any shift
• Will reflect continuous changes in datacenter
– testing new technologies,
– releases upgrading,
– special projects, drills
• Staff change as:
– Learn new skills
– Assigned to new projects
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24. Development / Management
Organizing
• Think about dedicating a person to a task!
• Development is essential as a motivator.
• achievements is a good motivator
• Capability ranking
• Capabilities are of technical and non technical
nature
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25. Development / Management
Organizing
• Capability ranking:
– Facilitates task coordination, and responsibility
assignment.
– Example:
• Do not know.
• Under training
• Capable but under supervision
• Capable
• Capable and can transfer experience
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26. Development / Management
Organizing
• Team building
– Datacenter workers are team-work-ready unless
they been spoiled by corrupted environment.
– leaders and managers should disseminate and
present it as real examples
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27. Development / Management
Organizing
• Relationships
– SLA
– Cost accounting (eliminates abuse)
– Val I-IT Framework
– Tragedy of commons
– Wise financial management positively impact
workers morals and help them enhance their
performance
• Cost optimizing
• Rewarding System
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28. Development / Management
Organizing
• Right sponsorship
– Enough authorities to enforce policies
– Budget allocation
– Team Confidence
– Conflict handling
– Problem solving and escalation
– Grievance System
– Facilitate DRP
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29. Development / Management
Organizing
• Managing Quality
– Embedded in policies and procedures
– defining common roles like operator, network
admin…etc.
– Process realization, documentation, & automation
– Computerized Management System
– Quality cannot be achieved with distorted morals
teams, or unsatisfied worker
– Compliancy rather than commitment
• Quality should be integrated to motivation and
rewarding systems in order to keep it desirable.
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30. Development / Management
Motivation
• human internal feeling matters and affects his
performance.
• Data center workers are knowledge workers.
• Motivators:
– Fair compensation
– Utilization
– Engagement
– Certainty
– Alignment
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31. Development / Management
Motivation - Compensation
• Money is never a motivator, yet lack of money is
an anti-motivator.
• periodic compensation assessment
• Periodic evaluation of worker’s overall role,
performance, and compensation is a healthy
exercise:
– assign him in new position,
– discuss his personal interest and professional career
• Consider non direct financial compensation.
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32. Development / Management
Motivation - Utilization
• People are motivated by applying their abilities to
the fullest.
• ignoring people’s skills is disastrous to knowledge
workers;
– May continue on Job, but will never exceed the role
you set for them.
– Why to scarify workers innovation and commitment!
– Person capacity could be stretched into unbelievable
limits; but workers need trustable leaders at the front.
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33. Development / Management
Motivation - Engagement
• in decision making:
– Choices of how to do work
– Being told how to do it, will only yield mere
compliance.
– No involvement no commitment.
– Let people feel important, and their point of view
matters in decision making process.
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34. Development / Management
Motivation - Certainty
• Persons vary in their tolerance to ambiguity.
• Knowledge workers are higher tolerable
– They are anticipating change and set plans to keep
themselves competent
• To maintain resources motivate keep stable
environment.
– clear roles and responsibilities,
– transparent decision making process,
– manageable demand growing and load balancing.
– Continuous Learning and skills building through knowledge
sharing
• Reasonable level of certainty.
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35. Development / Management
Motivation – Alignment
• Aligning worker’s personal ambitions and
values with organizational needs.
• This will give motivation as worker achieves
organizational goals while he works to achieve
his targets in a wonderful win – win situation.
• Help workers discover and realize their
personal ambitions.
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36. Development / Management
Risk Management
• HR are a Source of Threats
– IT human resources are a great source of threats
as they have an unlimited access to datacenter
resources.
– The nature of work they do implies that we must
carefully trust them.
– Set compensating controls to regulate this trust
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37. Development / Management
Risk Management
• Handling Responsibility
– clearly define authority delegation and
responsibility assignment
– management should know who is in charge of any
given task, at any given time
– acknowledging responsibility should be
established between roles
– Responsibility matrix should be maintained and
updated continuously.
– Ability to establishing evidence will optimize risks
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38. Development / Management
Risk Management
• Business Continuity and disaster recovery
– Right and quick responses should become natural
trait in datacenter staff.
– Continuous training and DRP/BCP drills.
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39. Transitioning
• datacenter may become smaller than the
capabilities that some workers successfully built.
• it is wise to keep him as a faithful soldier within
organization.
• Strategies
– Rotating
– Promoting
– Releasing
– Retiring
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40. Transitioning - Rotating
• HR planning in datacenter includes not only
adding more workers; it should include career
path development for existing resources.
• Common and Wise Yet sometimes risky.
• New Position:
– Should not negatively impact work in datacenter.
– The new position should not conflict with his previous
one,
– Should not Conflicts must be elminated or mitigated.
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41. Transitioning - Promoting
• Smart leaders would make all possible efforts
to retain good workers within their
organizations.
• I found no excuse for top management to
ignore workers’ needs to grow beyond the
premises of the datacenter.
– Establish new business units.
– Profits Sharing programs.
– Granting stocks
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42. Transitioning - Releasing
• Peaceful
– Handshaking programs
• Downsizing,
• Low Performance
• Workers personal Reasons
– adherence to high professional morals and follow
internal HR procedures.
• Non peaceful / Criminal
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43. Transitioning - Releasing
• Non peaceful / Criminal
– Strict actions against worker
– Cease relationship peacefully unless workers
committed a clear crime.
– Depends on the firm policy and management
attitude in such circumstances.
– Strict confidentiality in order to preserve firm’s
reputation
– Top management involvement
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44. Transitioning - Retiring
• Natural exit for workers
• Anticipate resources who about to reach to
natural exit for workers retirement age.
• knowledge and expertise before they leave
• Part of the HR annual planning.
• Assess risks associated with retired resources.
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45. Thank You
Questions & Answers
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