Common-sense metrics about the learning curve for high-turnover, technical positions, particularly in IT, can yield shorter ramp-up time, more efficient staffing policies and decisions - and increased profitability. This paper presents the practical issues, the theory behind a low-cost solution, a straight-forward implementation plan, talking points to justify long-overdue change in staffing practices and true Human Capital accounting
Healthcare Reform Webinar - bracing for Impact - presenting by Ohio Accounting Firm Rea & Associates on March 26, 2013 addressing the pay or play portion of the reform. Key topics addressed include who is a full time employee, caclulating full time equiavalents, penalty for not offering coverage, essential minimum coverage and much more. Learn how the new Obamacare reform will impact your company!
Healthcare Reform Webinar - bracing for Impact - presenting by Ohio Accounting Firm Rea & Associates on March 26, 2013 addressing the pay or play portion of the reform. Key topics addressed include who is a full time employee, caclulating full time equiavalents, penalty for not offering coverage, essential minimum coverage and much more. Learn how the new Obamacare reform will impact your company!
Solved Case Study: Strategy and HR Planning at the CAPITAL HOTELMehreen Shafique
These are the questions that I received in my specialization course. Hope these are helpful for others. I have pasted the questions first. The case study is also included.
Presenting this set of slides with name - Compensation Management Powerpoint Presentation Slides. This complete deck is oriented to make sure you do not lag in your presentations. Our creatively crafted slides come with apt research and planning. This exclusive deck with thirtythree slides is here to help you to strategize, plan, analyse, or segment the topic with clear understanding and apprehension. Utilize ready to use presentation slides on Compensation Management Powerpoint Presentation Slides with all sorts of editable templates, charts and graphs, overviews, analysis templates. It is usable for marking important decisions and covering critical issues. Display and present all possible kinds of underlying nuances, progress factors for an all inclusive presentation for the teams. This presentation deck can be used by all professionals, managers, individuals, internal external teams involved in any company organization.
Crescendus™ Practical Brilliance Series - M&A Integration StepsCrescendus™
Crescendus™ Practical Brilliance Series - M&A Integration Steps
This document provides companies with a practical framework to handle post merger or acquisition integration efforts without being bogged down in process flowcharts, consultant jargons & endless power points!
The following audience will benefit from this document-
Executive Team
Business & Corporate Development
Operations
Product Development
Marketing & Sales
______________________________________
Crescendus™ Contact Information:
www.crescendus.com
This work is aimed at identifying causal factors of attrition & retention and to produce a predictive model that could help to plan reduced attrition and increased retention at management level. This study is triggered due to high attrition scenario in BTO. Key points of this work are
• Attrition & Retention are mutually exclusive, having different set of factors
• A combination Herzberg’s Dual Factor Theory of Motivation, Hackman & Oldham’s Job Characteristic Model and ASA frame work helps best to model the current attrition in the industry.
• There are 8 set of factors which explains attrition and 4 set of factors which explains retention
A combination of Employee Motivation, Employee Satisfaction, Employee Involvement & Life Interest and Work Compatibility ensure prolonged association of an employee to an Organization
Aligning your compensation philosophy with business prioritiesPayScale, Inc.
As an HR leader, you play a key role in your organization's success. It's crucial that you work with your company's executive leaders to develop a compensation strategy that supports company business objectives.
In this free, one hour webinar session, Stacey Carroll, SPHR, MBA will present the basics of leading an organization through the steps to align its compensation philosophy with its mission, and values. This webinar will give you a core understanding of the connection between business and compensation strategy.
Whitepaper: Attorney Performance per Hour Analysis PerformLaw
This whitepaper gives an in-depth look at how law firms show analyze their attorneys performance per hour. These analytics will guide the firm in making informed decisions to increase profitability.
Solved Case Study: Strategy and HR Planning at the CAPITAL HOTELMehreen Shafique
These are the questions that I received in my specialization course. Hope these are helpful for others. I have pasted the questions first. The case study is also included.
Presenting this set of slides with name - Compensation Management Powerpoint Presentation Slides. This complete deck is oriented to make sure you do not lag in your presentations. Our creatively crafted slides come with apt research and planning. This exclusive deck with thirtythree slides is here to help you to strategize, plan, analyse, or segment the topic with clear understanding and apprehension. Utilize ready to use presentation slides on Compensation Management Powerpoint Presentation Slides with all sorts of editable templates, charts and graphs, overviews, analysis templates. It is usable for marking important decisions and covering critical issues. Display and present all possible kinds of underlying nuances, progress factors for an all inclusive presentation for the teams. This presentation deck can be used by all professionals, managers, individuals, internal external teams involved in any company organization.
Crescendus™ Practical Brilliance Series - M&A Integration StepsCrescendus™
Crescendus™ Practical Brilliance Series - M&A Integration Steps
This document provides companies with a practical framework to handle post merger or acquisition integration efforts without being bogged down in process flowcharts, consultant jargons & endless power points!
The following audience will benefit from this document-
Executive Team
Business & Corporate Development
Operations
Product Development
Marketing & Sales
______________________________________
Crescendus™ Contact Information:
www.crescendus.com
This work is aimed at identifying causal factors of attrition & retention and to produce a predictive model that could help to plan reduced attrition and increased retention at management level. This study is triggered due to high attrition scenario in BTO. Key points of this work are
• Attrition & Retention are mutually exclusive, having different set of factors
• A combination Herzberg’s Dual Factor Theory of Motivation, Hackman & Oldham’s Job Characteristic Model and ASA frame work helps best to model the current attrition in the industry.
• There are 8 set of factors which explains attrition and 4 set of factors which explains retention
A combination of Employee Motivation, Employee Satisfaction, Employee Involvement & Life Interest and Work Compatibility ensure prolonged association of an employee to an Organization
Aligning your compensation philosophy with business prioritiesPayScale, Inc.
As an HR leader, you play a key role in your organization's success. It's crucial that you work with your company's executive leaders to develop a compensation strategy that supports company business objectives.
In this free, one hour webinar session, Stacey Carroll, SPHR, MBA will present the basics of leading an organization through the steps to align its compensation philosophy with its mission, and values. This webinar will give you a core understanding of the connection between business and compensation strategy.
Whitepaper: Attorney Performance per Hour Analysis PerformLaw
This whitepaper gives an in-depth look at how law firms show analyze their attorneys performance per hour. These analytics will guide the firm in making informed decisions to increase profitability.
Staffing Decision-Making Using Simulation ModelingAlexander Kolker
The use of Management Engineering methodology for
staffing decision-making.
• Part 1 - Quality and Cost: Outpatient Flu Clinic.
• Part 2 - Quality and Cost : Optimal PACU Nursing
Staffing.
• Summary of Fundamental Management Engineering
For many businesses, attracting, retaining, motivating and rewarding employees are key issues that can be the difference between success and failure. It is also a vital issue for any potential buyer (internal or external) and has a direct impact on business risk, and also value.
As part of our strategic advisory work with clients, we are able to offer a range of solutions to manage these issues and provide easy to implement solutions for business owners to encourage employees to think and act like business owners.
10 HR metrics you should keep at your fingertipsCezanne HR
Whether you are making a shift to evidence-based HR, or just want to make sure you have your finger on the pulse of your business, there are some key metrics that every HR manager needs. Here’s our list of the top ten.
OCTOBER 2013 THE CPA JOURNAL60By David BukovinskyPay.docxhopeaustin33688
OCTOBER 2013 / THE CPA JOURNAL60
By David Bukovinsky
Pay-for-performance (PFP) systems,once the purview of senior execu-tives, are becoming more common
for workers at all levels of organizations.
These systems provide a win-win situation
for organizations and employees.
Organizations want to elicit the greatest
productivity from workers, and PFP sys-
tems reward employees for excellent
results. They focus employee attention on
the goals and targets established by man-
agement; the attainment of these goals
translates into organizational success and
greater remuneration. Organizations that tie
compensation to performance produce bet-
ter financial results than those that do not,
research has shown. In general, the posi-
tive effect increases as more employees are
included and as the proportion of their
salaries determined by performance
increases. Oftentimes, however, programs
do not live up to expectations, and results
can be disappointing or even detrimental.
Deciding What to Measure
For example, consider a real-life
employee who worked in the customer
service call center of a major corpora-
tion. Workers’ performance was measured
based upon the number of calls they
answered each hour. When asked by the
author what this motivated workers to
do, the employee replied, “End the call
with the customer as quickly as possible
so we can get on to the next call,
whether the customer’s problem was
solved or not. If they call back, it just
further improves our performance statis-
tics. Hanging up on them in mid-conver-
sation can actually ‘improve’ our perfor-
mance. If they call back, it just adds to the
number of calls answered that hour.” She
also stated that bonuses were based upon
the number of calls fielded each hour.
In effect, employees were rewarded for
efficiency, not effectiveness—and effi-
ciency came at the expense of good cus-
tomer service. Needless to say, this is not
what management intended; the law of
unintended consequences had been
invoked. A more effective performance
measurement would have considered the
number of issues resolved per hour.
This illustrates several potential, yet com-
mon, problems with performance-based com-
pensation. PFP systems are well intended, but
their design, implementation, and results often
leave much to be desired. Once the dust set-
tles, the heralded system is revealed to be
ineffective or, even worse, detrimental.
Addressing Design Issues
A fundamental mistake that organizations
frequently make is designing a PFP system
in which the measures do not align with
organizational goals. As a result, goal attain-
ment does not produce greater net income,
stock price, or customer satisfaction, as illus-
trated by the previous example. Even if the
desired number of calls per hour were
achieved, it would be unlikely to impact
profitability. One could argue that answer-
ing more calls per hour would increase cus-
tomer satisfaction, resulting in greater sales;
however, the number of calls answered i.
Employee Metrics: 9 Essential Data Points to Track in 2022 LizzyManz
There are ton of metrics you could measure as a People and Talent lead at a fast-growth company. But tracking them all simply isn’t valuable. Instead, you should be economical and focus on a few metrics that can tell you the most about your function, keeping the rest in the background until you need to delve a bit deeper.
Job makes a human life more effective and valuableIshita Kumari
A job is a regular activity performed in exchange for payment. A person usually begins a job by becoming an employee, volunteering, or starting a business. The duration of a job may range from an hour (in the case of odd jobs) to a lifetime (in the case of some judges). The activity that requires a person's mental or physical effort is work (as in "a day's work"). If a person is trained for a certain type of job, they may have a profession. The series of jobs a person holds in their life is their career.
this presentation shows how much the employees replacement costing the organization and how this cost is distributed with few hints about how to decrease the cost of brain drain.
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/
9 Salary Surveys A Snapshot Market data obtained from salary surv.docxsleeperharwell
9 Salary Surveys: A Snapshot Market data obtained from salary surveys create the foundation for a viable compensation strategy. When combined with economic statistics and business strategy, they create the infrastructure of an organization’s salary practices. Just as DNA provides information used to construct, identify, and operate the human body, market data obtained from salary surveys are used to construct and operate organizations’ pay programs. Market data evolve from salary surveys that are compiled and analyzed periodically to determine how well the company pays relative to the market. How the company statistically analyzes, charts, and uses the data is a function of its corporate compensation strategy. Then, pay is delivered to employees through base salary and bonus/commission programs and maintained using salary administration guidelines and other pay delivery systems. Critical to this effort is effective communication of all components of pay to earn the most satisfaction from employees, and, ultimately, high productivity and success for the company. THE BIG PICTURE Where do salary surveys fit in? Why do we use them? An organization has many resources to achieve its goals. Even though these resources include land, material, capital, and people, it is only people who make decisions about and do things with the land, material, capital, and the people. An organization’s goals are accomplished only through people. Hence, the major challenge of any organization is to attract, retain, motivate, and align the types and numbers of people it needs to achieve its goals. This is accomplished through a value exchange—a situation in which the company and the employee give value to the other in exchange for value received to achieve their respective self-interests. This notion can be summarized by the phrase, “Value given for value received.” Figure 9.1 shows some of the items involved in the exchange. FIGURE 9.1 Value exchange pie charts. Many items given by the employee to the employer are not quantitatively measurable, but they are present and are very important to the company. The items from the employer to the employee may differ from one employee to the next with regard to what is of value. Indeed, even the relative size of the pieces differs among employees and individuals during a lifetime. For example, a relatively new employee may value growth opportunities more than an employee near retirement. Likewise, an individual might feel pay is very important today but tomorrow, when a new baby joins the family, benefits become more important. This shows that pay is just one component of the exchange. When an employer decides how much to pay an employee, several factors usually are considered: Business strategy. Internal value of job/skill. Market pay. Individual factors. Experience. Education. Performance. Contribution. Skills. Balance with benefits, stock, work environment, etc. What the company can afford. Compensation philosophy. Desired m.
Getting the best from staffRaymond Jeffords, Marsha Scheidt and .docxhanneloremccaffery
Getting the best from staff
Raymond Jeffords, Marsha Scheidt and Greg M. Thibadoux
Journal of Accountancy. 184.3 (Sept. 1997): p101.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 1997 American Institute of CPA's
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/
Abstract:
Keeping professional staff motivated can be a complex task, so mixed-cost compensation or competency-based pay should be considered. Tying pay to performance can increase productivity. Pay structures should be evaluated to determine if expanded pay ranges or other compensation arrangements would be preferable. Compensation incentives may be less important than certain nonmonetary incentives, including individual recognition or alternative career paths.
Full Text:
Success in any undertaking requires more than ability and resources; it also depends on motivation. Without it, the resources and service capacity of your firm cannot be fully realized. What then can a firm or company do to ensure that employee drive does not wither away and die because of inadequate or inappropriate compensation and promotion practices?
Most important, managers must understand that annual raises and promotion opportunities aren't always enough. Managing the changing needs of professional staff requires individualized attention, specialized incentive programs and compensation plans more closely tied to individual achievement and performance. This article examines what it takes to motivate a professional staff and lists both monetary and nonmonetary methods managers should consider when planning compensation for their employees.
WHAT MOTIVATES PROFESSIONAL STAFF?
Do not expect a standard compensation plan or a firmwide incentive program to have. the same effect on every employee. To produce top performance, compensation plans and incentive programs must be tailored to meet the specific needs of each employee. Employees of different ages, experience and responsibility levels also have varying needs over time. That is, the impact of monetary incentives usually diminishes as employees get older and gain job experience, while nonmonetary incentives, such as challenging assignments, special projects and personal recognition, grow more important. Therefore, managers must not only tailor incentives to specific needs but also consider reevaluating each incentive program to accommodate their employees' needs.
KEEPING YOUR BEST
The most common compensation scheme involves periodic pay raises tied to an employee's performance review. These reviews determine the employee's pay level and rank according to firmwide salary standards and fixed promotion criteria. However, the difference in pay raises given to average and top performers often is negligible. The result may be salary increases that disappoint the firm's most valued employees. Such methods of compensation can actually reduce employee performance and lower morale. For example, in Punished by Rewards (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993), Alfie Kohn said that "not receiving a reward one h ...
Tax saving reimbursements, the way India Inc perceives it.
Services:
Tax Saving Reimbursements
Fuel reimbursement
Rewards & Recognition
Petrol allowance
Contact for More Details...!! +91 8066905995
Mail: support@zeta.in
Website: www.zeta.in
Chapter EighteenManagement Making It WorkChapter OutlineMan.docxchristinemaritza
Chapter Eighteen
Management: Making It Work
Chapter Outline
Managing Labor Costs and Revenues
Managing Labor Costs
Number of Employees (a.k.a.: Staffing Levels or Headcount)
Hours
Benefits
Average Cash Compensation (Fixed and Variable Components)
Budget Controls: Top Down
Budget Controls: Bottom Up
Embedded (Design) Controls
Managing Revenues
Using Compensation to Retain (and Recruit) Top Employees
Managing Pay to Support Strategy and Change
Communication: Managing the Message
Say What? (Or, What to Say?)
Opening the Books
Structuring the Compensation Function and Its Roles
Centralization–Decentralization (and/or Outsourcing)
Ethics: Managing or Manipulating?
Your Turn: Communication by Copier
Still Your Turn: Managing Compensation Costs, Headcount, and Participation/Communication Issues
This chapter is about making it work: ensuring that the right people get the right pay for achieving the right objectives in the right way. The greatest pay system design in the world is useless without competent management. So why bother with a formal system at all? If management is that important, why not simply let every manager pay whatever works best? Such total decentralization of decision making could create a chaotic array of rates. Managers could use pay to motivate behaviors that achieved their own immediate objectives, not necessarily those of the organization. Employees could be treated inconsistently and unfairly.
This was the situation in the United States in the early 1900s. The “contract system” made highly skilled workers managers as well as workers. The employer agreed to provide the “contractor” with floor space, light, power, and the necessary
666
raw or semifinished materials. The contractor hired and paid labor.1 Pay inconsistencies for the same work were common. Some contractors demanded kickbacks from employees’ paychecks; many hired their relatives and friends. Dissatisfaction and grievances were widespread, eventually resulting in legislation that outlawed the arrangement.
Corruption and financial malfeasance were also part of decentralized decision making in the early 1900s. Some see parallels today. To help avoid history repeating itself and to redeem HR (and compensation) vice presidents from the image of unindicted coconspirators, the compensation system should be managed to achieve the objectives in the pay model: efficiency, fairness, and compliance.
Any discussion of managing pay must again raise the basic questions: So what is the impact of the decision or technique? Does it help the organization achieve its objectives? How?
Although many pay management issues have been discussed throughout the book, a few remain to be called out explicitly. These include (1) managing labor costs, (2) managing revenues, (3) communication, and (4) designing the compensation department.
MANAGING LABOR COSTS AND REVENUES
Financial planning is integral to managing compensation. As we noted in Chapter 1, compensation decisions influence organizati ...
Removing Uninteresting Bytes in Software FuzzingAftab Hussain
Imagine a world where software fuzzing, the process of mutating bytes in test seeds to uncover hidden and erroneous program behaviors, becomes faster and more effective. A lot depends on the initial seeds, which can significantly dictate the trajectory of a fuzzing campaign, particularly in terms of how long it takes to uncover interesting behaviour in your code. We introduce DIAR, a technique designed to speedup fuzzing campaigns by pinpointing and eliminating those uninteresting bytes in the seeds. Picture this: instead of wasting valuable resources on meaningless mutations in large, bloated seeds, DIAR removes the unnecessary bytes, streamlining the entire process.
In this work, we equipped AFL, a popular fuzzer, with DIAR and examined two critical Linux libraries -- Libxml's xmllint, a tool for parsing xml documents, and Binutil's readelf, an essential debugging and security analysis command-line tool used to display detailed information about ELF (Executable and Linkable Format). Our preliminary results show that AFL+DIAR does not only discover new paths more quickly but also achieves higher coverage overall. This work thus showcases how starting with lean and optimized seeds can lead to faster, more comprehensive fuzzing campaigns -- and DIAR helps you find such seeds.
- These are slides of the talk given at IEEE International Conference on Software Testing Verification and Validation Workshop, ICSTW 2022.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
zkStudyClub - Reef: Fast Succinct Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge Regex ProofsAlex Pruden
This paper presents Reef, a system for generating publicly verifiable succinct non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs that a committed document matches or does not match a regular expression. We describe applications such as proving the strength of passwords, the provenance of email despite redactions, the validity of oblivious DNS queries, and the existence of mutations in DNA. Reef supports the Perl Compatible Regular Expression syntax, including wildcards, alternation, ranges, capture groups, Kleene star, negations, and lookarounds. Reef introduces a new type of automata, Skipping Alternating Finite Automata (SAFA), that skips irrelevant parts of a document when producing proofs without undermining soundness, and instantiates SAFA with a lookup argument. Our experimental evaluation confirms that Reef can generate proofs for documents with 32M characters; the proofs are small and cheap to verify (under a second).
Paper: https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1886
Climate Impact of Software Testing at Nordic Testing DaysKari Kakkonen
My slides at Nordic Testing Days 6.6.2024
Climate impact / sustainability of software testing discussed on the talk. ICT and testing must carry their part of global responsibility to help with the climat warming. We can minimize the carbon footprint but we can also have a carbon handprint, a positive impact on the climate. Quality characteristics can be added with sustainability, and then measured continuously. Test environments can be used less, and in smaller scale and on demand. Test techniques can be used in optimizing or minimizing number of tests. Test automation can be used to speed up testing.
Welcome to the first live UiPath Community Day Dubai! Join us for this unique occasion to meet our local and global UiPath Community and leaders. You will get a full view of the MEA region's automation landscape and the AI Powered automation technology capabilities of UiPath. Also, hosted by our local partners Marc Ellis, you will enjoy a half-day packed with industry insights and automation peers networking.
📕 Curious on our agenda? Wait no more!
10:00 Welcome note - UiPath Community in Dubai
Lovely Sinha, UiPath Community Chapter Leader, UiPath MVPx3, Hyper-automation Consultant, First Abu Dhabi Bank
10:20 A UiPath cross-region MEA overview
Ashraf El Zarka, VP and Managing Director MEA, UiPath
10:35: Customer Success Journey
Deepthi Deepak, Head of Intelligent Automation CoE, First Abu Dhabi Bank
11:15 The UiPath approach to GenAI with our three principles: improve accuracy, supercharge productivity, and automate more
Boris Krumrey, Global VP, Automation Innovation, UiPath
12:15 To discover how Marc Ellis leverages tech-driven solutions in recruitment and managed services.
Brendan Lingam, Director of Sales and Business Development, Marc Ellis
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Pushing the limits of ePRTC: 100ns holdover for 100 daysAdtran
At WSTS 2024, Alon Stern explored the topic of parametric holdover and explained how recent research findings can be implemented in real-world PNT networks to achieve 100 nanoseconds of accuracy for up to 100 days.
A tale of scale & speed: How the US Navy is enabling software delivery from l...sonjaschweigert1
Rapid and secure feature delivery is a goal across every application team and every branch of the DoD. The Navy’s DevSecOps platform, Party Barge, has achieved:
- Reduction in onboarding time from 5 weeks to 1 day
- Improved developer experience and productivity through actionable findings and reduction of false positives
- Maintenance of superior security standards and inherent policy enforcement with Authorization to Operate (ATO)
Development teams can ship efficiently and ensure applications are cyber ready for Navy Authorizing Officials (AOs). In this webinar, Sigma Defense and Anchore will give attendees a look behind the scenes and demo secure pipeline automation and security artifacts that speed up application ATO and time to production.
We will cover:
- How to remove silos in DevSecOps
- How to build efficient development pipeline roles and component templates
- How to deliver security artifacts that matter for ATO’s (SBOMs, vulnerability reports, and policy evidence)
- How to streamline operations with automated policy checks on container images
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and Sales
Short Term Staffing for the Long Haul
1. SHORT-TERM STAFFING FOR THE LONG HAUL
July, 2014 1
SHORT-TERM STAFFING FOR THE LONG HAUL
TOWARD PRACTICAL HUMAN CAPITAL
DAN SHUMAKER
MBIS, BUSINESS SYSTEMS ANALYST AT CIBER, INC.
DShumaker@ciber.com
ABSTRACT
GAAP say salary is an expense. But some of it may be neither overhead nor revenue-productive. This is particularly true of
technical positions with significant ramp-up times, even for the highly qualified. An estimate of the cost of expensive
learning curves can provide major, positive impacts to business continuity, knowledge retention, fact-based staffing
decisions, and even the bottom line. This paper explains job learning cost estimation, its significant implications and an
implementation.
Keywords: staffing, temporary, staffing theory, contingency, turnover, business continuity, contract, contractor, consultant,
worker training cost, human capital
INTRODUCTION - THE CONTEXT
First, one might say that most staffing is short-term, temporary, that the term permanent job is an oxymoron, especially in the
field of IT. Sure, company cultures span a broad spectrum of turnover rates, so some may have positions held by the same
person for decades, even in IT. But my focus here is on positions that have high turnover and expensive ramp-up investment.
Such positions can carry an ignored but significant financial waste that can be addressed – profitably.
Half of my 30-year IT career has been consumed in (or by) consulting. I’d prefer to invest myself in a solid company as a
long-term employee but corporate staffing policies can actually discourage long-term relationships. I’ve observed that short-
term – contingency – technical staffing carries a high cost to companies that escapes scrutiny, either because businesses
aren’t aware of it, don’t know how to measure it or don’t bother. I label this stealth cost, “The Discarded Job Learning
Curve.” I’ll explain how it can be significant.
THE COST
My clients have paid me – a lot – to learn what I call the job context. That’s the sum of all the “how we do it here” stuff, plus
all about the client’s specific business functions and work flows, as well as how the software and data are structured to
support those functions. This is knowledge I would only know if I’ve held the same position at that company before. They
hire me because I meet the job requirements; but I become a revenue contributor to the project for which I am hired only
after I have learned the job’s technical and business context. In most cases, my managers and coworkers in these technical
positions have agreed that it takes 6 months or more to become fully productive. One of my managers, of Project Managers,
estimated a 9-month learning curve, and we PMs agreed.
My fellow consultants and I know all too well that workforce reductions are a fact of today’s job market. But we have
frequently lamented the seeming disregard for the waste of a company’s investment to train us in the job context. This is an
investment that’s discarded when our contracts have matured or we’re laid off. Many such positions will cycle from one
consultant to another every year or two. Yes, we’d like a justification to keep working after our contracts expire; but it just
doesn’t make sense for the business to ignore that investment when deciding to lay off workers, policy or not, temporary or
not. And if/when those positions are re-filled, the invest-discard cycle repeats.
2. SHORT-TERM STAFFING FOR THE LONG HAUL
July, 2014 2
There are at least three reasons why the job learning investment in workers is not factored into staffing decisions: Generally
Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP), arbitrary contract renewal limitations and the lack of a practical metric for the
financial loss.
THE CONSTRAINTS
The GAAP
The GAAP, as I’ve said, treat salaries as expenses, a cost of generating revenue. They do not measure the salary paid for on-
the-job or formal training differently from salary that actually contributes to revenue. The cost of the job learning curve is
assumed to be insignificant or negligible, and unmeasurable.
The Administration of Contracts and Legal Risk
One common policy prevents the protection of job learning investment: arbitrary limitations on contract renewals. Contracts
vary in term, from 1 to 12 months, and are often renewed, depending on the need. But contracts will generally not be
renewed beyond the company’s limit on the number of consecutive months a consultant can work at the company. These
limits vary by company but the range is typically 12 to 24 months.
A pervasive rationale for contract term limits goes back to a 1998 lawsuit brought by Microsoft contractors. They were
treated like Microsoft employees in every respect except eligibility for stock options, for which they sued – and won. That
caught the attention of the legal department of every other company that employs consultants. Businesses now maintain all
sorts of arbitrary distinctions between employees and consultants, ranging from different ID badges, restrictions from
company social functions or fitness facilities, to scaled-down workplace accommodations, employment only through a 3rd
party staffing agency – and contract renewal limitations. The objective is to make sure consultants remember they aren’t
employees.
But any limitation on contract terms and renewals mandates and inflates turnover that is already high in IT. That, together
with the high cost of training technical employees in the job context, has resulted in inadvertent but significant waste of
business financial resources. But how significant is it?
THE CAPITAL VALUE OF JOB LEARNING
Estimating the Learning Curve Duration
So I contend that accounting treatment and arbitrary contract term limits disregard the cost of job learning and you might
agree in principle. But, to my knowledge, nobody attempts to measure that cost, so it’s easy to ignore. Is there a way to
measure it? Yes.
I’ve already mentioned a variable that is a good starting point: the length of time for a worker to reach full productivity or,
the length of the learning curve. This is easier to measure for some blue collar positions because productivity can be
measured in terms of discrete units of acceptable work per unit of time. Many white collar technical positions however have
learning curves that span months and productivity measurement is very subjective.
Truly objective measurements for the length of a white collar learning curve are not cost effective. The cost to develop and
administer a good, written test of job learning for each position would be prohibitive. And such tests – even if they provide
good measurement – would always be chasing a moving skill set target in a fast-paced corporate setting, especially a
technical one.
But we need not shy away from subjective estimation. Managers routinely award performance-based raises on a similar,
subjective measurement so this isn’t uncharted territory. In accounting, the depreciation of capital assets is, of course, an
estimate. And my experience on all of my contracts has been that managers and workers generally agree on the length of a
position’s learning curve.
3. SHORT-TERM STAFFING FOR THE LONG HAUL
July, 2014 3
A Valid Rationale
Subjective expectations of productivity will obviously vary by position, individual aptitude and prior experience, but work
teams can reach a consensus with their managers about the average duration of the learning curve. But aside from consensus,
what makes it a valid estimate?
There are balancing pressures against over- or underestimating. A low estimate will make it difficult to explain to
management when productivity is lower or of less quality than expected. A high estimate will also raise the eyebrows of
upper management, especially when compared with the industry or internal work groups having similar positions. When
asked to come up with an estimate, managers and workers who understand these implications of their estimates will be
conscientious and realistic. And in the absence of more a precise metric, this estimate is a reasonable one.
A Conceptual Model
Once we have the learning curve duration estimate, we can use a “standard” learning curve formula to plot job learning.
Here’s a conceptual view.
Figure 1: Conceptual Learning Curve Cost Model
We’ll assume that the Salary Expense is constant over the length of the learning curve. And since no worker’s time is 100%
productive toward the primary assignment(s) due to overhead, we should allow that overhead can range from 5 to 20% of
work time (and therefore of salary).
The lower boundary of the overhead margin forms the upper boundary of the learning curve itself. But since job learning
increases (at a decreasing rate) as long as a worker holds a job – we’ll consider, say, 95% job learning as “Fully Productive,”
the target for measuring the cost of the learning curve.
I’ve labeled the shaded area above the curve and below the Full Productivity line, “Contribution to Human Capital,” to
indicate the portion of Salary Expense that pays for job learning. (More on Human Capital later.) The area under the curve
represents the portion of Salary Expense that is actually contributes to revenue. I call this true Salary Expense. The unit of
measure for the Learning Curve Duration could be days, weeks, months, or more conveniently, pay periods.
A Mathematical Model
If we’re going to change the accounting treatment of some salary expenses – and yes, that’s what I’m proposing – we need a
mathematical model with a solid rationale and hard numbers. An exponential curve will do but I’ll let mathematicians
determine if another one would fit better. An exponential function produced the curve below and it follows my intuitive
4. SHORT-TERM STAFFING FOR THE LONG HAUL
July, 2014 4
assessment of job learning. It assumes 5% overhead and that full productivity of 5% below that, or 90% of job learning
potential.
Figure 2: Mathematical Learning Curve Cost Model
Let’s look at the components of this function and discuss how it might be used to model the kind of technical, white collar,
job learning we’ve been discussing.
Here’s the equation:
y = L – e – k t
… where …
L is the upper limit of % productivity that job learning enables a worker to approach,
e is the base of the natural logarithm, approximately 2.718,
t is the time estimate for the length of the learning curve, measured in the number of pay periods (to reach “Full
Productivity,” which we’ll say requires 90% of job context learning),
k is a constant that gauges the initial steepness of the curve (we can derive this), and
Y is the percentage of productivity that we will consider Full Productivity; here, it’s 90%
For our purposes, L will always be 0.95, or 95%, since we’re assuming this as the upper limit of productivity. We’ll measure
t in terms of pay periods, because we want to estimate in that increment how much of a worker’s pay is for job learning and
how much is for productive work. We’ll assume a 6-month learning curve here and that payroll runs every week, so we’ll
allocate a portion of salary for Human Capital for only the first 26 pay periods. (But we’ll also remember that job learning
continues to increase, at a decreasing rate, as long as the worker remains with the company.)
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51
Pay Periods
JobLearning%,akaProductivity
5. SHORT-TERM STAFFING FOR THE LONG HAUL
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We’ll first need to use the values we know (or have set) and solve for k, the steepness constant.
Ln (Y – L x Y)
-1 x t x ln (e)
k =
(The math might be a little unusual for ordinary accounting but once the model is built, it need be revisited only periodically
for possible revision.)
Once we have the value of the curve steepness constant, k, we can determine the height of the learning curve at each pay
period, from the first one ( t = 1) through the one when the employee is deemed fully productive: here, that’s 26. And let’s
assume an annual salary of $80,000. Here are the resulting values.
Table 1: Mathematical Learning Curve Cost Model - Example
Salary Allocation
Pay
Per.
%
Productivity Expense
Human
Capital
Periods to Learning Target 26 (weeks) 1 5.88% 90.51 1,447.95
annual salary 80,000.00 2 15.58% 239.72 1,298.74
period gross 1,538.46 3 24.22% 372.69 1,165.77
maximum productivity 95% 4 31.93% 491.19 1,047.27
Target Learning % 90% 5 38.79% 596.79 941.67
k = 0.115220 6 44.91% 690.90 847.56
e = 2.7182818 7 50.36% 774.77 763.69
e = 2.7182818 8 55.22% 849.51 688.95
e = 2.7182818 9 59.55% 916.12 622.34
10 63.41% 975.48 562.98
11 66.84% 1,028.38 510.09
12 69.91% 1,075.52 462.94
13 72.64% 1,117.53 420.93
14 75.07% 1,154.97 383.49
15 77.24% 1,188.33 350.13
16 79.17% 1,218.06 320.40
17 80.90% 1,244.56 293.90
18 82.43% 1,268.18 270.29
19 83.80% 1,289.22 249.24
20 85.02% 1,307.97 230.49
21 86.10% 1,324.69 213.78
22 87.07% 1,339.58 198.88
23 87.94% 1,352.85 185.61
24 88.70% 1,364.68 173.78
25 89.39% 1,375.22 163.24
26 90.00% 1,384.62 153.85
Totals for Learning Curve 26,032.03 13,967.97
% of Learning Curve Salary ($40,000, over 6 months) 35%
% of 1st Year's Salary 17%
% of 2 Years' Salary 9%
6. SHORT-TERM STAFFING FOR THE LONG HAUL
July, 2014 6
Using this formula, the estimate is that 35% of salary paid a worker to reach Full Productivity is the cost of job learning
(regardless of the learning curve duration). In this case, that’s about $14,000, out of $40,000 paid over the course of the 6-
month learning curve. That money does not generate revenue; it is an investment in future revenue and therefore, I contend,
capital in nature.
Or graphically, the portion of the salary enclosed in the shaded square below is what we’re focusing on. The area in the box
above the curve is 35% of the total area. The curve continues to grow in height because job learning continues to grow,
though at an ever-decreasing rate.
Figure 3: Graphical View of the Learning Curve Cost Model
Every time the contract matures or attrition occurs and the position is re-filled by another worker, the company discards that
investment and pays it again. If the point of an arbitrary contract tenure limitation is to insure the company against a
consultant suit for employee benefits, this is a very high premium for a self-insurance policy.
A Philosophy of Human Capital
My concern about accounting for the investment in people harkens back to a concept that was very popular in the ‘80s, with
ebbs and flows since: Human Capital. The term has regained popularity recently but, from outside HR looking in, the current
motivation seems to be to re-label & rejuvenate the traditional Human Resources functions.
We all adapt terms to refocus each others’ attention, to jar stereotypes. But this use of “Human Capital” (Human Capital
Acquisition / Development / Management, etc.) dilutes the traditional meaning of the word capital, from being an accounting
container of measurable, monetary value to a vague reference to what amounts to a very generic label of the unquantifiable
value of a company’s workforce. We talk these days about relational capital, which we accumulate by helping others so
they’ll want to reciprocate. But there are understandably no metrics for such terms.
Truth be told, I’ve never liked being labeled a resource either, as in Human Resources. It has the connotation of some
humans being used by others to achieve an objective, like chess pieces on a project management Pert Chart board. A resource
is something expended, used up, in the process of building or achieving something. So being called a resource isn’t exactly
motivating.
Learning Curve Salary Allocation
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51
Pay Periods
JobLearningas%ofSalary
7. SHORT-TERM STAFFING FOR THE LONG HAUL
July, 2014 7
If this sounds like I’m whining over what others would deem semantics, I suppose I am. But I’m speaking to the basic need
of rank and file workers to feel significant, not manipulated or mollified. This need can be served legitimately by focusing on
Human Capital investment in the language of the bean counters, and the implications its estimation will have on how we treat
people. And I contend that this change will make a subtle but perceptible, psychological change in how a company views and
treats its workers. No, I don’t have a metric for that yet but I believe it will happen. Thus this philosophical aside has a
purpose here, to argue for policies that value people.
One reason few of us have ever believed the empty mantra, “Our employees are our most valuable asset,” is that the financial
statements don’t say so and profit-motivated staffing decisions for instant bottom-line improvement say otherwise.
Stockholders want their consciences free from the guilt of mistreated, abused workers but beyond that, an over-worked, over-
stressed workforce with high turnover is ignored as an acceptable cost of profit. And that’s because there are no metrics (of
which I’m aware) to compare that quality of workforce and productivity with another. Well, I’m introducing a metric here
that I hope will help. But a little more about Human Capital.
There have been erstwhile attempts to measure the monetary value of workers to the company. Some promoters of Human
Capital statistics ruminated in the ‘80s compulsively over metrics for knowledge, skill and experience, but that problem has
exponential proportions. Highly fluctuating skill set requirements, high turnover as well as frequent, knee-jerk staffing and
layoff decisions make that kind of valuation impossible. If number-crunchers really need to know the value of their
workforce, let them state it simply in terms of the size of the payroll; that’s the job market’s metric. But, as I’ve shown
above, we can estimate the investment in Human Capital: the cost of the learning curve, bundled with hiring and training
costs, and this will make a difference.
HUMAN CAPITAL ACCOUNTING - IMPLEMENTATION
Implementation – Data Collection
We now have a model to calculate a reasonable estimate of the cost of new-hire, on-the-job training. So what? How do we
record human capital investment and use this information?
First, executives, managers and Human Resources will want to approach their auditors and board with this change in the
accounting treatment of salaries. Assuming they get buy-off – OK, maybe a big if, but go with me here – they will need to
time the transition, say, between financial reporting periods or the end and beginning of the financial year. They will also
need to reach a consensus on which positions and levels qualify for this change in accounting treatment. Professional,
technical white-collar positions with the highest and/or mandated turnover, employee and consultant, would be the best
candidates, particularly those with significant learning curves.
Initially, and once a year thereafter, HR will ask supervisors of the targeted positions, and their direct reports, to discuss the
learning curve and estimate its average length. That’s a half-hour meeting, at most. Supervisor estimates could be weighted in
the averaging, if desired, but workers’ opinions are valid, too. Prior year estimates may differ but probably not significantly.
HR would collect estimates for each job class, category and position title, average them across similar departments if desired,
and enter them into the payroll accounting system.
Implementation – Payroll Accounting & Financial Reporting; Staffing Decisions, Procedures and Policies
New and revised HR software will be needed for indicating which positions are targeted for capital investment treatment and
for capturing the learning curve estimates. There will need to be a new Human Capital account, of course. Each payroll cycle,
salary will be posted according to the computation that segregates salary expense from capital investment for those positions.
That dual posting transaction of salary will occur with each payroll cycle until the employee leaves the company, even
though the contribution to capital will increase at a decreasing rate over time. There will also be software revisions to
financial & General Ledger reports, revisions to accounting period transactions, etc. Upon termination, the worker’s
accumulated capital investment will be subtracted from Human Capital and added to Salary Expense, partially offsetting the
reduction in Salary Expense.
Upper management will then need to revisit the policies and procedures for staffing, layoffs and other decisions, based on
this new financial data and it’s implications to true cost effectiveness.
8. SHORT-TERM STAFFING FOR THE LONG HAUL
July, 2014 8
Implications: Costs and Benefits
There will be up-front costs involved to identify positions targeted for Human Capital accounting, to collect and revise the
learning curve duration estimates and to modify payroll accounting software. But the benefits are many times greater, all
other factors being equal.
Staffing Policies The future value of a Human Capital investment should moderate the setting of contract renewal
limitations. Management can determine the optimal, minimum tenure of a new worker, whether
consultant or employee, based on the costs of recruitment, hiring and job learning. Yes, turnover
is high in today’s job market but eliminating or reducing mandated turnover means lower staffing
costs. That’s good news for HR and every department that utilizes consultants. That’s also good
news to staffing firms, which would see more stable income. And that’s good news to workers
who want to stay in a position as long as possible.
Staffing Decisions The net effect of a layoff and attrition will be both a reduction in salary and the associated
reduction of Human Capital investment that becomes an offsetting increase in Salary Expense.
The financial reports will reflect this reality and the tactic of layoffs as an artificial, instant
improvement to the bottom line will be moderated – by the reality of lost capital. This will provide
more continuity of trained workers, improving efficiency and profitability. And management will
have to seek cost reductions elsewhere.
Productivity Metrics Management expectations of the contribution from newly hired workers to revenue production
will be more substantiated, formally established, and be a benchmark for performance reviews.
Training Costs Rather than handling training costs as expenses, often used up at the end of a budget year to
preserve the current allocation, they will be treated as investments in human capital. As such,
management and training developers should feel pressure to increase their diligence in the timing,
quality and placement of training investments so that they generate real returns in work
performance – and reductions in the length of the learning curve.
In addition, management will more readily accept the costs involved in developing new-employee
orientation, structured on-the-job training – and documentation, especially in IT – as investments
in a shorter learning curve. In software development, this perspective may justify a dedicated
technical writer to maintain documentation on business/work flow, data flow and system design.
Technical writers are often the first to go when IT management considers reductions. But solid,
up-to-date system and business process flow documentation is essential in any work group
plagued with high turnover – if we want to shorten the learning curve. And a shorter learning
curve estimate justifies the cost of that documentation.
It is worth noting that this model does not take into account the time spent by trained workers to
transfer job learning to new workers. Accounting policies should require that experienced workers
keep track of this time separately so it can be added to the human capital value of the new
workers. The effect would be an even higher Human Capital investment value - and a lower, true
overall cost of productivity.
Financial Statements Reallocating a portion of salary expense as Human Capital investment reflects the reality that
revenue-productive expenses are actually lower than previously reported and the capital value of
the company is higher. The accounting period in which Human Capital accounting is introduced
will see improved financial reports (all other factors being equal) – because they will reflect a
reality not previously measured – and those reports will contain explanations of this change in
accounting treatment.
9. SHORT-TERM STAFFING FOR THE LONG HAUL
July, 2014 9
Legal Protection Back where we started. The Legal Department may be nervous about modifying or eliminating
contract tenure limitations: “What about protecting the company from lawsuits by consultants who
think they’re employees?” First, I think the legal departments over-reacted big-time to that ’98
lawsuit against Microsoft and to the subsequent court ruling. Go ahead and maintain all those
other arbitrary distinctions between employees and consultants if you have to; but drastically relax
or eliminate the contract renewal limitations and simply require consultants to sign company-
protecting statements upon each contract term renewal. We consultants wouldn’t mind certifying,
“I recognize I am not an employee of and am not treated like an employee of <company-name>. I
hereby revoke any future claims to benefits of employee-hood (unless extended an offer of direct
employment by said company) and promise never to sue said company for employee benefits
while I am a consultant (who is actually an employee of the staffing vendor). This statement is
hereby sealed by my signature and a drop of my blood below.” Something like that should do it.
CONCLUSION
Whether corporate accountants, auditors, board members and executives will recoil from this change in the GAAP status quo
in the accounting treatment of salaries is up to them. But the cost of the learning curve is significant, no matter how you
measure it. Even if this record-keeping doesn’t make it into the accounting process, companies owe it to their owners /
stockholders to consider it seriously, for employees as well as consultants, when considering staffing decisions. And we
consultants wouldn’t mind a little more job security either. Oh, right – another oxymoron.
References and Acknowledgements
Due to his arrogance or forgetfulness of inadvertently appropriating others’ ideas, the author may be in unknown debt to
others’ genius – though he really doesn’t recall this topic ever receiving attention or treatment any place else. He can and
does attribute the general concepts and foundational business content to what he can remember of the instruction his
professors gave him in pursuit of his master’s degree. One topic, however, that required some research was the mathematics
of the learning curve. Learning theory is not his area and neither is what he would term esoteric mathematics.
Several web sites provided a good summary of the issues, problems and solutions of this topic:
Federal Aviation Administration, Guidance, Pricing Handbook, Chapter 18: “The Learning Curve,”
http://fast.faa.gov/pricing/98-30c18.htm
“The Learning Curve or the Experience Curve,” Summary by James R. Martin, Management and Accounting Web,
http://maaw.info/LearningCurveSummary.htm
http://www.business-analysis-made-easy.com/Learning-Curve-Spreadsheet.html
“The Learning Curve for Industry,” by Erik van der Merwe, (The University of Cambridge, Institute for Manufacturing)
http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/csp/summaries/learningcurve.html
However, these publications are all predicated on the study of reducing the length of time needed to complete discrete units
of work. Those models are not applicable to the kind of job learning required for the positions that see the most turnover in
technical positions: programmers, analysts, testers, project managers and the like.
Realizing the need for a curve formula that matches the general, intuitive sense of job learning for technical jobs, the author
received direction from mathematician friends to a basic exponential function and tailored it to meet the context.
__________________
The author holds a Master of Business Information Systems degree from the G. Robinson Mack School of Business at
Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. His 30-year career spans every aspect and role of software development: computer
operations; application and systems programming; systems analysis and design; quality assurance; business, data and process
analysis; training development and delivery; college-level instruction; and project management. For the past 16 years he has
worked as a consultant while living in Colorado with his wife and daughter. But to his shame, he has only been skiing once in
the Rockies – on the bunny slope – on the last day of a season.