what next for recruitment in a digitally exploding world
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WHERE NEXT FOR IT RECRUITMENT IN A DIGITALLY EXPLODING WORLD?
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INTRODUCTION
So IT remains firmly embedded within every
business, critical to success, and also to
failure if it is managed in the wrong way. The
value of getting IT right within a business is
now huge, there are countless dependencies,
with IT being involved in many major business
decisions and investments.
So CIOs and their teams face a challenging
future, teams are no longer focused
solely on operations and yet there is not
enough capacity to maximise new digital
opportunities.
On average, CIOs report that their enterprises
realise only 43% of technology’s business
potential*(*Gartner. Hunting and Harvesting in
a Digital World 2013 CIO survey.)
That number must improve if companies are
to realise value from IT in a digital world.
In order to tackle this, CIO’s need to take
a focus on strategy, funding and skills.
However, from all of these areas, if the
right skills aren’t in place and performing
effectively, it will be impossible for any
CIO to deliver on strategy and generate
the appropriate return on investment in
technology.
It is the view of Hudson that a new approach
needs to be adopted to enable employers to
define, recruit and grow the IT talent that is
needed to take any business forward in this
unique competitive environment.
To understand the current position, over July
and August 2013, we surveyed over 100
HR and IT directors and managers across
the UK, from both the private and public
sector. The survey led to a wide spread
consensus that recruiting within the IT
space has typically been difficult due to a
mix of requirements spanning technical and
professional skill that is often misunderstood
outside of the IT environment. In addition
many businesses have relied on out of date
role specifications that onto technical skills
are then bolted.
There is a clear opportunity for a common
recruitment process and language to help
both IT and HR to ensure that assessment
and testing goes beyond pure technical
ability.
According to Ron XXX, XXXX, SFIA “there is
a clear opportunity for a common recruitment
process and language to help both IT and
HR to ensure that assessment and testing
goes beyond pure technical ability”
Businesses are becoming more and more digitally focused. Enterprise wide trends such as big data, cloud computing, social media and mobility are creating opportunities for organisations to focus on their competitive advantage on a very different playing field to one that we saw only two to three years ago.
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3D IT SKILLSASSESMENTApplying science to the art of IT recruitment with Hudson’s unique assessment approachAs IT becomes more complex there is a growing need for employers to clearly define, recruit and grow skilled resources.
Hudson’s 3D approach assesses candidate’s professional skills (most basically described as ‘the ability to do the job’), technical knowledge and cultural fit to reduce the risk of making a bad hire.
Hudson 3D can increase the speed to hire and reduce employers’ reliance on costly searches and the use of contractors and interims by ensuring that all candidates fit the requirements set out by the client during the initial consultation.
Hudson’s 3D approach uses SFIA’s logical two-dimensional skills framework defined by the area of work on one axis and the level of responsibility on the other. It has been proven as an effective methodology and has gained industry wide and global recognition by many including the founding members BCS, IET, IMIS, and itSMF. Hudson has been an accredited SFIA partner since 2006. The Hudson 3D approach benefits your business by assessing all aspects of the required candidate’s skills capability when hiring into your IT Department.
Our 3D approach
Technical Knowledge TeckChek provides web-based technical testing products which provide exact details on candidate knowledge levels. TeckChek has a wide range of assessment packages for all disciplines within IT which enables us to effectively mea-sure the candidate’s technical knowledge.
Behavioural Skills and Cultural FitThe Hudson 5 + 1 Competency Model® is an industry leading human resource solution developed after ex-tensive research of our client’s competency frameworks worldwide. Using carefully selected competency profiles within the model, we can create a selection strategy that sources the right person for the positions you need to fill.
Professional Skills We assess candidates against the SFIA matrix. The SFIA platform is commonly used within IT functions to help assess, develop and retain staff around key components of the role most basically described as ‘doing the job’. The skills framework contains the definitions of 96 professional skills organised into six categories: Strategy and architecture, business change, solution development and implementation, service management, procurement and management support and client interface. Each skill has a name, a code, an overall definition, and definitions of up to seven of the levels at which the skill might be exhibited. This allows us to benchmark the role requirements and asses each candidate’s abilities against the precise requirements of the role.
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Close to half of the population (46%) that we surveyed felt that the ‘time to hire’ for IT roles is longer than for other types of roles within the business, with a further 10% not aware of the time taken to bring on board these individuals.
And when we delved into this further it
transpires that close to 40% of IT hires take
between 4-6 months to bring on board, with
another 8% pushing 9 months.
When we look at industry trends and
averages this is clearly above what is
expected and clearly has many implications.
What happens to the excess workload
through the recruitment period, once the
incumbent has departed? If this is a new
role what is the risk of funding being cut
if the process looks like it is just taking
too long, and funds need to be diverted
elsewhere? How much time investment
does this demand from hiring managers and
HR teams? All in all, what is this costing the
business?
TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE
Given these facts around ‘time to hire’, we asked our respondents whether they measured the cost of hire for IT staff. 45% state that this isn’t something that is currently measured, and 15% will do so for some roles, which are no doubt the more strategic, higher investment roles.
Reassuringly the remainder of respondents
do indeed measure the cost per hire for IT
staff.
But what is the cost impact of resourcing
workloads through the recruitment period as
we mentioned earlier. Unfortunately it seems
that a reliance on contract staff comes into
play in these situations with close to half of
those questioned (46%) currently having to
rely on contract staff, or have been in this
situation in the past.
If a business were to hire a technical
architect for 6 months on a contract to
cover a gap, this is likely to mean an
increase of up to 30% in cost for that role
without potential knowledge transfer or
intellectual data loss.
So how can the impact on time and cost that
is clearly apparent in IT hiring be mitigated?
MONEY FOR NOTHING?
The RSPB, one of Europe’s largest wildlife
conservation organisations, was seeking
to appoint a Head of Information Systems
to play a leading role in bringing about
organisational and technological change at
a time when the RSPB starts to implement
their recently completed corporate strategy.
The candidate would hold the key to the
technological and process opportunities that
can make or break the RSPB strategy.
THE RESULTThe attraction methodology, candidate
management campaign and the gathering of
quality MI resulted in a successful outcome
for the RSPB.
X 3000 online views of the job advert
X 201 applications in total
X 71 returned application packs (35.3%)
X 15 tested and evaluated – Long list
X 6 invited to interview
X 3 were scored as potential hires. The best candidate was offered and has accepted
CASE STUDY: ROYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS (RSPB)
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Through our survey we sought to understand the current techniques in play across IT and HR teams when hiring in for IT roles, and given the intricacies of such roles, is the approach any different to how other roles may be recruited for?
90% of HR roles that we surveyed stated
that there are specific individuals aligned to
the business’s IT groups to enable a deeper
understanding of requirements needed for
the team. However the view of half of this
group is that when assessing skills for IT
roles the same approach can be used for
IT as with other areas, only 36% felt that
something specific is needed when hiring
within IT teams.
This feels somewhat at conflict with the
earlier views that time to hire for these areas
is often much longer than other areas of the
business.
When asked, a sizeable number of IT hiring
managers (63%) felt that despite the good
intentions of HR, they very much have to
lead on recruitment in their area providing
the knowledge required to enable successful
hires.
So what is it that can be improved with
closer working of IT and HR to help reduce
the risks around hiring for IT roles?
We asked our respondents some questions around how the use of a common IT language, and a clear view of professional skills required for IT roles would help all parties in the recruitment challenge.
When asked about assessment of candidates
it became clear that our respondents are in
agreement that a view of an individual based
on just a CV check and technical skills is
simply not enough. Measurement around
professional skills related to the role are
thought to be essential by 71% of those
asked. We see professional skills as those
skills required to actually ‘do the job’.
71% of our respondents agree that having
a common IT language, particularly around
professional skills would lead to more
effective use of resources, lower project risk,
appropriate development for IT teams and
therefore a reduced exposure to cost risk.
When asked, a sizeable number of IT hiring
managers (63%) felt that despite the good
intentions of HR, they very much have to
lead on recruitment in their area providing
the knowledge required to enable successful
hires.
A huge 78% went on to state that this
common skills language would give far greater
objectivity around salary banding for IT staff
for both current and prospect employees,
which no doubt will further enhance the
recruitment process and the time taken to
agree remuneration packages in the hiring
process.
IT hiring managers told us that currently
over half of them (55%) provide a common
language and structure to HR, while they
believe that their HR counterparts own their
own such matrix to help with recruitment. This
is clearly not a common language and can no
doubt hinder hiring processes and decisions.
JACK OF ALL TRADES
A COMMON LANGUAGE FOR ALL
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office were
looking to appoint a Live Services Delivery
Manager with responsibility for services
across the supplier base, ensuring a working
operational governance and managing 80%
of the annual budget of £50M.
THE RESULTHudson was able to run the campaign
effectively and safely; and the proficiency
within the Hudson IT team meant that the
candidates were offered and measured
based on their knowledge, behaviours
and professional skills. This in-depth
expertise resulted in an extremely high-
calibre shortlist from which the successful
candidate was duly appointed.
CASE STUDY: THE FOREIGN COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
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Aware of the current gap in the recruitment cycle for IT roles, Hudson have been working with clients to develop a new approach whereby we look further than the CV and technical check when assessing candidates.
We know that hiring managers enjoy
the reassurance of having a recruitment
partner work alongside them, but we also
know given the responses to this survey
that it is of critical importance that such a
relationship addresses the key issues here
of speed, cost and the desire to ‘get it right
first time’.
Hudson’s 3D approach assesses candidate’s
professional skills (most basically described
as ‘the ability to do the job’), technical
knowledge and cultural fit to reduce the risk
of making a bad hire.
Hudson’s 3D approach uses Skills
Framework for Information Age (SFIA)
logical two-dimensional skills framework
defined by the area of work on one axis and
the level of responsibility on the other. It has
been proven as an effective methodology
and has gained industry- wide recognition
including acknowledgement from e-skills,
BCS, IET, IMIS, and itSMF.
BRIDGING THE GAP
CONTACTSUK.HUDSON.COM HUDSON.COM
Sarah Greensmith
Managing Director – IT
E: sarah.greensmith@hudson.com
T: 0207 187 6167
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