Ron McLarenOperations Manager, The SFIA Foundation

Agenda

Introduction What is SFIA How it is used Users’ experiences How does it relate to EQF Summary

IN 20 MINUTES – MUST GO QUICKLYBUT SPEAK SLOWLY !Festina lente

Who is Ron McLaren

ICL/Fujitsu Services Set up and led a Technical Professional

Communitycreated professional frameworkfor 13,000 technical staff in 25 countries

16 professional profilesnot Job Descriptions “what I do”but Professional Profiles “what I am”

Fundamental change across the companydevelopment and deployment of staff

Invited to help define SFIA

SFIA

Created by the IT industry for the IT industry

Contributors: EDS, IBM , Microsoft , Oracle, Fujitsu, Aviva, and many others

Built by professional managers with real experience of skills management, not by theoreticians

Non-profit organisation (no Government funding)

Council of 30 users and service providersMAKING THE ORGANISATION WORK BETTER

SFIA today (Version 4) Used by thousands of organisations

in over 100 countries Accredited Partners & Consultants

big consultancies (PA, Deloitte, IBM)recruitment, salary survey services,hundreds of trained consultants

Adopted by professional bodies, IFIP, ITIL/itSMF Imitated by ECF Updated every three years – users participate Available in English, Japanese, Chinese,

SpanishGerman and Italian scheduled for 2010

Skills defined by experienced managers

1 86• • • • • • • • •

describes 86 professional skills in 6 categories, across those levels

What is SFIA

follow

assist

apply

enable

ensure/advise

initiate/influence

set strategy, inspire, mobilise 77

66

55

44

33

22

11

Levels that really work

SFIA defines 7 levels

d

d

d

Professional skills

Behavioural skills

Knowledge

Qualifications

Experience

exampleBusiness analysis

example:UML

example:Analytical

Context

Professionalprofile

The Capability Management Cycle

We don’t have the right skillsI don’t get interesting work

We don’t know our overall capabilityWe are compartmentalised, working differently

People are in silos

Do I get any training?How do we develop people?Do they learn useful things?

I don’t agree with my manager’s assessmentHow do you get promoted around here?

How does our pay compare with other organisations?

Wrong people at interview

Our best people leaveWhy?

and some typical problems

EXIT

Know, plan,

manage

Acquire

Deploy

Assess

Develop

Reward

Organisations use SFIA to make these processes work better

Operate in 100 countries174 000 employeesTurnover €40 billionBusiness model:

Business Partnering, Innovation, Services, Architecture & planning

Skills development focussed on business need

Standard Roles & ProfilesAligned to Industry Best Practice (SFIA)External Accreditation

New skills definedBusiness Partnering/Relationship ManagementStrategic Vendor ManagementPortfolio Management

Key to aligning IT with the business

RESULTS

UK Government IT Profession

“Central Govt spends £16 billion a year on ITHuge improvement if people used more effectively

Decided to base IT Profession on SFIA , becauseEstablished, well known and open standardNo cost to employersSupported by the SFIA Foundation which is not for profitSimplicity and broad scope meet Government’s needs for a framework that could be used in any Government organisation, however large or small.Provides all public sector IT organisations with a common language to describe the skills and attributes required of IT professionals”

Quote for this Conference from the Cabinet Office ...

All Government Departments

Departments develop a consistent approach to identifying skills and skills gaps

Role profiling; design of organisation and teams Recruitment, both internal and external – job

advertisements conform to and use SFIA levels and descriptors

Performance management and identification Talent management and workforce planning Sharing of people, ideas and best practice within

and between organisations right across the wider public sector

Targetted trainingNow widely used on Local Government:London Borough of Camden saving £2 million/year

430 million e-mails every year 2000 every working minute

200 million phone calls each year 6 million people use the web site every

monthPeak – 50,000 concurrent users395,000 tax assessments in one day

They collect money – £435 billion 1300 IT Staff in >20 locations + 2000

contractors

Standard Roles defined and assessed with SFIA Staff assessed against roles (on-line system)

Results Better control of management – must use approved Role ProfilesTraining plans – focussed on business needObjective assessments – more objective, agreedRecruitment – faster and betterFuture skills needs – accurately identifiedSFIA Established as part of their management system

European Central Bank

Competence framework based on SFIA86 skills cover ECB’s needs

Use in appraisal, development, training plans

Skills focus – managers invest more time Business strategy is skills-aware

skills impact of strategy is clearclear targets for skills

Basis for talent management Training plans = business need

Colt TelecomA leading European provider of business communications

13-country 25,000 km network metropolitan networks in 34 major European citieswith direct fibre connections

420 permanent IT staff Wanted to improve development & motivation

career developmentclearer roles and responsibilities

Roles and development plans aligned with SFIA

Performance reviews every 6 months High-potential development programmeManagers trained to use SFIA Skills correctly aligned across countries Careers and expectations – staff satisfaction Reduced resource costs Skills aligned to functional goals SFIA helped identify missing roles Provides basis for criteria-based interviewing

Procurement

Professional

Profiles

Employer

JobDescriptio

ns

Methods

Process roles

Professional development The influence of SFIA

Recruit

Educate

Student IT Professional

Train

TrainingOrganisat

ion

Qualify

Professional

Body

P R O F E S S I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T

SFIA & EQF look similarbut measure different things

SFIA & EQF Levels 1-3 – similar

knowledge at the most advanced frontier of a field of work or study and at the interface between fields

the most advanced and specialised skills and techniques ... required to solve critical problems in research and/or innovation and to extend and redefine existing knowledge or professional practice

“Highly educated – has at least a Master’s degree, can make very complex decisions”

SFIA Level 7“Can be CIO (Chief Information Officer)”

demonstrate substantial authority, innovation, autonomy, scholarly and professional integrity and sustained commitment to the development of new ideas or processes at the forefront of work or study contextsincluding research

EQF Level 8:

Professional skills

Behavioural skills

Knowledge

Qualifications

Experience

EQF

SFIA and EQF

A tool for management

A tool for educationInformation for managers

www.sfia.org.ukwww.sfia.cl

The right skilled peoplein the right placeat the right time

Job DescriptionsMany people (91), many (but only 7 on this slide) job descriptions

Benefits manager (8)

Business consultant (12)

Systems acceptance (7)

Requirements analyst (13)

Business unit liaison (8)

Information advisor (22)

Information specialist (21)

Confusion !New Job descriptions every month

Costly bureaucracy to evaluate“We still don’t know our capability”

person specification:“what skills and knowledge are needed”

Professional Profiles

Business consultant (12)

Benefits manager (8)

Requirements analyst (13)

Information specialist (21)

Business unit liaison (8)

Systems acceptance (7)

Information advisor (22)

Job description says: “This job needs a BA3 with experience of ...”

Defining a category of capability, not a job.We now know we have ...20 BA1s, 28 BA2s and 43 BA3s

One professional profile, summarised at three levels

Business analyst

3 Levels:

BA1 - Business consultant

BA2 - Business analyst

BA3 - Information analyst

Used forResource planningOrganisationRecruitmentPay policies ...

91 people with related skills7 job descriptions

Six categoriesSix categories

Development

Business change

Strategy & planning

Ancillary skills

Service provision

Procurement & management support

and 20 subcategories

This is really the last slide

www.sfia.org.ukwww.sfia.cl