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many businesses have relied on out of date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