An article stating the obvious, but a good read

Computerworld today has published some thoughts on the skills shortage in the IT market place. It is an article well worth a read. You can read it here. People hiring technical people are increasingly finding it difficult. I found it interesting that this article points to the more technical skills being the hardest to find.

Part of the reason that the more technical skills are harder to recruit for that hasn’t been mentioned is that those with more mature skill sets see the advantage and capability of contracting. They understand the value of their services and can get more income & flexibility through contracting.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. One area that Professionals on Demand is putting a lot of time and energy into is how we can help companies find and hire and retain these contractors. It is about facing up to the fact that it is happening, and then finding a vehicle that will allow companies to tap into these resources easier.

When does distance matter?

When one of my kids are sick often I will be the one at home with them. I will log into my work machine remotely and start working my day. I am on the phone all day, and on the computer all day. So where does it matter where I am actually located.

Question, is my work adversely affected if I work from home. Answer, not really except when the sick kid is well sick. So should it matter whether I am in New Zealand, Australia or on the other side of the world in the UK? The answer is of course it shouldn’t, however there is this stigma still attached to the idea of coming in to work.

As our world gets ever more complex and technical many technologies have been created to make life easier, more cost effective, and more flexible. Yet many employers still have that fear of letting people set their own hours, or work from home etc.

The fear is based upon a lack of trust. Deep down each employer knows that he or she cannot trust their employees. Why is it that an employer can trust someone if they are at work and can’t at home? I don’t profess to know the answer, what I do know is that several people I know, work from home very successfully. They are happy and the company is happy.

If an employer can get over the trust issue, it doesn’t matter where their people work, and the world becomes a much bigger place.

How flexible are you willing to be?

I have been thinking lately about what attracts the right people to a company. Obviously the skilled staff shortage is being experienced worldwide. The great staff are hard to come by because everyone wants them. Your company just has to be better than everyone else’s if you want them.

I think the answer for companies to attract the kind of people they want is flexibility. What are you willing to do as a company to get the right person in the job. A lot of companies, are inflexible and uncreative and therefore wear the fact that they attract the next teir of skilled staff.

The great employees know they are great, they know their value. As a company you need to press their hot buttons to create and keep interest. Every employee will have hot buttons, it may be money, or time flexibility. Whatever it is, if you can find those hot buttons and then push them the greater the chance that the person you want will be interested.

An example of this was when I recently called into a prospect that I had been talking to for a while. They weren’t able to hold onto a key person because another company was able to provide incentives that better met their needs & desires. It wasn’t that they were a lousy company, but rather the other offer better met the employees needs, desires and ambitions.

Not many employees want to be constantly moving from job to job. They do however want growth, recognition, pay and all other incentives. Provide the right stuff and they will normally be willing to come on board and stay.

Outsourcing & Accountability

I recently posted about the bad service Telecom NZ was providing to its customers. It is my understanding that the standard customer service has for many years been outsourced at Telecom. I now have my home phone up and running. In total it took about 60 minutes all up on the phone (most of which was on hold). I had to call three different times as I just couldn’t wait past 20 minutes for someone to answer the phone.

From this experience I have started to think more about the accountability that outsource providers (or employees & contractors for that matter) have to their customers. To me there are two main aspects an outsource company must focus on in its delivery. Timely response, and excellent delivery of service. This applies to any industry, be it a call centre (such as Telecom’s) or an actual service (web design, cleaning etc).

The simplest example I can think of is the cleaning crew for a business. Most businesses these days outsource the cleaning of their offices to a third party company. You contract them to clean and have it done to a standard that you accept. If you come in after the clean and it is still messy, you will be talking to them. You also expect the cleaners to turn up during the correct time. Just imagine how annoying it would be if you had a vaccum cleaner blaring away in the background while you were trying to work.

If either the level of cleanliness declines, or the cleaning is not done in a timely manner you will look elsewhere for cleaners. It is as simple as that. When it comes to more complex services such as call centres or professional services the same two principles apply.

An outsource company must be held accountable against these two factors. Telecom NZ for example has lost my business. I will be moving to Orcon shortly. I am moving because one of these two factors didn’t exist. The lady that finally helped me was great, she provided a good level of service. However because it wasn’t in a timely manner it wasn’t good enough.

Conversely if the service delivery is bad, it doesn’t matter how quick the company is they will still lose the valuable trust that can be created. Get these two factors right and you will have a happy customer. If you write this accountability into your contracts you will gain even more trust.

Australia trying to poach New Zealand’s IT talent

I have just read this article in computerworld this morning. It is an interesting to see that Australia has the same problems finding good IT talent that New Zealand does.

The thing that the New Zealand IT sector should be worried about is that Australia can offer a much better package than most New Zealand companies can. As it happens I was talking to someone from Canberra on Sunday. When I mentioned I was in IT, she was all ears, wanting to know more about what I did, my skills and history. It was almost like a job interview.

I have said to people for many years the reason New Zealand is facing a shortage in ICT skills is that the skilled people all head over seas. This article adds substance to that thought. It also provides more reason for New Zealand to catch the outsourcing wave and eliminate the pain of the skills shortage.

Professionals on Demand is about outsourcing to the masses

I thought it was time that I talked about us & what we do. We like to call it outsourcing to the masses. Put quite simply we provide additional resource on an ad hoc or scheduled basis for the Web and IT industries. We will branch out to other industries later down the track as well.

So here’s how it works. You (the customer) gets a big contract. Your current staff are not going to be able to complete it on time, or you had to lower your rates substantially to get the contract. We fill the gap. We provide professionals with the skills you require for as long as you require.

Because we aren’t developers or an IT company ourselves there is no conflict. We enhance your offering and help you deliver it on time & more importantly on budget. Because we have access to an international pool of skills we can find someone best suited to you. Not only that but you get the benefit of dealing with a New Zealand company.

We think this provides the best of both worlds for our customers. A highly skilled workforce at your fingertips at excellent rates, with a New Zealand face to communicate with.

Good talent is always on the move

Recently at one of the companies I do contract work for their newest shining star went elsewhere. After several attempts at employing a good helpdesk administrator they hit upon her and she was a star. She had all the skills and personality that hit the spot.

Unfortunately for them, the previous company that she worked for came back to her 8 months later and offered her a better job with better pay. Of course as much as the company I contract to wanted to keep her they just couldn’t compete. So she has left and they are left looking (yet again).

The company she moved back to is a large corporate organisation. They obviously kept tabs on ex-employees, and those people they wanted to keep. And it worked.

Keeping good talent can often be one of the hardest things companies face when they manage to get a talented employee. Everyone wants them. And there is always someone else out there willing to pay them more or offer better conditions.

This is one of the reasons we find outsourcing so good. It isn’t about just finding “that one talented person”. The whole pool of contractors available is talented. You don’t face the “what if they leave” problem because more talented people are available to always fills the gap.

Talent, talent, where for art thou talent?

I was reading an article yesterday about recruitment going online. It was interesting to see that the recruitment agencies are experiencing the same issues that employers face. That is the lack of talent available in the market place. Why is this? Well when an employer finds someone talented, they do all they can to make sure they stay. Then that becomes one less talented person in the market.

A friend of mine still gets job offers sent to him from his recruitment agency even though he has been happily employed now for some 9 months. Why do they still send job offers to him? Simply put it is because he is very very talented. They want to resell him and his skills to another company.

It appears to me that the recruitment industry is working over time to maintain its talent pools. The more talented people they have in their talent pools the more advantage they have.

The agencies keep in touch with the talented people even when they are happily employed because they want access to them as soon as they become available. Or sooner if they can lure them with something more attractive.

Maybe employers should start their own talent pools. Keeping in touch with people they have meet in the market place that have the “Talent” that they require. You may not be able to employ them straight away but just like customers you can generate interest over time till they want to try life with you.

How much would you pay for the same experience?

Here are two people offering contract servicing. Which one would you choose.

THE JOB: Take a web graphical design and build a functional customer managed website. Company is Auckland based.

CONTRACTOR 1:
MSCE qualified, 4 years experience in SQL database design, 6 years as web developer. Based in Wellington, New Zealand
Hourly rate: $80.00 per hour

CONTRACTOR 2:
MSCE qualified, 4 years experience in SQL database design, 6 years as web developer. Based in Manila, Philippines. Has NZ based consultancy for communication
Hourly rate: $25.00 per hour

There is no difference in the skill. Both must work remotely to provide the service. Which one is the better deal? People are still adverse to the idea of global contracting. We make the process so simple.

Imagine access to 1000’s of developers on demand.

What functions could be contracted or outsourced?

I have never actually put pen to paper (or bytes to screen) about what functions in a business could be contracted out. Obviously there are a few functions that need to be kept close to the chest. So here is a list of areas that I think could conceptually at least be outsourced.

IT & Network support

Administration (paperwork)

Accounts (payable, receivable, TAX etc) – most businesses already outsource the accountant portion of this job

Sales (sales skills are very purchasable, I have to wonder slightly on the product knowledge aspect though)

Marketing

Helpdesk support & Call centres (already done by a lot of large companies)

Web and graphic design

Advertising (this is also done already by many organisations)

Office cleaning

Receptionist (with the advent of VoIP there is no reason why the receptionist needs to even be onsite anymore)

Management (I have seen some organisation that contract in management rather than employ)

If I think of any more I will add them later.