beyond role profiles; successfully meeting it business challenges with sfia

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Andy Andrews, President, Salary.com Europe

Peter Leather, Independent SFIA Accredited Consultant

Beyond Role Profiles

Successfully Meeting

IT Business Challenges with SFIA

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Agenda

Introduction to Salary.com

Overview of SFIA

Why SFIA?

SFIA Beyond Role Profiles

The Role of Technology

Key Factors to Successful Implementation

Review and Conclusions

Q &A

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I have a long legacy in Learning and Development

within the IT sector – from college lecturer and

training consultant to training manager.

I was one of the original founders of InfoBasis Ltd – a

provider of skills management software and the first

accredited software provider for the SFIA framework.

I have a wealth of experience in helping organizations

such as the Ministry of Justice, Visa, Aviva and

Safeway to implement SFIA and other skill

frameworks.

Previously I have worked for Microsoft Learning

Services where I gained my first experience with

implementing skills management programs.

Andy Andrews

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A specialist in developing the capability of Business

Change & IT organisations and developing internal

communities of practice

Over 20 years experience working with major IT,

financial services and professional services

organisations.

I have more than 6 years hands-on experience using

SFIA operationally and strategically

Accredited SFIA Consultant

Leader of the on-line global SFIA User Forum.

Speaker at the SFIA UK Capability Management

conference in 2007

Peter Leather

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Salary.com: What We Do And Who We Are

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Agenda


Overview of SFIA

Why SFIA?





Q &A

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What SFIA looks like

The framework provides a clear model for

describing what ICT practitioners do. It is a

two-dimensional matrix.

People exercise skills at different

levels. SFIA recognises seven levels of

professional skill. The levels range

from 1 at basic entry to 7 at a very

senior level, normally in a large

organisation.

The Skills Framework for the Information Age is owned by The SFIA Foundation: www.SFIA.org.uk.

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What SFIA looks like

1 Follow 2 Assist 3 Apply 4 Enable 5 Ensure 6 Initiate7 Set

strategy

Business Change

Client Interface

Solution

Development &

Implementation

Service

Management

Procurement and

management

support

Strategy &

Architecture

Increasing Levels of autonomy, influence, complexity

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skills in

6

groups

•Each skill defined at up to 7

levels

•Not all levels relevant to each

skill

•Total of 295 skill level definitions

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SFIA Framework Structure

Categories

Proficiency Levels

Sub-category

Skill NameAssessable Levels

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SFIA Framework Structure

Skill

Description

Skill Level

Proficiency Description

Framework Level

Proficiency Description

Text from the Skills Framework for the Information Age quoted by kind permission of The SFIA

Foundation: www.SFIA.org.uk.

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e.g. Project

Management

Process Abilities

e.g. Project Planning &

Control

e.g. Results

orientation

e.g. Java

ActionAction

ActionAction

ActionActivity

e.g. Prepare release plan

Professional Skill

Behavioural Skill

Knowledge

Experience

Have demonstrated

competence by …

Assessing overall competence of Individuals and/or the IT Workforce

SFIA framework

focuses on

Professional skills

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Agenda


Overview of SFIA

Why SFIA?





Q &A

13

Benefits of a Skills Framework

Why use a skills framework in the first place?

• Provides a common language to describe skills in the business

• Helps individuals and the organization to understand what „good‟ looks like

• Enables an agile workforce by using a common reference for skills

• Identifies skills required for career path development

• Rationalizes role profiling for selection and recruitment

• Helps to integrate Talent Management processes

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Benefits of SFIA

• Mature, well established and used worldwide to describe IT skills

• Developed by the IT industry for the IT industry

• Covers entire IT & IT-related professions / end to end IT & Business Change

• Recognized and used by government and professional bodies. Underpins IT

professional accreditation schemes

• Owned and maintained by The SFIA Foundation (BCS, e-skills UK, The IET, IMIS and

itSMF). Vendor neutral and not-for-profit. Facility for user input into regular updates

• Free licensing aside from commercial offerings, regularly updated

• Translated into English, Japanese, Chinese and Spanish. German version due in

2010.

• Supported by accredited consultants and partners

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Agenda


Overview of SFIA

Why SFIA?





Q &A

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Do any of these areas represent a challenge to your IT business?

• Ensuring that your people have the skills to support your IT business strategy

• Successfully delivering your IT projects by assigning people with the right skills to them

• Reducing the cost of expensive contractors by developing and utilizing existing employees

• Retaining employees by providing career paths and development opportunities for all

• Enabling high performance by supporting IT process improvement frameworks such as ITIL

• Reducing the impact of losing IT staff with key skills

• Supporting manager-employee development discussions

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Strategy Development

• Business Plan

• IT & technology plan

Organisation design

Process design

Technology and applications architecture

Role requirements

Skill requirements

•Gap analysis

•Prioritization

•Action planning

OperationalPeople Management

•Skills assessment

•Skills development

•Performance management

•etc

Skills Prioritization

Analyse 3-5 year

outlook

Incorporate

technology

strategy

Prioritize critical

skills for future

business needs

Plan for change

Support for IT Strategy Development, Planning &

Implementation

Maintain

Grow

Transition

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Deliver your IT projects successfully by assigning

people with the right skills to them,

Some Common Resourcing Problems

• Resource limitations constrain both project selection and project delivery

• Dissatisfaction with "depth" of high quality resources

• Complex legacy environment necessitates maintenance of a wide variety of skills

• No common language to facilitate demand and supply planning

• Resourcing decisions based on “who you know” not “what you know”

• Resource requests always urgent – little opportunity to forward plan

• Cost of external resources v time to develop skills

• Projects don‟t want the overhead of developing staff

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Deliver your IT projects successfully by assigning

people with the right skills to them,

Demand

Planning

Workforce

Preparation

Strategic

Planning

Workforce

Planning

Using SFIA

• Skills assessments

• Short listing suitable resources

• A common language for demand & supply

• Prioritizing skill requirements

• Align development of staff and track skills

development

• Improved resourcing processes

• Roles based sourcing strategy

Resource

Selection

Resource

RequestsResource

Management

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● Use skill analysis and skills prioritisation tools (link to strategic and operational plans) to

identify skill areas you need to develop in-house

● Compare cost of external resource with costs and benefits of internal resource

development

● Monitor development of these skills (this stock of skills should increase)

● Monitor use of external resources being used to supply these skills (this stock of skills

should decrease)

● Assess / audit external resource providers to ensure quality levels are being met

● Set competitive rate cards between competing resource suppliers using SFIA as

standard benchmark

More effective use of external resources

Use SFIA skills / levels as

benchmark for target quality

cost of resources

Resource buyers

Use SFIA skills / levels to

demonstrate the quality of

your resources and the

value they bring

Resource providers

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Retain and engage your employees by providing career paths

and development opportunities for all

1. follow

2. assist

3. apply

4. enable

5. ensure / advise

6. initiate, influence

7. set strategy, inspire, mobilise

Solid performers – the vital many

Under performers

Potential to develop new skills / undertake new roles

Pipeline• Pipeline for progression to

more senior roles, applying skills to new environments or focusing on technical specialism.

Career progression

to wider roles

Performance

Role Specialists

Focus on extracting the

value.

Depth of skill

Specialist

VersatilistGeneralist

Source: Gartner

Research

Scope Using SFIA to underpin

graduated career steps and

role types. Clarify the learning,

development and experience

required to move between

career positions.

Design of career paths,

recruitment / assessment

processes for career

progression and talent

management processes to

enable career paths for all -

future leaders, technical

specialists, managers,

generalists

Strategic Intent

Workforce

Supply

Workforce

Demand

Workforce Management

1.Attract

2.Identify

3.Build

4.Buy

5.Keep

6.Lose

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2010 2011 2012

Process Improvement Targets

Support for process improvement frameworks

Process

ToolsPeople

E.g. ITIL, CMMi, CobiT, People CMM

• Defined, repeatable processes go well with a common language for skills & skill levels.

• A big benefit of SFIA is the end to end coverage of IT & Business Change processes.

• CMMI and CobiT have specific process areas which deal with people and people performance.

• ITIL does not but does recognise the importance of developing people.

• The People CMM focuses exclusively on the development of people and the workforce.

Improving capability requires a

mix of process, people and tools.

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Reduce the impact of losing IT staff with key skills and

knowledge.

Source: Adapted from Corporate Leadership

Council

Risk of critical positions

remaining vacant

Vacancy Risk

Risk of underdeveloped

successors

Readiness Risk

Risk of poor assimilation of

IT staff

Transition Risk

Risk of poor deployment of

IT staff against business

goals

Portfolio Risk

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SFIA Beyond Role Profiles (Bersin)

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Why Are Competencies Important? (AberdeenGroup)

37%

36%

31%

30%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

All Organisations

Lack of skills to meet organizational needs

Excessive first year turnover among new hires

Consistency in employee competence

Weak or limited leadership pipeline

Internal challenges to address via assessments

18%

17%

14%

-10%

-12%

8%

2%

7%

0%

0%

-15% -10% -5% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20%

Not Using Assessments

Using Assessments

Employee productivity

Quality of hire

Employee performance

Recruiting costs

Overall turnover

Impact of assessments

in Talent Management

Source: Aberdeen 2009 Study; Assessments in Talent Management

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SFIA Applications

Applications Value Proposition

Recruiting and Selection Match the best candidates to key positions. Reduce unsuccessful hires. Set clear

expectations for new hires

Learning and Development Define most critical areas for development. Allocate training resources based on

strategic objectives. Reduce misguided, inconsistent training

Resources Planning Staff projects, teams and organizations based on critical requirements. Reduce

mismatches, and under and over skilling

Performance Management Set clear standards of “how” work should be completed. Provide a common language

for the performance discussion. Provide foundation for productive development and

feedback through the year

Succession Planning Define expectations for progression. Prepare succession candidates for future roles.

Career Planning and

Development

Provide framework for employee-based career planning that aligns to company

objectives, management input and career aspirations

Organizational Design Create the best current and future job structure

Compensation Use competency ratings to inform base and variable pay decisions

Strategic Planning Define the needed skills to execute on the strategic plan

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Summary of Business Drivers

What are the IT business issues we are looking to address through SFIA?

Are there any changes to our IT strategy that would benefit from implementing SFIA?

Are there any operational risks that would benefit from a SFIA-driven initiative?

What are the reports or applications that we would need to derive to address these

issues?

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Agenda


Overview of SFIA

Why SFIA?





Q &A

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Using SFIA with technology provides a

common platform for Talent

Management initiatives in the

organization:

Career & Succession

Planning

Learning Needs

Analysis

Risk Analysis

Recruitment & Selection

Resource Planning

Compensation

SFIA

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The phases, sequence and content


Analyze Skills

Assign Learning

Set Skill Objectives

Validate Assessments

Assess Skills

Model Organization

Define Role Profiles

Define Skills

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Employee Skill Gap Analysis

How do our team managers know which employees require the greatest

development? And which skills should they target for development?

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Organizational Capability Analysis

What is the capability of the

organization - the strengths

and weaknesses?

How many people have each

skill and what is their level

of mastery?

What are the areas of risk?

Which people have key skills in the

organization? How can we plan for

their potential departure?

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Organizational Skill Gap Analysis

What skill gaps do we have which would prevent us from meeting our business

objectives? How will these impact each function within the organization?

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Subject Matter Expert Identification

How can we find out who does

what in the organization so that

we can put the right people on

the right project?

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Candidate Analysis

How do we find out who is best suited

for each role in the organization?

Or which other roles would better suit

them?

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Skill-Based Learning Needs Analysis

How can we identify what our highest priority learning and development

needs are in order to run the business? What are the highest priorities?

What will it cost to deliver them?

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Learning Plan Analysis

How can we plan skill-based

learning activities and schedule

according to priority?

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Agenda


Overview of SFIA

Why SFIA?





Q &A

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Skills Management in Practice

Some practical suggestions in summary:

• Don‟t forget the principles of Change Management

• Get an Executive sponsor and make sure they are visible

• Define success criteria - clearly link the program to your strategic /operational plans, communicate the results

• Developing skills takes time – set realistic expectations and timeframes

• Identify your stakeholders and get them „on board‟, articulate the benefits

• Make sure employees and managers know what‟s in it for them

• Engage line managers - support them with SFIA and „soft skill‟ training

• Run a „pilot‟ program, learn from it

• Leverage existing skill, role profile content, keep it simple

• Make participation a performance objective, integrate into the review process

• Create a fan base and advertise, advertise, advertise!

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Summary of Implementation Considerations

Sponsor?

Pilot group?

Stakeholders?

Project Manager? Business or HR?

Point of pain? Success criteria?

Pilot duration?

Communications plan?

Manager training?

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Agenda


Overview of SFIA

Why SFIA?





Q &A

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What’s in it for the Organization?

Risk Management:

• Do we have the critical workforce skills to compete today and in the future?

• What knowledge, skills, and abilities are walking out the door when an employee leaves?

Succession Planning:

• What is our bench strength?

Development Planning:

• Are we expending our development resources in the right areas, in the most efficient way?

Organizational Alignment and Communication:

• How do employees know what the company expects of them?

• Are individuals‟ jobs and competencies aligned with corporate objectives, strategies, and goals with

individuals‟ jobs?

Staffing and Recruiting:

• Are we hiring in the right skills at the right levels for the right positions?

• Do we have the talent in-house?

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What’s in it for Managers

• Which skills do I need to be successful in my job?

• How does my job fit in with organizational strategies?

• What responsibilities do I have for?

developing organizational capability and skills

managing staff

getting value from external resource

implementing resource strategy

• How do I develop my staff? Is it consistent with what other managers are doing?

• How can we objectively discuss required job responsibilities and knowledge?

• Does my team have the right skills for the next critical project?

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What’s in it for Individuals?

• How does my job fit in with the organizational strategies?

• Which skills do I need to be successful in my job?

• What are my career opportunities?

• Are my skills visible to other parts of the organization?

• How can we objectively discuss required job responsibilities and knowledge?

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SFIA Benefits Summary

SFIA will help your organization to:

• Execute your business strategy by developing the skills that support your business

objectives

• Stay competitive by developing and retaining an appropriately skilled workforce

• Reduce your costs by identifying „real‟ training needs, reducing contractor spend and

recruitment costs

• Maximize workforce ROI by developing and utilizing employee skills effectively

• Mitigate risk by identifying skills gaps and shortages and reducing the risk of non-compliance

• Develop intellectual capital by developing the capability of the organization

• Retain and engage employees by identifying and facilitating employee development and

improving utilization

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Agenda


Overview of SFIA

Why SFIA?





Q & A

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Questions and Answers

Thank you for your time

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Contact Information

Andy Andrews

[email protected]

Tel: +44 (0) 1235 540 140

http://europe.salary.com

For further information on Salary.com‟s skills management

technology solutions contact:

Peter Leather

[email protected]

Tel: +44 (0) 1423 504453

http://ex-p.co.uk/sfia

For further information on SFIA consulting services and the

SFIA User Forum contact:

mailto:[email protected]




beyond role profiles; successfully meeting it business challenges with sfia

Technology

overview of sfia

benefits of sfia

skills framework

sfia andy andrews

sfia foundation bcs

implementation skills

right skills

online global sfia user