How to fill the gaps in your Project Office
Engaging with recruiters and consultancies?
How to get it right.
Sourcing the talent you need
Our previous articles have looked in detail at getting the foundations right, defining you structure and piecing together the team you have into the right roles. Our final insight looks at how to fill the gaps. Knowing what you need is the first hurdle, finding it and hiring it is the next!
Always consider the lead time on hiring. It may take you much longer to find the right permanent person for the team, than it will to bring in a consultant. As a result, recruitment is where we always start first. Remember that permanent hires are your core people and shorter term resources form your flex. Getting the core people right is essential not just for filling the role, but for the working relationship of the team. This is the main body of your investment in your Project Office and so you should consider this step as if you were investing your own money!
Engaging with a Recruiter
We would always recommend choosing a recruiter carefully, your choice may be driven by whether you are hiring for your core permanent team or for a flex FTC or contractor requirement but regardless of this, you need someone who can be a great representation of your employer brand and really highlight the role and the journey the team are on in the best possible way.
Typically, we focus more on skills and experience for contractor recruitment and cultural and values alignment with permanent roles, with FTC recruitment sitting across the two, depending on the requirement. Whilst this makes sense, it would be short-sighted to build an exceptional core team only to ignore the ‘fit’ when hiring your flex team. You are looking to build a collaborative team so it is important to hire individuals that will be working cohesively towards the same goal.
Invest your time in working with one excellent recruitment agency and you will be rewarded by a true recruitment partnership and outstanding results. There is no benefit in appointing multiple suppliers and encouraging a CV race. It may appear that you are making progress more quickly but ultimately what you need is someone that really understand your requirements and can find the talent that you are looking for, not just the talent that is actively looking on the market.
Once you have selected who to work with, brief them fully on what you need, not just the job description, but all the bits that it misses out! What challenges does the team face? How is the business affected by the changes that you will be delivering? How engaged are the senior leaders with the programme? What potential is there for this person within the business? This is where your recruiter can really bring the role to life and attract the best talent out there, making sure that the candidates you meet with have a deep understanding of what you are looking for, not just in terms of skill set but also the softer skills that you need for them to deliver the role exceptionally. As with every partnership, you get out of it what you invest, and this is certainly the case in the recruitment process, the time you invest in at the early stages will pay dividends.
It is also important to be mindful of timeframes when recruiting. Giving timely feedback on CV’s and interviews really does give a positive representation of the company and it is small things like this that make a difference on the market. It also pays to keep the process as streamlined as possible too, set out what the interview process will be from the beginning so that everyone is aware as the last thing you want to do is to lose great people because the process was unnecessarily long. Ultimately, it is about respecting those who want to work for your business and ensuring they have a positive candidate experience, this will enable you to attract the top talent on the market.
Engaging with a Consultancy
The first question to ask yourself is why do you want consultancy support? What are you going to get from them that you cannot get from a simple relationship with a contractor? That’s a tough question to answer as the line between contractor and consultant is often blurred. Contractors offer consultancy by the very nature of their service and as a result many work as associates of consultancies. IR35 legislation is making it less attractive to engage with contractors, but that’s not to say they will not have a role to play in the future.
The key to answering this question is about your understanding of the issue you have versus your understanding of the resolution. For example, a portfolio budget issue that is due to a poor accounting practice you can fix with a qualified contractor. Think of it as a point and shot activity, there’s my issue and this is what needs to happen to resolve it.
If you have an issue that you cannot single out the resolution, such as you never achieve your project benefits, you should start looking for professional help that has more depth. The real benefit of consultancy is their ability to understand your issue and work with a team of experts to find a resolution. One person isn’t going to reach the expediated answer you need.
The other area is advice. You may not have an issue to resolve, but you have a business strategy that is taking you in a direction you are unsure about. Consultancies pride themselves on offering advisory services to help form your thinking. They spend hours looking at market and business trends making sense of everything that is going on. This is time you can’t afford to invest with a busy day job, so they can be a rich seam of information when you are writing your own strategy papers.
So how do you engage with a consultancy? Easy right? Google your issue or idea, find an expert website, like what you read and pick up the phone…problem solved? Far from it.
Many CIO’s and senior management teams surround themselves with a network of paid advisors. These advisors will be there to offer assistance on aspects of strategy, service and delivery. Usually these relationships have been forged over time and are cemented in trust. This is where you should start your search, as using an existing relationship is going to short cut everything we say next.
If you have to go cold to the market, take the attitude that you are walking into a minefield. Do your research and try to understand if the expertise gap you have matches any of the services on offer. Look for recommendations from your own network and don’t just stick to your industry. Finally, follow a few consultancies on LinkedIn and see what they publish - does their message resonate with you?
Don’t just plump for one consultancy, engage with a few to start with and look for shared values and gauge if there are foundations you can base a relationship. Take your time here, as the Salesperson you meet will be expert in relationship management, but in the end, you will not be working with them. Try to meet the consultant that will be assigned to you and ask about their experience to-date. A key warning sign being when they cannot produce the consultant, or the consultant tells you they are in fact a contractor!
Finally, always look for track record and evidence of delivery. This is easier if the expertise gap is an industry standard one, but not so much if you are looking for a bespoke solution to a specific issue. Just bear in mind that an expert in your issue should come with a solution.
Now the hard work starts!
As tempting as it is to think that once the team are in place you can sit back and relax, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Team building is not just about putting the people together, it is about getting that team effectively through the developmental sequence to perform at the highest level. Tuckman’s Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing are not just nice management terms, they are the milestone moments you will encounter.
With a high-calibre core team in place, it is vital to deliver on career development and training, especially if this was part of your recruitment campaign. Without doubt one of the biggest reasons for leaving an organisation is the lack of opportunity to grow and the lack of personal development.
By engaging with your team and investing in their growth, you will add such longevity to their role with you, in turn giving you more benefit from their growing expertise.
Leading professional teams is challenging at the best of times, but when building your Project Office, you have not only got to organise the team, but also at the same time implement the processes and governance required to manage your IT delivery agenda. This is a continuous process as business and IT strategies change over time, so your team will have to evolve and change with it.
If you would like to find out more about recruitment strategies, we would love to hear from you at nicola@nicolaspoonerconsulting.com