Building project teams for transformation programmes: Can the recruitment market be disrupted and why is a shake up a good idea?
By Simon Wise
I know from experience on both sides of the table that recruiting for any role can be a challenging process. The employer wondering if they will make the right judgement call on someone after just a few meetings, and the candidate wondering if they are making the right move. Each with very little insight to go on.
The resourcing process is particularly challenging when recruiting for technical project teams. In most cases they need to be stood up rapidly and often multiple roles at once. The time pressure increases the likelihood of risky judgement calls and hastily selected candidates.
A typical recruitment process – the use of recruitment agencies to pass over CV’s – does very little to alleviate this challenge. For businesses embarking on large, complex, and agile technology transformation programmes speed and accuracy is key. And, whilst eliminating the need to sift through hundreds of CVs from a job advert is welcome, in most cases that’s where the support stops. The typical outsourced recruitment model can leave hiring managers feeling alone from the first round onwards.
So, imagine a scenario where you know that the two shortlisted candidates presented to you can both do the job, and do it well. Imagine if all the upfront conversations and screening aspects are done for you so all you had to do was pick the person you felt great about. And imagine if the qualifying, testing, and end-to-end recruitment process was tailored just for you.
I’ve personally found during my career as a digital transformation leader that finding good people can be hard, particularly when trying to find a good cultural fit and technical skills. Having a rigorous process where individuals can be tested objectively for the ‘how they do things’ as much as the ‘what they do’ is critical. Having recruited myself for many years I’ve learnt the importance of making sure candidates have undergone a bespoke, and deep level of assessment so I am confident they have the right technical and cultural fit.
And another, often overlooked, aspect of the team resourcing is the onboarding and performance management. In many cases contractors are expected to ‘self-onboard’ and their performance management can be left unmanaged as they are not permanent. This can lead to several problems down the line, not least that project leads may not get the best value and commitment from their teams.
In recognising these challenges, we’ve developed an innovative way of resourcing project teams on behalf of our clients. We manage the end-to-end recruitment so that when a CV hits the hiring managers desk the candidate has already been through all the hoops needed to ensure they can do a great job.
By using a tailored recruitment, testing, and validating process our clients simply choose the individual they like the most! We manage all the onboarding and ongoing performance management of project teams to ensure they add as much value to a client’s business as fast as possible. What’s more, we ensure the performance management layer is solid because ensuring your project teams are, not only are the right fit, but also deliver long term value to your business through the best ongoing guidance possible.
For more information or to have a chat please do contact us at enquiries@karumbaconsulting.com.
Comments