Recruit and Retain IT Professionals Kevin Tibbs – Director, Assess Management Ltd (validateskills.com) Gary Fay - Associate Director, Hudson IT

A common language

Existing route

Hudson 5+1 Model

Tech Screening CV Evaluation

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Professional skills

Knowledge

Behavioural skills

Experience, qualifications

Case study: THE FCO – GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND The FCO had been to market three times previously to fill this business critical post without success - Engaged with Hudson and we worked with them to try and understand the issues – what was the ‘missing link’ ? - We suggested an approach where we would re-scope the job specification and lift out the key professional skills. The FCO already understood what the technical and behavioural qualities needed to be – but not what the candidate would be doing – what did the ideal candidate look like ? - Using the SFIA framework, we broke the role down into 4 key professional skills, all of which could be tested against using the assessment tool – until this point no other supplier had helped them challenge the job specification and requirement. - Rather than simply searching for a ‘Service Delivery Manager’ with a strong ITIL understanding from the Public Sector. We evaluated the post, understood the level of candidate required and analysed the core components of the required skills.

The Hudson approach

Review Role and identify 3 to 4 critical

SFIA skills and overall SFIA level of role

Validate SFIA mapping and process with

key stakeholders

Develop Assessment

Profile for Role

Undertake objective

assessment against critical

SFIA skills

Review and report on most

appropriate candidates

Candidate Documentation

D7 Live Services Delivery Manager

SFIA assessment case study

Unique approach to this assignment – the difference

What made the approach to this particular assignment unique and different to a traditional retained project was:

1. In Collaboration with the client, we determined the critical professional skills associated

with the D7 Live Services Delivery Manager role using the Skills Framework for the Information Age.

2. Enhance the selection data gathered from interview, behavioural and technical assessments with an objective assessment of candidates professional competencies against the criteria established.

3. Provide feedback as to which candidates demonstrated the highest level of relevant professional competence for the role.

FCO D7 Live Services Delivery Manager Determining Level and Critical SFIA Skills

Application Form

Candidate Brief

SFIA Skill Description

Overall Level of Responsibility

Level 6 – Initiate/Influence

SLMO-6 Service Level Management

The planning, implementation, control, review and audit of service provision, to meet customer business requirements. This includes negotiation, implementation and monitoring of service level agreements, and the on-going management of operational facilities to provide the agreed levels of service, seeking continually and proactively to improve service delivery.

SEAC-6 Service Acceptance

The achievement of formal confirmation that acceptance criteria have been met, and that the service provider is ready to operate the new service when it has been deployed. (Acceptance criteria are used to ensure that a service meets the defined requirements, including functionality, operational support and quality requirements).

RLMT-6 Stakeholder Relationship Management

During the design, management and implementation of business change and throughout the service lifecycle, the analysis and coordination of relationships with and between stakeholders, taking account of the services they use.

RELM-6 Release and Deployment

The management of the processes, systems and functions to package, build, test and deploy changes and updates (which are bounded as “releases”) into a live environment, establishing or continuing the specified Service, to enable controlled and effective handover to Operations and the user community.

The methodology

• Hudson went to market and ran a traditional search and selection campaign with advertising, headhunting, networks, database search etc.

• We developed an application form which asked competency based questions around the key professional skills.

• 1st level assessment evaluated the general candidates back ground however even at this stage we started to measure the candidates answers to the competency based questions in the application form which followed the SFIA Professional skill codes.

• Hudson Interviewed each candidate

• Personality profiling

• Long list produced based on three critical areas:

- Professional Skills – Application pack / competency based Interview with Hudson

- Personality Profiling – Hudson tool

- Technical – qualifications etc.

All long listed candidates were then invited to take the SFIA ONLINE ASSESMENT TEST

The assessment product

• Certified SFIA Consultants

• Experience in commercial and academic learning

• Exam writing professionals

• Experience of and involvement with professional bodies

• Membership of BCS, Learning Performance Institute…

• Project management & HR expertise

• Authors BCS CITP Members

Our team

Build the assessment

Questions

Candidate sits the assessment

Presentation to insert name here

16

Test example

Operating Level of Responsibility

• The analysis of the candidate documentation indicated that the appropriate SFIA level of responsibility for the D7 Live Services Delivery Manager role was SFIA Level 6.

• In considering the level of responsibility that the candidates are operating at, the analysis suggests that only five candidates (B, H, I, J and L) are operating at 25% of the expected level.

• The current role holder (candidate X) achieved 50% which suggests that for this role further assessment of the current operating level of autonomy, influence, complexity and business may need to be undertaken by interview.

Candidate Level of Responsibility

Weighted skills

• In considering the candidates results, a weighting to the chosen SFIA codes should be applied. In this instance, SMLO-6 is the closest professional competency descriptor to the role description provided and carries the greatest weight.

• Second most significant is SEAC-6 which combined with SMLO-6 represents 75% of the core professional competencies required by the role.

• The supporting skills of RLMT-6 and RELM-6 represent 25% of the overall assessment weighting.

Weighted SFIA Competencies SMLO-6 45% Most critical to role SEAC-6 30% Critical to role RLMT-6 15% Important RELM-6 10% Requirement

45%

30%

15%

10%

SLMO-6 SEAC-6 RLMT-6 RELM-6

Candidate results

With the appropriate weighting and level adjustments applied (giving weighted results SMLO-W, SEAC-W, RLMT-W and RELM-W) the following observations can be made:

• Candidates K, H and G have similar professional competency assessment results to the current role holder.

• Candidate L exceeds in SMLO-6.

• Candidate D exceeds in SEAC-6 but is weak on SMLO-6 which is the core skill.

• Candidates did not score well overall on RLMT-6 and RELM-6 and with their lower weighting these two skills are not providing any significant new evidence.

Weighted candidate results

Final candidate recommendation

• The candidates demonstrating the closest fit to the professional competency requirements for the role are candidates G, H, K and L with candidates G, K and L being the most likely to succeed in the role.

• Candidates C, D, E, I and J should also be in consideration as they have assessed well against critical professional competencies.

• Candidate F has not demonstrated sufficient ability on the professional skills assessment and would need to be assessed further before progressing.

Overall candidate evaluation

A 54%B 50%C 63%D 59%E 68%F 32%G 86%H 77%I 68%J 72%K 86%L 90%

Hudson Assessment Today Complete solution

Hudson 5+1 Model

Tech Screening CV Evaluation

Validateskills

Professional skills

Knowledge

Behavioural skills

Experience, qualifications

Summing up

Job Vs SFIA Codes

Build Assessment

Assessment Taken

Results Analysis

Candidate Placement

Evaluate Requirements