“This is going to be a big year for the technology team” Mrs. Vee Pea proclaimed; “we are going to pushing the envelope and challenging the status quo on what is possible with our release schedule and production this year.” Mr. Manny Jerr was excited to usher in a new era of IT and start building out his team. He had worked with his boss, Mrs. Vee Pea, mapping out their new tech initiatives for months and now they were ready to start building the teams.
Mrs. Vee Pea had been clear that she only wanted best in class when it came to talent, which presented a problem. Historically their organization had been a stodgy place that didn’t always attract the best individuals with an outdated technology stack. Manny was anxious about hitting his deadlines because hiring had been such an issue, many times having to settle for “good” people in the past and now he had to hire only A players.
This left Mr. Manny Jerr with a few choices. He could outsource all the work to a System Integrator, but that would be very expensive and he would have to give up some customization and control. Second, he could rely solely on his Talent Acquisition Department to fill all his needs but not all of them understood technology and in the past that process had been very cumbersome. Third, he could put all his requirements into their internal VMS (Vendor Management System) and the requirements would broadcast to a large group of IT Vendors, but it still took too long to hire and he would have to weed through a large pile of unqualified candidates. Adding another layer of complexity Mr. Manny Jerr had a few first time Managers on his team who had never built a team or hired before.
Watching the clock tick and knowing the deadlines where only getting closer, Manny had to answer the following questions and make a decision.
- How was he going to overcome their “stodgy” brand and attract the right people?
- With negative employment rates for many of his needed skill sets, where was he going to find the right people?
- Could he count on his first time managers to make the right decisions or was he going to have to help them hire?
- A System Integrator seemed like an option but how was he going to sell that to his boss and the business with a limited budget?
- If he chose the VMS it wouldn’t leave any time for his job. How would he balance his day-to-day responsibilities with hiring?
- Was there any other option that he hadn’t considered?
Have you ever felt this way? If so what did you do and how did you balance time, delivery and hiring all at once?