The power of the pivot: Exploring resilient workforce development models
Agile, innovative workforce planning to help your company pivot forward
July 10, 2020 | By:TEKsystems
One thing we’re all learning as we endure the widespread impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is the power of the pivot. From your supply chain to your business model, the ability to pivot is proving critical to an organization’s ability to survive—and even thrive—during uncertain times.
The ability to find, retain and build great talent will always be critical to your success. But while the demand to keep pace with technology advancements remains high, organizations must be agile, which starts with prioritizing and optimizing workforce development and planning.
Here are a few stories of how organizations are achieving their goals through agile, strategic workforce planning and talent development.
Learning development programs: Investing in people works
Hiring and onboarding can be expensive. Potentially, 20% of new employees leave within their first 45 days of employment (Harvard Business Review) and it takes 50 days on average before a new hire becomes productive (Aberdeen Group). Bottom line: You need to get it right.
Our client, a large health system, was embarking on a big data transformation, and needed big data talent to maintain, optimize and take the new technology to the next level. We helped them customize a learning program and build out a successful profile of a potential recruit, from education to level of experience, to intrinsic characteristics that would give the best shot at success within their company—motivated, inquisitive and hardworking. Our goal was to gauge technical and behavioral performance for long-term employment with the company.
Over six weeks, our client got to know these candidates—and vice versa. Participants rotated in and out of different teams to get a feel of where the best fit was. All their open big data positions were filled, and one year post training, they held 80% retention in this high-demand skill set. Read the full story.
We similarly helped a healthcare payer looking to accelerate their digital business through a new mobile platform, by fueling and sustaining a local talent pipeline with in-demand, cutting-edge technology skills. Program graduates integrate seamlessly and have improved internal business processes, time-to-market for products and innovation for the company. Our client predicts the new hires will generate over $1.2 million in return on their investment annually. Read the full story.
In-house studios: Scaling capacity while lockstep with strategic vision
All businesses face ebbs and flows in demand. A new product launch, a major technology modernization effort, the holiday shopping season. Keeping your workforce scaled to peak workload capacity at all times isn’t fiscally prudent (or likely, even possible).
We’ve been working with clients to design a more flexible option: an in-house studio. Located on- or off-site (or a hybrid), in-house studios are essentially collaborative, dedicated teams that can scale up and down to meet your need.
Take one of our clients, a technology pioneer, that wanted to run a more efficient creative operation: churning out thousands of creative assets to fuel marketing campaigns and digital content to support billions in annual revenue. They’re a major brand—they needed to maintain the highest standards in design quality. We put together a scalable creative production design studio that solves for the seasonality of marketing campaigns, delivering right-cost, right-fit solutions for studio and asset management. During holidays, it’s not unusual for TEKsystems to scale studio capacity by 35% for several months to meet content demands.
That in-house studio is now a production powerhouse. While we’re optimizing design production management and logistics, their internal creative leadership can stay laser-focused on strategy, innovation and tackling their company’s most valuable business goals. The flexibility gives the freedom they need to make pivot when and where needed. Read the full story.
Technology training and boot camps: Building a robust, diverse talent pipeline
Technology’s continuously evolving. It’s a challenge to find the talent with the skill sets you need, when you need them. As the demands to keep pace with technology advancements heighten, organizations need to be agile and pursue innovative, alternative methods of talent development.
Equity must be a primary consideration as regional and national economies develop. National tech training nonprofit Per Scholas is working to proactively address both issues through free hands-on technology training in underserved markets—empowering people with in-demand skills to bolster the IT workforce.
TEKsystems is partnering with Per Scholas to connect motivated and talented individuals with critical skills in multiple cities across the U.S. Our goal? Help develop strong and diverse talent pipelines across the U.S. in some of the country’s fastest growing tech hubs. Read more about our partnership.