Sports analogies can be painful. They are generally delivered with the assumption everybody in the room has a background that relates to the analogy. However, in this case it would be worthy investment for every CIO or IT Director to research the topic because it is simply incredibly applicable – even if sports are not of great interest to you personally.
American sports teams generally build their roster through two methods. Drafting players that have yet to play professionally (rookies) or acquiring free agents (veterans) through contract negotiations. Depending on the sport and the governing body in place the rules behind drafting players that have yet to sign professional contracts or negotiating a contract with a veteran player are varied, but let’s ignore all of that and boil the whole process down to two options:
1. Hire people who can perform now (veterans)
Or
2. Hire people who can perform in the future (rookies).
So, I can already hear the concerns about drafting because every Chief Information Officer needs to deliver results now and drafting rarely drives that outcome. However, do you think the coach of a sports team has a different problem? They have the exact same problem, but they have better answers! These people are doing what we need to learn how to do.
The coach of a successful team has learned how to:
· Balance the mix of veterans and rookies to create synergy and
· Screen rookies to get people who can perform beyond their experience level.
This is not an art, but is a science based on your recruiting process, interviewing process, selection process and benefits/compensation strategy. How much time do you spend looking at these facets of your human resource management plan and how strategic is your approach? Are you hiring to achieve a composite goal or to solve individual problems? Have you acknowledged that trying to hire all veterans is at best going to be an exercise in realizing there isn’t enough elasticity in the workforce to meet your demand and at worst is too expensive? Do you only hire rookies when you consciously or subconsciously have limited interest in the outcome so it is acceptable to take the risk? Are you willing to play great players out of position to create team success when it is more valuable than individual success?
As a CIO you are faced with increasing demand and decreasing resources - it is critical to create an approach that utilizes the best rookies and the best veterans in a manner that raises the bar higher than the competition can, but you won’t stumble on it – you have to engineer it.
So here are some tips:
1. Recruit early. Engage with local universities and community/tech colleges. Start to find the next generation of workers before anyone else can. Be a scout not just a recruiter.
2. Establish a personality and behavior testing program baseline off of your existing team. Make the investment to put candidates through the same testing and try to create complimentary outcomes. Myers-Briggs, Birkman and other tests are very valuable if you take their application and use seriously.
3. Prepare the people on your team for the challenges associated with onboarding rookies and veterans. If the people in place value the additions and understand how to leverage their arrival the results will be accelerated and dependable.
4. Never, ever, ever stop recruiting. Have an internal recruiter or strong relationships with external recruiters that always keep candidates moving in front of the organization.
5. Get to know the veterans well before you get serious about an offer. This is partially covered in the previous point, but the veterans are more likely to be found in settings (conferences, user groups, vendor events) where you can get to know them personally and professionally which is more difficult with rookies.
6. Be aggressive at skill assessment. Workout the candidates and always inspect what you expect from them.
7. Don’t be afraid to create evaluation, reward and benefits plan that are out of the ordinary. The issue isn’t how to give more away; rather, I suggest you be creative to create a gap in perception between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Be creative.
8. Don’t make excuses. I know these things are hard. I know they take money and time. I also know that the companies with the best people produce the best results and no one can afford to sit back and take their chances anymore. Every senior IT leader, CIO, CTO or director needs to get more serious and more committed to their strategic human resource initiatives.
