The need to be fast, agile, and ahead of the curve servicing customers is a business imperative, not just a nice idea.

This tipping point has created an abundance of work for Technology and Business teams across Australia and around the globe. Enterprises find themselves with large backlogs of work that need to be delivered now, not next year.  If your company didn’t jump early into this digital race, how can you accelerate to catch up? We hear daily within our Advisory Practice that for Australian Tier 1 and Tier 2 Financial Services organisations that this challenge isn’t over.

In a previous article, written in  December 2021, titled  “The crisis isn’t COVID anymore”, we discussed the capacity crisis in Australia. Where organisations were trying to address their resource gaps through a traditional approach such as recruiters, networking, LinkedIn and other unsustainable nor scalable methods.

Now, 7 months later, let’s explore why the “traditional” methods used for acquiring capability and capacity won’t work and why large organisations, such as Banks, Utilities, and Health organisations need to modernise the way they gain access to talent in the market.

You need to modernise how you are gaining access to capability and capacity!

The lack of available talent, and low mobility means traditional channels are no longer working well. The lead time to find and mobilise the right talent is increasing. If you combine this with rapidly changing business demands, this means the way in which teams and resources are mobilised needs to change to deliver on key outcomes.  Organisations need to have a resourcing strategy that outlines the right mix of in-source / out-sourcing of capability.  Talent acquisition needs to be a strategic priority, not a transactional activity.  Flexibility is gained by relying on Partners when capability is hard to find in the market.

Take this real example from a current large Financial Services Customer:

One large financial organisation has been looking for 800 resources or 80-90 squads since my article was written.

That is approximately 3000 days of effort that has been lost due to not addressing the way they currently get access to resources to deliver.

This scenario does not include the days of effort that the hiring Manager has spent looking for candidates and interviewing candidates. Frequently finding that by the time an offer is made, the candidate has taken a role elsewhere for more money.

Let’s explore another equally challenging real example:

Another Financial Services organisation that we work with, identified the need for 8 Project Co-ordinators for a large program.

The roles were advertised through traditional channels including the organisation’s website, LinkedIn and internal company portal looking for people to refer within their network.

The Program that required the resources was a large-scale program with committed regulatory dates and has no tolerance for any project delays.

The Program Director (a very expensive resource) interviewed multiples of candidates over a 3-week period.  And each time they went to offer, the candidates had taken a role elsewhere driven by:

• Capable skilled resources are in high demand
• Skilled resources are making at least 30% more this year as compared to two years ago
• Large organisations taking too long to make resourcing decisions and losing out on the best in the market

The cost of delayed decision making in this example is high with real dollars wasted, precious time lost for the Program, the Director and sponsoring executives, all resulting in delays to the Program due to loss of effort days.

Over 3 decades in senior positions in banking, we have never seen a resource market as challenging, which is the catalyst for this article.  Prompting hiring managers across the Financial Services market, with a specific focus on large-scale organisations, on how you can benefit by doing things differently.

We have hit a trigger point now recognising that resource and talent acquisition has permanently changed.

• Traditional recruitment channels are constrained
• The best resources already working
• Traditional approaches are way too slow to mobilise resources quickly
• With long lead times, resources disappear

The loyalties of talented resources are already set with other customers and competitors.

If organisations don’t manage this holistically, an exorbitant amount of time will be wasted in sourcing and recruiting individuals in ones and twos trying to recruit for 200 people through LinkedIn. The cost is not only in “wasted” time; there is a delay to programs potentially delivering additional revenue to the business, or delays to taking cost out.  An additional consideration is the cost of not delivering against regulatory requirements on time – this is something that Banks cannot afford to contemplate.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 Financial Services Organisations need to consider alternative approaches to resolve talent acquisition, because this challenge is not going to go away in the near to medium-term.

Now, having described the “market challenge”, what are some potential solutions to this problem?

Organisations need to work smarter to acquire the right talent and resource capacity to deliver their business imperatives.

Everything As a Service:

Recognise the evolution of service models. Products have strongly evolved to “As a Service”, pay for what you need on demand, and recognise, this applies to talent and resource acquisition. The application of more innovative resource acquisition on an “As A Service” bringing teams, talent, and methods, that single resources or resources do not bring to deliver your business outcomes.

Fixed, Flex, and Surge:

Talent and resource management should recognise dynamic demand, which rapidly changes. Managers should establish fixed baseline capacity, anticipate flexing up and down, and enable surge capacity when unexpected events

Accelerate Talent Acquisition – Managers can accelerate team formation by acquiring teams that already have established ways of working (Squad as a Service) from trusted partners

“Talent As a Service – Outsource the problem leveraging “As a Service Model” providing the right resources on-demand, as opposed to hiring full-time people that may not be required once the outcome has been delivered

Partners

DB Results has experience in all the above.

• We specialise in re-engineering processes to deliver faster decision making resulting in the delivery of business outcomes faster.
• We provide established squads to supplement projects from mobilisation through to Operationalisation.

Squads as a Service eliminates the need to hire individual resources.  DB Results will provide capacity and capability immediately, removing the need for multiple interviews over weeks of elapsed time.

For example, imagine the need to hire 8 resources making up 1 squad.

This would typically take 8-12 weeks, assuming 2-3 interviews, with two people in each interview results in 28 to 42 hours of effort, not including the “recruiters” time.

Extrapolate that across an organisation recruiting hundreds of resources to digitise their business? This results in a vast effort invested, that does not guarantee candidates will still be available when you come to offer the job.

Just imagine how much time you would have to focus on your business’ goals.  Compared to scrolling through LinkedIn or Seek, trying to find a delivery team waiting to come and work for you.

Just imagine!