Many IT workers believe employers are increasingly asking for an
unrealistically large number of skills in the people they take on.
In the first of a two part series, employers explain why they feel
they are entitled to expect more from their staff. Roisin Woolnough
reports
Employers have become greedy, or so some IT professionals say.
Several readers have complained to Xtra! that employers are being
too demanding in their selection process, putting out job
specifications that require people with expertise in not just one
or two skills, but six or seven, and years of experience to
boot.
However, Terry Watson, head of IT at Lewisham Hospital, does not
agree that hirers are asking for too much. He says they are simply
being more choosy than they were a couple of years ago and that if
anyone is to blame, it is the IT professionals themselves.
"People are tightening up on their job specifications a bit because
of people who have come along with inflated CVs in the past," he
says. "People tend to view what they have with rose-tinted
spectacles and there have been a lot of people selling themselves
with wonderful credentials. For example, you get people who have
seen Windows 2000 but put down on their CV that they have
experience in it."
Watson says he has hired several people for whom, once they started
work, it soon became apparent they had far less experience than
they had led him to believe. He once took on someone who claimed to
be an experienced certified Novell engineer and on being asked to
perform his first task admitted that he could not do it because he
had passed the exam but did not have any practical
experience.
Two years ago, ITers could just about get away with this kind of
behaviour because companies were desperate for expertise and
skilled people were in short supply. Now there are plenty of ITers
seeking work, it is a buyers' market and employers can afford to
call the shots. Even experienced and highly skilled IT
professionals are finding it hard to get new jobs, so hirers know
that they can get the people they want and need.
"When the market was easy, people would take them on regardless,"
says Watson. "With hindsight and in the current climate, people are
now being as careful as they can about the recruitment
process."
Duncan Mears, director of recruitment at Accenture HR Services and
formerly an IT manager presiding over a team of 400 people, agrees.
"With many contractors chasing a significantly lower number of
positions, managers know they are in a strong negotiating position
and are trying to get as much for their money as they can," he
says. "However, the smart employers are also increasing the years
of experience and number of commercial uses of a product they ask
for, rather than just the number of skills."
Since UK industry, and the IT industry in particular, started
suffering a financial downturn, many IT departments have been pared
down to an absolute minimum. Redundancies and recruitment freezes
have been widespread, making it very hard for IT managers to buy in
new skills when they need them, either on a temporary or permanent
basis. When they do get any recruitment initiatives signed off, the
pressure is on for the people they hire to be exactly right for the
job and fulfil as many requirements as possible.
"Line managers have reduced budgets and are therefore trying to
combine technical roles. They are hiring one contractor to fill
what might have previously been two roles," says Mears.
When a manager knows the team needs an extra three or four people
to run operations properly but they can only afford one new
recruit, who can blame them for asking as much of that one
individual as they can?
Added to this, most IT jobs require more than just technical
knowledge these days. Employers want people who have business
experience, who understand how their daily work fits in with the
overall business. Unless they are looking to fill a junior vacancy,
this means they will want someone with several years' experience
and a proven track record of delivering IT that meets business
needs.
Jobs that are advertised now generate a much higher number of
applications than during the boom times, meaning that managers and
human resources departments find themselves inundated with CVs and
phone calls. Watson's approach is to try to dissuade the no-hopers
from applying in the first place by spelling out exactly what
skills he needs. "From the outset, what you try to do is to be as
clear about the kind of person you want as you can be because you
need to keep the tide at bay," he says.
What usually happens, particularly in larger companies, is that the
IT manager draws up their wish list of what skills they need and
the kind of person they want. That is passed on to the human
resources staff, who interpret the requirements and polish up the
specification. That specification is often then sent on to an
agency, which will also interpret and modify it.
Having gone through all these channels, there is plenty of scope
for the specification to have been misinterpreted and altered along
the way. But the real problem, according to Jane Akshar, chairman
of the Professional Contractors Group, is that agency and human
resources staff rarely understand IT and its different skill
sets.
"They often are not technically aware and don't know what they are
talking about," she says. "Often neither the HR department or the
agency know what those skills mean."
In order to ensure that the end result makes sense and is what the
IT manager wants, Akshar says it is imperative that they create
watertight specifications in the first place. "Employers need to
give very good specifications," she says. "Otherwise it does not
give HR and the agency much of a chance to get it right. What
project managers should be saying is 'this skill is a must-have,
these skills would be nice to have and they should have exposure to
this'." If it is feasible, the IT manager should ask to see the
finished specification to give it the final okay.
Watson says that if he were looking to take on a new project
manager, for example, he would make it clear that the primary
requirement was for someone with project management experience. "I
would focus on that as the main skill area and perhaps look at some
of the technical stuff needed as well," he says. "If I was looking
for a network manager, I might also be looking for familiarity with
Novell, networking development and NT."
Like Akshar, Watson thinks it is important to establish what skills
are absolutely necessary and what are added value.
Next week: ITers' views on the recruitment process