Norwich Union Life is claiming significant efficiency
improvements in its IT department after adopting an
industry-standard skills framework to reorganise the way it manages
850 IT staff.
The Aviva-owned life insurer is using the Skills Framework for
the Information Age (SFIA) to dispense with line managers, in
favour of a matrix of managers responsible for different aspects of
each IT employee's work and career.
Over the past 12 months the new model has allowed the company to
offer its staff better career planning with clearer objectives, and
also manage performance more effectively, said Paul Briggs, head of
practices and skills at the firm.
"The bottom line for individuals is that it improves their CV by
focusing on professional development. That may seem a strange way
of putting it, but people with improved CVs will want to continue
working for us," he said.
The company, one of the first adopters of the SFIA, said the old
system of line managers responsible for setting pay and career
development, as well as day-to-day tasks, led to inconsistencies in
the way IT staff were managed and developed.
"Because of mergers and acquisitions, we had a lot of
inconsistency in the way we did things. People were focused on
here-and-now delivery rather than looking at future needs. We did
not focus on career paths," he said.
Under the new structure, task managers are responsible for
managing IT staff's day-to-day work.
Norwich Union now uses resource deployment managers to focus on
how to deploy skilled IT professionals most effectively, plus
professional development managers to manage each individual's
training and career development.
The firm is also investing in defining and communicating best
practices in a range of disciplines, including project management,
testing and business operations. It claims the programme has helped
raise standards across the company.
"Each process has an owner, and we have an infrastructure that
drives continuous improvement into that process," said Briggs.
The skills framework helps staff compare their performance with
the ideal benchmark.
"People have conversations with their professional development
managers to understand where they are positioned in relation to the
ideal model. Training or tasks can be assigned to bring them up to
that level," he said.
Norwich Union said that, as well as improving staff retention,
the new structure is making it easier to attract new recruits. "We
run recruitment days and when we start explaining the whole
approach we get a very positive reaction. It has certainly made it
easier to attract people to the organisation."
www.sfia.org.uk
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