Unilever has adopted anIT career frameworkto help managers
and employees understand IT skills and capabilities within the
company.
The firm, which owns brands such as Hellman's, Knorr and
Domestos, hopes the framework will help it to exploit IT more
effectively by making it clear what skills are available.
The intranet-based framework was created using a best practice
model from the British Computer Society. The company used
SFIAplus, which contains the
Skills Framework for the
Information Age model, to make it clear what IT roles were
needed and the development necessary to fulfil these roles.
Work on the career framework started in 2006, when a
cross-regional team identified 10 "role families" from the 78
skills held in SFIAplus. Role profiles were then created for each
of the role families and aligned to a future IT function.
The functions were created using browser-based skills manager
software from the BCS.
Employees can now access the profiles and compare their own IT
skills to those required for either potential or current roles.
They can then enrol on to a relevant development programme to reach
the required skills level as well as gaining appropriate external
accreditation.
Daryl Beck, director of Unilever's IT academy, said, "It is all
about enabling Unilever to gain competitive advantage through IT.
For the members of the IT team it is about having the right
qualifications, being professional, and enabling the business to
move forward."
He added that the changes were part of a business change at
Unilever. "Over the past two years we have been putting in a new IT
model, and this has enabled that new group to understand what was
expected of them."
The challenge, he said, was to convince employees of the
benefits. "It is not just a sheet of profiles, it is a change
programme. People do not like change, and the biggest challenge is
convincing people this is what they should be using.
"We have had to spend a huge amount of time this year talking to
people about the benefits of the framework and new skills."