Data and staffing software: a requirement for performance?

In a previous article, we talked about the 7 major challenges for Professional Services Organizations. Here, we will start from these 7 challenges and show how the data and staffing software can help to meet them in part. This article is the result of discussions that took place within the Performance Club. This club brings together decision-makers and managers from PSO, consulting firms and engineering offices.

Staff dataification: what are we talking about?

Definition

The core business of intellectual services companies is the planning and allocation of profiles (internal but also freelancers). Whether some companies talk about “staffing” or “resource management”, the challenge lies in the rapid and relevant matching of a portfolio of skills with a portfolio of client needs.

Furthermore, “dataification” is a neologism derived from the English term “datafication”. Datafication is the process of transforming objects, subjects and practices into digital data. For companies, the final objective is the real-time monitoring of key information of a business, as well as the analysis of predictive and forecasting information.

The benefits of data through staffing software

In a previous article, we mentioned the 7 major challenges for Professional Services Organizations:

• Optimizing profitability in a difficult context

• Recruit and retain more volatile consultants and engineers

• Capitalize on its network of freelancers and partners

• Stand out in the face of increased competition

• To face a diversification of expertises

• … and also to a faster obsolescence of skills

• Staffing shorter and shorter projects

Let’s see now how the dataification of staffing allows to meet these challenges in part.

Effectively eliminate profitability leaks and maximize results

Employees who are sometimes too often on the bench, assignments that are not always in line with their desires, difficulties in evolving and upgrading their skills… Several factors are at the origin of a high turnover. Today, it is difficult to retain employees. This is all the more problematic as replacing them is not an easy task.

Employee retention is therefore crucial. The dataification of the resource management allows to list a certain number of information on the profiles of the company, and in particular their wishes of evolution.

Skills to be developed, wishes for missions or mobility… Managers will be able to capitalize on this information to make staffing decisions that are more interesting for their employees. Is it worth remembering that motivation is a prerequisite for loyalty?

Respond more effectively to customer needs

Professional Services Organizations, consulting firms, design and engineering offices are evolving in a very competitive market. Beyond the historical players, freelance platforms, intermediation companies but also new companies that are created reinforce the competition. The competition is even wider, since companies have switched to telecommuting mode with the covid-19 crisis. Indeed, many consulting and service missions can now be carried out remotely. For the same mission, a customer can call upon consultants based in the four corners of France or even internationally.

Faced with tough competition, it is necessary to respond even more quickly to customer needs. It is therefore essential to have instant access to its entire ecosystem of skills. And what’s more, to an up-to-date ecosystem! The challenge for companies providing intellectual services is to have centralized and automatically updated information on the skills and availability of each employee. It is this rapid access to reliable information that allows them to find the right profile or to build relevant multidisciplinary teams in record time.

Mapping expertise and skills in real time

Between new standards, new frameworks and other software or hardware, it is difficult to keep up with the latest developments if you have to update a skills map “by hand”. Traditional tools (such as Excel) do not allow you to keep up with the current pace of market evolution.

Moreover, when you are looking for a skill, you are sometimes in the dark. For example, if a manager needs to find a good internal Javascript developer, we will probably type “Javascript” to identify the right profile.

But what happens if no results are found? We usually conclude that a recruitment is necessary. And yet! A good node, react or meteor developer is also a good Javascript developer.

Being able to identify transversal skills is therefore crucial. But when it comes to dealing with large volumes of constantly changing skills, traditional tools no longer do the trick.

The dataification of resource management allows for the dynamic mapping of all of the company’s skills. In other words, this mapping must be built in such a way as to highlight cross-functional skills.

Follow the evolution of skills

Every day there are new innovations. Skills are therefore constantly evolving. Employees must train more and more regularly to stay up to date.

Having a dynamic cartography, which is automatically updated according to the experiences of employees and freelancers, is becoming essential. This way, managers know exactly which skills are available for future projects. They also identify the skills that are missing to meet customer needs. Thus, they can plan relevant recruitment and/or training programs.

Staffing better and faster

The last challenge concerns the staffing of projects that are getting shorter and shorter. Shorter projects require more frequent and faster staffing. It is therefore necessary to anticipate as much as possible the return of its collaborators’ missions in order to staff future projects more quickly. It is also necessary to be able to identify the right profiles more quickly.

In both cases, managers need access to centralized and updated information in real time on, at a minimum, the skills, availability and assignments of employees and freelancers.