Staffing management and Talent Development
Having the right people at the right time is the cornerstone of delivery success.Ìý We have seenÌý challenges in this area when a large scale is needed, including how to keep ways of working when newbies are onboarded, etc.Ìý
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The Seed and Split model has been proven effective here. Placing the seed consultants(usually the experienced team members who join the team from the beginning) from the existing team into the new team helps knowledge transfer and improves team effectiveness.Ìý
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The graph below shows how to ramp up one team to five teams in this way. Before seed consultants move to the new team, shadowing by replacement members of the old team helps make sure the replacement of the seed role is productive as soon as possible after the seed consultant leaves.Ìý
A sample of ramping up from one team to 5 teams with Seed and Split
An important question here is how to make sure the team capability or experience level won’t be compromised when the new comers especially junior colleagues join the team. One of the practical ways from a staffing perspective is by setting up metrics monitoring the consultants’ average profile, especially the tenure.Ìý We use two metrics in this case. One is average account tenure - which means how long this consultant has worked for this client on average. Another is the overall industry tenure.Ìý
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In most cases, stable metrics are to be expected after ramp-up (rather than the longer the better). Rolling off from the team is understandable as consultants may need to pursue other challenges in their career development, different skill sets and experiences are expected to be brought into the team by new blood, etc.
Site Level Risk Control
There was one case that made this a priority. During COVID-19, one of our delivery sites was put into lockdown based on government policy. Unfortunately, the Business Continuity Plan, including working from home, was still in review and not fully approved by the client security and risk control team. Therefore, the remote team had to stop working for a couple of days till the lockdown was over. This case had limited consequences as it involved a small size team. Ob