Case Study: Implementing SFIA at a global manufacturing organisation

I had the opportunity to work with Peter on developing a SFIA based competency model for Rexam IM organisation. For our global but fairly small IM organisation, developing something both pragmatic and also bench marked to external best practice was key, and Peter’s expertise, insights and support have proved invaluable. Among Peter’s key strengths I would note his ability to listen to the client and understand their needs, and then help design a solution that is fit for purpose. We also benefited from Peter’s meticulous follow up which ensured that things got done well and on time. I highly recommend Peter as someone who is an expert in the field, and is a pleasure to work with.

Tanya Kuznetsova

Organisation Development Manager

Client

£3bn global manufacturing organisation. 55 manufacturing sites in 20 countries.IT function distributed across 3 continents.

 

Driver

Professionalising the IT organisation and implementation of standard global roles in support of a focused global IT organisation.

 

 

  The Challenge

  • Global organisation, previously put off using SFIA because BCS SFIAplus seen as proprietary, closed, expensive and over-engineered.
  • Had to develop pragmatic business focussed solution.
  • Developing a practical IT skills catalogue (using SFIA) to support appraisal and development planning.
  • Upload skills catalogue into SAP and integrate with organisational HR processes

Solution

  • Work collaboratively with HR and IT leadership team.
  • Provided cost effective remote support and stakeholder engagement.
  • Develop process for rapid skills profile production and sign-off by IT leadership team – avoiding value destroying and time consuming cycles of iterations and word smithing of role profile documents
  • I provided expertise, insight and templates to produce high quality deliverables quickly.
  • Engaging with IT managers and leadership team in UK, North and South America.
  • Pragmatic adoption of SFIA and good practice.
  • Communication, education and engagement to explain how to use the SFIA framework, SFIA skills and levels and SFIA generic responsibilities (Autonomy, Influence, Complexity and Business Skills)
  • Development of communications pack and Frequently Asked Questions to aid implementation
  • Tracked all deliverables and decisions to maximise stakeholder confidence in the project

 Results & Benefits

  • Rationalised disparate individual position descriptions into 16 SFIA based roles in 8 IT career families.
  • Introduced flexible, adaptable approach so that role profiles would be independent of operating model, organisation structure and role design thus enabling the organisation to flex and change over time without making role profiles and career paths out of date.
  • Developed guidelines and approach for SFIA  skills based profiles and integration with other organisational frameworks.
  • Consistent skills & competency framework enabled a number of high quality people management processes such as IT talent development, IT career development, recruitment & resourcing.
  • Role desicriptions and SFIA skills mapped for:
    • Application Solutions Development – 1 role
    • Architecture – 3 roles
    • Business Change – 6 roles
    • CIO – 1 role
    • IT Security – 1 role
    • Service & Support – 5 roles
    • Technical Solutions Development – 3 roles
    • Vendor Management – 2 roles