Ron McLaren Operations Manager, The SFIA Foundation

Agenda  Introduction  What is SFIA  How it is used  Users’ experiences  How does it relate to EQF  Summary IN 20 MINUTES – MUST GO QUICKLY BUT SPEAK SLOWLY ! Festina lente

Who is Ron McLaren  ICL/Fujitsu Services  Set up and led a Technical Professional Community created professional framework for 13,000 technical staff in 25 countries  16 professional profiles not Job Descriptions “what I do” but Professional Profiles “what I am”  Fundamental change across the company development and deployment of staff  Invited to help define SFIA

SFIA  Created by the IT industry for the IT industry  Contributors: EDS, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Fujitsu, Aviva, and many others  Built by professional managers with real experience of skills management, not by theoreticians  Non-profit organisation (no Government funding)  Council of 30 users and service providers MAKING THE ORGANISATION WORK BETTER

SFIA today (Version 4)  Used by thousands of organisations in over 100 countries  Accredited Partners & Consultants big consultancies (PA, Deloitte, IBM) recruitment, salary survey services, hundreds of trained consultants  Adopted by professional bodies, IFIP, ITIL/itSMF  Imitated by ECF  Updated every three years – users participate  Available in English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish German and Italian scheduled for 2010

Skills defined by experienced managers 186 describes 86 professional skills in 6 categories, across those levels What is SFIA follow assist apply enable ensure/advise initiate/influence set strategy, inspire, mobilise Levels that really work SFIA defines 7 levels d d d

Professional skills Behavioural skills Knowledge Qualifications Experience example Business analysis example: UML example: Analytical Context Professional profile

The Capability Management Cycle We don’t have the right skills I don’t get interesting work We don’t know our overall capability We are compartmentalised, working differently People are in silos Do I get any training? How do we develop people? Do they learn useful things? I don’t agree with my manager’s assessment How do you get promoted around here? How does our pay compare with other organisations? Wrong people at interview Our best people leave Why? and some typical problems EXIT Know, plan, manage Acquire Deploy Assess Develop Reward Organisations use SFIA to make these processes work better

Operate in 100 countries employees Turnover €40 billion Business model: Business Partnering, Innovation, Services, Architecture & planning

 Skills development focussed on business need  Standard Roles & Profiles Aligned to Industry Best Practice (SFIA) External Accreditation  New skills defined Business Partnering/Relationship Management Strategic Vendor Management Portfolio Management  Key to aligning IT with the business RESULTS

UK Government IT Profession  “Central Govt spends £16 billion a year on IT Huge improvement if people used more effectively  Decided to base IT Profession on SFIA, because Established, well known and open standard No cost to employers Supported by the SFIA Foundation which is not for profit Simplicity and broad scope meet Government’s needs for a framework that could be used in any Government organisation, however large or small. Provides all public sector IT organisations with a common language to describe the skills and attributes required of IT professionals” Quote for this Conference from the Cabinet Office...

All Government Departments  Departments develop a consistent approach to identifying skills and skills gaps  Role profiling; design of organisation and teams  Recruitment, both internal and external – job advertisements conform to and use SFIA levels and descriptors  Performance management and identification  Talent management and workforce planning  Sharing of people, ideas and best practice within and between organisations right across the wider public sector  Targetted training Now widely used on Local Government: London Borough of Camden saving £2 million/year

 430 million s every year 2000 every working minute  200 million phone calls each year  6 million people use the web site every month Peak – 50,000 concurrent users 395,000 tax assessments in one day  They collect money – £435 billion  1300 IT Staff in >20 locations contractors

 Standard Roles defined and assessed with SFIA  Staff assessed against roles (on-line system) Results Better control of management – must use approved Role Profiles Training plans – focussed on business need Objective assessments – more objective, agreed Recruitment – faster and better Future skills needs – accurately identified SFIA Established as part of their management system

European Central Bank  Competence framework based on SFIA 86 skills cover ECB’s needs  Use in appraisal, development, training plans  Skills focus – managers invest more time  Business strategy is skills-aware skills impact of strategy is clear clear targets for skills  Basis for talent management  Training plans = business need

 Colt Telecom A leading European provider of business communications  13-country 25,000 km network metropolitan networks in 34 major European cities with direct fibre connections  420 permanent IT staff  Wanted to improve development & motivation career development clearer roles and responsibilities

 Roles and development plans aligned with SFIA Performance reviews every 6 months High-potential development programme Managers trained to use SFIA  Skills correctly aligned across countries  Careers and expectations – staff satisfaction  Reduced resource costs  Skills aligned to functional goals  SFIA helped identify missing roles  Provides basis for criteria-based interviewing

IFIP Procurement Professional Profiles Employer Job Descriptions Methods Process roles Professional development The influence of SFIA RecruitEducate StudentIT Professional Train Training Organisation Qualify Professional Body P R O F E S S I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T

SFIA & EQF look similar but measure different things  SFIA & EQF Levels 1-3 – similar knowledge at the most advanced frontier of a field of work or study and at the interface between fields the most advanced and specialised skills and techniques... required to solve critical problems in research and/or innovation and to extend and redefine existing knowledge or professional practice “Highly educated – has at least a Master’s degree, can make very complex decisions”  SFIA Level 7 “Can be CIO (Chief Information Officer)” demonstrate substantial authority, innovation, autonomy, scholarly and professional integrity and sustained commitment to the development of new ideas or processes at the forefront of work or study contexts including research  EQF Level 8:

Professional skills Behavioural skills Knowledge Qualifications Experience EQF SFIA and EQF A tool for management A tool for education Information for managers

The right skilled people in the right place at the right time

Job Descriptions Many people (91), many (but only 7 on this slide) job descriptions Benefits manager (8)Business consultant (12)Systems acceptance (7)Requirements analyst (13)Business unit liaison (8)Information advisor (22)Information specialist (21) Confusion ! New Job descriptions every month Costly bureaucracy to evaluate “We still don’t know our capability” person specification: “what skills and knowledge are needed”

Professional Profiles Business consultant (12) Benefits manager (8) Requirements analyst (13) Information specialist (21) Business unit liaison (8) Systems acceptance (7) Information advisor (22) Job description says: “This job needs a BA3 with experience of...” Defining a category of capability, not a job. We now know we have BA1s, 28 BA2s and 43 BA3s One professional profile, summarised at three levels Business analyst 3 Levels: BA1 - Business consultant BA2 - Business analyst BA3 - Information analyst Used for Resource planning Organisation Recruitment Pay policies people with related skills 7 job descriptions

Six categories DevelopmentBusiness changeStrategy & planningAncillary skillsService provisionProcurement & management support and 20 subcategories

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