Information Technology Strategy: Class 11 – Human Capital Management

Tonight we had Tim Glennie, Managing Partner at BridgeView IT, come in and talk about all things regarding human capital management. Tim has been in the IT recruiting field for many moons and is excellent at what he does. What he does exactly is find the right people (skill set/culture) for the job and when it comes to IT, that’s the essential element.

I sent Tim some questions and asked that he address these during his lecture. The questions were as follows and this is what I learned.

1. What does BridgeView do? – BridgeView is an IT recruiting firm that focuses on the plumbing (infrastructure) and the art (application development) of information technology. The company was boot-strapped and now has 2 offices; west (based out of Denver) and east (based out of New Jersey). Yes. They have tech in the “Garden State”!
2. How is an IT recruiter different from the standard recruiter? – The difference is in the ability to spot a qualified candidate. It’s a diverse discipline and it’s harder to find the right people than many other verticals. It’s similar to health care and BridgeView has people who are experienced and comfortable with technology.
3. What do you think the future of HR is? – Human resources is overburdened by all that they have to contend with. They have to maintain, payroll, training, insurance, hiring, firing, etc. They do a lot and on top of that they do their best to filter through potential job candidates. The skill set to do both jobs is almost impossible to find in one person. If you do have someone that does both well, rarely do they have the time. Also, HR’s job is to protect the business. They may seem to have your best interest in mind but if it’s in opposition to the goals of the business, consider yourself expendable.
   
4. Will HR be outsourced? – HR will be outsourced. Many companies are becoming comfortable with outsourcing key aspects of their business, allowing experts to handle the details of that corporate function. BridgeView outsourced their HR to a small company called Peliton because of their excellent customer service and flexibility. Something that is essential to your business BUT not core to your business is a likely candidate for outsourcing and maybe off-shoring.
5. How’s the job market? – The overall job market has seen fits and starts and nationally it’s a mixed bag. The coasts are showing signs of sustained recovery, with NY leading the market.
6. How’s the IT job market? – IT is picking up. BridgeView has a The coasts are showing signs of sustained recovery, with NY leading the market.
7. Why have you been successful while others have struggled? BridgeView focuses on matching the right candidates with client. Our approach focuses on spending more time up front to understanding a client’s hiring needs and technical environment. Once we know the client, we only send candidates that match on technical & cultural basis. This low volume/high accuracy approach differentiates us from the majority of the competition that focuses on high volume/low screening methods.
8. Do you think coding is a commodity? – Highly defined requirements can make coding a commodity. When looking at the 4 parts of the software development lifecycle (analysis/design/coding/test & implementation), coding becomes the obvious selection for outsourcing at a low cost. But, the analysis and design phases must be done exceptionally well prior to code. Additionally, the code needs to be thoroughly tested against the original requirements from the analysis phase to ensure a successful application.
   
9. What technical skills do you think business people need? – I think business people need to understand the basics of technology – UI/App/Data. Real business impacts such as: What is the customer experience when the data base is down? How much money is a network outage costing us? Who fulfills with roles and what motivates the people with those skill sets? What is the opportunity cost of a bug?
10. How does your business use social media? – BridgeView uses Twitter as a distribution mechanism to let potential job candidates know about openings. This is great for the passive job seeker.
11. How does your business use smartphones? – iPhone & ANdroid are where it’s at and BlackBerry is quickly losing ground.

It was great to have Tim talk about the market and help students see into multiple corporate settings.