Mind the (resource) gap

Nothing gives Ben Dainton, Iridium’s co-founder, more satisfaction than helping clients identify their skill gaps and selecting the right people to fill them. 

 

Having worked in the industry, in-house and consultancy-side, for more than 20 years, along with Iridium's other founder, Sinclair Elliott, who also has a couple of decades under his belt, they’re also exceptionally good at it. 

 

Here, Ben discusses the reasons why the issue of resource gaps remains wide for many businesses, the knock-on effect on overall productivity and how it’s easier to resolve than people may think - once they know how. 

 

“Due to COVID-19, cloud, digital and ecommerce is dominating our landscape, calling for suitably skilled transformation consultants to run those projects and programmes. Operational resilience is also a number one priority for businesses, and a key focus for us. 

 

“Whilst these areas have been on the agenda for many years, there is no doubt the pandemic has rocketed them to the top of the list for businesses - who are also dealing with their workforces having to function securely from home, making it even more challenging for them to not only fill, but identify the resource gaps.” 

 

 

“Resource gaps ultimately mean slower productivity, and this will have broad, company-wide repercussions. The remainder of the teams must work harder and longer hours, causing things to be missed and mistakes to happen, affecting the overall quality of the work being undertaken and, in-turn, having catastrophic effects on a business. 

 

“But because everyone is so busy, resourcing problems can be overlooked or missed - until they are happening. Then clients tend to ‘panic buy’ or blindly throw money at a problem, which is certainly not the answer. But what is?” 

 

 

“In today's digital world, not every business has the capability (or money) for specialist skills permanently in-house, so it makes sense to work with a partner, like us, who can easily supply those necessary skills for specific pieces of work or projects when needed. 

 

“However, to get this working seamlessly and effortlessly, this must be underpinned with assessment work, so the business gets an unbiased, external view of its portfolio, security posture or network capability, allowing for a resource strategy to be put into place that pulls-in the experience and skills sets when needed. Iridium has a supply and demand model, meaning the ‘resource gaps’ never actually exist, because we work with our clients ahead of the game to ensure there are no sudden, nasty resource surprises.” 

 

 

“When Iridium provides consultants to a business, one thing that is an absolute must for us is that we leave our clients’ permanent teams with new skills and experience, courtesy of the consultants. This allows teams to learn, adapt and move forward - as opposed to reverting back to the way things were done before. 

 

“Knowledge transfer must happen. Any consultancy that does not work in this way is not fulfilling their part of the deal.” 

 

 

“In-line with the way many businesses operate today, in the ever-changing technical landscape - and particularly as we continue to ride out the effects of the pandemic - entirely flexible solutions are essential when it comes to consulting and augmentation. 

 

“Because our team has over 40 years’ combined experience of working across a multitude of technical and leadership positions, in-house and consultancy side, we can quickly provide the right associates for any engagement. All we need to do is speak with our client to fully understand the project or problem, and can have a high-quality solution in-place - be it full consulting teams, led by an Iridium partner or programme lead, outsourced teams, or individual specialists - within two weeks.” 

 

 

“Every consultant we work with and provide to our clients is assessed against the specific criteria required for that project or problem. We work purely with associates, and where other consultancies may try and place their permanent staff because it is more cost effective for them to do so, meaning the client will not get the best consultant for the job, our approach is always bespoke, never generalist. 

 

“At the other end of the spectrum, recruiters are not from the IT industry and therefore don’t really have a true understanding of what is required by their clients, so can never guarantee that they have provided the very best fit for their clients project/ problem. 

 

“In short, we have 20 years + experience of working in the IT industry, as well as a fantastic associate network of consultants, which means we can always provide strong fit options for our clients in a very short space of time, at an affordable cost, as we do not charge consultancy prices, thus reducing the client’s time having to review 1000s of CVs. See, it’s easy when you know how.” 

 

Please contact me at Ben.Dainton@ir77.co.uk to discuss your resourcing requirements.