Topline and Bottom-line… or function of HR in outsourcing organization

How often are we saying: “those HRs are not helping me” or “this fXXXingly stupid new HR report drives me crazy” or “there is too much on my plate: happy people, happy customer, happy bosses...”.

That’s a usual staff. Outsourcing manager has all of these, and in disproportionally high manner. Someone may say that it is a challenge, someone more educated - that it is a cognitive dissonance. To sum up, that’s all bullshit and, we know, it is. The company wants the bottom-line (profit), it also wants a topline, sales, revenues, market share… this is what investors want. These contradicting demands crystalize somewhere around middleman (or, middle manager), who experience this cognitive dissonance. An advanced company realizes this, and it aims to help poor guy or girl, as much as it thinks it can… This is where an HR is supposed to step in, with its amiable and supportive function – “we will help you with the people problems: motivation, agitation, reinvigoration and rehabilitation”.

The reality is poor. Nobody knows your people as much as you do. HRs are, regularly, well uneducated and inexperienced to help you. They are also paid way below your regular middle engineer… so their illiteracy could be excused. You end up having unsatisfied people, bosses and customer with HR providing their gloomy “service” on top of this mess. The mess, which is, by the way, affecting your KPIs, bonus, family plans and your own professional ego.

Time to ask yourself a simple question. In the ideal world, what do I need? You know a lot about what your wants are. But, the question is very direct and uncompromising. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO ALLOW YOU PROFESSIONALLY PERFORM YOUR DELIVERY MANAGER’S FUNCTION IN AN OUTSOURCING ORGANIZATION?

Nobody asked you this. And, as a first reaction, you say: “Oh, gosh. I need to think…”

As a second thought passes thru your mind, you realize your need is very simple: “Let those people working on the project, be happy and never leave it”. As a third thought, it comes a really revolutionary one, “I need time to develop the business: client, relationship, expansion of service, some funny agile and follow-the-sun staff, try new delivery model, team layout etc. etc.” This is the TOP LINE. But… you never thought about it, right? And, you know why - you simply didn’t have the time, just straight uninterrupted 2 hours of work dedicated to a funny preso to help the client solve their problem. You were busy motivating people to do their job and fighting with HR to push back their stupid requests. Day after day, week after week, year after year … until a shiny start-up embraces you for a sexy half a year of really funny staff.

The reality is poor. Start-ups end up in 2 states: investors (see above) or dissolution.

Enough being said, and the context is set. TOP LINE is in the top interest of a delivery manager, and the bottom line is apparently is NOT. Stop the cognitive dissonance, you really don’t need to “motivate” the people, you just want them to perform their duties up to the top line. Your KPIs is the top-line, which are: 1) your commitment to maintain and expand the business, 2) the happy customer and 3) the state-of-the-art delivery process, driving the customers and engineers crazy, satisfying theirs and yours egos, and helping all these conglomerate to earn their wages, bonuses and extra vacation days. Fair enough! If you do so, you do a significant half of the company targets – the topline.

Ok, nice picture but where is the bottom-line? ( “ha-ha… ups… so, where is the money?”, Knocking on Heaven's Door ). Folks, this is HR. Keep steady but, how do you think HR can follow the Adam’s Equity Theory, or Expectancy Theory of Motivation, or 4 Types of BMod Reinforcement, or, simply, satisfy Herzberg’s 2-Factor Model of Hygienes and Motivators without having the authority to develop competence, own the compensation and other fringe benefits, and maintain career development plans for your buddies? BTW, is not this fair as well? Everybody is doing their job. Your job is the customer, HRs' job is the people. Your job is the topline, HRs are truly dedicated to the bottom-line.

For the sake of the post, enough is being said. The concept is here, and consequences are spatial. Deriving the interface between Delivery and HR (or, correct to say, Human Resource Cost Managers) is up to yours and your bosses' imagination, education and common sense judgment.

A sample is on the surface though. You are ready to start an INFORMATICA project, and, if you assume the people are there, you commit that you hit the topline. Fair. HRs estimate the training costs, hiring costs, labor market and organizational capacity of doing so, and come up with the COSTS. If they are committed but failed to fill the competency gap, they have underperformed on their KPIs. If your customer's opportunity didn’t materialize, you failed your KPIs due to the risks you haven’t estimated properly. In a glorious world, everything is vice versa but the idea of responsibility distribution is all the way the same. Everybody is doing their job: you earn revenue, HR justify and maintain the expense.

Give Me More Money, or The 4th Generation

Now is the 4th generation of engineers. This post can be particularly interesting to those who remember beginning of outsourcing in Ukraine.

Age of Dinosaurs, before 2002. The companies are very selective. Only the best, the promising and the talented are hired. The seniors are really seniors - they have serious 7+ years background, they freely operate with the classic computer science concepts, can write SRS and SAD without any trouble, their code is awesome. They work hard as they know that the work should be done. They inherited this habit from their parents. They do remember USSR, most probably they were members of Komsomol. Their education is strong though irrelevant to IT. They can think. They are paid low as supply is slightly higher than demand (correct to say the demand is relatively low). This is 1st generation of engineers.

The Beginning, years 2002-2004. The demand is increasing. 1st generation engineers are being hired with a bit lesser scrutiny, yet the companies still keep the grade - the senior must be the senior. New category of engineers popping up: good med level engineer who claims he/she is actually the senior. The technical interviewer (who is surely 1st generation one) easily proves to guy that he is not the senior. The guy turns color, admits, decreases salary expectations (sometimes, on the spot). If the med level is actually needed, then the guy is hired yet at little bit higher salary then a good med could claim or actually earns if already working in the company. This is the 2d generation.

Pit Stop or Disclaimer. 2d generation are actually nice guys - they can think, they can learn, they turn out to be a good team players, during the course of work they tend to adapt to the culture of 1st generation: "the work should be done".

The Development, years 2005-2008. The demand increases significantly, all real Seniors sit tight in their companies and got promoted to either technical leader or manager position. Pipeline of 2d generation engineers is being gradually exhausted. 3d generation comes to scene - "Seniors". It is becoming normal practice to claim senior status after couple years of full-time work after university study. At interview, they still say that interesting work is the first priority, yet they actually want to sit on 2 chairs simultaneously - very good money and interesting work. They know that they will be hired anyway. They are actually hired and are paid 3-4 times more then the real seniors back in 2002. They are entitled as "Advanced Med", which they accept as a compromise. Question "what is traceability" puts 3d generation engineer into catatonia. Yet, they heard about multithreading, design patterns and can distinguish the list from the map.

The Pause, year 2009. Thanx God, it is Crisis! Magically and instantaneously, 3d generation realizes the almost forgotten principle - the work should be done. The companies temporarily enjoy their original status - the place for someone to dedicate their talent, to work hard and to get compensated for the value they bring. There is no noise in the office; the rooms are dense with people working. Regular work schedule returns to normal 8-9 hours per day. You feel like you are back in 2002 (in exception to salaries, of course!).

Give Me More Money Age (GMMM), year 2010 and till the date. 1st generation is either working abroad or holds the senior management positions, sometimes they are high-paid consultants. 2d generation is leading the big teams, projects or, sometimes, programs. 3d generation engineers are all entitled as “seniors” or “principal engineers”, the most prominent ones are given the “technical/team lead” rank. Everybody is sick with squeezing more money from employer, yet in different way. 3d generation, who have the lowest imagination among those three, just blackmail the company: “either give me this bulk of bucks or I leave”. 2d generation, still having that stupid idea of “the work must be done” in subconsciousness, ask management: “what should I do to get career advance”. As 2d generation is smarter, they know that career advance means more money. 1st generation representatives are so rare that they are appreciated by default. Though they would be pleased with more money, they actually don’t need them. They are confused looking at 2d and 3d generation and, if infected by the virus and hold the appropriate position, raise salaries for others. They know that if they continue such raises, their supervisory compensation will be raised automatically in return.

As demand is far higher then supply, the hero of this story appears - the 4^th generation engineer (or simply “GMMMer”). GMMMers know that they should read the book to claim the professional knowledge in a technology. Thus, they read first 2 pages. They deeply believe that they are Seniors from the childhood. They know the market demand very well and easily fill their resumes will required buzzwords.  They don’t know about multithreading at all, they don’t know what is stack, they heard the statement “design patterns” but they don’t know them.  They don’t think any reasonable engineer should know such things, and look at you with a deep regret if you think opposite. They are well educated in social benefits and motivation topics. They know that:

• company is the place where you must have fun, get medical insurance, and sports and dinners
• they expect 10-15% salary increase each half a year
• they know that manager is a funny guy who must motivate them to do the work
• they tend to switch the company every year
• they actually don’t care much about the work as they know – the company will do everything to find them another project

I believe Black Eyes Peas wrote this song as a response to rapid evolution of Ukrainian IT labor market during last 10 years (it will have no effect on GMMMers though, they could just find this song pretty boring): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67xwjPF6kYo

Antipattern: give customer a hook

Sometimes, a customer is just irrelevant.
You see, he considers you as yet another body provider. People mean nothing, it is only about the business. "I don't expect you to ask me questions, I expect you to give me more resumes and I will select". The guy don't know and never he is actually interested in the country that provides those bodies to him. He just thinks that people living in the golden billion countries are The Ones, the rest are working for food and for the glorious shiny glossy future of that ones' billion.
Never hesitate to give them a hook. You can, you have the power to do so, and you have the right. Respect yourself. The worst thing you will loose is your job. Never mind, in the remaining world of 5 billion people the bright people can find their future.
That's the position you follow. If you think about yourself as professional and THE personality, you'd not sacrifice your achievements and your courage for the sake of a single stupid 1-golden-billioned stubborn body.

Sure, it is the antipattern. Though, it is always worth identifying your BATNA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_alternative_to_a_negotiated_agreement) before communication happens.

While unemployed ...

... spending some "qualified management time" to recollect C programming skills.

I always loved writing shell scripts. Yet, data exchange between UNIX processes (and executed shell scripts in particular) has its own limitations. The only strong way to have full-fledged data exchange between 2 running shell scripts is through the file system. Not very fast, and you shouldn't forget to use the file locking mechanism to avoid race conditions :)

On the other hand, UNIX has old-fashioned shared memory API allowing processes to share in-memory data, and the similar-aged semaphores API to synchronize access to shared resources. Surprisingly, there is still no command-line utility reusing those APIs and providing synchronized access to in-memory data from shell script.

This ANSI C tool is for curious sysadmins and just unlucky scripts writers:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/shmmap/

Compiled, unit-tested, subversioned ... ufff :)

Politics

You look for a job.
Well ... you composed your resume, assembled your results, achievements and bla-bla-bla.
Suppose that you just left a big and corrupt organization and you are full of enthusiasm to find something better with no politics, you are eager to do real work with the real people.

You've found a company, which is small and in production domain. You think that there can be no politics. Well, wrong.

Politics exists even there. Apparently, someone in the board of investors is willing to keep things as they are now. Let engineering be led as it is, please, no changes. Regardless of how bad it is going on now. Regardless of how good you might be there to fix the situation. Politics, politics ...

Just be ready to accept this fact. Whether the company is a small or big one, whether it is a start-up or mature one, the politics will always exist. So, the only way to move on is to admit this fact first.

Then you realize that you must use all your skills to influence the situation: try to affect the decision makers, try to use insider's help. Just justifying it for yourself as you believe you can help those guys streamline the things and get better results by hiring you.

People hate making THE changes. It is much easier for them to play politics.