Business Change and IT Transformation: Get into a business' DNA!

Clients hiring Programme Professionals are naturally keen to find individuals with specialist experience in the programme of work to solve problems and ease pain-points. 

At Rullion, our Business Change and Transformation recruiters are industry agnostics when sourcing talent. They focus more on the candidate’s previous deliverables and how successful they have been in managing business stakeholders.  

This sector is niche because it’s often confused with an IT specialism.

When delivering Business Change and IT Transformation programmes it is all about culture, relationships, and people. It’s important to understand the DNA of the business and getting engagement from C-Level stakeholders. For our recruiters, getting the culture fit just right is as important as the candidate’s previous experience. Obtaining buy-in from the business stakeholders is crucial for the successful delivery of a programme of work.

There have been a few substantial changes with the clients I deal with in recent months.

The demand for Project Managers with experience working within an agile environment is on the up. Experienced Programme Managers continue to utilise their wealth of experience across a range of methodologies to make the right decisions on how to deliver programmes. This can often mean blends of methodologies such as Prince 2, Waterfall or Agile being put into practice.  

 That’s not the biggest news though.

In the last month, the IR35 tax changes have really impacted the public sector; this includes Universities, National Health Service, Government bodies. It has effectively put a stop on some programmes of work within these industries while the sponsors make strategic decisions on the best course of action. Permanent staff are the backbone of many programmes of work and interim staff are crucial to providing specialist knowledge at different phases of a project. Furthermore, in many instances, a project will have a lifespan and contractors have a vital role to play in providing short-term flexible resource. Some businesses are looking to transfer what would have been interim positions to fixed-term contract roles to resolve the problem.

This, however, can detract the best talent as FTC opportunities lack the security of a permanent post and also fail to provide the attractive rates that a project specialist would achieve in the interim marketplace. Some people, therefore, hope it will be abolished and as a result we are finding good contractors are moving across to the private sector.

The main challenge to recruiting is still around creating a great match.

It’s not as simple as doing a quick search to find the right type of candidates for a role. Knowing the client and the candidate inside out is crucial to achieving the right cultural fit which is more likely to create complete trust and buy-in from the business stakeholders. When you create a good match, Programme Managers and the Business stakeholders will collaborate and engage as a team to achieve the end goal.

It’s a race against the clock when recruiting in this space.

In a candidate driven market the best candidates will be off the market quickly. We need to move fast, particularly with contract roles and especially when the client wants someone to have started yesterday! We appreciate that our clients are under pressure themselves, so, to ease the process we will always suggest booking time in calendars for interviews, which helps to avoid the business missing out on talented people. We aim to meet with our clients to consult on the recruiting process - working backwards from the start date can be a real eye opener for clients and can mean they start looking for people sooner than anticipated.

It’s a busy time now, so perfect for people looking for a move.

As expected, it is often busy at the start of the financial year with new budgets being released. From now until around July, the pace will be fast. During summer holiday periods the market tends to slow down, before picking up again in the Autumn, and slowing again at Christmas. The ups and downs are a characteristic of many vertical markets.

What we also need to be aware of is trends of Business Change Programmes within industries. Businesses within a sector need to keep up or exceed the services offered by their competitors. Once one business begins or successfully delivers a programme of work, their competitors follow suit, and this can create a wave of new programme and project opportunities.