Test Management Forum

Keys to successfully hiring and retaining your testing team

Jane Muller

Introduction

Jane Muller

20 + years HR & Recruitment experience

9 years experience within QA & Testing

Recruited over 300 QA & Testing Professionals to date

Implemented a talent management system for QA & Testing Professionals

NLP Master Practitioner and Certified Coach

Getting the most value from your time this afternoon

Introduce yourself

Ask each other the following questions:

“Why are you here today?”“What do you want to get out of this session?”

Spend 5 minutes discussing

What I aim to cover

Marketplace Intelligence

How to maximise your ROI

Attracting the best candidates – what’s your brand & USP?

Retaining your valuable team

The cost of recruitment

UK companies are wasting more than £15b a year on recruitment mistakes

This figure is the equivalent of 1.7% of UK GDP

The average recruitment cost of filling a vacancy per employee is £4,200

This rises to £8,500 when the associated labour turnover costs are also taken into account

Marketplace Intelligence

Current Drivers

Available Skills –vs- Required Skills Where is the shortage? What solutions are available to you?

How many candidates are looking now? Test Analysts Senior/Leads Test Managers

How many opportunities are advertised? Test Analysts Senior/Leads Test Managers

Marketplace Intelligence

Recruitment Vehicles Available – Experiences & The Best Deals

Marketplace Intelligence

Networking plays an important role….

Gerrard Consulting Tester Forums

Marketplace Intelligence

…and of course your own website and intranet!

Is the career page accessible from home page?

Apart from the obvious - include:

Your views on why you joined your company & the company’s beliefs in QA and Testing – how important is it within the company?

A day in the life of one of your team Company culture – how does QA fit into the overall picture? An explanation of how their careers will develop Make contact easy! Have a specific name (not info@...)

Marketplace Intelligence

Salary Survey 2007 End Users Consultancies Contractors

Where else can I find this type of information?

Attracting the best candidates

Having identified the required skills, experience and behaviours, what else can you do to attract the best candidates?

What lifestyle would your ideal candidate have? Who would he/she mix with professionally? Where would he/she work now? What would he/she read professionally? Where would they do their development and training? Employee recommendation?

Making an Impact

This is a competitive candidate driven marketplace… What is unique about your company and the opportunity? What is you and your team famous for? What reputation do you enjoy? What do you and your team stand for? What’s important?

Expertise? Experience? Ambition? Drive? Tenacity? Teamwork? Innovation?

Take 5 minutes to discuss with your neighbour..

How satisfied, committed and engaged are you and your team?

Satisfaction allows employees to work more pleasantly and stimulates better performance

Committed employees feel a certain bond with the organisation and are more willing to perform

Affective Commitment – employees stays because they identify with the organisation Normative Commitment – employees stay because they feel obliged to the organisation Continuance Commitment – employees stay because they feel the personal cost of leaving

too high

Engaged employees are passionate about their work. They are less time bound and willing to go that extra mile.

What do most candidates look for in a new role

Great people to work with A company that values my skills More challenging & varied work To have the chance to learn new things Clear career path and promotional opportunity Salary Benefits

Needs and Motivation

Maslow's concept of self-actualisation relates directly to the present day challenges and opportunities for employers and organisations - to provide real meaning, purpose and true personal development for their employees

Sustainable success is built on a serious and compassionate commitment to helping people identify, pursue and reach their own personal unique potential.

Virtually all personal growth, whether in a hobby, a special talent or interest, or a new experience, produces new skills, attributes, behaviours and wisdom that is directly

transferable to any sort of job role.

Personal Development = Retention

What’s available to help develop your team’s potential? The usual training courses… Attending Conferences Networking Groups & Forums Mentoring each other – champions of QA/testing topics Presenting at conferences Publishing articles (internally & externally) Delivering their own training courses Leading meetings Team leading duties Assist in recruiting and appraising What else?

The last slide!

Did we achieve our outcomes?

Any questions?

Thank you for participating