As financial services organisations continue to tighten their belts with recruitment freeze and downsizing in force across many organisations, it is clear that the industry sees itself in uncharted waters especially in this era of political instability and threats from big tech organisations and challenger banks.
An average project costs millions of pounds to execute with little over 40% chance of success according to research figures. Key reasons given by project leaders include significant changes to the project brief; unrealistic time-frames; an incomplete understanding of the risks; projects not resourced with the right people; lack of a clearly-defined business justification, and overrun budgets.
These issues are clearly a symptom of lack of experience in managing projects in these environments; therefore, it is very clear that experience is the key to achieving project success. Certifications and training are great and form the foundation but can never replace the need for experience in the project battle fields.
Now, there are 2 big questions that need answers:
• How do I find these experienced people?
• Can I afford to pay them?
How do I find these experienced people?
To answer the first question, majority of the brilliant project resources seem to be held on to by their employers as they are key to project success and consequently over all organisation success.
However, if you are capable of tapping into their network you will easily identify experienced project resources in your areas of interest. LinkedIn is a good place to start; build relationships with professionals in your area of interest and they will help you when required.
Another important tool here is revamping the recruitment process of your organisation. Hiring is a crucial activity and deserves time and research. Most interview templates I have seen lately are still stuck in the 1980s and it’s baffling that recruiters do not consider the fact that interviewees can study and rehearse these questions via research and videos. There is no law that says you must ask these very outdated questions like “tell me about yourself etc.”
How about changing the script and ask intelligent questions that will force the interviewee to think on the spot? Surely this is not very hard. After all, no two projects problems are exactly the same and therefore require individuals with the ability to think on their feet to resolve solve problems quickly to avert project failure.
Can I afford to pay them?
To answer the question on affordability, you will need to think radically and move away from the current models.
As an illustration, according to itjobswatch.co.uk, the median contractor rate for a Project Manager was £525 per day in advertised job vacancies in London during the 6 months to 20 May 2019.
This means that it will cost you at around £10.500 plus VAT in most cases to hire a project manager. The case is similar for most other project roles: Solution Architect, Business Analysts, Testers, Front End Designers etc.
This is a major roadblock to starting up and delivery of projects.
To help businesses struggling to deliver with extreme financial constraint, let me introduce you to the NEW WORK MODEL.
THE NEW FINTECH WORK MODEL
The new FinTech work model does not require an organisation to hire any resources for longer than the project requires them. Most organisations, especially the high growth start-ups are using this model with great results.
Here is how it works; the employer identifies the best professionals to deliver the work at hand, and mutually price the work and agree deadlines. Once agreed, the work is done. This way, you do not require a new laptop, desk, downtimes while waiting for feedback or approvals from all stakeholders or pay for leave and sick days with the corresponding costs.
The most preferred option is the Retainer Model; in this model, instead of £10,000 per month, you enter a retainer agreement with a known competent professional for may be £3000 to £5000 per month. With this agreement, each month the consultant will be available for the as long as they are required and on call when needed. The consultant brings years of experience and their expertise at 75% discount and your organisation gets work delivered on time, to quality and at much less cost.
This is what my colleagues and I at HiveMind Network are doing with amazing results and testimonials from across the board.
The best way to start is by testing with a very small pilot project with professionals that have worked for you and those you have worked with in the past and then expand the model based on your results.
There you have it, the new FinTech work model.
