Incubator of specialists within the company as a way to build a qualified team
Why did we decide that it is easier to train from scratch than to hire a ready-made specialist?
When selecting business analysts for our team, we rely on – now it will suddenly happen))) – the skills of the candidates and the budget. But the devil is in the details; each company hides something different behind these words. I'll tell you what we have.
The first prerequisite: it is difficult to find ready-made specialists with the necessary skills
The ROBIN brand is relatively young – it has existed since 2019, but is growing rapidly. We are vendors of a Russian RPAi platform of our own design. The structure of my team has just begun to take shape in the form in which it can be called a full-fledged structure. The functions of business analysts are regularly supplemented in connection with the growing plans and needs of our business – the range of tasks is increasing both in volume and in areas of professional activity. Consequently, the requirements for the skills and qualifications of our business analysts are also growing.
What the specialists are doing now:
Analysis of the customer’s business processes: detailing the processes step by step, identifying the influencing factors at each step and the branches that arise because of them, ways to check the achievement of each new process execution status, etc.
Assessment of the efficiency and labor intensity (respectively, cost) of robotization based on the analysis from clause 1.
Construction of business process diagrams (software robots) in a studio on the ROBIN platform. It is worth noting here that ROBIN Studio 2.0, although it is aimed at specialists without programming skills and works in No‑Code mode, to perform serious tasks requires basic knowledge of the differences in information system architectures, the ability to write regular expressions and master the basics of languages/protocols HTML, SSL , RDP, etc.
Debugging software robots on the resources of customer enterprises and putting them into permanent operation.
Author's support of software robots if necessary, incl. monitoring their operation, modifications when influencing factors change (for example, in systems involved in a robotic process), localizing the causes of failures in their operation, etc.
Support ROBIN sellers by demonstrating product capabilities. And we are broader than just RPA – our products include artificial intelligence (AI, ML/Neural network, NER), BPM tools and much more.
Development of technical and design documentation (technical specifications, descriptions of solutions, test programs and methods, operational documentation, presentations, etc.).
Interaction with customers, planning, monitoring deadlines, reporting on projects – almost all the functions of a project manager.
User consultations from customers, partners and other interested specialists.
Design and implementation of integration solutions, in which, in addition to the functionality of ROBIN platform products, other technological solutions of our partners are used based on BI, EPM, EDMS technologies, etc.
This list does not exhaust all the tasks our business analysts solve. As you can see, he is so multifaceted and wide in range that you remember the old Russian proverb “both a Swede, a reaper, and a player of the pipe.” Therefore, the question arises: “Where can I find this?”
Second prerequisite: the cost and risks of hiring ready-made specialists
Everything is simple here: the company’s budget (as a proper budget should be) is clearly limited by the planned framework, which requires the most effective selection of candidates in the skills/salary ratio, as well as minimizing the risks of possible errors in this selection.
If we hire a ready-made specialist who matches our skills, we get only one advantage – there are no significant training costs, the employee gets to work fairly quickly. But there are a number of nuances.
We understand that the expected list of competencies is not unique, but still specific within one specialist. Therefore, the skills of a “ready” employee may not fully cover our requirements, but he probably has other skills that may be in demand in the labor market, but are absolutely not used in our production activities. Both can negatively affect a specialist’s creative satisfaction, which will not have the best effect on his motivation, and therefore on the quality of work and loyalty to the team and the company as a whole.
The new employee will definitely (and without malicious intent) introduce the framework and rules acquired through previous work experience into the current processes of the department. This can have very serious consequences for established production. All managers know how difficult it is to fight such slogans as: “Where I worked before (and it was a better company than yours), they always did it this way (or didn’t do it that way), and it was correct, which has been proven in practice!” . It is often difficult to convey to such a “super experienced” employee that our company has its own characteristics and specifics, which, after much trial and error, predetermined the existing rules and order in organizational and/or technological aspects. Sometimes, when such a conflict arises, after lengthy “battles of nerves” and disputes, it leads to the fact that the manager must decide to part with such a specialist, despite the undeniable value of his real experience and skills.
Our platform, although it occupies a leading position in Russia, is not so widespread on the market that every RPA developer and/or analyst should know it. Therefore, whatever one may say, even an experienced specialist who knows RPA technologies and business process analysis techniques well will need some time (at least 2 months) to thoroughly master all the ROBIN tools and the methods we have developed. So even when hiring a ready-made specialist, it takes time for training and integration.
I think everyone understands about the economic inefficiency of hiring. A specialist who possesses all the required skills in total is definitely expensive.
Who do we take and how does the incubator work?
Not every person is suitable for an incubator, so when recruiting interns, we carefully screen candidates. I will list the selection stages in order of priority:
Checking the candidate for adequacy and compliance with requirements. Since the psychological assessment of candidates is a whole science, the primary selection is carried out by our HR service.
Test task – based on its results, I can understand the current level of the applicant and decide whether to conduct a further interview. Having a higher education, at least incomplete (just not stopped), significantly increases the chances of success. No matter how much people criticize the current state of education, practice shows that studying at a university at least gives you the skills to master new knowledge (sometimes through effort), a sense of responsibility (no matter how you walk, be ready for the session!) and basic knowledge in the fields of IT , mathematics and logic, notations of process diagrams/algorithms, etc. Of course, we are talking about universities with the corresponding specialization.
Interviewing. After successfully passing the test task, the managers of the main product areas and I conduct further verification of the candidate: we call each other, a prerequisite is that the candidate has a video camera turned on. We evaluate responses and behavior during the conversation.
The final stage of selection: completing basic training in working with the platform before deciding on hiring.
The duration of training is one week. The goal is to ensure that the intern has a sufficient level of self-organization and can work without constant supervision and supervision: this is important since our team works remotely. The course content is dense, contains test assignments and perfectly demonstrates the ability to master knowledge without pushing. At the same time, we do not abandon the candidate during the training period – if questions arise, the candidate can ask questions online in a special chat, which includes all our analysts.
Based on the results of completing the course, we check control tasks (assembling simple software robots). We look at how the candidate used the available development platform tools and how he thought when completing the task.
Hidden text
We understand that such a requirement may be perceived as bordering on labor legislation, however, it is legal.
Firstly, the requirement for certain knowledge of a specialist being hired is legal, and we provide the opportunity to obtain this knowledge on a voluntary and free basis.
Secondly, the purpose of training is not selfish – after the basic course we will not get a ready-made specialist on staff.
Then the applicant takes up the position of junior analyst and begins his immersion in the profession and the specifics of our production process. Further success and speed of advancement through grades depend on him.
Incubator risks and how to minimize them
Turning mentoring into a disservice
Mentoring has two sides to the coin. On the one hand, when a senior comrade is assigned to the trainee, this helps to quickly get comfortable and quickly receive answers to questions that arise. But it also deprives him of independence at the start, reduces the need for communication with all colleagues from the team during the completion of tasks.
Therefore, it is important to maintain a golden mean – in no case follow the principle “if he wants to live, he will learn to swim,” but also not to particularly encourage persistent “mentor-trainee” pairs. They, of course, sometimes form on their own, but should not limit the trainee’s interaction with all team members, regardless of personal loyalties. To do this, we give the trainee a lot of independent tasks to create pilot robots and/or processes (at the initial stages, trainee analysts do not work on “live” contract projects). We described some of the interns’ work in this article. Then he communicates with internal customers (heads of product areas) and turns to fellow analysts with various questions. What is important here is a friendly atmosphere in the team, everyone’s willingness to help their colleague, regardless of his level and position.
They raised an employee and he quit
This risk exists always and everywhere; it cannot be eliminated, but it can be minimized.
Firstly, the above mentioned comfortable atmosphere in the team helps. Secondly, the increase in the number and range of functional tasks of our analysts. Some of you may say that this is rather a negative factor, but… Those who consider high workload a burden will indeed leave, and they are in the minority. The rest understand that they have achieved high qualifications in a short time, have further prospects for professional growth and appreciate this opportunity.
NB: By high workload I do not mean the merciless exploitation of young people by the quantitative increase in tasks, but their diversity. As a manager, I carefully monitor that the amount of work assigned to an employee does not lead to burnout.
The rate of employee growth is higher than the rate of growth of his motivation
Having come to us with practically zero background, within six months an intern grows into a specialist with a set of in-demand skills. A year later he is a professional business analyst. Therefore, one of my tasks is constant and careful monitoring of the qualification growth and potential of each of the analysts, the result of which should be predictive decisions on salary increases and grade increases. They must be initiated on my part and definitely before I hear such wishes from the employees themselves, if only because my decision is not enough, it still needs to be justified and approved by several levels of management, which will take some time.
To be honest, the latter is not easy to implement: there are both budget restrictions and arguments against it. For example, an employee who is accustomed to constant and high dynamics of growth of his salary will one day hit a ceiling, above which the company will not be able to offer. But this is a completely different story, going beyond the scope of the article about the incubator.
Advantages of an incubator
The first plus is that after successfully completing the training, the specialist has skills and abilities specifically tailored to our production processes and their needs. As a bonus, he is as loyal as possible to the rules of the company and his division, since he simply does not know others. Sorry for such seemingly selfish pragmatism, but practice shows that this has a positive effect on both production and the employee, who feels quite comfortable in such a situation.
The second is the price (and I’m not just talking about money, although I’m talking about that too). Unlike regular hiring, an employee after an incubator is not a pig in a poke: almost all managers have gone through situations where the difference between the impression of a person at an interview and subsequent work was colossal. This minimizes the risk of disrupting the atmosphere in the team. And yes, you pay a specialist exactly what he is worth right now, at the current moment, perhaps taking into account his future growth prospects. For a trainee, such a thorough selection helps to get to know the future team, understand whether he wants to stay in it, and is often the first “combat” experience that will be useful in subsequent work.
Thanks to everyone who read the post. I would be glad to hear about the training practices that exist in your companies.
If there are those among you who want to try their hand at business analytics, we now have Recruitment of interns is open to the ROBIN command.
