How the process of project change has evolved – the history of Job Changer
Job Changer is a response to developing, motivating and preventing employee rotation, which is often a challenge in a rapidly growing organization. The application was created on the basis of the employees’ needs analysis, and a broad information campaign contributed to the rapid popularization of the tool. Last year over 340 employees benefited from it. – Thanks to the project change, I gained new motivation and a boost of positive energy – says Daniel, Test and Analysis Engineer at Sii Poland.
Every employer operating within the demanding IT services market has to face employee rotation. Since the establishment of the company in 2006, for 14 years of presence on the Polish market, Sii Poland has grown to 4 500 employees, with branches in 14 Polish cities. Along with the dynamic development of the company, its internal processes also gradually changed. We began to look more closely at rotation, in 2015 we took part in the Great Place to Work study to identify areas for improvement within the organization. It slowly became obvious that our branches are no longer small offices, where all employees know each other, and the flow of information in terms of projects, development opportunities or everyday problems and challenges is not so smooth and requires the systematization of processes.
The Job Changer application is the next step in fulfilling the mission of Sii Poland – Power People means identifying and promoting the best. The solution enables all workers to change the project within the company, without the need for external recruitment. The application was proceeded by a long process of analysis in terms of internal needs of the organization, so as to best adapt the emerging tool to the specifics of the company culture. We decided to invest in the process automation on a national scale, enabling Power People to find a simpler path of professional development within the company, without having to change the employer.
From needs analysis to the application
By analyzing surveys conducted locally with each employee leaving the company and comparing them with the results of the Great Place to Work questionaire conducted in Sii Poland, we identified several areas worth working on. The main goal was to reduce the rotation among specialists, so we decided to act in a way that gave our employees easier access to development opportunities within the company, providing a functional process of project change and raising awareness of the importance of their initiative in the context of creating their career path.
The need to introduce a clear project change process resulted directly from the characteristics of our organization. Sii Poland as a company providing IT and industrial engineering services, cooperates with many clients and implements many projects at the same time. As a result, we have a lot of diversity in terms of our employees’ workplaces – some of them provide services from Sii offices, but a significant part works directly in the clients’ offices on a daily basis. In the described model there are no clearly defined career paths, they are replaced by the ability to change the project, department, client or work location inside the company and flexible shaping of one’s own development path, using your own initiative, not just following the ready process.
To enable employees to take advantage of the benefits of working with many clients from various industries, at the beginning we created an internal process that allowed them to inform their supervisor about the desire for change. However, analyzing the results of Great Place to Work survey, we noticed that a significant proportion of employees still do not see the possibility of shaping their career in the company. Therefore, a more formal change was needed – improvement and automation of the entire internal recruitment process. So we focused on introducing an application that facilitates process management, not to mention extensive internal communication. At the same time we worked on the Job Market application – an internal job board. In 2017, we started to work on standardizing the process, at first using the ready Sharepoint platform format. Thanks to that, we were able to test changes in the process, withholding a hasty investment in a new tool until we examine the needs further and test the solutions. After a year of verification and addressing the employees and managers’ concerns, the work on our own IT solution started. And so, in June 2018, the Job Changer tool was created – an application that gives the employees the opportunity to apply for a change, regardless of their department, position or years of experience.
To use the application, Power People simply need to complete the form and wait for the contact from the Retention and HR support department. After a short conversation filling in the necessary information regarding the employee’s experience and expectations, a consultation with their supervisor follows. After the acceptance of the application, the process of searching for a suitable project begins. The managers of the respective departments, as well as the Retention and HR support department are involved in proposals of new projects that are presented to the applicant, and if for both parties – the employee and the potential new supervisor – the change turns out to be satisfactory, we can proceed with the change.
Job Changer becomes more popular
However, creating a process and an application is not enough. Our goal remained to raise awareness of employees, show them development opportunities and encourage commitment and own initiative in shaping their career path. To achieve that, in August 2018, we started an extensive campaign showing significant projects that Sii Poland is a part of, a detailed project change process and the stories of people whose change was successful. Thanks to articles, posters and video materials, we have addressed the most common fears and increased awareness of such a process among employees. And the statistics already are impressive.
– At the moment, the success ratio is 53%. This does not mean, however, that we found new development opportunities for half of the employees who came to us. For 18% of applicants, it was satisfactory to make even small changes to current projects – change of daily duties, responsibilities and sometimes even a change of desk! 18% of applications are still in progress, as the change does not happen overnight. 1% are the applications rejected by managers, such also occur, and only 10% of applicants decide to leave the organization due to process taking too long or proposals for change are mismatched – says Joanna Kucharska, CHRO at Sii Poland.
The Job Changer application gradually becomes more popular. Over the past year, we have registered over 370 applications for a project change – over two times more than in the corresponding period of 2017-2018. The awareness of managers in the organization is also increasing – last year only 1% of applications were not accepted by them, in comparison to 8% from the previous time period.
We are pleased that Sii employees appreciate the solution we introduced and take the initiative to shape their careers based on the projects proposed to them within the organization. Working with over 200 clients from Poland and abroad in 14 locations and 13 Competence Centers, the company works on variety of projects, giving its experts numerous development opportunities. All they need to do is submit a Job Changer application.
