Human Resources Management at Data Center

ByAqel M. Aqel, OCP, CISA, CSSGB, MBA

Information System Audit And Control Association – Riyadh Chapteraqel.aqel@gmail.com

10th of Dec 2013

1

Content

Introduction

A. PlanningBusiness requirements

Implemented technology

Available budget

B. Hiring

C. Development / Management

a. Organizing

b. Motivation

c. Risk optimization

D. Transitioninga. Rotatingb. Promotingc. Releasingd. Retiring

E. Q & A

2

Introduction

• Information technology is

– No more a tool for business,

– or even an enabling factor,

– It is becoming highly intermingle with business at strategic and operational levels.

• Datacenters are becoming more important in sharpening organization’s competitive advantage.

3

Introduction

• Firms are pursuing a path to ensure:

– appropriate levels of IT service delivery,

– maintaining cost efficiency, and

– alignment to business goals,

• decision makers may focus on technology,

equipment, operating processes but less on human resources.

4

Introduction

• Increasing demand for computing and connectivity

• IT consumerization” Trend:

– Blending personal and business use of technology.

– “consumerization is going to be the most significant trend affecting IT in the next 10 years."

– Example the “take home PC”Gartner, 2005

5

Introduction

• Is Technology staff different?

1. Self confidence: controlling high technologies.

2. Self learning capabilities: diversity of parameters in tech environment.

3. Belonging to professional communities. Less Loyal.

4. Natural since of globalization: IT technology is independent of nation’s cultures,

5. More ready to accept change: Risk of obsoleteness if they fail to renew their knowledge and expertise.

6

HR Phases

D. Transitioning

a. Rotating b. Promoting c. Releasing d. Retiring

C. Development / Management

a. Organizing b. Motivation c. Risk optimization

B. Hiring

Collect Resumes Evaluation Criteria Background Check Orientation

A. Planning

Business requirements Implemented technology Available budget

7

Planning

• Conduct an assessment for capabilities needed to operate the datacenter

1-business requirements,

2-implemented technology,

3-available budget.

8

Planning – Business Requirements

• Datacenter is A service unit responsible for information custodianship.

– Service catalog, SLA, time to market

• Plan HR expansion parallel with the growing in the demand for IT services.

• Risks related to IT, business unit’s tolerance, and possible mitigation plan.

9

Planning – Business Requirements

• Informational model is a key factor in designing operating requirements:

– Number of redundant datacenter

– Remote branch connectivity and infrastructure.

• No recommended mix of capabilities could be easily adopted.

• Seek cost effectiveness while balancing performance with real business needs.

10

Planning – Implemented Technology

• Technological directions is supposed to be identified earlier (COBIT APO02 – manage strategy):

• Operating requirements must be assessed• Staffing depends on project stages and contracts

sourcing.• Do Not:

– depend strategically on temporary teams– depend on immature capabilities while transitioning

between technologies, – underestimate security issues while trusting people to

work in your datacenter.

11

Planning – Implemented Technology

• Number of resources needed?

– measuring performance according to defined processes and tasks

– Actual versus ideal ratio of internal end-users to technical support employees:

• Mean response for Actual was 136:1

• Mean response for Ideal was 82:1 (close to Gartner average which was 87:1)

12

Planning – Implemented Technology

Resources

Periodic Tasks / Processes Projects

Task A Task B Task C … Task n Project 1 Project 2 Project 3 … Project n

Skill 1 Skills

needed

and

Weekly

hours

Skill 2

Skill 3

.

.

.

Skill n

13

Planning – Available budget

• Minimum IT requirements will lead to the needed budget

• Available budgets are mostly less than the dreamed ones!

• Unlimited budget is the worse

• Utilization is a managerial excellence.

14

Planning – Available Budget

• Staff Salaries should budgeted wisely :

– According to market fair salaries

– relies on accredited salary surveys

– Less / more encounters some risks

– Develop your own ranking scheme that includes :

• Long term employment

• Retention plans,

• Career development,

• Deferred benefits

15

Hiring

• Capacity building starts by hiring completive candidates:

– Owns knowledge &

– Positive attitudes

• Streamlined hiring processes will attract qualified resources

• Establish an attractive work environment in the datacenter

16

Hiring

• Collect some resumes

• Hiring skills.

– All datacenter staff should participate.

– Share experience and build best practice.

– Entry level versus highly skilled workers

– Hand Over before joining

– Background check

– Singing NDO

17

Hiring

– Orientation period

• Introducing business objectives and organization structure,

• explaining key activities

• sharing him current and previous success,

• meeting with some decision makers according

• Detailed skill assessment after hiring supported with training will reduce risks.

18

Hiring

• Outsourcing

– Outsource when you add value e.g. performance, excellence of operation, reduce risks, and optimize costs.

– spend enough time in writing down good agreement:

• Make sure it will fulfill your objectives,

• Clarify roles and responsibilities before defining penalties

• Include an exit door.

– Monitor performance and watch behaviors

– all security consideration should be implemented.

19

Hiring

• make candidates understand that:

– You have a career path in mind for them.

– You will invest in their future

20

Development / Management

• “You manage assets; human must be led”

• Management Part: associate HR with the assets in order to keep it up and running

• HR is more important than assets

• Will discuss

a. Organizing

b. Motivation

c. Risk optimization

21

Development / Management Organizing

• Internal structure inside the datacenter

• IT function positioning in the bigger structure

• Internal organization is tightly coupled with the external

• Hierarchical versus team approach

– Rigidity versus dynamicity

• Best structure is that best utilize the resources

• Staff capability matrix.

22

Development / Management Organizing

• Skills matrix• The matrix will show the skills needed at any shift

• Will reflect continuous changes in datacenter

– testing new technologies,

– releases upgrading,

– special projects, drills

• Staff change as:– Learn new skills

– Assigned to new projects

23

Development / Management Organizing

• Think about dedicating a person to a task!

• Development is essential as a motivator.

• achievements is a good motivator

• Capability ranking

• Capabilities are of technical and non technical nature

24

Development / Management Organizing

• Capability ranking:

– Facilitates task coordination, and responsibility assignment.

– Example:

• Do not know.

• Under training

• Capable but under supervision

• Capable

• Capable and can transfer experience

25

Development / Management Organizing

• Team building

– Datacenter workers are team-work-ready unless they been spoiled by corrupted environment.

– leaders and managers should disseminate and present it as real examples

26

Development / Management Organizing

• Relationships– SLA

– Cost accounting (eliminates abuse)

– Val I-IT Framework

– Tragedy of commons

– Wise financial management positively impact workers morals and help them enhance their performance• Cost optimizing

• Rewarding System

27

Development / Management Organizing

• Right sponsorship

– Enough authorities to enforce policies

– Budget allocation

– Team Confidence

– Conflict handling

– Problem solving and escalation

– Grievance System

– Facilitate DRP

28

Development / Management Organizing

• Managing Quality– Embedded in policies and procedures– defining common roles like operator, network

admin…etc.– Process realization, documentation, & automation– Computerized Management System– Quality cannot be achieved with distorted morals

teams, or unsatisfied worker– Compliancy rather than commitment

• Quality should be integrated to motivation and rewarding systems in order to keep it desirable.

29

Development / Management Motivation

• human internal feeling matters and affects his performance.

• Data center workers are knowledge workers.

• Motivators:– Fair compensation

– Utilization

– Engagement

– Certainty

– Alignment

30

Development / ManagementMotivation - Compensation

• Money is never a motivator, yet lack of money is an anti-motivator.

• periodic compensation assessment

• Periodic evaluation of worker’s overall role, performance, and compensation is a healthy exercise:

– assign him in new position,

– discuss his personal interest and professional career

• Consider non direct financial compensation.

31

Development / Management Motivation - Utilization

• People are motivated by applying their abilities to the fullest.

• ignoring people’s skills is disastrous to knowledge workers;

– May continue on Job, but will never exceed the role you set for them.

– Why to scarify workers innovation and commitment!

– Person capacity could be stretched into unbelievable limits; but workers need trustable leaders at the front.

32

Development / Management Motivation - Engagement

• in decision making:

– Choices of how to do work

– Being told how to do it, will only yield mere compliance.

– No involvement no commitment.

– Let people feel important, and their point of view matters in decision making process.

33

Development / Management Motivation - Certainty

• Persons vary in their tolerance to ambiguity. • Knowledge workers are higher tolerable

– They are anticipating change and set plans to keep themselves competent

• To maintain resources motivate keep stable environment. – clear roles and responsibilities, – transparent decision making process, – manageable demand growing and load balancing. – Continuous Learning and skills building through knowledge

sharing

• Reasonable level of certainty.

34

Development / Management Motivation – Alignment

• Aligning worker’s personal ambitions and values with organizational needs.

• This will give motivation as worker achieves organizational goals while he works to achieve his targets in a wonderful win – win situation.

• Help workers discover and realize their personal ambitions.

35

Development / Management Risk Management

• HR are a Source of Threats

– IT human resources are a great source of threats as they have an unlimited access to datacenter resources.

– The nature of work they do implies that we must carefully trust them.

– Set compensating controls to regulate this trust

36

Development / Management Risk Management

• Handling Responsibility – clearly define authority delegation and

responsibility assignment

– management should know who is in charge of any given task, at any given time

– acknowledging responsibility should be established between roles

– Responsibility matrix should be maintained and updated continuously.

– Ability to establishing evidence will optimize risks

37

Development / Management Risk Management

• Business Continuity and disaster recovery

– Right and quick responses should become natural trait in datacenter staff.

– Continuous training and DRP/BCP drills.

38

Transitioning

• datacenter may become smaller than the capabilities that some workers successfully built.

• it is wise to keep him as a faithful soldier within organization.

• Strategies

– Rotating

– Promoting

– Releasing

– Retiring

39

Transitioning - Rotating

• HR planning in datacenter includes not only adding more workers; it should include career path development for existing resources.

• Common and Wise Yet sometimes risky.

• New Position:

– Should not negatively impact work in datacenter.

– The new position should not conflict with his previous one,

– Should not Conflicts must be elminated or mitigated.

40

Transitioning - Promoting

• Smart leaders would make all possible efforts to retain good workers within their organizations.

• I found no excuse for top management to ignore workers’ needs to grow beyond the premises of the datacenter.– Establish new business units.

– Profits Sharing programs.

– Granting stocks

41

Transitioning - Releasing

• Peaceful

– Handshaking programs

• Downsizing,

• Low Performance

• Workers personal Reasons

– adherence to high professional morals and follow internal HR procedures.

• Non peaceful / Criminal

42

Transitioning - Releasing

• Non peaceful / Criminal

– Strict actions against worker

– Cease relationship peacefully unless workers committed a clear crime.

– Depends on the firm policy and management attitude in such circumstances.

– Strict confidentiality in order to preserve firm’s reputation

– Top management involvement

43

Transitioning - Retiring

• Natural exit for workers

• Anticipate resources who about to reach to natural exit for workers retirement age.

• knowledge and expertise before they leave

• Part of the HR annual planning.

• Assess risks associated with retired resources.

44

Questions & Answers

Thank You

45