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HR at most companies is filled with people who are too terrible at anything else, so they get shoved into HR. This situation above (at a telecom turned business
by exelius 10y ago
HR at most companies is filled with people who are too terrible at anything else, so they get shoved into HR. This situation above (at a telecom turned business service provider) is a very common problem -- especially at companies with a large consumer-facing presence.
Because these companies need to hire large volumes of low-skilled workers, they implement rigid HR policies and procedures to streamline the process. Those workers make up probably 95% of their hiring volume -- turnover is high and there are tons of positions available.
These companies fall flat on their fucking face when they try to hire skilled workers. The same processes that make them efficient and streamlined at hiring call center reps make them fucking terrible at skilled labor hiring. They use low-skilled HR reps with zero domain knowledge to filter stuff, then HR always has to be involved in the process "because policy". End result is it takes 4 months to get a resume, interview and extend an offer to someone -- in which time, the best candidates already have started other jobs.
Meanwhile, the engineering groups need to get things done. So when Accenture comes in and says "We can get you a whole team of 50 people in India. And they can start next week." it's hard to say no. And most of the full-time people working at the company are ex-consultants themselves (because that's the only way to actually work at a lot of these companies).
Consultants are basically "shadow HR" at a lot of companies. They wouldn't be so prevalent if these companies were competent at hiring people with relevant skill.
- z3t4 10y agoThe other side of the problem is the skill level needed to be a good developer.
- exelius 10y agoOh, I'm not even talking about problems identifying good developers -- even if they find them, HR is so slow and rigid in their process that things like salary negotiations take months, in which time even mediocre candidates have usually found something better. Basically, HR runs the hiring process at most of these companies, and from HR's perspective the engineering teams are like that annoying customer that keeps complaining because they are a "special flower" (HR detests special flowers). They don't even know what engineering does; just that they have 55 call center positions and 2 engineering positions they need to fill this month. Not every company is this way, but many big ones are. Specifically the ones where like 70% of the company is consultants.
- coldcode 10y agoYou must work where I do - all of this sounds familiar.
- LordKano 10y agoI have a difficult time understanding how Accenture is still in business but your scenario makes sense. Having worked a large (billion dollar scale) project with Accenture, I have seen what a mixed bag they can be. They brought on some absolute rock-star developers and some who probably did more harm to the project than good but none of them had skills that weren't available with domestic talent. I suppose the shackles of H1B visas helped to keep labor costs down.
- polotics 10y agoYep. This is my experience also with Wipro: one very highly skilled consultant covering for five to ten let's say much more tepid bodies. This racket works well as long as no-one is looking close also middle-managers like to show off roomfulls of people under their notional command.
- exelius 10y agoIn the business we call this "leverage". The whole business is a pyramid of lower skilled workers billing high rates while the "talent" works at a loss and does all of the actual work. You drum out the ones who can't hack it after a year or two and replace them with fresh grads, and you promote and pay the good ones to keep up the charade. And you're spot on about the middle manager thing. That way they can say "I was over 4 teams with 75 heads so I'm ready to be a VP!" when really all they did was approve expense reports and head-nod to everything I told them. Of course, making sure that middle manager gets promoted is also part of the job -- when he gets promoted, he gets a bigger budget. :)
- dragandj 10y agoThen it looks to me that there is no problem.