Challenges

According to studies by McKinsey & Company, 87% of companies worldwide are aware that they either already have a skills gap or will have one within a few years. Employee attrition at Opus was reflecting industry trends, with over 40% refresh within the last 3 years.

Working closely with Opus, the Innovorg team identified key challenges related to the – IT skills gap in Opus’ team:

• Rapid Technological Advancements
  The cloud computing landscape evolves rapidly, necessitating constant upskilling of the workforce.  
• Retention Concerns
  Retaining top talent amid stiff competition from tech giants was an ongoing challenge.  
• Highly Specialized but Lean Organization
  Finding qualified candidates with cloud expertise proved to be a daunting task.

Solution

6 months into working with Innovorg, Opus has radically improved the efficiency of communications, training, and workflow across its operations team.

• Skills Matrix Design and Implementation: deep analysis of role levels resulted in successful mapping of skills inventory across the function to fuel job scorecards. For the Opus team, this was over 400 skills
• Development of Playbooks, Skills Catalog, and Job Scorecards Alignment: between skills matrix and workflow were mapped in a custom skills catalog that reflected all the products and services sold/ supported by the Opus team.Tools and systems have been designed and content curated. Career path development and training program were also developed
• Department Workflow and Model Optimized Review of role levels: resulted in clearly defining processes to complete support ticket and projects, the department also created clear structure and handoff between Specialized Services, Engineering Services, and Support Services.
• Staff Training: the team was reintroduced to the aligned organizational structure, processes, and systems and an streamlined communications cadence was implemented to ensure continued alignment.
• Competitive Compensation and Benefits: to attract and retain top talent, the organization revised its compensation packages and introduced performance-based incentives.
• Training and Development Strategy and Implementation: the organization established in-house training programs targeted around high-demand colocation and cloud technologies within its service offering such as dedicated IaaS, VDI, AWS, Azure, and Business Continuity Services. Employees were encouraged to earn relevant certifications that clearly aligned with their job scorecards.

Impact

By harnessing the combined power of roles, skills, certifications and adaptive learning the Innovorg platform gives Opus a strong edge to help them to continue to excel in their pursuit of ensuring skilled staff continue to meet the demanding needs of a fast moving industry.

Over a period of just 6 months, Opus Interactive observed significant improvements:

• Skills Enhancement
  The percentage of employees holding relevant cloud certifications increased by 40%.
• Reduced Recruitment Challenges
  The organization found it easier to attract skilled candidates, with a 30% reduction in time-to-fill vacant positions.
• Increased Employee Satisfaction
  More clearly defined roles, paths to advancement and improved cross-department communication have resulted in greater employee satisfaction overall.
• Improved Customer Experience
  Developing clear workflows, roles and responsibilities, and cross-training for the tailored hybrid and multi-cloud solutions ensures that customers can rely on a consistent delivery of quality support across the team.
• Market Competitiveness
  Known for white glove service and continuous innovation in the fast moving cloud industry, Opus Interactive enhanced its market competitiveness, and established a repeatable approach to training that ensures high levels of customer satisfaction and expedited approach to launching new products and services within its team.

Conclusion

Bridging the IT skills gap in a fast-growing cloud hosting organization like Opus Interactive is an ongoing effort.
By investing in training, partnerships, mentorship, competitive compensation, and flexibility, the company has successfully navigated these challenges and established a framework that promotes continued improvement.
Opus Interactive is well-positioned to continue its growth trajectory while maintaining a highly skilled and
motivated workforce.