The Need for Strategic Tech Talent Management and Leveraging Global Talent Assets

Talent is the largest component of most IT budgets, and you need to be able to find the best balance of cost and capabilities with your pool of talent BEFORE times get tough.

This is where Strategic Talent Management comes in. Strategic Talent Management simply means separating your talent into three layers:

A low-cost layer in a Virtual Captive or Managed GIC which typically costs between $15-20/per hour and is the best place for all baseline support costs.

The second layer is your internal team, which is the next most expensive source of talent.

The third layer is the flex consultant and contractor layer. This is usually the most expensive source of talent.

Using a Virtual Captive can help reduce IT costs by using talent strategically. By using the lowest cost external talent available, you can save on costs while still maintaining the quality and experience you need.

India is a talent-rich location that’s home to a large, young population. The IT-ITES industry is one of the country’s major employers, and this talent pool is also supported by a growing young population.

Since India has the second largest English-speaking population in the world, global operations tend to run smoothly across offices.

Even though a subset of India’s vast talent pool working in the GIC environment may have some skills in common with their peers in the IT industry, they differ significantly at a core cultural level. This talent pool has some of the following differentiators:

• GIC’s talent and leadership development philosophy is to work hand-in-hand with the home office, so that team members are always aware of the business context and can take ownership of their responsibilities. This way, teams are more productive and empowered to make decisions. Global leaders give guidance and support to these teams, who are accountable for their results.
• Ownership and taking accountability are key traits that GIC looks for in its talent. GIC leaders and teams are usually in charge of entire functions, and they’re responsible for business outcomes. They also have a say in strategic decisions, even though they don’t have the traditional authority to do so. This way, they can focus on outcomes rather than just processes or discrete projects, which have a big impact on the enterprise as a whole.
• The group is known for their excellent communication skills and ability to work in cross-office environments. They can understand and provide feedback, communicate issues, and collaborate to resolve them. These teams can work in a globally distributed environment that is operationally and culturally integrated.
• These teams are often lean, which means they don’t have extra people to rely on when things get busy. Instead, they focus on developing specific skills that will add value to the enterprise. This deep focus on a few key areas helps make decisions quickly and efficiently without having to waste time gathering input from a large team.

Conclusion:

The most important thing to remember is that you should try and use a Virtual Captive for as much as possible. What this means is that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak, by having all your talent in the most expensive layers. This is referring to Internal talent and consulting talent. The reason why this is important to remember is because if times ever do get tough, and you have to cut staff or reduce capabilities, you will have already spread out your talent so that not everything is lost at once.

Virtual captives have the potential to dramatically reduce your IT costs. By being strategic about how you use talent, you can make sure that your IT cost optimization strategy is as effective as possible.