Event Recap
RECAP | ROUNDTABLE | Building a Business Case for More Resources
9 Jan 2020
Participants at Uptime Institute’s January 8th roundtable, “Building a business case for more resources,” all pointed to staffing shortages as their number one resource issue, followed closely by the need for more training. These resource constraints were exacerbated by growing client demands, according to all participants, but especially colocation providers.
In some instances, enterprise operators turn to third parties as a way to manage the burden. According to one of the largest third-party operators, this solution does not eliminate problems caused by staffing shortages, but it does transfer the burden of meeting staffing requirements to the third parties. He also noted that the third-party option worked best when clients could carefully define the services they needed and which they could provide for themselves. Often, enterprises would manage third-party staff, such as operating engineers.
Further discussion of the staffing issue included ideas about methods for recruiting and retaining employees. Many of these ideas had been suggested at an earlier staffing roundtable, according to session moderator Kevin Heslin, at which several participants said that companies often struggled to fill mid-level hires because they had no entry-level staff on payroll to train up.
Uptime Institute Senior Consultant Rich Van Loo confirmed all these positions. He was not surprised that staffing was the primary resource constraint. Corporate resources, he said, could help support additional training and higher salaries, but these inducements helped more with retention than recruitment.
Other participants noted that increased workloads could be met with strategies such as cross-training and increased training, while also saying that management would sometimes use automation and even staffing shortages as reasons for reducing staffing requirements.
One roundtable participant (from a large telecom) pointed out several concrete strategies the company had used to manage costs and extend the budget. In particular, he noted that the telecom now performed more service tasks using the staff. This move saved money, which was partially invested in higher salaries and staff levels as well as training.
Documentation was critical to this--and all other--approaches, according to Van Loo. He said showing reduced OPEX, a concrete expense, could be more convincing to management than estimates of avoided downtime costs.
In some instances, enterprise operators turn to third parties as a way to manage the burden. According to one of the largest third-party operators, this solution does not eliminate problems caused by staffing shortages, but it does transfer the burden of meeting staffing requirements to the third parties. He also noted that the third-party option worked best when clients could carefully define the services they needed and which they could provide for themselves. Often, enterprises would manage third-party staff, such as operating engineers.
Further discussion of the staffing issue included ideas about methods for recruiting and retaining employees. Many of these ideas had been suggested at an earlier staffing roundtable, according to session moderator Kevin Heslin, at which several participants said that companies often struggled to fill mid-level hires because they had no entry-level staff on payroll to train up.
Uptime Institute Senior Consultant Rich Van Loo confirmed all these positions. He was not surprised that staffing was the primary resource constraint. Corporate resources, he said, could help support additional training and higher salaries, but these inducements helped more with retention than recruitment.
Other participants noted that increased workloads could be met with strategies such as cross-training and increased training, while also saying that management would sometimes use automation and even staffing shortages as reasons for reducing staffing requirements.
One roundtable participant (from a large telecom) pointed out several concrete strategies the company had used to manage costs and extend the budget. In particular, he noted that the telecom now performed more service tasks using the staff. This move saved money, which was partially invested in higher salaries and staff levels as well as training.
Documentation was critical to this--and all other--approaches, according to Van Loo. He said showing reduced OPEX, a concrete expense, could be more convincing to management than estimates of avoided downtime costs.
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