STAFFING & RESOURCE MANAGEMENT - MANAGING EFFECTIVE BENCH & STRATEGIC ROTATION

1. Bench Management
& Rotation
Arunesh Chand Mankotia

2. Overview
Bench simply means:
Pool of resources rolled off from respective projects because either the
project has ended or the resource has been moved against under
performance.
Bench Management:
The key is to maintain optimal bench rate, it enables to procure new
business, gets in flexibility to pitch in resources to critical projects with in
the TAT, Employee & organization get balanced time to develop skills &
enhance capability between projects.
Utilization process works around Bench supply plan process, hiring request
assessment, skills assessment, Gap assessment, Training &
development, Resource allocation and bench resource
termination/utilization in typical India IT services sector.

3. Capacity VS Demand
Balance between Capacity & Demand is what is an IDEAL bench, but on ground
organization like IBM, Accenture, TCS, and other key players struggle to manage
bench with percentage ranging between 10 to 30 % anytime around the year with
bench duration averaging between 60 days to 180 days and more in some critical
cases.
On ground challenges today resource managers face:
Resources on bench with following scenarios
(a). The resource lacks capability and is average in skills,
(b). The resource has a niche technology skills with minimal business demand,
(c). Projects not available in near future,
(d). Resource refuses project with reasons ranging from location/technology/Sector
preferences to aspect of future projects, level of skills required, skill
mismanagement.
(e). Resources rolled out or not selected on skills and capabilities.
(f). Project managers & clients lacking trust on bench capabilities and looking for
billable resources to be deployed.
(g). Short term projects with no future secondary demand, low hit ratios from the
sales team forecasted demand.

4. Bench Management best practices!
Sending our weekly utilization statistics to managers does not help to
solve the problem, it requires focused coordinated effort among teams
that manages Supply, Capacity & Utilization side of Sales, Practice,
Marketing, Human Resources and delivery team to come out with action
plan on periodic basis, the approach to this has to be holistic.
Keeping the Bench busy:
(a). Healthy bench can be achieved primarily with a need analysis to
identify micro managed matrix to understand bench capability against
current & future demand creating priorities to aim and develop resources
in accordance to the demand to increase deployment.
- Aligning the bench along with capability & developing tailor made
trainings.
- Developing platform to keep the bench aligned to the resource team &
demand current & future feasibility.

5. (b). Resources between projects can be a part of a good number of
development programs minimizing the non billable hours on bench –
- Customized Training with priority need analysis
- Stretch project feasibility
- R&D & Innovation capability building
- Smart portals & dashboards enabling Resource Managers with the right
tools
(c). Refusal management:
- Categorize Bench refusal
- In-depth analysis of bench resources profile
- Structured Approach to build the platform between Demand & bench
- Standing Operating procedures insight with the management
*The Points have note links for details, expand by clicking
Cont……..

6. Out Of The Box thinking
Resource management is a skill changing with the business, it is the art of
creating profits out of expenditure therefore this function requires
flexibility to change & innovate continuously –
1. Internal Bench Manager
2. Campus Initiative
3. Inter exchange of internal bench knowledge
4. Selling your bench
5. Developing Resource Management Team Capability
6. Develop Strategy along with Hiring team
7. The Bench Blog
Lastly Bench Management is a process of maintaining balance therefore
number crunching skills, adaptation, Client servicing & sales along with
a technical understanding of demand can help any team achieve its best
Standards.
*The Points have note links for details, expand by clicking

7. Rotation
The days of Technology professionals spending
decades at a company and receiving a gold watch
in gratitude are long gone.

8. Rotation
Rotation is basically employees moved between two or more jobs in a planned
manner. The objective is to expose the employees to different experiences and
wider variety of skills to enhance job satisfaction and to cross-train them.
What Works! What Does not work!
---> Job rotation policy is planned to stretch and
challenge employees and broaden their
understanding and exposure to different
business process.
---> It promotes cross functional expertise and
experience.
---> Potent weapon to fight both attrition and
monotony of work. higher levels of
organizational commitment and helps create a
more satisfied and motivated.
---> Effective mechanism for succession
planning.
---> Rotation requires the organization to invest
money, time, and effort in training, running
orientation programs to facilitate the process.
---> Job rotation can aggravate the problem of
attrition in IT services firm cashing enhanced
market value.
---> Low productivity in the early days of
rotation.
---> Sensitive projects & at times clients/project
managers are reluctant to change the stagnant
structure because risks our high.

9. Approach
Innovation embraces a promising new retention strategy, employee rotation. Instead of locking
professionals into a single sector category with a specific career trajectory, need of the hour is
movement through a variety of projects within departments or teams.
So where to start?
- Recognize that employee rotation programs should be implemented with careful consideration.
- Establish clear guidelines
- You have a valued employee whose skills have grown beyond current duties and, yet, a
promotion isn't an option. In any organization flat or hierarchical, the opportunities to move up
the ladder get smaller the higher up you go.
- Whether an employee wants to be promoted or not, job rotation improves their skills and gives
them a broader understanding of the inner workings of a company.
- If employees don't feel like they're growing, they'll head for the exits, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"
and are happy to have employees do what they've shown they can do best.
- Employee with interest in trying out new roles & sectors within off/on bench, work with them to
create a job rotation plan or test phase simply it could be the difference between losing a stellar
employee and helping them find a new passion that, in the end, bolsters your bottom line.
*The Points have note links for details, expand by clicking

10. Case Studies macrO submissioN
Case Study Submission- I
Resource manager in company X, pitching ON/OFF bench resources to demand in a
singular channel, therefore utilizing 100% deployment.
Case Study Submission- II
Cost on training & other between bench activities minimized as rotation takes on higher
bench numbers.
Case Study Submission- III
Rotation between Key projects/clients in terms of higher resource productivity is effective
on ground, what it requires is a techno-financial analysis.
Case Study Submission- IV
Developing Risk through new born caretakers can be only tackled with strong orientation,
training & calculative productive strategy.
Case Study Submission- V
Building the bottom, minimizing attrition and all other forms of targeted uncertainty with
multi skilled bench to have across, Bonding/Knowledge & Implementation capability
is future of resource & staffing services.

11. “The bench strength at our company is deep, and we have skilled talented
professionals who are ready to take on new opportunities and challenges. The key
is to continue to fill open positions from within, and we should have announcements
about additional promotions and new assignments shortly. In the meantime, I'm
confident that the business will continue to run smoothly.”
(I dream bench management)
"I can't think of a single industry that wouldn't benefit from job rotation,"
(I dream Right Rotation)
Please revert for any information required at aarunesh@gmail.com
Thanks & Regards