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COVID-19 has been a disruption of epic proportions, and for the information technology sector, its impact rivals that of Y2K. Within a matter of days or weeks, organizations around the world needed to enable a fully remote workforce. Were we ready? If the rise in cyber security breaches around the globe is any indication – not all of us were.  

Many of you are likely asking how Software Asset Management relates to cyber security. For several of my recent clients, cyber security superseded cost management as the primary driver of their work to develop a comprehensive Policy, Process, and Governance (PPG) framework for their SW estate. They understood that an established SAM practice was a key pillar of their cyber security program.

There are some important ways that a SAM practice can help protect your organization from a costly cyber-attack:

1. Knowing what software and applications you have and where they are located

It’s often said that you cannot manage what you don’t measure. Establishing and maintaining a reliable book of record for your software assets is the first and critical step in your SAM journey.

2. Establishing policy and controlling access to risky applications

Your CISO and security team know that there is malicious software and in fact, the list of nefarious SW grows every day. By leveraging discovery tools, blacklisted SW can be removed before it causes extensive damage to your IT environment.
 

3. Streamlining Your SW Footprint

Not only is it cost effective, ensuring that your organization is using and supporting current SW means that there are fewer balls in the air and reduces the risk that a redundant application will provide an open door for cyber-attacks.
 

4. Taking a process first approach to mature your SAM practice

How long does it take to test, package, and distribute an upgrade or patch in your company? By designing and implementing a standard deployment process as part of your PPG framework, you can streamline the delivery of critical patches and increase your level of protection significantly.

If you’d like to read more about the critical link between SAM and cyber security, I have included links to some great articles below. When you are ready to make SAM part of your cyber security program, the experienced team at AntonGM will be there to help you on your journey!

https://www.anglepoint.com/software-asset-management-cyber-security/

https://smeinfoportal.org/blog/mitigating-cyber-risks-using-sam/

https://www.cybersecurity-insiders.com/what-why-and-how-of-cybersecurity-asset-management/

It should come as no surprise that you will, at some point in your career, be faced with a “counter” scenario.

In today’s competitive job market, the counteroffer has almost become synonymous with the resignation process. But while it may be tempting to weigh your options—particularly if a long-awaited raise or promotion is being promised—it is best to keep in mind the inherent risks of your decision to stay.

One of the major pitfalls of accepting a counteroffer is a loss of credibility.

As we all know, trust is the foundation of good business relationships. When that trust is lost, it is hard to gain back. You most certainly will never get it back from the firm that was planning on hiring you. What many candidates don’t realize, however, is that the damage often extends beyond a rescinded job offer and some burnt bridges.

By placing your boss in a position where they are forced to make you an offer you can’t refuse, it is bound to leave a sour taste in their mouth. In fact, nearly 80 percent of business executives said they no longer considered an employee trustworthy after they took a counter, according to a recent study published in the Harvard Business Review.

This loss of trust will ultimately stifle your career. Your boss may think twice about promoting you or placing you on a high-profile project, because they are worried you may jump at the next offer that comes your way. It is no wonder then that most employees who take a counteroffer are back on the job market in six months to a year.

Before you decide to leave your current company, there are some things you should consider. If your main motivation for leaving is money, then it is best to have a discussion with your employer first to see whether a raise is a possibility. There will always be firms willing to pay you more, but not every firm will be able to offer you a potentially career leveraging opportunity.

This applies to your current employer as well. A counteroffer will not create opportunities where there are none to begin with nor will it resolve issues at your current workplace that are inhibiting your growth.

So, if you decide that it is time for you and your current company to part ways, it is best to make a clean break and move on.

In this next installment of the Passive Talent Strategy series, the AntonGM Team talks about the importance of maintaining your Talent Pipeline.

We’ve all heard the saying, “save something for a rainy day.” This turn of phrase holds a lot of weight when we consider the importance of developing a Talent Pipeline. Arguably one of the most important aspects of an effective Passive Talent Strategy, Talent Pipelines are a way for companies to hire proactively, rather than reactively.  

An article published by Hello Talent speaks to the numerous benefits of cultivating Talent Pipelines. There are two that really stand out.

First and foremost, having a Talent Pipeline prevents or at least mitigates business disruptions that can occur if a key member of your staff leaves.

For many companies, hiring strategies are primarily focused on filling vacant positions. The main drawback of this approach is that by hiring reactively— that is, only focusing on positions you need to fill right now— you will always be in reactive mode and new vacancies will take a lot more time to fill. Eventually, these chronic gaps in your organization will lead to a loss in productivity, growth, and opportunity.

The pitfalls of a reactive approach are why developing a Talent Pipeline is so crucial, as it helps firms to anticipate future staffing needs by always having a pool of top industry professionals at the ready to fill talent gaps as they arise in your organization.

Another benefit is that having a Talent Pipeline streamlines your recruitment efforts when it comes to finding those “right fit” candidates for hard-to-fill positions.

In order to build a Talent Pipeline, recruiters engage routinely with selected talent pools, keeping your company top of mind for prospective job seekers.  Even if there are no current opportunities for candidates with a certain level of experience or skillset, it is beneficial to keep the lines of communication open.

When candidates are kept “warm” for a rainy day, they are more likely to consider your firm over your competitor, as they already know who you are and what joining your organization could do for their career.

While maintaining a Talent Pipeline requires some effort, the returns are yet another reason to integrate a Passive Talent Strategy into your recruitment efforts.

Recruiters won’t be hunting for a new job in 2020. At least, that’s according to an article published by Entrepreneur magazine.

The rise of new AI-based software and recruitment websites have been billed as a way for companies to bypass executive search firms and create their own talent pipelines. But, as any traditional, pick-up-the-phone recruiter will tell you, these technologies have their limitations.

The bottom line is that computers can’t judge whether a potential candidate is the 'right fit' for your client's firm. It cannot compute company culture or core value-alignment.

That is not say that high-tech recruitment solutions are all bad. Quite the opposite, actually. They just can’t be the basis of your entire recruitment and hiring strategy. As guest writer, Paul Nolan, correctly asserts in this article, “. . . executive recruiting is more art than science.”

Professional recruiters spend time getting to know candidates. They gain a clear understanding of their motivation, their career aspirations, and whether the answers they provide align with the client’s overall direction when it comes to growing and transforming their business.

No algorithm is going to do this for you.

Identifying whether a candidate is the 'right fit' for your firm requires picking up the phone and getting to know them.  

In this first installment of our new blog series, the AntonGM Team talks about the need to integrate a Passive Talent Strategy into your recruitment process.

When many people think about recruitment, they tend to only think about the end result—the placement. Rather than being a metric, a placement is an outcome of the recruitment process. By simply counting hires, we fail to consider the rest of the process that brought that candidate into the role.

According to an article published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), corporate attitudes may finally be shifting away from that traditional “bum in the seat” metric when it comes to measuring the success of recruitment strategies.

That’s the good news.

But then what are we measuring, and how do we get there? One of the often-overlooked elements in an effective recruitment process is a structured approach to engaging with passive candidates.

In reality, top industry talent is typically not applying to your job board. In most cases, “ideal” candidates with the right mix of skills and alignment with your company’s culture and goals are already gainfully employed.

If you think that passive candidates like these are the minority, consider this statistic: seventy percent of the global workforce are considered passive candidates.

So, by not targeting these individuals, it significantly narrows one’s overall talent pipeline. This means that many potential candidates would be overlooked during the recruitment process, including those "right fit," passive candidates. 

Even though this strategy is part of the playbook for many recruitment professionals, it remains a challenge to justify the time and effort spent on cultivating a talent pipeline of passive candidates to clients.

Why is this the case?

The answer is simple.

Passive recruitment strategies are a lot of work and require a dedicated, consistent process to identify those candidates who are not active but who may be open to a career leveraging opportunity.

While a more aggressive focus on active candidates might fill your open positions faster, it doesn’t necessarily fill them with the right people for the job. When it comes to candidates, it is best to remember that active doesn’t always mean the best.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Passive Talent Strategy series, where the AntonGM team will discuss how this approach can help firms be proactive rather than reactive in addressing their staffing needs.

“Every person, team, and organization is unique in their own way. Prescriptive, “one size fits all” strategies don’t work well in practice. There is no silver bullet method applicable to all enterprises and all solutions…" PMI, 2019

Anyone who has worked with me or attended one of the Project Management lectures I have delivered has likely heard me say, “let’s focus on the ‘what,’ not the ‘how.’”

It has been an unpopular position to hold over my 20+ year career, especially since the early 2010’s when traditional PM frameworks came under scrutiny and Agile came into vogue as the “new” way of delivering projects, particularly in the IT and technology sector.

Organizations jumped at the chance to get products and improved UX tools to market faster and demanded new credentials, new rituals, and new “Agile” methods be employed across the board, lest they fall behind.

While I too have integrated some of these new Agile and hybrid “methods” to satisfy client and corporate direction, I have observed a tendency towards vigorous debate within our teams, companies, and on social media about the “best” way of delivering value.

It seems as though advocating for (insert current buzzworthy “method” of the day) has become exponentially more important than the product, project or service we need to deliver. It’s no wonder our strategic initiatives are still failing to deliver their anticipated value!

So why do we continue to spend so much of our time and energy focusing on how we are going to get work done instead of focusing on the work needing to be done for our companies and customers?

It’s time to reflect on the impact this fixation with approach is having on our productivity, our rates of success, and our bottom line so we can enable our delivery teams to get back to what they do best—Delivering valuable products and services!

Wishing all of our clients, colleagues, and connections a happy and rewarding New Year filled with exciting opportunities!

Ensure that next year is your best year yet . . . 

Connect, Transform, and Grow with AntonGM in 2020!

At ANTONGM, we remain at the leading edge of ITAM governance, risk mitigation and process design practices and are ready to assist your organization to develop and implement a holistic, life cycle based ITAM program framework. By leveraging our expertise and the IT platform automation and tool experts we have selected as partners, you can help your organization harness the competitive business advantages of truly cross functional, strategic management of IT assets.

Mergers and Acquisitions require operational and process changes but most importantly, they require attention to cultural and human change. If you have only looked at the transition to business as usual in terms of processes and technology, the success and viability of your new firm may be at risk.

Accelerated Personal and Professional Growth

As the pace of change continues to increase around the world, companies need to become nimble in the way they transform their operations and address customer needs to survive and thrive in this new “VUCA” world. At the individual level, personal agility is the new name of the game for those people looking advance their level of career success.

Consulting firms, recruitment experts and large global organizations agree that one of the best ways to increase your personal agility and leverage your career more quickly is to work in another area of the world. In fact, research has shown that over 60% of employers view applicants who have travelled, worked or studied abroad more favourably in the recruitment and selection process.  

So, what is it about international work experience that makes it such a valuable part of a resume and since you will do the work and take that leap of faith, what’s in it for you personally?

Not All Rainbows and Butterflies

Working abroad isn’t for everyone. Some comments from people who have experienced working internationally:

1. Family and friends can often be a long distance away, so if you aren’t travelling with someone you may be lonely at times,
2. Colleagues in your host country may not be as friendly/eager to get to know you, and
3. The standard of living may be different/lower than your country of origin and requires that you adjust.