How to deal with permies who want career progression?

[rootsnall]

Having gone perm I have inherited a number of permies. I have headcount to hire (5) more in total and the for the first two I've hired contractors(!)

This seems to be unnerving the longer term permies. I've got one who wants to know about how his 'career' prospects should be handled. He wants to pick and choose the projects he is assigned to - siting 'that's not what I thought I would be doing when I was hired'. The contractors will do anything.

My 'can do, will do' attitude is not resonating well with my new permie staff.

Suggestions please?

Hire ex contractors on decent permie money and shed the unnerved 'permie' permies if possible. Unnerve them a bit more and they'll move teams. I'm in a 100% ex contractor team, we share out the good and the tulip work, and our proper permie line manager leaves us to it.

[Ticktock]

Yeah it's bollocks alright you obviously hire a DBA to do Web development don't you

No. You hire someone who has some basic skills you need, and who has the potential to develop and take on extra responsibilities.

Not having a clue about the reality, I'll assume a DBA is paid more than a web developer for this example, say by about 10k a year.

If you have a long term need for a web developer, hire a web developer. If they start expressing an interest in becoming a DBA, and you have a need for one, then providing a development path to this goal can be a hell of a lot cheaper than hiring a professional DBA. You still get the web development work out of them, if possible their development path is managed internally (e.g. coaching, shadowing, slowly taking some DBA tasks, etc). When they are ready to make the move, and you are ready to move them, you give them a promotion with a couple of grand a year raise. You also then hire a new cheap web developer.

This avoids the costs of recruiting and hiring a new DBA (at the 10k premium), the costs of the web developer leaving (as they can't get the job progression they want), the cost of recruiting and hiring a new web developer to replace them, the costs in terms of low output while the DBA and web developers learns your business, processes, etc.

Bottom line, in permie land it is always cheaper to retain and upskill staff, backfilling their positions, than to lose staff and hire 2 new staff at market rates.

[The Spartan]

Hence I said the ball should be in their court if they want to switch or further develop into another field or take a different career path, they should speak up and say "I'd like to X instead of Y and here's how I think I can achieve it" you can't just sit back and then pipe up and say "What are my career prospects" without you having given it any thought just because you feel slightly threatened.

[rootsnall]

Bottom line, in permie land it is always cheaper to retain and upskill staff, backfilling their positions, than to lose staff and hire 2 new staff at market rates.

It depends if they are any good and worth retaining.

[MarillionFan]

I think I was just surprised at that conversation. The individual covered the role(my role) for two months when the previous person left and to be honest did a horrible job. I then take the job as almost all projects were in fail mode.

I immediately took on the role of BA, PM and sponsor of the most critical project that was in the most dire straits and have had to put in 12/14 hours a day for the last 3 weeks. I also bought in 2 contractors who will work Xmas. I will be taking a well deserved holiday. To cap it off, said permie also decided to take a two week trip back to India, turning off his phone and leaving his own projects to be picked up by me. I then struggled to do so, before getting thuem on track and handing them back, only for him to drop the ball once more.

So annoyingly I've got projects that won't be finished on time, so I am descoping. The hours are presently long as I'm still hiring and there is to much work & were all having to muck in. Asking me if he can pick and choose his projects & how does he become a senior manager/director in the next few years seems like a dumb question to ask at this time.

[NotAllThere]

...Asking me if he can pick and choose his projects & how does he become a senior manager/director in the next few years seems like a dumb question to ask at this time.

Very simple answer: "Make me happy".

[minestrone]

Are any female?

[BA to the Stars]

I think I was just surprised at that conversation. The individual covered the role(my role) for two months when the previous person left and to be honest did a horrible job. I then take the job as almost all projects were in fail mode.

I immediately took on the role of BA, PM and sponsor of the most critical project that was in the most dire straits and have had to put in 12/14 hours a day for the last 3 weeks. I also bought in 2 contractors who will work Xmas. I will be taking a well deserved holiday. To cap it off, said permie also decided to take a two week trip back to India, turning off his phone and leaving his own projects to be picked up by me. I then struggled to do so, before getting thuem on track and handing them back, only for him to drop the ball once more.

So annoyingly I've got projects that won't be finished on time, so I am descoping. The hours are presently long as I'm still hiring and there is to much work & were all having to muck in. Asking me if he can pick and choose his projects & how does he become a senior manager/director in the next few years seems like a dumb question to ask at this time.

Bob strikes again

[MarillionFan]

Are any female?

One of the contractors is. She's pushing on a bit. Makes Cojak look like she's a teenager. ;-)

[BA to the Stars]

As an aside, part of the new Public Sector contracts involve clauses that state Contractors have to knowledge transfer.

When I have previously worked in the public sector, they always ask about knowledge transfer however they always seem to be too busy to do anything about it. It may be in the contract but unless there is a massive shift in the way the public sector operates (yeah right), then what happens in practice may not reflect what is written in the contract.