Talent Pipelining Case Study

Recruitment & Insight Experts!

Case Study: Talent Pipelining

Intelligent Automation business in Europe using emerging technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Get In touch

Background

The business comprises three ‘towers’ – RPA, Cognitive Services and Advanced Analysis – and that the area has a significant 3-year growth plan. At present, the business is akin to a ‘start-up’ environment, and the immediate hiring plan is to recruit c.10-15 individuals who can also help stimulate sales as part of their wider remit. These roles are to be based across the UK, France, Italy and Spain, and given that you have had some success in the UK and France, we are therefore to concentrate on the roles based in Spain and Italy. Job specifications have been provided and described that there are 5 types of role to focus upon

The role levels are typically Consultant to Senior Consultant
Geographically, Avanade has key offices in Madrid, Malaga & Barcelona (Spain) and Milan, Florence & Rome (Italy) – whilst it will be interesting to learn the talent pools within these cities, we should focus our search nationwide given that the appointees will naturally travel to client sites across the country
Candidates will ideally have relatively strong pre-sales experience as well as the associated client interface and presentation skills (the role will ultimately become delivery but given the start-up scenario, individuals who can help build a book of business will be sought after)
Permanent hires preferred but will you also consider contractors
RPA roles: experience in Automation tools such as Blue Prism, UI Path, Automation Anywhere or NICE
Cognitive roles: experience of Microsoft Cognitive Services capabilities on Azure and other platforms like IBM Watson. For the AI / Cognitive Architect, experience in Machine Learning will also be a “nice to have”
Main target organisations included the ‘big four’ consultancies such as EY, Deloitte and KPMG and other large technology consultancies as well as smaller local organisations

During the course of the research it became apparent that Cognitive role candidates with IBM Watson technology background were not suitable. Therefore, the search parameters were adjusted to exclude this technology as well as IBM as a target organisation. It was also advised that the original salary banding quoted at Consultant and Senior Consultant level (31.000€ to 49.000€) was no longer applicable, and a revised top salary for any level candidate was 35.000€ in Italy. The early indications during the research showed that candidates with the desired level of relevant experience seemed to be above the annual maximum salary of 35.000€. This was especially apparent when looking at the main target organisations such as KPMG and Deloitte.

Executive Summary Spain

Talent Acumen identified a total of 153 candidates across the RPA roles.

Most candidates had not heard of Avanade prior to Talent Acumen approaching them, but were very familiar with Accenture and Microsoft.
82 conversations were held with 55 not interested in the roles. The main reasons for not being interested in the roles were that most have only been in their roles a short while (or in the middle of a project) and therefore not looking to make a move at this present time as well as being happy in their roles.
Main hot spots for RPA talent in Spain were found to be Madrid and Barcelona – this was both apparent whilst identifying candidates as well as from the feedback gathered from conversations. In some cases when looking at near shore centres, Malaga and Alicante were mentioned.
Candidates did not seem to have many years of experience in RPA and were already working in roles such as Technical Consultant with 1 to 2 years of RPA experience, and some even with less than a year. This is especially apparent in the big consultancies such as Deloitte.
Overall the RPA talent in Spain seem to be very junior in terms of years of experience in relation to their salary and level.
Findings from the research indicate that the average salary level for a RPA candidate with 2 years of experience is 40.000€.
The research shows that the most popular RPA tools used are UiPath and BluePrism. Other tools mentioned by candidates included Nice, Winshuttle
Automation Anywhere and Workfusion as well as some new small tools such as RPA Suite (windows platform) by Rigel Technologies.
Most candidates who are interested are looking for career progression and better salaries, as well as opportunities where they can upskill and develop.
A total of 19 CV’s and cover letters were submitted for Avanade’s consideration.

Executive Summary Italy

Talent Acumen identified a total of 73 candidates for the RPA Architect role, 83 for Data Scientist and 106 for Cognitive Service Architect roles.

Some candidates had heard of Avanade but were more familiar with Accenture and Microsoft.
A total of 113 conversations were held in Italy and 46 were not interested in the roles. The main reasons for not being interested in the roles were that most have only been in their roles a short while (or in the middle of a project) and therefore not looking to make a move at this present time as well as being happy in their roles.
Main hot spots for RPA talent in Italy were found to be Milan and Rome. Milan was also found to be the main hot spot for Cognitive Architect candidates, which was both apparent while identifying candidates as well as from the feedback gathered from conversations.
Candidates were found not to have many years of experience in the RPA field and already working in roles such as Technical Consultant. Many of these candidates were very junior and had around 1 to 2 years of RPA experience and some even with less than a year.
Findings suggest that Avanade’s base salary limit of 35.000€. would attract RPA candidates at a Consultant level and below, with the average Consultant level salary being 34,000€. It was also found that Cognitive Architect candidates at consultant level were already above the annual salary of 35,000€. in consultancies such as KPMG and Deloitte to name but a few. Talent Acumen recommends offering training for more junior candidates or raising the salary banding.
Main pull factors were Learning and Development (new technologies), Career Progression, Interesting Projects and International opportunities.
A total of 17 CV’s and cover letters were submitted across the 3 roles for Avanade’s consideration.

Most of the individuals spoken with had none or some basic knowledge of the client.

Perception of Client

Basic knowledge included the link between our client with Microsoft and Accenture. Some saw the business more technology focused than a consultancy. However, there was very little known on the whole about the business in both Spain and Italy.

There were no negative perceptions of our client or the roles in general. The client as a brand is viewed positively, and most candidates had their interest peaked by the possibility of working on Microsoft technologies, International work opportunities and being backed up by Accenture.

Talent Insight

Learn More