While browsing the web in search of literature for a research study, I came across a job ad, which asked for “hardcore RA skills”. I was momentarily wondering if RA evolved into something akin to the pleasure industry! Another job ad asked for a CA qualification coupled with solid telecommunication network experience. The role responsibilities suggested that certain IT development skills would be an advantage. Now that is a mouthful for 1 person to contribute to a RA Management position.
My contribution to this group is in field of HR and OD practices applicable to sustainable RA. We will be discussing ideal role profiles; knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA’s) required; recruitment practices and RA personnel performance management.
The objective is to debate a number of assumptions held which may or may not be valid. Please invite non-RA people to participate in these discussions as well. A review of general recruitment practices may highlight solutions to specific issues plaguing operators and RA consulting firms.
I really like where you are leading us here Guera. Historically I have not had the opportunity to interface with someone of your calibre who actually understands the RA industry as well as the people side.
Also, in the vain effort to not look to stupid I looked up the acronym for OD as it is not a term I’m familiar with. I’m guessing it means “Organization Development”?
Matt, yes, OD is the acronym for Organization Development. The most common definition given for OD is the “process of using structured activities to help organization members to solve their own problems and learn to do it better over time “….the problem solving that is.
This is an interesting area for me as well. I remember chatting with different groups of people regarding what they feel is the ideal skill-set for a RA analyst. This is the union of all their thoughts (I know some of them seem to repeat) :
1) Chartered Accountant
2) Technical Analyst
3) Financial Analyst (not sure how this is different from CA)
4) Techno-Business Analyst
5) Cross Functional team with Accountant, IT and Network feelers
Leaves me in a state of absolute confusion!!! It seems that the ideal RA analyst can do any job from Switch configurations right upto CFO!!!
In my opinion, I’d look for someone with a background in telecom (so that they understand the different revenue silo’s in a typical telco) and a fair amount of technical knowledge (to be able to analyze data patterns). As for the CA’s and Accountants etc., they might head the team (Managers) perhaps?
What do you typically see in your interactions?
What I have seen in my interaction with operators led me to initiate the research. I think it is clear to most people that this in an interdisciplinary job profile and is very often not regarded as such.
There is also the tendency in organizations to employee people “like ourselves”. Since RA normally reports into Finance and has an obligation to the auditor committee, the use of CA knowledge is certainly required in the function. However, that knowledge and the contribution it makes is a small subset of the overall knowledge required to get the function done properly.
The domain knowledge required and the range of skills and abilities would not normally be found in one person. What the study sets out to do is ring fence these three aspects, which is knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA’s) and then we assess (1) which vocational training breeds more successful RA personnel and (2) what are the additional training required.
One thing I have noticed is that any RA person (analyst or manager) without at least 2 years exposure to telco’s have a hard time contributing to the team. Some survive, others go.