Bridging the Up-Skilling Salary Gap

Ah, everyone loves new technology. Those not wearied by the marketing machine of todays-next-big-thing jump in to courses, demo’s and forums to devour all they can of the latest flavour of value-add solutions.

The hiccups happen most when attempting the transition from today’s skill to tomorrows. Is it the markets way of popping and resetting the price-&-skills bubble that builds up over time? People generally live to within their means and their personal financial obligations remain the same even if their income doesn’t: everyone wants to maintain their financial trajectory.

So the questions is often: how to reconcile the technical skills gap with the associated salary gap while upskilling and transitioning into new challenges?

Some real-life scenarios to illustrate the point:

• A principal consultant in HCM with 10 years’ experience on $140k goes for a principal SuccessFactors position. The end client only sees they have done the SuccessFactors course and played on the demo system. The consultancy will therefore only be able to charge them out at the junior level of rate card. The principal HCM consultant is appalled to be offered a starting salary of $80k, slanders the consultancy and chooses to remain unemployed.

• A senior consultant in BI with 8 years’ experience on $120k goes for a HANA position demanding an equivalent pro-rata contract rate. The end user assesses their limited hands-on HANA experience, offers them a 4 month trial contract at $350/d. The senior consultant refuses, stays on at their current employer and has still not had access to an actual HANA project.

You can see where this is going…

The assumption that existing expertise is directly transferable to new technologies jeopardised both opportunities, while some honest and open communication from all sides could have led to very different, happier more productive outcomes.

For consultants with skills in related solutions like moving from HCM into SF, or BI in to HANA, there is of course a greater ability and aptitude to pick it up faster…. but not if you’ve priced yourself out of the running to build real experience in the first place. You still have to reasonably compromise and invest to create opportunity.

For employers wanting to build capability and deliver projects, loosen-up on those set salaries and rate cards that lock consultants into banded categories with iron-clad competencies. Acknowledge that you also need to invest to nurture opportunity and put in some planning to make it happen.

A pragmatic way to meet in the middle is to acknowledge the mutual potential and agree on a road map to fill the skills gap with set training AND a matching stepped remuneration plan; eg, incrementally increasing pay and bill rates every month or milestone to actively work towards a consultants salary aspirations. Another way is to be more creative with bonuses so you can assess and reward a consultant’s actual contribution if they do happen to perform at senior levels despite your initial assessment of their presenting experience.

Both options can be worked into bill rates to bring your client along on the journey collaboratively.

What else works to reconcile rewarding existing skills while developing new ones??

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AJ Moore specialises in onshore organic growth for Australian & New Zealand companies and believes in providing people with the training and opportunity to ensure SAP retains its place in the market as the best ERP solution for business. She loves a discussion on how we can stay ahead as an industry, particularly when that means new ways of developing capabilities, honing skills and delivering awesome projects.