Think like a Tech company to build back better with IT & Data Part 11/11: Finance & HR Navigation

Introduction

This is the final post of 11 post on ‘Think like a Tech company to build back better with IT & Data. As you have read in the previous posts, in our new organisation -after the?#reset?of our organisation- we?#thinklikeatechcompany:

-Foundation: We have one robust, resilient and flexible Tech & Data foundation

-Business Platforms: We integrate Tech & Data in all business areas by creating business platforms in all our business (#sunshineIT)

-Guardrails: we do all IT & Data work (both in the foundation and platforms) within one set of?#guardrails?(#cyber,?#architecture,?#servicemanagement,?#datagovernance)

This leads to our new IT&Data organisation: 5 business platforms, 3 foundational teams, 1 guardrail team and Finance & HR navigation.

In this article we will reflect how this affects our Finance and HR way of working and comes with new opportunities and challenges. This will bring to life that only with the right #navigation this organization can really flourish ??

Finance navigation: opportunities & challenges

Together with the Schiphol wide #reset, Schiphol Finance decided to implement its Digital Finance vision with three new roles that you see in the picture below:

Note: If you want to read more on the digital transformation of Schiphol Finance, Henry van der Geest explains very well in an article how this vision will enable Schiphol Finance to further create value in the new organization.

For IT&Data this means that all three roles need to be in line with the new organizational structure and the Think like a tech company mindset, with a dedicated Finance Navigator (Gerben Stavast) as fulltime member of the IT&Data Management Team and shared positions (a.o. Monique Bootsman, Michel Wendel, Danny Woud, Hetty Nijmeijers) to fullfill the other roles.

From a Finance points of view, moving towards a Tech company provides the Finance Navigators with several significant opportunities that we are currently further building on. Our Data & Analytics department creates a solid foundation for data warehouses, data platform and dashboards but also advanced analytics and deep learning. This enables the Finance department to further combine Financial and non-Financial data, both structured and unstructured, to create value by improving balanced decision making. Our Enabling Technology departments has developed a strong Robotic Process Automation platform, that the Finance department now uses to further automate standard processes, thereby reducing costs and improving quality.

There are also several challenges in our new IT&Data organization. One main challenge entails the different ways of steering on the diverse portfolio of IT&Data investments and services, each with its own characteristics:

1.??????Agile projects with a less clear solution upfront, therefore making the business case and calculating the Net Present Value more challenging. We solve this by making calculated assumptions upfront on resources and benefits to determine the business case and NPV. On a quarterly base we update this business case and determine is we continue or not. After a product has been delivered we implement benefit tracking to determine if the upfront business case still holds.

2.??????Investments in the foundational technology or in data platform, where benefits are realized in the business or at other stakeholders such as our airlines, while the spend is done within the foundational departments. Developing value cases including both the investments and the full scope of financial and non-financial benefits is important here.

3.??????DevOps solutions, where there is a financial challenge to differ the Dev-side (which is mainly Capex) from the Ops side (which is OPEX).

4.??????Traditional IT services based on SLAs and contracts with a mainly fixed component. We focus on value realization by determining the main financial metrics (e.g. cost per unit) to monitor any P and Q effects and improving those.

These examples of both opportunities and challenges give you some insight how Finance is helping Schiphol to move towards a Tech company and how Finance can navigate for success. The next part of this post focusses on the HR side.

?HR navigation: organize for success and let your teams excel and grow

Our HR department supports Schiphol in achieving its strategic objectives. HR is the guardian of the Employee Experience with the ultimate goal of achieving improvements in our EPS (Employee Promoter Score). Our HR team takes the lead in ensuring, together with the business, that we continue to develop as an organization towards the safe, robust and adaptive organization described in Schiphol's Vision2050 and the culture described in our Destination.

HR works in a hub (central) and spoke (co-location) model. From the HR hub, various routes are tapped (the spokes) to our Business Areas. Colleagues in the hub and in the spoke work closely together, share knowledge and work together on improvement and optimization of the HR service. One of the spokes, the HR Business Partner for IT & Data, (Rolinda Vaane), is a member of the IT & Data management team and within that role translates the IT & Data ambitions to strategic HR priorities and solutions.

Thinking like and becoming a Tech Company means something for leadership, way of working, people. One of the most important adjustments we made last year is to fully implement Leadership triangles across IT & Data. Why? And how does this helping to evolve to a Tech Company?

In recent years, leadership has evolved tremendously in our IT & Data departments. Until about five to ten years ago, an IT manager filled three roles himself:

·??????The content lead role: what are we going to do

·??????The process lead role: how are we going to do it

·??????The people lead role: how employees perform and how they will continue to grow

With the technological developments in IT & Data, the role of the manager also began to change. New technology, changing at an ever-increasing rate, required new forms of leadership and new ways of working. Young IT professionals also look at what is expected of a leader very differently than before. The trend for teams is to become increasingly self-organizing on content (leadership on content: the "what" question). Also in the assessment cycle, giving each other feedback on performance plays an increasingly important role (leadership on "people": personal development). In choosing and optimizing the way of working (leadership on process: the "how" question) teams are also increasingly taking the initiative.

The last few years our IT & Data departments began experimenting with leadership triangle roles. At the beginning of this year we decided to remove the middle management layer and we created leadership triangle positions across IT & Data. Each department has a leadership triangle: a People Lead (responsible for the employee experience and people development), a Process Lead (responsible for the ‘how’) and a Content Lead (responsible for the ‘what’).

We believe that by appointing people who are really good in the specific area of people, process or content, and actually having fun doing it, increases the leadership qualities significantly. In the end this has to result in more agility, speed, ownership in the teams and a good Employee Promotor Score!

As change does something with people and what it requires of people, we have a Culture & Change team within HR that work together with the HR Business Partner on the people side of change. Nelleke Slaby-Petrusma (Culture & Change agent), works on the development of the Leadership Triangle and self-organization.

In the role of HR navigation we support the IT & Data organisation towards success on these type of developments and actively share our experiences/learnings with the rest of Schiphol to make the whole of Schiphol stronger: happy employees make happy customers!

To conclude

This article has given you insights how both our Finance and HR Navigation helps Schiphol to evolve towards a Tech & Data company. Herewith the article series on our new organisation comes to an end. We will continue to share relevant learnings as we believe that doing things on our own will only lead to adding up where sharing and collaborating is the key to multiplying!

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