„The employee profile has changed a lot recently. Expectations from our clients have increased a lot in terms of transferable knowledge”, Alexandru Matei, Country Head Resource Management Organization Luxoft (P)

Alexandru Matei, Country Head Resource Management Organization at Luxoft explains the effects of the pandemic and recent events, the employee profile and what benefits employees have in Luxoft.

1. What does the position of Resource Manager mean at Luxoft? 

There are four main areas that a Resource Manager deals with: Supply tools development and scaling, Demand Structure analysis, Supply-Demand regular balance, Bench Management.

The Supply tools development and scaling area is essentially how we adapt or develop internal tools to be as efficient as possible for internal consumers. The „Demand Structure analysis & Supply-Demand regular balance” areas are those that provide us with information about the human resource requirements of existing projects or those about to start. The „Bench Management” area is about how staff is managed to deliver the best results.

All these areas are part of the range of duties of a Resource Manager in Luxoft. In addition to these aspects we are also talking about constant interaction with all stakeholders: from employees to managers.

2. How dynamic is the IT market at the moment?

The events that have happened and are still happening are affecting and transforming the Romanian IT market. First of all, the COVID-19 pandemic has removed all boundaries from the IT industry. The challenges of working remotely have created business opportunities, but also challenges in some cases. A pleasant surprise has been the increased efficiency of employees in this remote way of working. However, this has other implications: competition is international.  The conflict in Ukraine has accelerated some existing trends. Businesses in Ukraine and Russia have moved to other areas including Romania. There is a constant demand for specialists which, unfortunately, we cannot satisfy only locally.

3. How is the relocation phenomenon felt lately?

Here we have to look at the problem from two points of view: those who leave the country and those we are trying to bring back. Unfortunately, a lot of IT specialists have already left Romania and this trend is not on a downward path. We are known for our quality standards, and this is to our advantage to bring in new business. But we are facing the problem of human resources – namely the lack of them.

4. What is Luxoft’s vision for outsourcing?

In the outsourcing industry there are several types of contracts, essentially divided into two categories: Time&Material contracts and Fixed Cost contracts. Each of these has advantages and disadvantages. From the perspective of an employee who wants to learn what it means to work within an IT team, under a development methodology, for example Agile, to deepen a specific technology, to work in an enterprise environment, we can offer this possibility because we have multiple projects that we coordinate end-to-end (these fixed cost or Time&Material contracts). There are people who want a change, or want to specialise on another technology. From this point of view, in Luxoft, it is extremely easy to do so because of these multiple types of contracts, clients, technologies and development methodologies used (e.g. SAFE). Thus, that employee can develop either vertically (to deepen in a specific area or technology) or horizontally (to learn new technologies by changing the project).  

5. What is the employee profile you are looking for when recruiting?

The employee profile has changed a lot lately. Expectations from our customers have skyrocketed in terms of transferable knowledge. If some time ago knowledge in a programming language (Java or C++ was required) now already this aspect is no longer enough in many cases. Almost any developer at the regular + level is expected to have knowledge of CI/CD, to have interacted with a cloud solution (AWS, Azure, etc.), to have knowledge of agile and possibly to know another programming language (Python). 

We, at Luxoft, from a technological point of view, are currently recruiting mainly Java and C++ specialists. In addition totechnical competencies, a key aspect is the motivation of the candidate.  At the moment, Luxoft is looking for new colleagues to join the teams according to the open positions on the company’s website.

6. If an employee wants to change the department in which he works, does he have this possibility at Luxoft?

In Luxoft we have the program only Internal Mobility.  This platform allows the employees to change their project according to certain criteria selected by them, even from one line of business to another, thus having the possibility to approach new countries. Vacancies are visible on our internal platform and all employees can apply according to their professional skills.

7. What number of benefits do you offer to employees, given the fact that pademia has affected all areas?

Luxoft is a company in continuous development, so attracting people their talent and their team is one of our constant priorities.  To draw particular attention to the integrity of the newcomers’ colleagues, we developed Buddy program, to help them get acquainted as soon as possible with the project in which they work and with the culture of our company, focusing on career development through access to the e-learning platform for technical and soft skills training, up-skilling, or re-skilling programs. In addition, those who want to take on an increased level of accountability and coordination of larger teams or projects can access internal leadership or mentoring programs.

Managers and HR Business Partners try to be closer to people, organize weekly Morning coffees 1:1 discussions to give solutions that are more appropriate to the needs of our colleagues. Employees can participate in numerous events and activities (sports competitions, CSR events, D&I actions, etc.)

Another example is loyalty program, an internal marketplace that allows the purchase of state-of-the-art gadgets based on points awarded as a result of participating in internal and external events.