The Grey Pool ©
At The BAG we are constantly working at creating and implementing innovative methods to add value to our Client relationships and the market in general. We are constantly looking at effective ways to expand our talent and skills base of specialist IT resources and do all we can to attract the most experienced and reliable individuals in the marketplace today, regardless of where our IT specialists are throughout the Region.
To this end, The BAG has developed a Service Framework that is adaptable and tailorable to a range of scenarios, all of which are delivered in what we believe to be a very unique manner. This framework is called “The Grey Pool ©” and is delivered by Senior Consultants who have a wealth of experience and skills to share with clients. It is best described as –
“A managed pool of resources typically from, but not restricted to, an “aging workforce” that consists of individuals with skills, knowledge, flexibility and mobility to provide Businesses the ability to “flex” their resource requirements for hard to find skills, ad-hoc needs, support, legacy transformation, mentoring, skills transfer and many other variations, on-demand.”
There is a large percentage of the workforce who are currently, or soon will be, starting to consider their retirement options but still have a lot to offer Businesses. The contributing factor here, especially in specialist fields like IT, is that many Businesses face the very real threat of not being able to replace the Intellectual Property (IP), expertise and knowledge that will be lost with this retiring generation. Consequently Australia, and other geographies, face some pressing knowledge and expertise challenges.
Conversely, a large percentage of this workforce are not ready to retire in the true sense of the word, for a number of factors, such as –
- unpredictable global markets and the impact on Superannuation Funds;
- increased life expectancy and therefore need to keep the brain active;
- they are not ready to retire or unexpected employment termination;
- a manageable work-life balance.
The Grey Pool © has been formulated to be a very flexible framework, from pricing to delivery, created to accommodate Businesses varying needs for key skills. From a workforce that has the capacity to “flex”, both from a demand and price perspective and for specific needs, skills or length of engagement. We have harnessed a pool of resources who have a range of skills and experience, who are just interested in continued work, not necessarily full-time, to create a better financial and/or work-life balance. We have turned this “experience pool” into a benefit to everyone, clients and consultants alike, designed to allow organisations to –
- Leverage an experienced and dynamic resource pool;
- Local (on-shore) resources with a wealth of mainframe, midrange, client-server Systems Programmer to Analyst/Programmer/Developer skills and experience;
- Access skills, experience and IP second to none;
- Utilise resources that are prepared to work far more flexible hours than before, from almost anywhere, if required;
- Ability to “share/cycle” resources to minimise the start-up or learning curve;
- Use these skills as Mentors/Coaches within the Client’s own workforce; and
- Many other aspects of value.
The Grey Pool © enables Businesses the ability to construct a tailored workforce and pricing model that can “flex” and be available on-demand to support whatever key skill-set/shortage that is lacking within a group, project, division or company. We believe that with the right implementation of The Grey Pool ©, deliverables will be better focused, team members more cohesive and expectations aligned properly to yield the best cost-effective and successful results for the Business.
The BAG has successfully proven this framework works, through its implementation within several organisations managing their ad-hoc resource and specific skill-set requirements.