Norwich Union Life enhances professional development

Norwich Union Life has deployed new technology throughout its IT department,to help to ensure that industry skill standards are met and personnel deployed effectively.

InfoBasis Enterprise Skills Manager underpins the Norwich Union Life people program, which enables constant, business-focused development and deployment of 850 permanent IT staff. Norwich Union Life now understands the core levels of skill required in each job role, and can compare those with individual skill profiles. Norwich Union Life’s head of practices and skills, Paul Briggs,said: “Our aim is to drive capability growth and effective deployment across the organization. With InfoBasis ESM, our aims are beginning to be realized. With our development program, we can assess skill and job roles against target levels we have set – which incorporate the skills Framework for the information age (SFIA).

“Norwich Union Life now has 30 professional-development managers engaging in one-to-ones with their staff to determine the best course of development. In addition, we have eight resource-deployment managers who find the most suitable tasks for the individual.”

The InfoBasis chief executive, Ashley Wheaton, commented: “As the largest insurance company in the UK, areas such as capability and development are essential for the everyday running of the organization. By using the new technology, Norwich Union Life has given itself a far greater and more detailed analysis of skills across the IT department.”

Meanwhile, UK defense and aerospace company BAE Systems is on the way to more effective delivery of IT services thanks to deployment of InfoBasis software,which is being used to compare the skills it requires with the current skills of its IT professionals. This provides input for setting training and development plans. The BAE Systems head of strategy and architecture, Malcolm Carrie,commented: “Using SFIA, in the InfoBasis toolset, is enabling us be more precise in defining job profiles, to have clearer appraisal conversations, and to build more targeted development plans.”

InfoBasis chief executive Ashley Wheaton said: “Managing the capability of an organization is about more than building technical IT skills. It is also about maintaining a strategic understanding of IT and managing the supply chain well. BAE Systems has clearly shown its commitment to doing this while building a cohesive group of IT professionals.”