Embracing Reality

There are few things more frustrating for technical support managers than seeing their staff disappear into other departments in the company.  You went through the interview process, trained them, got them to the place of really knowing your products, sharpened their customer service skills, and suddenly, they get an offer from another group in the company!  Typically the hiring managers in external departments are the enemy from whom you must shield your staff, especially your stars.  For longer than we can remember, the TS industry has had all types of maneuvers for staff retention.  But the MathWorks Technical Support managers embrace the proverbial “if you love someone, set them free.” 

The reality is that we sell engineering software, and we hire Master’s Degree engineers into technical support. Well, of course they would want to transfer to places like product development, quality engineering, technical marketing, applications engineering, consulting, and customer training services.  In our experience, very few engineers that we hire will want to stay in technical support forever.  We decided if that’s their bent, then let’s embrace that reality and turn it into a success factor of our group.

How We Started 

In 2000, we were fortunate enough to have our CEO and other members of senior management recognize the benefits of TS transfers and come to us with the suggestion that we make it more intentional.  The observation was that when TS folks transferred, not only did they ramp up very quickly, but they were among the stronger performers on their groups. 

Internal Partnerships
 
Another starting point for us was creating internal partnerships.  Part of what made our engineers successful was connections with their transfer departments before they transferred.  They worked on interesting projects that gave them both insight and experience for the groups to which they later transferred.  We connected with the managers of each potential hiring area to discuss project opportunities and ways in which our engineers can help them with different initiatives.

Recruiting 

Additionally, we work very closely with HR on college recruiting.  Most of our engineers are hired directly out of college, so we needed a robust program for college recruiting. We are involved in on-campus career fairs, we host a variety of college events, and we also host “MathWorks College Days” where we bring in about 10 candidates from a particular school and host them for the day. 

During “MathWorks College Days” we give candidates detailed information on the company, the Engineering Development Group (EDG) program, their potential peers do project presentations, alumni from their school do presentations on their experience at MathWorks.  Also, they complete about four hours of interviews—a manager interview, a 90-minute technical interview, an interview with HR, and lunch with a couple of their potential peers.  We feed them breakfast, lunch and dinner, and as we know, food always works with the college crowd! 

We also work with HR on hiring projections for the coming year.  Since EDG’s staffing is directly tied to open positions in the company, we work with HR to estimate how many of the company’s open positions would be filled by EDG staff in the coming year.  When we agree on these projections, that number becomes EDG’s hiring target goal for the subsequent year.

It is important to note that we always maintain a “buffer” in hiring.  This means, we hire ahead.  For example, if our headcount target is 70, we will ensure that we always have 80 people in the group.  Additionally, because our engineers spend only half of their time on technical support, we actually have twice the staff we need for technical support.  Yes, you read that correctly—twice what we need.  We do recognize that this is very unique and that it is possible because of the remarkable success of The MathWorks as a company.  Because EDG’s role in the company goes beyond just technical support, we are able to staff adequately for the other major goal of providing engineers to other areas of the company.

It is also important to note that we have typically had over 100 technical job openings yearly at the MathWorks due to the growth of the company.  This has been a great fit for the EDG program.

Attraction Factors in Recruiting 

Because we hire only graduates with Master’s Degrees in Engineering, we are often asked how we attract this caliber of candidate to a technical support role.  The answer to that comes from the candidates themselves as we do exit interviews with each person after they transfer to other groups in the company. 

MathWorks TS attraction factors:  

• The product’s reputation—most engineers used MATLAB or Simulink in college.
• Career uncertainty—most candidates we hire are not really sure where they want to be and coming to EDG gives them the opportunity to explore many different technical roles before deciding.
• Everyone’s my age—we get that comment often.  College graduates are coming into a department that is filled with other recent college graduates.
• MathWorks reputation as a great place to work—often candidates tell us that they heard about or read about the MathWorks either on our web site or hearing from friends and that what they heard was really positive and that drew them to the company.
• People met during the interview—this one is probably related to “everyone’s my age.”  When candidates interview, they always have lunch with their potential peers, and they are won over by the laid back, down-to-earth atmosphere that they experience with their potential peers.

Project time/flexibility:  We allow up to 50% project time.  This means that your engineers spend about 2 weeks per month doing phone/email support and about two weeks per month either focused on learning our products, or working on projects for other departments.

New Hire Training 

Our staff spends about 4 months in new hire training but they are actually doing live support in their 3rd week.  New hires rotate through all the technical support teams using a hands-on experiential method of classroom training, then they apply what they have learned to real customer emails on that team.  When they have completed about one week of email application of training, they then move to the next team and repeat the process.  These emails are, of course, proofread by more experienced engineers before they are sent to customers. 

We also include a 2-day “EDG Expectations” class which covers expectations like how to work with your managers, what to expect in 1-on-1 meetings, how to successfully manage projects, and generally what the working environment is like in EDG and how to be successful overall.  During “EDG Expectations” class, we also invite EDG alumni back for lunch with the new hires and we give them an open forum to ask questions of former EDG staff.

There is also a tremendous amount of one-on-one coaching around building strong soft skills such as initiative, communication, project management, meeting management, etc. which supports our goal to grow very well-rounded engineers.

Clear Job Expectations

Each Engineer has clear milestones for their tenure in EDG and they meet regularly with their managers on where they are with each milestone, their projects with other groups, and their technical support skills.  It is worth noting that there is no required minimum stay and there is no formal required maximum stay in EDG. The average tenure is about 13 months.

Inherent Challenges

The three key things that are a challenge for us are having few technical experts within the group, few senior engineers to use for internal projects, and having a perpetually green group.  We counter these challenges by building a strong connection to our developers, refining our knowledgebase so that knowledge doesn’t leave the group when people do, and fine-tuning training for earlier knowledge transfer and expertise.  A benefit is that while people leave the group, they are still within the company and can still be a resource.

Company-wide Benefits

There are several company-wide benefits that we have experienced as a result of the EDG program.  First and foremost, we have a steady reserve of high caliber, well trained engineers ready to transfer to other areas. 

Other benefits for other departments include:

• engineers with a breadth of product knowledge
• engineers that understand how customers use the product
• engineers that require minimal ramp-up time when they transfer
• Well-rounded engineers with strong technical and soft-skills
• HR recruiters have the easy task of finding someone in EDG to fill many open positions
• EDG engineers are among the highest performers post-transfer

Alumni in every technical area:  To have EDG alumni in every technical area in the company is truly awesome!  When new hires start, they can network with EDG alumni with is often a comfortable place to begin networking.  Additionally, they participate in some aspects of EDG recruiting, training, and not to mention help us out with customer issues as needed.

Recommendations for Implementation

As mentioned earlier, we were fortunate enough to have our CEO and other senior management propose that we become more intentional about transfers.  What if you didn’t have that luxury?  What are some ways in which you can start small?  Here are some ideas to explore:

Establish Credibility/Value:  We recommend tapping into the endorsements of managers that have hired your staff in the past.  Set up a meeting and ask them how the transition went, what were the benefits to their organization, would they do it again, what could have gone better, and also what skills they wished the person come in with.  If they are full of accolades, you have instant successes stories upon which you can build a proposal.  And, if you got less than stellar feedback, it can become your transfer strategy improvements for the future. 

And don’t forget the HR recruiters that were involved in the transfer process.  Ask them what the differences were between recruiting internally vs. recruiting from the outside.  Most likely you’ll hear that it was much easier in which case you have yet another endorsement.

Project Time Options:  As far as project time for working with other groups, prior to having the luxury of doubling our staff, we had the engineers work out how they would cover for each other to gain a day or so per month.  They would barter hours with each other and they were open to doing this because they all wanted the benefit of project time.  Our experience is that we hire very intelligent people and, if given the opportunity, they would most likely be able to come up with workable compromises beyond what managers may think of.

Hire for the future:  Consider what other departments need and build the right profile into your recruiting process. We did not always hire MS Degree candidates.  There was a time when we hired BS candidates only.  Then we saw a change in what other departments wanted, and we raised the bar and exclusively hired MS degree engineers.  You can create even more value in determining the needs of other groups and working that into your hiring criteria.

Advocate based on transfer history:  How many people have you transferred in the last 2-5 years?  It may be beneficial to take a look at what that trend is and work that into a proposal for change.  If you consistently transfer a certain amount of engineers, you may be able to build a case for hiring a little ahead.

Connect with your people:  Within EDG, we have a strong collaborative environment. Our management team consults with our front-line staff often on many decisions or ideas.  It’s amazing the talent that we’ve hired and how much they have contributed to the evolution of the EDG program.  We often do not value the wealth of ideas that maybe living within our technical support groups.   Once a month, we do a skip-level meeting in EDG.  This means that, for example, a senior manager skips the level of managers that reports to directly to him or her and holds an open-forum meeting with the front-line staff.  They discuss ideas and suggestions for making it a great place to work.  The evolution and success of EDG depends in part on the ideas that our staff generates—they help create and evolve what we have today.

Our technical support staff keeps transferring….and it’s truly great!

About Allison Babb…………………………………………………

Allison Babb is a Senior Manager, Engineering Development Group (EDG) at The MathWorks Inc., in Natick, MA.  The Engineering Development Group (EDG) hires entry level Engineers and helps them to identify and develop their technical, professional, and personal skills for a successful technical career at the MathWorks.  As senior Manager, Allison is responsible for managing the Technical Support and Career Development goals of a 70-person group.  She has been with The MathWorks for the past 17 years, starting out as a Technical Support Rep, and growing into a Senior Management role.  Allison has a degree in Business Administration and also owns a Life and Business Coaching practice.  She is a member of the SSPA, Association of Support Professionals (ASP), and the International Coach Federation.  Published works include an article in Diversity Careers, Management tips from the Experts--ASP, and she was also interviewed for the The Leadership Challenge Workshop, and the book called Encouraging the Heart where MathWorks is highlighted  as “A Culture of Celebration.”