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Financial And Organizational Gains
At Prudential, the Newark, N.J., insurance and financial services company, Brennon Marcano has been managing four WOS workers for the last two years, one of whom has been hired fulltime. Marcano, whose main responsibility is coordinating projects and communications between the business units and information systems teams, received a master's degree in technology management from Columbia University's executive degree program, which is where he met Art Langer and became integral to the program.
Brennon introduced WOS to Barbara Koster, Prudential's chief information officer, who loved the idea of WOS, according to Marcano, and Koster asked him to put together a business case for filling several positions with WOS contractors. He calculated that contracting and training a staff from WOS in a variety of technical skills, including programming and tech support, would be less expensive than pursuing other avenues like offshore outsourcing or full-time employees. When Marcano factored in a turnover rate that was far lower than the seven-month average he was seeing with offshore contractors, he found that WOS was the winner by every measure.
Based on Marcano's projections and Prudential's interest in creating opportunities for those living in Newark's poorest neighborhoods, the company decided to make an initial donation of $250,000 to sponsor 25 young people in the Rutgers certification program, with the understanding that five of them would eventually start work at Prudential. Marcano says his financial projections were accurate. Prudential saw a return on investment in a year and a half, compared to using equivalent domestic or offshore consultants or full-time employees. "WOS beats all options from a price perspective and from a quality perspective, they are comparable at their competency level," says Marcano. The key benchmark, he adds, is that managers frequently request to work with WOS workers. "It means they like the total package," Marcano says.
Prudential also likes the energy the WOS staff brings. As older Prudential workers start to retire, "they're a burst of youth in an aging population," says Marcano. And the experience has given hiring managers insight into how to better attract and retain younger talent. It's also given older, more experienced workers a chance to serve as mentors.
From a training perspective, the introduction of entry-level workers has been an eye-opener for Prudential. "We brought one WOS contractor into the mainframe group and realized we had to learn how to teach entry-level people how to do what we do," Marcano recalls. "It showed what a deficiency we had."
While each of the companies working with WOS—Medco, Thirteen, and Prudential—say the program is a success, the founder of the program, Art Langer, isn't satisfied. He's now looking at ways to expand the program. His goal, he says, is to establish the program in every state in the country.
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