Journey of change towards long-term development of competence, competitiveness and well-being

Vision of more predictive recruitment and personnel development

According to MPS Enterprises, it can be seen that employment markets will be taking a more individual-oriented direction in the coming years. Examples of this trend are the new forms of employment and the increased use of personal career coaches. In future business operations, it will be important to be able to serve both customer organisations as well as individuals in order to achieve results.

MPS Enterprises aims to increase the number of strategic, continuous customer relationships during the next three years, in other words to switch from project-based assignments to data-oriented service models based on data analyses. In the future, more thorough data analyses will genuinely enable reporting that benefits both the job applicants as well as employers. This will result in more predictive measures to develop the competence and capabilities of companies.

The company and its relation to data

MPS Enterprises is a 45-year-old Finnish family business that offers management, change management and strategic personnel solution services. The company has employed data mining in its business operations to fulfil the needs of the customers for a long time. Data has been used to identify correct skills in accordance with the needs of the customer organisation.

Aiming to build strategic co-operation based on data

MPS Enterprises has mainly used data in the recruitment process in a project-based and project-specific manner. Three years ago, MPS Enterprises adopted the “data is the new oil” thinking, based on which the company has stored its data repositories as a business operation to be refined in the future.

In the IHAN business programme, MPS Enterprises started to search for solutions that would convert the centralised data repository into new value for the company. The objective is to produce more strategic, business-promoting services for customers with the help of data.

From project-based business towards a continuous service model

MPS Enterprises’s initial goal in the IHAN business programme was to create a new data-based service for the consumer business, which would provide individuals with opportunities to benefit from their own data, based on their consent, and, thereby, advance their skills and career paths. Simultaneously, one of the entire group’s strategic focus area was identified in spring 2020 as continuous, data-based competence building.

Eventually, a new data-driven management as a service business model was created during the IHAN business programme. The service was regarded as having two client segments as the target groups: organisations and individuals. This pilot service created during the business programme offers a strategic competence management service for organisations and long-term service for competence and career path development for individuals.

Data sharing in progress

As the business model evolves, the company has seen more value in combining data sources and refining more diverse data into business operations, instead of merely collecting and storing data.

The IHAN business programme and data sharing based on the fair data economy fair data economy rulebook between the partners offer clear competitive advantages. Data sharing is also considered in the future pilot. The pilot service has data pipelines through which data can be transferred to the shared data repository. The next step will be to create a solution in which data can be shared and used between partners using shared interfaces.

However, there are many challenges to overcome before the service is ready. For instance, attention must be paid to the rules laid down in the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation related to the transfer of personal data and to the procedures related to personal data management and consent.

Next steps

MPS Enterprises have tested the data-driven management as a service business model and data-network-typed data sharing in its customer interface. During its customer validation process, the company tested the business model by interviewing more than ten HR managers and nearly 50 CEOs, who provided encouraging feedback. The next step is to start implementing the business model at the core of the strategy. The objective is to build the first version of the management as a service business model during the first quarter of 2021. This will make use of existing service components and create a new customer interface solution.

The next technical step is to streamline the centralised data repository. After this, the aim is to increase the number of artificial intelligence components and, then, develop the data analysis.

Why it is worthwhile participating in the IHAN business programme

1. The tools and tasks encourage the company to view its business environment from a broader perspective than required by the current daily operations. MPS Enterprises received an impetus from the programme for renewing their business model.
2. The fair data economy offers a new perspective on data use, for example, from data ownership to data sharing under the joint rules, while paying attention to the rights of individuals.
3. Peer support and networking between the business programme participants is useful. Companies with similar challenges participate in the programme. In addition to lessons learnt during the programme, MPS Enterprises found a partner, as the service of one of the participant companies will be integrated into the new service, which will benefit the businesses of both parties.