Betfair goes on global talent trek

McAlister's "dual ladder" career development plan gives IT staff a choice to enhance managerial or technical skills

Since starting at Betfair as chief technology officer 10 months ago, Tony McAlister has spearheaded a radical change in how the online gambling firm sources and manages its IT talent.

His initial brief was to support the company’s international growth and make the organisation, which now employs more than 600 technology staff, a “destination workplace”.

To that end, one of McAlister’s first tasks was a review of the IT skills needed by the business, which determined whether they would be recruited locally or abroad.
“We have very strong gaming exchange development skills here and I see London as a centre of excellence ­ – I can’t find these skills of this standard anywhere else. But unfortunately, I am having to look around the globe for skills in areas such as web development,” McAlister told Computing. “Some of the best web talent is in California. I plan to bring some of these staff back to London but also build a development centre there,” he said.

“Web is one area in which I am having trouble finding talent, so if you are reading this and have those skills, send me your résumé –­ I am hiring,” he added.

Betfair is also looking at the US for web user experience skills, Asia for mobile-based technology and China for quality assurance. The firm is also expanding its offshore centre in Romania and will look into India for “commodity” IT.

As a result of recent organisational changes, McAlister now has eight senior executives reporting directly to him, and is also looking to improve succession planning.

Given the reliance of the business on IT, it is crucial that staff keep up with technology changes, so the company provides computer-based tuition for certain skills as well as formal training with key suppliers such as Microsoft, Oracle, HP and Dell. Close links with suppliers are especially important given that Betfair is often an early adopter of new platforms.

Having started his career as a Cobol programmer and climbed up the ranks to management, McAlister is familiar with the dilemmas faced by technical staff having to go down the business path to succeed, so a “dual ladder” development track was introduced.

“If you take a technician who wants to enhance his career, typically the only way to do it is by moving into management. But what I have seen often is a great technician who moves into management, doesn’t like it, gets discouraged and leaves. Or they fail and the company lets them go, losing a really good employee as a result,” said McAlister.

“Under our dual ladder scheme, you can come in as a developer, for example, build on your traditional skill, then at a certain point make a choice based on what you are good at and want to pursue and then move in one direction or the other,” he said.

McAlister adds that within certain areas of the company, such as its research arm, senior IT professionals can work on high-level activities, use their technical competence and “not worry about being a person manager”.

The gender balance within the business is another area McAlister is looking to address. Currently, men represent 85 per cent of Betfair’s IT team and being a sports-led, technology gaming company just adds to the challenge.

“One of the things I am doing [to redress the gender balance] is putting females in positions of authority and visibility and promoting that inside the company as much as possible,” he said.

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