QBE is a global insurance company with offices spanning 27 countries, and an HQ in Sydney.
So far, we’ve placed 12 Software and Cloud Engineers into their teams, and created an ongoing pipeline of employees who are skilled in their tech stack and who align to their social impact commitments.
So far, 100% of _nologists have moved into permanent roles at QBE after their contract period, which is a testament to their progress and how much they value the opportunity QBE have provided them.
Lizann explains “…how impressed we are with our consultants thus far. They have had a lot to absorb, and they’ve been doing great taking it all in, asking questions and engaging in what we are taking about… I’m really pleased to have them as part of the team, and I look forward to watching them grow and develop.”
We partnered with QBE to enable them to reach their huge global growth plans in 2021 and beyond, expanding further in the Cloud and DevOps space, particularly with opportunities for emerging talent. They have been heavily reliant on external talent (for example, through consultancies), and, as part of their transformation, they want to futureproof their teams and start building more of their tech capability in-house.
Diversity in tech teams is also hugely important to QBE, alongside decreasing time-to-hire, which had traditionally been a lengthy process. Since they didn’t have an existing tech graduate program, they were open to new recruitment pathways that could support growth emerging talent and their diversity goals. The _nology model was the perfect fit.
Our approach allows us to deploy a pool of job-ready tech talent across the globe immediately. Importantly for QBE, we source applicants from a diverse range of backgrounds, careers, and disciplines. We embed that talent into their teams for the long-term, with ongoing support from _nology to ensure successful outcomes.
“The [_nologists] have only just begun and you can see that soon people in the business will be saying ‘Wow – these juniors are really starting to add value to the business’ – no doubt about it!”
Junior Software and Cloud Engineers are now in various teams, including QBE’s Application Development team, Platform Integrations team, and QBE Reinsurance. Our _nologists have made fast progress and continue to receive glowing feedback internally. Some of our _nologists have been placed in customer-facing areas like Tooling Analytics, Power BI, Power Automate, and JIRA roles too.
To provide a sustainable solution for QBE we’ve now created an ongoing pipeline. This involves bringing _nologists into a team that suits their skill sets and transitioning them into more tailored Cloud and DevOps roles as they progress. It facilitates an ongoing flow of hires within their teams, saving QBE time and resources on recruitment fees and additional training or upskilling programs.
Our full-stack training curriculum equips individuals with the skills they need to be ready for a range of different roles. For QBE, our _nologists continue to be upskilled while on-site, with support from our coaches and success teams, including in-demand Microsoft Azure certifications.
We’ve incorporated more opportunities for QBE as our partnership continues to evolve globally:
The long-term savings for QBE equate to around $90k per year, per _nologist. Similarly, for short-term savings on contractors, this model allows QBE to save around $900 per day, per _nologist, which is a huge advantage for them.Our model shortcuts any spend on recruitment fees and provides long-term savings related to employee retention, time to hire (eg marketing fees, advertising for job vacancies, etc), as well as additional training and salaries.
We have an immediately available pool of tech talent which we’re continuously adding to. This allows us to put forward individuals with the necessary tech stack for our partners’ needs, as well as the skills and traits that would allow for seamless onboarding and a strong cultural fit. It also enables us to keep our time to hire extremely low, with placements for QBE so far taking under 2 weeks from the beginning of the process to onboarding and start dates.
So far, 60% of our placements are women, and 40% are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Over 75% are career-changers, with the largest age bracket between 25-34 at 58%. A powerful example is career-changer Jackie, with a 15-year background in Oil and Gas who wanted to retrain and enhance her existing skills to pursue a career in technology. She is now a permanent at QBE with a very bright future ahead.
“I had a crazy idea that I wanted to change career into a completely new field, and the team at _nology made a daunting prospect into something fun, challenging, and rewarding. The focus is not just on tech skills, but on helping you to ace the interview. Now, my career change is a reality and I’m [in] a role where I’m already doing meaningful work with a team who are really excited to work with [_nologists].“
“During my 12 weeks at _nology one of the most important skills I learnt is to be adaptable. From day one I knew that my future success would depend on my capacity to swiftly pick up new technology and embrace change. I was introduced to a variety of programming languages, frameworks, and tools which challenged me to move out of my comfort zone and adjust to various coding environments.
Having settled into my role at QBE, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for the opportunity to collaborate with an exceptional group of individuals. Every day brings new learning experiences as I tackle meaningful projects that directly impact our team’s operations.”
Whether you’re looking to hire 1 Developer or a whole project team of Engineers, or are interested in a completely bespoke solution to support your 2024 tech talent plans, the _nology team are here to help.
