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IT Infrastructure & Managed Services · Cloud service companies

HR for Cloud service companies: Certified Engineers, Migration Projects and Pay Pressure

A cloud service company designs, moves and runs customers' workloads on large public clouds. Its engineers hold exams that the market values highly, so pay, projects and growth decide who stays.

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A cloud service company helps businesses move to, build on and run their systems on the large public clouds. Work comes as migration projects, build projects and ongoing managed operations. The team holds architects, cloud and DevOps engineers, security specialists, data engineers and project managers, many with provider certifications that rivals want. A project may need ten engineers for four months and none after, while operations need a steady core. Engineers see their market value grow with every exam and every tool, and offers arrive often. The firm must decide how to staff projects, pay for scarce skills and grow the next generation of lead architects. See the IT and software hub and the hub for infrastructure and managed services.

  1. Plan
  2. Hire
  3. Onboard
  4. Manage
  5. Develop
  6. Perform
  7. Engage
  8. Retain
  9. Exit
  10. Improve

When HR is weak in cloud service companies, you may see

  • Certified engineers get frequent offers
  • Project peaks arrive without a bench
  • Pay is set one offer at a time
  • Architects are bottlenecks
  • Learning never keeps up with the provider
  • Pre-sales promises outrun the team
  • Operations staff feel second class

These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.

Who does the work in cloud service companies

HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.

  • Cloud architects
  • Cloud and DevOps engineers
  • Security and identity specialists
  • Data and migration engineers
  • Technical project managers
  • Operations and monitoring engineers
  • Pre-sales solution consultants
  • Training and enablement leads
  • Partner and alliance managers

Where HR strains in cloud service companies

  • Certified engineers get frequent offers

    Every new exam raises market value, and the company often pays for the exam that leads to the exit.

  • Project peaks arrive without a bench

    A large migration needs a full team at once, then people are idle or moved to work they do not like.

  • Pay is set one offer at a time

    Hiring against rival offers creates gaps between old and new staff, and the old staff hear about it.

  • Architects are bottlenecks

    A few senior people review every design, so projects wait and the architects never get time to teach.

  • Learning never keeps up with the provider

    New services appear every month, and engineers study at night with no recognised time or plan.

  • Pre-sales promises outrun the team

    A solution is sold that the delivery team has not built before, and the strain falls on the engineers.

  • Operations staff feel second class

    Project engineers get the new work and the praise, while the people who keep systems running see little recognition.

HR topics for cloud service companies

Start with the topics that matter most here: Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Career and Succession Management; Retention and Attrition Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for information technology and software, not in general.

Compensation, Payroll and Benefits

Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.

Career and Succession Management

Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.

Retention and Attrition Management

Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.

HR Strategy and Workforce Planning

How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.

Organisation Design

Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.

Recruitment and Talent Acquisition

Requisition to joining, the same way every time.

Onboarding and Probation

A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.

Employee Administration

Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.

Performance Management

Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.

Learning and Development

Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.

Employee Engagement and Experience

Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.

Employee Relations

Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.

Policies, Compliance and Governance

Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.

Health, Safety and Wellbeing

Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.

Exit and Alumni Management

Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.

HR Technology and Automation

Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.

HR Analytics and Management Reporting

A short monthly pack management actually reads.

HR Operations and Governance

An HR function that runs the same way every month.

What a working HR set-up looks like

The pieces a cloud service companies business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.

Build a pay band by role and certification

Ranges for cloud, DevOps, security and data roles, with a stated step for certified skills.

What this covers

Ranges for cloud, DevOps, security and data roles, with a stated step for certified skills. See pay benchmarks.

Create a bench policy

Decide how idle time between projects is used for training, internal tools or pre-sales support, and how it is credited.

What this covers

Decide how idle time between projects is used for training, internal tools or pre-sales support, and how it is credited.

Plan the architect pipeline

Name future architects, give them design tasks under a senior and write when each could take a review role.

What this covers

Name future architects, give them design tasks under a senior and write when each could take a review role. The succession planning work helps.

Set protected learning time

A fixed number of hours each month, linked to the certifications and services the company needs.

What this covers

A fixed number of hours each month, linked to the certifications and services the company needs.

Add delivery to the sales review

A short check by an engineering lead before a new solution is promised, with a record of the concerns raised.

What this covers

A short check by an engineering lead before a new solution is promised, with a record of the concerns raised.

Set a first month for new engineers

A structured induction on tooling, accounts, security practice and the firm's way of working.

What this covers

A structured induction on tooling, accounts, security practice and the firm's way of working. The onboarding process can carry it.

Start by checking where you stand

Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.

Share your requirements
  • List engineers with certifications, their pay and the date of their last raise.
  • Count how many offers you lost in the last year on pay and how many on scope.
  • Name who could take over from your lead architect within six months.
  • Ask engineers how many hours a month they spend on learning, paid or not.
  • Check which recent projects were sold before the delivery lead saw them.
  • Confirm with a qualified professional the rules on employment terms, bonds, notice and data handling that apply to a cloud services firm like yours.

Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.

How GullyHR helps

The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.

Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.

Our HR transformation approach

  1. 1

    Assess

    Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.

  2. 2

    Identify gaps

    Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.

  3. 3

    Design

    Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.

  4. 4

    Implement

    Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.

  5. 5

    Automate

    Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.

  6. 6

    Measure

    Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.

  7. 7

    Improve

    Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.

Blogs worth reading first

From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in information technology and software, and one on each of the topics this page points to.

More on the GullyHR blog.

Questions owners ask

A step in pay or a one-time recognition can work, but tie it to use at work. A bonus for every exam rewards collecting rather than delivery. Review the list of valued certifications yearly.

More on HR for information technology and software

All 5 business types in IT infrastructure & managed services · Find another business type

Managed service providersData centre providersNetworking Service CompaniesIT support firmsCompensation, Payroll and Benefits in information technology and softwareCareer and Succession Management in information technology and softwareRetention and Attrition Management in information technology and software

See all HR topics for information technology and software, or another industry.

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