How to Effectively Manage Staff and Thrive in the IT Market: Based on the Experience of Accomplished CEO Alexandr Grygoryev

Today, IT organizations grow and deliver at a lightning pace, often combining in-office and remote work models. What tools and practices do successful IT executives use to effectively manage talent in these challenging conditions? In this article, we’ll explore the example of Alexandr Grygoryev, an accomplished executive manager with 17 years of experience in IT, and his proven approaches to managing human resources in a highly dynamic industry.

From senior .NET developer and team lead to Chief Executive Officer, Alexander’s career at Andersen is a story of growth and leadership. Before transitioning to leadership roles, Alexandr Grygoryev had an opportunity to hone his technical skills and gain a deep understanding of the technology landscape. He then applied this experience to disrupt traditional business models through advanced technological solutions and deliver tangible value to customers.  During his 12 years at the company, Alexandr Grygoryev was promoted first to Head of Delivery, then to Chief Delivery Officer, subsequently to Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, with his career ultimately culminating in the role of CEO thanks to his outstanding performance.

Before starting his career journey at Andersen, Alexandr Grygoryev worked as a software engineer at OCS Innovation Company (OCSICO), a prominent software development services provider, and at a regional natural gas utility provider. This background makes Alexandr Grygoryev a second-to-none expert who possesses a deep knowledge of IT management. This unique expertise has led him to success and outstanding results. Today, he is a mentor and advisor, sharing his expert opinion in professional articles for reputable journals.

Describing Alexandr Grygoryev’s IT management position

As the CEO of Andersen, Alexandr Grygoryev leads a fast-growing IT service company with more than 3,600 employees working in offices worldwide. His role requires strategic insight and daily coordination across various business functions, from business development and delivery to HR and innovation.

Alexandr Grygoryev’s responsibilities include developing and executing the company’s strategy, establishing and nurturing key partnerships, ensuring customer satisfaction, aligning talent and operations with long-term objectives, conducting market research and analysis to identify new business opportunities and market trends, growing revenue by winning contracts, monitoring, evaluating, and adjusting business development strategies, and more. He also actively leads high-impact in-house initiatives to enhance Andersen’s operational efficiency.

“I see my role as both a strategist and a facilitator. It’s about building systems that work at scale, but also empowering people to innovate with purpose,” says Alexandr Grygoryev.

Managing a rapidly evolving tech organization comes with its challenges. The main one is the need to align complex processes, such as sourcing, hiring, training, onboarding, allocating talent, tracking performance, calculating workload, and building effective motivation and reporting systems, with evolving market demands.

Alexandr Grygoryev, in the position of CEO, has set up efficient human resource management processes at the international software development company Andersen. Below are the three proven approaches that he has introduced to help the company grow and achieve impressive business outcomes.

Creating a comprehensive system to manage staff effectively

To prioritize an organization’s human resource management strategy within its high-level goals, experts recommend answering these fundamental questions:

• What are the purpose, mission, core activities, and workflows?
• Does the company prioritize people as its most critical asset?
• Does the company rely on data-driven insights and continuous learning to gain an edge and drive sustainable growth?

By focusing on the enterprise’s purpose, values, and culture, organizations can more effectively identify areas for improvement in human resource management and address them through a robust, targeted strategy.

One of Alexandr Grygoryev’s key achievements has been the creation of an efficient resource management system at the company. In the position of an executive manager, he set up the following processes:

• Designed and developed the human resource management workflow from scratch;
• Established a well-structured corporate employee hierarchy to clearly define reporting lines and responsibilities;
• Devised a well-oiled reporting system to support decision-making concerning employees;
• Developed a workload calculation flow to allocate specialists to projects more effectively; 
• Introduced a transparent motivational system, including KPIs and bonuses, that prompts specialists to deliver superior performance.

The above measures, developed and implemented by Alexandr Grygoryev, helped Andersen to boost employee experiences, which, according to some experts, can lead to revenue growth that is 31% higher compared to peers. Establishing an actionable motivational system has also been crucial. According to the latest statistics, financial incentives and bonuses are the most significant drivers of work performance for 32% of employees. Thus, by clearly defining the factors that prompt employees to act, the company could significantly improve its results and inspire innovation.

Enhancing human resource management through advanced technology

An impressive 59% of decision-makers believe that they can gain an edge through employing cutting-edge generative AI solutions. These can help to automate labor-intensive operations, meet the staffing needs of projects, and allocate more time to high-level human resource processes. 

After having analyzed the importance and possibilities of implementing advanced software powered by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing, Alexandr Grygoryev has introduced these capabilities into the work of Andersen’s human resource division. He relied on his extensive experience in IT and knowledge of technology, and his unique expertise as an adroit leader and technology specialist resulted in reimagining company recruitment through an advanced software tool, Recruiter.AI.

Alexandr Grygoryev led the development and implementation of the platform from scratch. “We needed a solution that would automate the recruitment process and improve the outcomes. The goal was to free our HR experts so they could focus on what really matters—engaging with people,” the CEO says.

The tool was specifically designed to enhance the interview cycle for both external candidates and in-house employees. The key features include conducting fully automated interviews by the program, generating interview questions and tailoring them to applicants’ answers and level of expertise, drawing up actionable reports with recommendations based on the results, and enabling in-house specialists to conduct self-assessments enhanced by a wide selection of topics and a competence matrix builder.

Drawing on his extensive technical background, Alexandr Grygoryev initiated the concept, oversaw its technical architecture, and hand-picked a team of software engineers, data scientists, UI/UX designers, QA engineers, and business analysts to work on the project. He was involved at every stage, from approving the feature set and user flows to reviewing prototype iterations and early versions of the product.

Alexandr Grygoryev led strategic workshops with the HR, business analysis, and development teams to identify key pain points in recruitment and ensure the platform would meet real-world operational needs.

Guided by his own early career in software engineering, Alexandr Grygoryev participated in shaping the competence matrix builder that helps teams define and assess role-specific expertise of candidates.

“Having worked as a software developer for a number of years, I knew what kind of feedback developers find useful and what they ignore. That perspective helped ensure Recruiter.AI would be truly helpful to both candidates and managers.”

To ensure project success, Alexandr Grygoryev established Agile product development workflows, including KPIs. His leadership fostered collaboration across HR, software engineering, and data science departments, transforming Recruiter.AI from an ambitious idea into a comprehensive tool.

Since its launch, the results have been remarkable. The company managed to lower its interview-related costs by 50% and slash hiring time by an impressive 90%. The platform also supports Andersen’s commitment to in-house development by offering self-assessment modules for its employees. These impressive results could be reached thanks to Alexandr Grygoryev’s exceptional performance and adroit management.

“Recruitment isn’t just about filling roles, it’s about building the company’s future. With Recruiter.AI, we’ve built a scalable and smart system that aligns with our long-term goals,” Alexandr Grygoryev shares.

Promoting a culture of continuous skill enhancement

Decision-makers expect 40% of their staff to develop new skills within the next three years in response to AI and automation adoption. After analyzing this and other leading market trends, Alexandr Grygoryev came to the conclusion that helping employees expand their skill sets, embrace innovative work approaches, and master emerging technologies is essential to adapting the business to emerging challenges.

Alexandr Grygoryev’s important achievement in this regard as a CEO has been the creation and launch of the Laboratory initiative within the company. This is a strategic in-house ecosystem project designed to source and hire trainees, teach them in-demand skills, and employ them on the in-house and external customer projects.

Alexandr Grygoryev played a key role in this initiative by planning and carrying out the following steps: 

1. Identifying the need: Based on his understanding of business and technology, Alexandr Grygoryev conducted an internal audit of Andersen’s project flow, possible customer needs, existing skills gaps, and software market trends.

2. Defining the concept: Alexandr Grygoryev suggested that the Laboratory wouldn’t merely be a training program, but a full-fledged ecosystem to attract aspiring tech specialists, provide them with intensive training aligned with real-world business needs, and offer them career opportunities in Andersen. He presented the initiative to the board and secured executive buy-in.

3. Structuring the model: Together with senior technology and HR specialists, Alexandr helped design the structure of the Laboratory. This includes entry assessments to select highly motivated candidates, tailored curricula for each speciality, mentoring, ongoing mentorship and knowledge assessments, and gaining practical, project-based experience under the supervision of Andersen’s in-house experts.

4. Scaling the initiative: After the successful launch of the program, Alexandr Grygoryev initiated the expansion of the Laboratory to various regions, such as Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and more. In Poland alone, 601 trainees have completed the program since 2020, of whom 283 have become Andersen’s employees.

5. Focusing on long-term impact: Alexandr Grygoryev’s vision was to make the Laboratory a value-creating initiative for both the company and society. The project helps aspiring talent grow by building their skills and making them more competitive when looking for jobs. This allows professionals to increase their income and support the local economy by paying taxes and spending money in their communities.

An organization’s ability to evolve and adopt new work models amid data-driven digital transformation largely depends on the satisfaction and proficiency of its staff. Alexandr Grygoryev, in the position of accomplished executive manager, adroitly balances technology management with a human-centered approach. By cultivating a resilient corporate culture that encourages professional development and loyalty to the company vision, he managed to handle employee reluctance to change, which is often viewed as a major stumbling block on the way to innovation. 

As the pace of change in the IT sphere accelerates, establishing well-oiled human resource management routines is paramount. Alexandr Grygoryev’s unique skills and expertise helped Andersen evolve and thrive amid ever-changing circumstances.