roundtable 41


Atkinson: “Over the past four months we have embarked on a significant recruitment drive and have managed to add about 30% headcount, but the two areas we struggled to fill, despite Wokingham being a desirable place to live and work, were software based skills and graduates.


“There seems to be a graduate gap between capability and a desire to get into a working environment. Although we did achieve it, increasing headcount and getting through some strong growth plans, has been tough for us in terms of the time, effort and investment around that recruitment.


“I think there is a significant opportunity to bridge the gap between academia and the wide world of business. What happens to students when they leave university? How do they get more awareness of the working world and attune their skills to the requirement?“


Scott-Cowell‘s company had managed to increase its headcount in the past two years but found recruiting of experienced Tier 1 & 2 technology staff difficult – and not just through scarcity. “Sometimes when we have recruited people into that spot, we have found that their specific skillset comes at a huge price and often their work ethic is not up to the standard in a fast-moving business. Culturally, behaviourally they just don‘t fit.“


So, Voicenet adopted a different approach. “We went back to graduates for sales and technical positions, usually one or two years out, and, with a fair bit of training and mentoring support, we have found these guys just sucking up knowledge and new skills. We have been amazed. After just eight months, one was out meeting clients and selling his own solutions.“


Another benefit was cost, with graduate salaries being significantly less than the cost of a more senior experienced technologist. “There is a bit of a risk, but with people to watch over them, graduates, with their energy and enthusiasm, are pound for pound worth their weight in gold.“


and holidays, and you need people who can slot into positions to help the business out. It seems to pay dividends because people stay with us. They obviously like to be part of a team, working together with their colleagues.“


New trends: BYOD, 4G and bye-bye to the workstation?


John Cousins


order to produce the right sort of employee, his Oxford-based company now also worked within apprenticeship schemes with “fired up and willing to learn“ sixth formers and school leavers. “These people enjoy being in the workplace, are looking to forge a career, and they really start to deliver for you at a very early stage.“


Atkinson: “In the qualified space with its specific skills requirements, there is definitely inertia and reluctance to move because of the current economic situation. People are not prepared to embrace opportunities so readily today.“


Cousins reported that Peach Telecom had gained a good success rate by recruiting 17-19 year-olds via Academies. “They come in for a 12-week placement and they have been phenomenal, absolutely brilliant. We‘ve taken several on. We can now specify with the Academy what candidate age-group, what sort of qualifications we want, and the Academy says: ‘Here‘s 15, pick the six you want!‘


“We may have massive problems getting high- end skills, but we have to accept that traditional telecoms has gone from the spanner to the laptop, and new IT-literate engineers will be needed.“


With the financial sector perhaps not now so alluring to new graduates, Murray queried if the appeal of the technology sector was sufficient to attract fresh career-seekers.


Landew: “Consumerisation of IT is a key concept today. New technology in general tends to penetrate consumer markets first and then overlap into business – this is hugely significant. So, the attraction of technology is definitely there with Apple, Google and social networking names being part of everyday speech. It‘s seen as an exciting and fast-moving area to be involved in.


David Murray


Sift the CVs, and fish in different pools


Kingsland: “At whatever level of recruiting, you have to do a lot of sifting because you want particular skills plus the right attitude and aptitude in the workplace. It is not a straightforward proposition like fishing in a barrel full of apples. There is not a one-size-fits-all recruit out there.“ In


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JULY/AUGUST 2012


“But, we still encounter issues recruiting people with the right mix of skills. At Star we focus on customer service and cultural fit not just technical skills. Whilst your CV will get you through the door, core competences are a high priority.“


In an industry with stiff competition for skilled operators, Nice said his company, Imago, also considered long-term retention of its people, “As well as looking for core competences, we try to recruit and develop team players. With organisations today tending to be ‘lean and mean‘, it means you will get periods of sickness


Kevin Scott-Cowell


James also pointed out that standardisation in the workplace was often a route to cost-savings, yet having the luxury of using different devices in a working environment would inevitably increase the infrastructure costs of supporting their use.


Atkinson spoke of the potential separation between “the personal devices that you prefer to use, and the standardised platform business devices that you are required to use.“


Murray mused whether the ubiquitous workstation might be redundant by 2020.


Atkinson: “Business has changed radically already, without even considering what my children, with their social networking, will constitute as business in the future. We are already seeing contacts and communicational business coming through a variety of different non-standard channels over and above the phone or email –Twitter, Skype, LinkedIn, etc.“


Landew: “BYOD is a hot area. For internal IT departments, we‘re looking at how we can help


www.businessmag.co.uk Continued overleaf ...


Murray asked about the growth of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) in the workplace, and wondered about its legal and security implications.


James admitted that these were concerns for organisations, particularly as corporate security systems may not have been designed for all such devices, and equally the personal devices might not be as secure as a company‘s equipment. “People who want to bring devices into the workplace, many of them senior people, need to be more aware of the risk implications around them.“


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