sme 100 – roundtable 49
rate. We also get to see their skills develop and see if they could suit our business. After three months there’s no contractual obligation and either side can make its move.”
Nash mentioned that Santander provides graduate internship opportunities through its Breakthrough scheme. SMEs state their ‘entrepreneurial internship’ requirements and Santander will help businesses find appropriate graduate interns from over 70 UK universities. The bank also funds half the graduate’s salary with the SME.
Matos agreed that more SMEs should take up that offer, but suggested managing and mentoring the graduate was often seen as a major commitment. “The rewards for an SME can be fantastic but it does tie-up resource.
“Universities are increasingly looking at the employability of graduates and internships and work placements are becoming much more important. And, that’s where SMEs can help and benefit.”
A job shouldn’t be just about the salary
Salaries outside London are often lower, so managing recruitment expectations was essential, said solicitor Penny Garden.
Her firm had recruited a number of new solicitors in the past few months and was still recruiting. “We want the right quality of people and interesting people are coming out of London. They have gained experience, done the City lifestyle, and feel they now have something to offer within a good regional firm.”
Thames Valley work-life quality, plus wider career experience, opportunities and greater client involvement was often attractive to potential recruits.
“Some of our current trainees have also compared their training with friends at firms in London, and consider that working for us they get better experience and more responsibility.”
The increasing use of paralegals (unqualified legal assistants) was one way of attracting young graduates to come to regional firms, Garden added. “Basically, we can interview them on the job for a training contract and they can experience what it is actually like to work for us. They know how the firm works and we have seen their abilities.”
Penny Garden
MacDowall said his company had recently lost a staff member to a Reading-based Tier 1 service provider. “We couldn’t remain competitive and profitable in the public sector market that we serve if we offered the same salary. We have churn most years, and accept it’s the nature of career progress, but we do stress to interviewees the high level of autonomy and wide range of important work that they would get with us far exceeds what they could expect with the large systems integrators. We’ve had a number of instances of staff joining us because they wanted more challenging assignments and got bored at Tier 1 companies.”
Minchin accepted SMEs often could not match large marketing agency salaries, but felt the working environment could be crucial in attracting recruits. His firm offset its lower salaries by providing flexible working and home-working, a weekly personal training session for staff, and £100 for each new recruit to put their stamp on the office. “My aim is to engage them in our company culture as soon as possible, so the wage difference doesn’t really matter.”
Taylor’s company operates in a very competitive high-margin sector, so pays high salaries. “It is critical for us to get the right talent, but such players know they are good and can command a good salary. Getting the right work environment and lifestyle message across is important though.”
Growth and the difficult art of delegation
Sean Taylor THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2014
Acceptance of change, quick decision-making, and rapid workforce upskilling could all be advantages for SMEs over larger companies, the Roundtable believed, but a key ‘growing pain’ of entrepreneurial founders was often lack of delegation – “that ‘letting go’ of the business”, as Elliott termed it.
Nevertheless if staff decide they want to experiencethe ‘London lifestyle’ there can be little a regional firm can do to persuade younger staff members otherwise.
Murray revealed recruitment data that the Reading area had seen a 50% increase in construction placements, 37% in IT. “Are there enough good people out there to fill those jobs?”
“To grow, they can’t afford not to delegate, and they must ensure that everyone understands the overall business aims.”
Anns became MD of his company two years ago after working his way up from the shopfloor. “This resonates with me. Our founder has now left the business, and I need to change the culture, get us into a growth phase, and devolve responsibilities. That can be hugely challenging if an owner has put his stamp on a company.”
Potter: “The person who has the skill to start a business does not necessarily have the skill to develop the business. Equally, the old adage that a business dies if it stands still, isn’t necessarily true if an owner doesn’t want it to."
Taylor: “SMEs are often small for a reason. Often they are constrained by their management teams. There has to be a vision and it may not be for growth. Not everyone will want to go on the same growth journey, and those that do will need to hand parts of the business over to employees who may not run it as well as they do.”
Are funding issues still holding back SMEs?
Minchin: “There are a lot of opportunities to get financing, particularly with crowd-funding coming along in a big way.” Choosing the right funding option was the important factor and knowing where to find more information without being steered towards a product that happens to be flavour of the month.
Ian Nash
Potter thought too many SMEs focused on day-to-day operations and didn’t produce detailed strategic business plans. Accordingly, sometimes when they sought funding their business proposals were not presented adequately with information on income streams and profit projections. “But, there are a host of funding options available whether that be bank finance, invoice discounting, leasing, equity finance etc, etc ..”
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www.businessmag.co.uk
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