48


tvbma roundtable ... continued from previous page


Marlow-based Thomas International (2014 Management Team Award finalist) had taken on several Generation Y recruits and Simon Pasco confirmed that ”. . . they are different. They’ve been educated and brought up differently, have different demands, 2-3 years is a long time to them, and yet we also have people who have been with us for over 25 years. How do you marry them together, keep your company culture as you are growing and the world is changing? That is a challenge that has to be worked on.”


or long-term assignments, which suits that Generation Y mentality. We probably did not make enough of that advantage in the past, but we do now.”


David Griffiths of FISCAL Technologies (2014 SME of the Year Award) said older experienced talent shouldn’t be overlooked – 60% of the FISCAL staff are over 30, yet the company, a hi-tech company founded in 2002, pro-actively recruited to all ages. “People over 40 or 50 are incredibly hard-working and put a lot of energy and ideas into the business, perhaps because they feel they have to prove more.”


Workplace culture, recruitment and retention


Alan Poole of TVBMA sponsor James Cowper Kreston felt young talent was still attracted by “… the familiar blue-chip logos on massive office blocks,” and while the Thames Valley was a great location to bring up a family, many would still go off to try other places, before returning in their 30s. “We have a very different culture to the bright lights and stock-broker mentality found in London.


Chris Sykes


Christopher Avery of TVBMA sponsor Pitmans had also noticed the millennial Generation Y difference: “When I was in my 20s I wanted security and a future career game- plan, but they are amazingly confident, willing to change, broaden their career horizons and travel, assuming that they will have a job to come back to.”


Overall, this presented different dynamics for firms to tackle, with retention frameworks, including individually challenging but interesting work for millennials, being a key focus.


Yadegari said companies had to accept that there was a shortage of quality skilled recruits. “Most of us hire based on potential, and this is where recruitment companies like ours come into play. Our job is to get to know the client company, its culture and its needs, well enough to be able to bring the right candidates with potential who will fit in and become part of that business. Unfortunately, that perfect solution does not always exist.”


Is Generation Y changing the way we work?


Murray suggested that Generation Y did not react well to the traditional hierarchical business model of performance-based salaries and ladder promotion, preferring team- working collaborative solution-finding, and social interaction – a different way of working.


Simon Miles of ‘Big Four’ firm Deloitte (2014 TVBMA sponsor): “We are fortunate in being a large international business. We can easily move people around our company, on short


www.businessmag.co.uk Anthony Foxlee-Brown


Anthony Foxlee-Brown, said the challenge for Grundon Waste Management (TVBMA sponsor Green Progress), a third generation family-run company with 86 years' heritage, was keeping the company’s family values and culture among its 750-plus ‘extended family’


David Brookes admitted that even BDO (2014 TVBMA Best Company to Work For winner) suffered from trained talent being poached and tempted by the lure of industry roles, or even positions within other BDO offices. To counteract this, the firm uses its recruitment process as a base of questioning around its established company values. “We are quite picky about ensuring we get the right people to match our values.” Equally, performance appraisals are conducted on this basis. Even so, additional graduate trainees are often taken on to support more local talent and offset ‘poaching’.


Andrew Thomson of HMT (Best Company to Work For 2014 finalist) identified the graduate level, qualified professional with 2-3 years experience as the most difficult recruit to attract and retain. Ironically, “. . . we are often embarrassed by the number and excellent quality of recruits for more junior roles”.


staff as it moved towards a more corporate way of working. With one director having been with the company for 49 years, Foxlee-Brown noted the Grundon in-joke that: ”If you stay for six months, you are here for life,” – such is the welcoming culture. With more new staff joining, the challenge was to maintain that friendly mood of long-term service.


Avery said his law firm had successfully integrated its culture following the acquisition of Southampton-based Lamport Bassitt, but mentioned that internal training programmes had assisted Pitmans in some measure in attracting and retaining staff. During the downturn many firms had shelved or reduced their training programmes. Pitmans had not, and the result was greater loyalty among its workforce. However, staffing in London was now a particular concern, with firms without training programmes “head-hunting because they are desperate for young talent”.


Is it money or culture that’s important?


Pasco pointed out that money was not always the employment driver. “Cultural fit is a big part of employee engagement, and another is recognition, which to me is part of the employee’s reward package.”


Ian Morrin


He posed a key question: “If you took money off the table, would your employee be sitting there on a Sunday night not wanting to come in on a Monday, or getting to Friday and looking forward to returning after the weekend?”


Grundon has a good HR team, said Foxlee- Brown, doing impressive employee engagement work. “Our surveys have shown that it isn’t salaries that drive our people. They want time with their families, work-life balance, recognition from the top or their colleagues rather than remuneration. We put in place the processes to make that happen.”


A recent management conference focussing on innovation had resulted in employees suggesting company improvements, which Grundon then committed to invest a significant amount of money in, – the true value being that “. . . our people feel good knowing that they have added value to the company and their input has been recognised”.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JUNE 2015


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56