FEATURE: EXECUTIVE SEARCH & RECRUITMENT
The search for talent
With the technology sector on the rise, the issue now is how to find the best staff. STEVE CORBETT, (pictured) associate director at Robert Walters Plc offers his advice on how to win the War for Talent.
position to capitalise on new opportunities, growth and career development. However, this same recovery has created a new
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challenge for employers to overcome – the War for Talent. With the UK facing a recognised shortage of skilled professionals, businesses need to determine how best to recruit and retain high quality professionals in a market where candidates are in high demand. Robert Walters is a specialist recruiter across the UK
in the professional sectors of technology, finance, HR, legal and procurement, so we can take the Midlands’ technology sector as a good example of how this talent shortage is impacting employers. Ten years ago, professionals with specialist IT skills
would have found the best opportunities and money in London. This was where the big banks were operating from, where the majority of businesses head quarters could be found and of course where the ‘cool’, new tech start-ups began to open offices and build the dot com bubble. We saw an acute drain of hands among technical
and senior tech leadership professionals from the Midlands, with many choosing to commute via the bleary-eyed 6:30am train to London Euston. However, with the development of new communication technologies over the last 10 years, changing working attitudes and practices and London office overheads continuing to go through the stratosphere, the environment has now changed. The national press and has extensively covered the trend toward multinational companies moving the majority of their operations out of London to places like Birmingham, Coventry or one of the many business parks around the Midlands. For example, Deutsche Bank moved to Birmingham
around six years ago and asked Robert Walters to help them recruit over 1,400 staff primarily for back-office functions and technology roles. There has been a lot of publicity recently surrounding HSBC’s upcoming Birmingham, while Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds have also moved some of their operations to Birmingham. Additionally, there has been significant talk that other big named banks and companies are now eyeing up locations in the city. HS2’s decision to move to Birmingham will create massive opportunities; the BBC announced that its new digital innovation team will be developed in Birmingham; DTZ brought its European financial control centre to Greater Birmingham and of
44 CHAMBERLINK MARCH 2016
s the UK economy continues on the road of recovery, with some sectors already firing on all cylinders, businesses and candidates are in a
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