roundtable
How to mould and develop your recruitment
Kevin Gaskell
As far as recruitment was concerned, the participants discussed the challenges faced in their particular industries. Garrett explained how, “we have in the past struggled finding people for the specialist operational and technical side of our business. While there is a relatively large pool of talent in functions such as HR and finance, our industry can be quite incestuous, so there is a tendency for the ‘cycle of rubbish’ to circulate around from firm to firm, moving on every few years before being found out.” As a result, Garrett explained they had started to take on young graduates; five trainees were due to start in the near future to be trained for sales positions. “This gives us a chance to mould them, develop them, and ensure they buy into our culture and what we do.”
Alan Gasser
At this point, Lennox recounted a story with a novel twist on the usual interview process.”There was a room full of candidates who were undergoing a filmed interview session, where each took in turn to present to the group. However, the camera was not filming the presenters, but was recording everybody else’s engagement. They ended up recruiting those who demonstrated the most empathy and involvement, not those who were the best presenters.”
Hire for attitude, train for skill
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moving in the same direction. “Trying to keep everybody happy seldom works, but you always need to keep the lines of communication open.” Gaskell was of a slightly different opinion, recounting how early on his career he would spend a lot of time and effort trying to ‘turn people around’ to get them to stay and be engaged. However, now “I end up paying them a lot of money to make them go away quickly. Learn fast, develop fast – that’s my motto when it comes to people.”
Bates added that his company had found it very useful to produce a laminated card for all their employees, detailing the five financial objectives for the current financial year, to ensure that everyone was fully aligned with the company’s vision.
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“I’m looking for people who can be both 10 up and 10 down.” This was a phrase which initially puzzled Gaskell when he first heard it from a young South African entrepreneur. Her point was illuminating though – she wanted somebody who could talk to people 10 levels higher up than them, such as CEOs, as well as those 10 levels lower down, such as cleaners and shop assistants.
Gaskell continued: “I always look for right attitude when recruiting. You can find good attitude anywhere, not necessarily just amongst people looking for a job. For example, when I was in South Africa, I was driven around by a local Uber taxi driver who used to be a financial manager before being laid off. He was so helpful, and so fantastic, that I asked for his CV and punted it around South African companies I knew with a strong recommendation that they consider him for a job.”
Garrett agreed wholeheartedly with Gaskell’s point about talent being everywhere, telling the story about how he once offered a barman a job. The young man in question had looked after a group of them for the evening, “taking great care of us, managing us when we needed managing, and generally demonstrating a maturity way beyond his years.”
Bates added that talent is often already present within an organisation, just not necessarily in the right function. “Our best salesperson originally joined us as a project manager, but his demeanour was so positive and outward-facing that we soon transferred him over to sales. Yes, he made mistakes along the way, but he always learned from them.”
Acquisitions, disposals, and recapitalisations ...
The participants debated acquisitions and found them to be a ‘tricky area’ to get right. Potential mistakes highlighted buying for marketing share (Garrett: “we bought stuff we could do ourselves”), and not buying the right businesses (Gasser: “it has to be a strategic fit or else it can become a costly mistake”), while relying on banks for external investment was considered a rather hit-and-miss affair (Lennox: “they said it was one of the best business plans they’d seen but weren’t appetised, so we just stuck tight and grew out of our own cashflow.”)
When it came to selling businesses, the nature of the acquirer was deemed particularly important, with private equity firms coming in for some criticism from Gaskell. “In my experience, there are too many who are too focused on wanting to tell you how the world works from behind a computer screen. Spreadsheet heroics don’t usually work in the real world.”
Recapitalisations were also a delicate subject, with Gaskell adding that unless carefully managed they can have a ”destabilising effect on the business.” The participants discussed the difficulty in balancing objectivity with passion in such circumstances, agreeing that “people can switch off once they know their shares are worth a given number.”
Taking both external and internal advice
“Being a non-executive director (NED) is a skill – just having experience doesn’t make you a good NED,” was Garrett’s opinion on the issue of good advice.
In response, Gaskell, who has a number THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH COAST – FEBRUARY 2017
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