The final blog in our Bristol Technology Festival series explores the third Amdaris panel at our Harvey Nichols event. We hosted three panels in total, bringing together representatives from the UK’s South West businesses to explore how to find, retain, and grow tech talent.
Titled ‘How do you grow, nurture and retain your tech teams?’, the panel featured Steve Batt, Head of IT Operations at Chorus, Lee Berry, Head of Product at Huboo, and Vlad Nanu, Co-CEO at Amdaris.
The discussion was kicked off by Steve, who emphasised the need to develop your tech talent. He noted that before this can be done well, businesses need to look at how the organisation operates to ensure that the right management structures are in place. Do you have training and development processes? Can team members shadow other teams to see how they work and learn new skills? What coaching and mentoring structures are in place?
Lee agreed about the importance of growing your own tech talent, and also added that you need to know what makes each individual tick. He emphasised that “building a team doesn’t just happen. You need to consider what the person wants and ensure that it is in line with where the company is going.”
Caring about talent
Lee continued and explained that new talent needs to fit with the company vision, but existing talent needs to know that you care and that you’re invested in their development and progress. So, if an individual decides to leave, they know that you cared. Steve agreed, and said that “if a person wants to leave, they haven’t let you down.”
This is a theme that resonated with Vlad Nanu, Co-CEO at Amdaris too. Vlad discussed how Amdaris focuses on ‘the middle’ of the talent’s journey, which eventually leads to them securing a new role. Because of this, investing in career progression, motivation, and other key factors is essential.
Vlad also emphasised that it is Amdaris’ “duty of care to build a new generation of talent and to leave a place better than how we found it.” For example, if Amdaris hires talent for a specific region, the team focuses on investing back into that community to help grow new talent. Organisations should be giving as much as they are taking.
All panelists agreed that tech talent is often hard to come by, so employers need to be responsible for growing, retaining, and inspiring new talent – this is something that we at Amdaris are very passionate about.
To see the full panel discussion, watch below.