The next blog in our Bristol Technology Festival series dives into the second Amdaris panel at our Harvey Nichols event. We hosted three panels in total, with representatives from Amdaris, Ovo Energy, ISL Recruitment, Clue Computing, Huboo (and many more!), coming together to explore how to find, retain, and grow tech talent.
Titled ‘How do you attract and hire the best talent into tech roles?’, our second panel featured Alan Furley, Director at ISL Recruitment, Clare Elford, CEO of Clue Computing, and Amdaris’ COO Glyn Blaize.
The discussion was kicked off by Alan, who explored the challenges around remote and hybrid working when hiring. He emphasised the difference between a company’s principles (e.g. having company guidelines in place that outline expectations) and its policies (e.g. how many days employees are expected to be in the office). Alan noted that the policies can change and flux, but the principles should always stay the same. This means that new and existing staff understand what is expected, but the working policies can change in response to government guidelines and staff sentiment.
Alan went on to talk about the fundamentals of hiring, and that employers (at the very minimum!) should advertise the jobs they have. He said: “Someone I know said they couldn’t find any staff, but there was no mention of hiring on their website. At the very minimum you’ve got to put out some sort of signal.”
Clare at Clue Computing agreed about getting the fundamentals right, and said that getting across what the company actually does is key.
Clue has a mix of roles that require employees in the office and others that can be done completely remotely. Clare noted that by identifying those roles and outlining your overall company purpose, attracting the right roles that align with what the business needs is much easier. Clare said: “We’ve realised how important it is to really have clarity around our purpose and values. As we grow, we realise that our purpose needs to be clearer so we can bring in different people with different ideas, but who also align with the business.”
Prioritise synergies
Our COO Glyn then explored the benefits of face-to-face discussions and whiteboard chats, noting how these have a real impact on businesses. He explained that at Amdaris, “we’ve realised that some of the synergies that happen around the whiteboard have dropped. We have to balance our policy as a flexible employer with our values of collaboration and leaning into problems. Communication and collaboration aren’t necessarily the same thing.”
The need for flexibility while also supporting business aims and employee needs was something that resonated well with the panel. Glyn also expressed the need for employers to focus on where they are sourcing their talent. He commented that, “during the pandemic, people grew their own veg when they saw the shelves were emptier. They created it themselves. But businesses didn’t catch onto that as quickly as they could have. The competition for talent is high, so we need to make more skills within the marketplace. That is the journey we are on at Amdaris.”
All panelists agreed that tech talent isn’t in abundance, so it’s important for employers to be mindful about upskilling, reskilling, and nurturing new and existing talent – something that we at Amdaris are very passionate about.
To see the full panel discussion, watch below.
The first of our panel blogs can also be found here: Bristol Technology Festival Panels Part One: Building the right team