There are many challenges when it comes to bringing new talent into an organisation, especially one as diverse and culturally driven as ours. I will be discussing the skill side of recruitment, looking at the challenges that we face as a business and how we are finding solutions.
The challenges we are facing when recruiting:
One of our main challenges in the recruitment process is finding the calibre of candidate we need for our unique, in-house business model. This is partly because the Midlands is best known for its automotive and manufacturing, and not really for its events industry or creativity. It is also in part due to the nature of the work that we do.
Scale - we are unique in the fact that we are a range of different industries under one roof, thanks to our integrated business model. While this makes for exciting roles with potential to work on big brands and fun projects it can mean that when we do find candidates that match the requested criteria, the scale of experience that we need can cause a problem and we struggle with that nationally.
We work across huge projects such as events for tens of thousands of people so even when we can get the transferrable skills or even if they’re coming from a similar industry, they don’t necessarily have the scalable experience.
Variation - the variation of the projects that we work with means candidates can struggle to adjust to the variety and volume of projects we have at any one time because they may not be familiar with fluid, flexible working. They may be used to working on projects that they start and finish, and although they get to do that at DRPG, they may be working on multiple projects in one week rather than just a single project from start to finish. For many, this is a positive as it means no two days are ever the same and there is certainly no such thing as boredom or monotony at DRPG!
As a business we’re growing so quickly and we’re leading the way for integrated agencies. This means we’re trying to recruit from a talent pool that is not quite where we are yet in terms of complexity, variation and sheer volume. It’s a great time for us, but it can be challenging from a recruitment perspective.
How are we overcoming these challenges?
Overcoming these challenges involves providing more training internally, both when people first start and throughout their time at the company. All new starters are going through an induction programme, and part of that programme are introductory training modules based on our values and how we work with each other in the business. When people join us, it is very important they get an insight into how we operate as a business so that they can apply these skills when they work on their projects here.
DRPG is all about upskilling. We have an incredible internal training platform ‘The Academy’ where we focus on giving all team members access to the learning and development tools that they need to advance in their roles.
We also promote role flexibility within the company. There are situations where we have had people join the business in a specific role and have identified areas where we are not tapping into their true potential. In such instances, we have created positions or moved them into different roles that better play to their strengths and creates a shared value for the individual and the company. We’ve got loads of success stories of where people have done that.
