One thing has stood out to me in running fast-growth technology and business-to-business PR firms for nearly 30 years. It is the continuous claim from the entrepreneurs I meet that when trying to build a team they ‘just can’t find the right people.’
Despite unprecedented investment in the education system, there is always a steady stream of stories about jobs that can’t be filled. A recent example is 2000 vacancies in the assumed employment black spot of Hull.
This is a big business PR challenge, and for once I don’t mean public relations. People Recruitment, People Retention and People Relationships. For me success in all of these areas comes down to one thing – attitude. Not just of employees but of employers too.
If you have ever grabbed a lunchtime sandwich from the undoubted success story that is Pret-a-Manger I can confidently assume that you will have been met by a wall of cheerful Iberian pleasantness. In fact, try to find a builder or plumber or go into any retail establishment on the high street, from a bike shop to a pub, and you’ll encounter enthusiastic customer service keenness that clearly wasn’t born, brought up or educated in the UK.
If people can be bothered to come thousands of miles from their homes, learn another language and another culture it says a lot of positive things about them. It also says a lot about employers, who are far happier to rely on the informal friendship networks of employees than the local Job Centre, an institution routinely described as `useless` by those I talk to who have tried to engage its services.
It also says a lot about those in the UK without a job, especially graduates. Whilst we are embroiled in endless arguments about our education system and looking for scapegoats as to why we have `failed` our young people, perhaps it’s time we took a long hard looks at ourselves - and them.
Abdicating responsibility is a disease of our times. We are too ready to blame the often faceless agencies of the UK state – teachers, policeman, social workers, politicians, civil servants, the BBC and so on. But, of course, it is to 'them' that we have abdicated responsibility for so many aspects of our lives, so why shouldn’t we conveniently let 'them' take the blame?
As a parent you can rail against the media or society at large but the bottom line is it is your responsibility to set an example and bring up your kids to be polite, well-grounded and successful. The same is true of our society, of which firms are simply a microcosm and business leaders - whether we like it or not - are 'in loco parentis.'
The reality is that this comes into sharp focus when recruiting. I’ve been recruiting for tech PR and other agencies and into corporates for decades and, thankfully, can point to an overall record of success based on the subsequent meteoric careers of those I hired when they were raw graduates not many years ago.
But throughout this there has been scrupulous focus on what I’ve come to term 'head, heart and guts'. The intelligence, inter-personnel skills and desire to be good at what you do underpins entrepreneurial and career success - and is essential for success in a tech PR agency where the world around you is changing constantly. Also, a resolute determination not to recruit from other agencies - lest I compound the generally poor standards of recruitment, training and leadership in the PR industry – has also been of great importance.
Head, heart and guts - three simple concepts that are rarely distributed in equal measure in candidates, even those with further degrees from the most prestigious institutions. It’s the last requirement – the guts – where so many fail. The focus to succeed; to be curious, to listen to criticism, to be as good as you can be, to learn. And, of course, the willingness and application to simply put in the effort.
It’s that which separates the winners from the majority of also-rans. Complacency, 'the-world-owes-me-a- living' attitude or the belief that 'good enough' is good enough shows the mark of a person who is going nowhere as much as it is the mark of a culture in decline.
The recent Evening Standard campaign for firms to take on graduates who the system had failed, perhaps, accidently, highlighted exactly why these 'unlucky' graduates had failed to land a decent job. At the risk of sounding old, we’re not talking green hair, lip-piercings, low-slung ripped jeans -these were not St. Martin’s graduates looking for an elusive lifestyle job in Hoxton, but graduates expecting to secure well-paid roles in traditional firms. Funnily enough, it also happened to emerge they were graduates that had turned down jobs at employers they deemed not worthy of their talents. By the time you’ve finished university, you’re meant to have matured past that stage not to have perfected it.
To me this all amounts to, as John Cleese once said, 'a statement of the `bleedin’ obvious.' But, as ever, something that appears to be simple may not be so. Charlie Mullins, the founder and driving force behind Pimlico Plumbers, summed it up when he said that 'the problem with common sense is that it ain’t that common.' I couldn't agree more.
This is a big business PR challenge, and for once I don’t mean public relations. People Recruitment, People Retention and People Relationships. For me success in all of these areas comes down to one thing – attitude. Not just of employees but of employers too.
If you have ever grabbed a lunchtime sandwich from the undoubted success story that is Pret-a-Manger I can confidently assume that you will have been met by a wall of cheerful Iberian pleasantness. In fact, try to find a builder or plumber or go into any retail establishment on the high street, from a bike shop to a pub, and you’ll encounter enthusiastic customer service keenness that clearly wasn’t born, brought up or educated in the UK.
If people can be bothered to come thousands of miles from their homes, learn another language and another culture it says a lot of positive things about them. It also says a lot about employers, who are far happier to rely on the informal friendship networks of employees than the local Job Centre, an institution routinely described as `useless` by those I talk to who have tried to engage its services.
It also says a lot about those in the UK without a job, especially graduates. Whilst we are embroiled in endless arguments about our education system and looking for scapegoats as to why we have `failed` our young people, perhaps it’s time we took a long hard looks at ourselves - and them.
Abdicating responsibility is a disease of our times. We are too ready to blame the often faceless agencies of the UK state – teachers, policeman, social workers, politicians, civil servants, the BBC and so on. But, of course, it is to 'them' that we have abdicated responsibility for so many aspects of our lives, so why shouldn’t we conveniently let 'them' take the blame?
As a parent you can rail against the media or society at large but the bottom line is it is your responsibility to set an example and bring up your kids to be polite, well-grounded and successful. The same is true of our society, of which firms are simply a microcosm and business leaders - whether we like it or not - are 'in loco parentis.'
The reality is that this comes into sharp focus when recruiting. I’ve been recruiting for tech PR and other agencies and into corporates for decades and, thankfully, can point to an overall record of success based on the subsequent meteoric careers of those I hired when they were raw graduates not many years ago.
But throughout this there has been scrupulous focus on what I’ve come to term 'head, heart and guts'. The intelligence, inter-personnel skills and desire to be good at what you do underpins entrepreneurial and career success - and is essential for success in a tech PR agency where the world around you is changing constantly. Also, a resolute determination not to recruit from other agencies - lest I compound the generally poor standards of recruitment, training and leadership in the PR industry – has also been of great importance.
Head, heart and guts - three simple concepts that are rarely distributed in equal measure in candidates, even those with further degrees from the most prestigious institutions. It’s the last requirement – the guts – where so many fail. The focus to succeed; to be curious, to listen to criticism, to be as good as you can be, to learn. And, of course, the willingness and application to simply put in the effort.
It’s that which separates the winners from the majority of also-rans. Complacency, 'the-world-owes-me-a- living' attitude or the belief that 'good enough' is good enough shows the mark of a person who is going nowhere as much as it is the mark of a culture in decline.
The recent Evening Standard campaign for firms to take on graduates who the system had failed, perhaps, accidently, highlighted exactly why these 'unlucky' graduates had failed to land a decent job. At the risk of sounding old, we’re not talking green hair, lip-piercings, low-slung ripped jeans -these were not St. Martin’s graduates looking for an elusive lifestyle job in Hoxton, but graduates expecting to secure well-paid roles in traditional firms. Funnily enough, it also happened to emerge they were graduates that had turned down jobs at employers they deemed not worthy of their talents. By the time you’ve finished university, you’re meant to have matured past that stage not to have perfected it.
To me this all amounts to, as John Cleese once said, 'a statement of the `bleedin’ obvious.' But, as ever, something that appears to be simple may not be so. Charlie Mullins, the founder and driving force behind Pimlico Plumbers, summed it up when he said that 'the problem with common sense is that it ain’t that common.' I couldn't agree more.
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