Arming employers with the tools to recruit and retain staff

In the fast-paced changing world of work, employers in Orkney need to be armed with all the tools they need to ensure they can recruit and retain their biggest asset – staff.

That’s no mean feat in this current climate but exactly the kind of challenge the recent Employer Information Event was geared towards.

Organised by the Local Employment Partnership (LEP), it was the first official event to be held within the newly opened Hub – for Learning, Skills and Work, at 2 Albert Street, Kirkwall (within the Skills Development Scotland building).

Employers from local businesses stopped by to hear more on practical recruitment and retention support from a range of experts from Developing the Young Workforce Orkney, Robert Gordon University, Orkney Island Council (OIC), Skills Development Scotland (SDS), Business Gateway, Employability Orkney, NHS Orkney, Voluntary Action Orkney and Orkney College UHI.

One of those to engage was Lauren Miller, Global Marketing and Communications Manager, Kyloe Partners – Software development and IT consulting.

She explained why she went along: “Our goal is to sustain and grow an innovative business centred in Orkney. Recruiting the right people, who fit with our aims and culture, is an integral part of this – we attended this event to learn more about The Hub and the services available that would help us to support local people in exploring their career options.

“As a growing technology company headquartered in Orkney we are regularly recruiting locally – we now have almost 40 staff based here.

“Recruiting people for our technical roles (such a software development and data engineering) can be challenging as often people haven’t had the opportunity to develop the tech skills we’re looking for in a workplace environment and can be hesitant to put themselves forward. But we value enthusiasm to learn as well as prior experience and qualifications and there are now a lot of people working at Kyloe who have been able to train on the job and really grow and develop their skills.

“We also find there’s a misconception that because we’re a tech company, we only hire for technical roles. This can often lead people who aren’t technical to bypass us, whereas we actually have a whole range of teams here including sales, marketing, customer support, HR, project management and finance.”

Lauren says the drop-in session was not only useful to learn about the services and see the Hub’s co-working space, but it has given her some new ideas moving forward.

“It’s great to know that there is a local resource there that can help us raise awareness of the opportunities at Kyloe, and help us reach people within the community who might not have even considered that we could be a good fit for them, and vice-versa.

“I didn’t realise there was such a variety of support available – getting everyone together under one roof really made that clear. Connecting with these organisations is so important as they are so well placed in understanding the local market and giving advice on how to approach recruitment here in a way that will open up opportunities for people looking for work.

“We’re looking forward to continuing discussions with some of the people we spoke with at the event and seeing how those relationships develop, and will certainly keep in mind the possibilities as part of future recruitment.”

Lindsey Johnson, the Council’s Community Learning Development Employability Team Manager, said: “We were delighted to see a range of employers and managers coming through the doors of our new Hub for the event last week.

“Not only was this a chance to showcase the new co-working space but also to hear first-hand of the recruitment and retention facing local businesses – and, vitally, to be able to offer up practical support from the experts in attendance altogether under one roof.

“The event promoted the variety of ways in which businesses can broaden their approach and become an employer of choice; accessing people that are looking for employment opportunities or equally supporting employers to retain staff they already have in their workforce.”

The LEP also took the opportunity to launch a new booklet to help employees better understand their employment rights. Alongside this, they intend to develop an employers’ toolkit to support businesses when recruiting new staff.

Lindsey added: “At this event, we also sought feedback from employers on the support and resources that would be most useful for them in a toolkit. Employers feedback is invaluable to ensure that we meet the needs of our local employers.”

The Hub was funded and designed jointly through SDS and the Local Employability Partnership.

Kerri Liddle, team leader for SDS in Orkney said: “This was the first major event in our new Hub, and exactly the type of occasion the space was designed for. A place for employability partners to work collaboratively to support local people move into employment, and to help them develop the future skills needed for the fast-paced changing world of work.

“The Hub also provides a co-working space that will help enhance our partnership approach even more.”