When you are growing an IT business in Lancashire, there are a few things you need to take into account. Luckily for you, the tech sector in the North West is rapidly growing. Unfortunately for IT businesses, the market is currently candidate-driven, meaning it can be difficult to find the right talent. This article will help you to identify what drives your business, and how you can track down the right talent to fuel that drive.
The foundations: What is it that you do exactly?
Firstly, let’s focus on what you do. If you’re growing an IT business in Lancashire, you’re likely to spend a lot of time thinking about the results you want to achieve, and the people you want to reach. However, the inner workings of your business are what need the most consideration, it’s the most crucial factor behind the generation of those results. Think of it as an inside-out approach. You have to have a strong core to create an impactful outward ripple effect.
The centre of the ‘core’ constitutes the ‘why’ and values that your business is built on. Your team make up the outer layer of the core. They embody the values of the business. Practises, followed by clients and revenue are the ripple effects of your core components. What your business is built on will have a significant impact on the size and duration of the ripple effect. Head down to the bottom of the article, where we going into practical actions, on how you can find your values.
What problems do you solve for your clients?
When you’re growing an IT business in Lancashire, one of your main selling points are the problems you can solve for your clients. If you’re able to prove that you and your team can consistently and effectively solve problems you’re going to generate more client loyalty. Acquiring new customers is 5-25 times more costly than retaining existing ones, so obtaining loyalty is vital for the profit margin of your business.
However, if you’re focusing on this, you’re still thinking about the end result, not how you get there. The way to get there and grow an IT company successfully is through your employees. For your employees to generate results, you need to hire the right team, to begin with.
How to hire the right team
Focus on your own skill set and the team you need to build around you to create something bigger than yourself, with an intersection of skills that cover all the necessary areas of expertise.
A study found that 92% of companies top concern is redesigning organisational structure to meet the needs of current workforces, moving away from the traditional hierarchical approach, and prioritising networks of teams instead. Placing emphasis on skills, collaboration and a collective purpose is at the core of effective teams.
A couple of useful tools to use when growing an IT business in Lancashire and thinking about hiring and building an effective team are the EOS model and ‘Hedgehog’ concept.
EOS
The EOS model identifies ‘people’ as one of the main six components that have to be managed and strengthened to build a great business, alongside vision, traction, issues, process and data. If you hire people who not only have the right skills and experience but are the right ‘fit’ for your culture and values, they’re going to make a much more valuable contribution to your business and its customers.
It could be that you have an employee who fits really well within your culture but is in the wrong role. For example, there are salespeople and technical workers out there who have well-blended hard and soft skills which would probably make them more successful in roles such as IT consultants. Vice versa, you could make the mistake of hiring someone who is ‘right’ for the job, but they’re out of sync with your business’s culture and values, making work much harder than it needs to be.
What you choose to put in the job specification when you’re looking to take on a new employee should take this into account. It’s very much dependent on the solutions you offer and how you implement them for clients and within your business, alongside your values. If you still don’t know what this is, then the following activities will help:
The hedgehog concept
You can apply Jim Collins’ ‘hedgehog’ concept to your hiring strategy. It consists of three principles: what you’re passionate about, what you can be the best at, and what drives your economic engine. The concept suggests that you need an intersection of the three for a business to be more likely to succeed. Hiring someone whose principles are similar to those of the company will only increase this fortification.
What is your ‘why’?
Your ‘why’ is one of the most integral components to growing an IT business in Lancashire. It will likely determine who you hire, your work culture, your values, and what you choose to pursue and how you strategise. Whatever these are made up of will additionally shape the types of clients you will attract, too. Ever wondered how your best client can sometimes become a long-time close friend?
Ultimately, your ‘why’ should be the reason behind everything you do. There’s going to be a drive or passion behind your ‘why’. After all, it’s the reason behind you starting your venture. Perhaps you saw a gap in the market or a solution to a problem that no one else has solved? More likely it’s going to be a better lifestyle with improved work-life balance you want to attain or a long-standing ambition you want to fulfil. It’s a genuine and authentic reason behind the existence of your business which drives what you do and how you do it.
Simon Sinek analysed why Apple consistently performs in everything they do- from laptops and phones to music; They can sell pretty much anything successfully. Whereas HP has always performed well-selling laptops, but when they attempted to try their hand at TVs, their product flopped.
But why? The ‘why’ is literally the answer. Sinek pointed out that HP was keen to convey what their product did. Alternatively, Apple promotes its products by emphasising the fact that they are passionate about challenging the status quo. Consumers want to invest in a brand because they identify with their ‘why’, not just because the product features make their lives easier.
Conclusion
With the rapidly growing tech industry in the North West, now is the time to be growing an IT company in Lancashire. Finding top talent still presents a challenge, but if you follow this article’s advice and identify candidates based on your business’s values and ‘why’, you’ll be on your way to success. Specialist IT recruitment agencies are one of the easiest ways to find talent that suits your business’s needs. If you’re struggling to find the right talent while growing an IT business in Lancashire, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
At GK recruitment, we have over 20 years of IT recruitment experience. If you need help in recruiting a new IT employee, we can help you find your perfect match. Contact us on 01257 429 499 or email us at info@gkrecruitment.com.
