With the arrival of the second internet boom, the digital industries have once again become victim of their own success, with plenty of jobs to go around but not enough skilled practitioners to fill them.

This event, held by NMK on 2 February 2006 at One Aldwych, looked at how agencies large and small are facing up to the skills shortage and the strategies they are employing to find talented people...

Report by Robert Dennis

Chair's Introduction: Zoe Black - Director, NMK

Zoe kicked off the first of the afternoon’s two sessions by observing that as the digital sector starts to heat up once again, finding the right people is becoming more of a challenge. With the shortage affecting both sides of the Atlantic, those with the necessary skills are naming their price, while ever-more more young hopefuls are being drawn into the industry, many of whom lack the work-readiness that companies expect and need.

Recruitment can be a time-consuming and costly affair, especially for expanding SMEs. Is searching for staff the best use of their often limited resources? Should you hand control of the process over to a recruitment agency?

One crucial factor is to make sure you know who you are as a company. And will your new recruit be travelling light or an older hand who’s more likely to know what’s needed and will stay put, but brings more baggage and potentially-disrupting idiosyncrasies with them?

Toby Barnes - Skillset

Toby explained the role Skillset (the Sector Skills Council for the audio-visual industries) is playing in helping to bridge the gap between existing skills provision and the needs of companies in the sector.

Skillset’s main function is to identify skills gaps and find ways of filling those gaps. Toby emphasised that Skillset is very much led by industry and engages actively with companies, trade associations and other key players.

Skillset has set up an interactive forum with a dozen different companies and most of the industry’s trade bodies, such as PACT and BIMA. It is currently exploring the possibility of membership organisations such as e-consultancy joining the forum, which leads a lot of Skillset’s strategy.

The Action Plan for the Interactive Industry has been developed over the last two years. Initially there was a problem defining what the interactive industry is: digital content was seen as a function, not a sector. Skillset promotes the industry as a sector to get representation in government. The plan focuses on the creators, developers and producers whose products are delivered on various platforms including web, interactive TV and mobile.

Toby outlined some key insights contained in the Action Plan for the Interactive Industry:

There is a broad range of specialist technical and creative skills in the interactive industry, as well as generalist skills, such as leadership, project management. Furthermore, experience is often valued more than skills. There is a key shortage in general skills which also apply to the sector: people might know how to put a website together, but not how to market their products and services. How do you sell the value of design? Or marry the understanding of client needs with technical solutions? New entrants and graduates are not always ready to start work. They may be too focused on one type of technology (which may no longer be used in the industry) or they may be too generalist.

Little or no access to formal training is available once people are in work. Most training is on the job and they are expected to learn about a new piece of software by themselves: there just isn't the time available to go off and study. People may need to drop into a training course on a weekly or monthly basis when they can’t take time out to train.

The two main areas in the skills gap are a lack of specialist skills and a comparable lack of generalist business skills, such as management and company development. These are less glamorous but vital areas that many small companies tend to shy away from. Even where people have strong “craft skills” such as design and coding they often lack the ability to apply these skills to meet the exact needs of their clients.

Skillset is involved in range of activities that build on the key insights of the Action Plan:

In the South East, Skillset has focused on interactive and digital content as one of its key sectors – with backing from SEEDA (the Regional Development Agency for the South East) a business development scheme for 40 SMEs in computer games and interactive has been set up. This includes networking, specific training, mentoring – matching up with key people and help with pitching, developing the company and recruitment issues. Participating companies are able to get help from other firms who have been through the same thing.

There is very little sector-specific business development available. Skillset is creating a roster of sector-specific business development courses available to interactive and digital industry. This will be available to all agencies countrywide and should stimulate existing courses to tailor themselves to the needs of the industry.

Another issue affecting new entrants to the industry is the lack of direct knowledge and experience available to careers advisers. Skillset is working with the National Guidance Research Forum (a network of 300 careers advisers) to enable them help young people make the right decisions. Skilset is also putting together a series of job profiles, which describe career paths rather than just being job specs and salary guides.

To fund all of these initiatives which currently just rely on central government, Skillset is looking at ways of increasing industry involvement. Interactive is often seen as the “weak cousin” of TV and film, which have own industry-matched skills funds from government and benefit from a voluntary levy on productions. This not only goes into skills funds; it also boosts the freelance market. Some of the potential models being considered include tax breaks and credits.

Toby concluded by saying that Skillset is keen to hear from a wide range of industry voices about the issues surrounding skills and anyone interested in influencing the development of the skills agenda in the interactive industry should contact Toby to talk about how they can get involved.

James Plummer – MD and Founder, Prospect MSL

James began by stressing that as the industry keeps changing, you have to keep learning. He was as keen to hear about the audience’s needs and experiences of recruitment as he was to give his own side of things. Prospect has been around for 25 years and have seen it all – from mainframes through to the internet revolution. Despite the upheavals in technology, the need for quality candidates with transferable skills remains constant.

Prospect’s approach to recruitment is similar for SMEs and larger companies. Its role is split between acting as a talent agent for individuals and looking after the needs of its clients. He agreed with those who said that despite having a wide knowledge of the issues facing the industry, knowing who to speak to is crucial.

One of the main themes to emerge from James’s talk is the need for collaboration when it comes to recruiting in the new era. In the first internet boom recruiters and companies were just competing with each other. People were reluctant to spend fees hiring talent that was subsequently poached by other agencies.

Larger clients in particular are now interested in the idea of collaboration and in finding new ways to work together. Apple Computers (whom Prospect works with) requires agencies to work with other recruiters. It’s essential, he continued, to find mechanisms for sharing knowledge and for developing the overall pie rather than fighting over pieces of it, which is what happened in the first internet boom, and which is to a certain extent the default mindset of the industry.

People see recruitment agencies as predatory. From the candidates point of view, they know if the recruiter is treating them as a commodity. We need to move away from the perception, James argued, that start-up and early stage companies especially, and new media in general, is a “risky” sector. He posited an alternative approach of moving forward and finding ways of developing businesses as well as the sector, rather than just allowing a small number of players to profit at the expense of others.

Tom Adams – MD, Mook

Tom stated that creative agencies depend on talent to survive. Over the years, Mook has tried countless ways of recruiting the best people – from using consultants charging 20% commission on first year salary, to word of mouth – to driving around in a van with chloroform. Each method works in its own way, but one of the most successful has been to bring young people in straight from university and nurture them from scratch.

Through an active PR strategy, Mook has always had exposure in the creative magazines that students read and has no shortage of incoming CVs. But while its one thing to get lucky with a random enquiry, it’s quite another to seek out the best design and communications students actively woo them.

Mook very early on created an informal placement scheme and started building relationships with design tutors at respected colleges. Since then, it has worked with countless institutions, including Surrey University College for the Creative Arts and Hyper Island in Sweden. In just six years, Mook has had over 24 placements.

There are many ways of working with different students. For example, Mook’s links with lecturers allows them to give genuine briefs to design students, eg at Surrey. They are quickly able to identify who the best creative people are, and can start working with them as soon as they graduate (rather than waiting until they are recruited by a competitor and start charging themselves out through a recruitment consultant). Tom pointed out that some of the most talented students are often also the most shy and least able to sell themselves.

In the case of Hyper Island, Mook went to Sweden and made personal contact with students who they might not have met otherwise. In return for their placement they get hands-on training and access to London’s digital scene.

It’s vital to get known by the next generation of creative talent: these are the future directors and founders of agencies. Leaving a good impression of your agency in the mind of new entrants to the industry starts a chain reaction of referrals that can change your fortunes for ever. And today’s placement could one day be your boss. Above all, placements make a fantastic contribution to the company, client relationship and team.

However, placements do require managing and they have to be looked after. They also need to understand the importance of confidentiality, especially if they are in contact with placements at other agencies. Placements are not just cheap labour: they need to be learning all the time.

Tom finished by outlining his three rules for “cooking raw talent”:

1. Put yourself out there with colleges, give talks, and be prepared for a long term investment: it will pay off, eventually.
2. Get placements involved – from strategy to making the tea. They need experience.
3. Don’t depend on them for really important work. It’s not about cheap labour, and initially you will end up investing more than you gain.

Everyone was raw talent once, Tom reminded us. Like great teachers, everyone remembers the person that gave them their first break. Be that person, and you’ll have a friend for life, he concluded.

Thayer Driver – Producer, Chinwag Jobs

Thayer was called away at the last minute, but she very kindly gave us a written version of her talk - What is the best way to work with recruiters? And how can you get the most out of using online jobs mailing lists and boards, such as Chinwag?

The online recruitment market in the interactive industry is candidate driven. A recruitment agent is someone who will recruit your staff for you, and charge you a fee which is usually around 15-30% of a first year’s salary, although rates vary a lot between recruiters and specific jobs. So why would you want to pay a recruitment agent what seems like an awful lot of money find you someone you could probably find yourself?

Firstly, using recruiters is often a more cost effective way of finding your ideal member of staff. Putting out advertisements and sifting CVs will cost you money and time – and there’s no guarantee you’ll even find suitable candidates. With a recruitment agent you only pay when you’ve got your candidate. If you’re using the correct recruitment agent and communicating effectively, it should have cost you minimum time. Recruiters can also tap into the market much easier than you in the short period of time most people have to find a suitable candidate. They also have a wide reach of places to advertise, and will possibly already know a perfect fit from past relationships or job specifications. They can also work out who to target from people in a similar operating space to you.

Once you decide to work with a recruitment agent, there are further options open to you with regards how you want to work:

One is PSL – which stands for “preferred suppliers list”. This is when a company only asks around 3 recruitment agencies to fill their roles, and there is an agreement not to brief any further agencies. This is a really good way to work with agencies. You have essentially given them a real opportunity to fill your roles, and you can usually agree a rate than is slightly lower due to the commitment you are showing.

Preferred suppliers lists help to build a good relationship between you and the recruiter. You have the time to really get to understand their ways of working.

The other way of working with a recruitment agent is to brief over 5 agencies, and not have any commitment to any. Unfortunately it just means you’ll spend more time sifting the quantities of candidates from each recruiter, more time seeing the same CVs again and again, and not really building any lasting relationships with any of the agencies.

Building relationships and committing to working solely, or on a small list with a good agent who delivers you results is really the only way to go. Recruitment is a real two way street, and the more you put in the more you will get out.

This process gets faster and easier the more you work with any one recruiter in particular as your recruiter gets to understand what you look for in candidates, and what are the golden touches that really work for you.

Also, ensure that the recruitment agents you work with visit you in your premises first, that they meet and talk to the team, and if you find you get on – invite them out for drinks with the team once in a while, or company gatherings so they can understand your company philosophies and culture. It will really help them to find you your perfect match quicker and be easier for everyone all round.

Mark Rapley – The Garden Partnership

Mark opened his talk by saying that most successful agencies are integrated communications agencies. The people who work in them are not just from a new media background, but are also from disciplines such as marketing, advertising and communications. The real value of new media comes from exploiting its potential as one medium among a range of options available to advertisers and marketers.

More traditional agencies (“old media”) need people that can talk to their clients in their own language: they need an understanding of the wider business context and need to be able to discuss marketing, brands and positioning.

Clients are buyers of digital services, and these services are simply a means to an end, not an end in themselves. While many new interactive agencies are bright and enthusiastic, their knowledge is often limited to the web.

Conversely, the traditional agencies need to need to understand and appreciate the often radically different approach interactive designers take to producing content for the web. For example, Mark has been very impressed by the approach taken by Tom Bazeley of interactive agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine. Tom’s presentation on the Garden’s Graduate Course was both inspiring and helped to demonstrate the way highly client-focused interactive media can work really well.

The Garden’s success with its Graduate Course has attracted the attention of newer agencies that don’t run their own programmes. The key to the Graduate Course’s effectiveness is that it is integrated and covers core marketing skills such as sales, promotions and handling clients, as well as offering insights into the high-octane, creative possibilities offered by the web.

Steve Hutson – European New Media Manager, Aquent

Steve spoke about some of the major issues affecting the new media industry and some of the key findings from Aquent’s European Salary Survey.

Aquent spoke to 1500 creatives and drew together data for what is now an annual survey of trends in the new media industry. The next survey will involve speaking to 25,000 people and is being produced in association with industry organisations such as nmk, the DBA, and the Marketing Association.

The web market has been maturing and work new media is now very project-oriented. There is greater demand for contractors, with many more specialists around who can command greater salaries thanks to their rarity value. Agencies are looking for people with a combination of skills.The opportunities for individuals who possess those skills is increasingly rapidly as more and more activities take place online.

The web has changed not only business, but the way we live: everything from booking flights to taking out loans can be done online. The centre of gravity of the web is shifting, too: legislation, such as the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) presents new challenges for designers and places them under a moral obligation TO make the web easier to use.

Make the most of the web's network effect

The web is not about packaging. We need to understand and act on the insights gained from user groups and consumers. The web is increasingly the means of delivering the product, if not the product itself.

Agencies face a dilemma when it comes to recruiting core staff. There is no real sector-specific graduate training available. Those links which do exist between education and business are few and far between, but need to be encouraged. (Such as the placement and graduate schemes run by Mook and the Garden, which were discussed by earlier speakers).

People come to new media from a variety of backgrounds, Steve explained: on the creative front, many designers, copywriters and art directors have migrated from traditional, offline environments. Consequently, they have had make the adjustment to the digital world.

The challenge for agencies is to identify people with real passion, as well as talent. Universities are often reluctant to establish formal links with business and links are often established by word of mouth.

The range of platforms and applications have increased rapidly. Opportunities now exist for accessibility coders and designers who can create for mobile platforms. From the clients’ perspective, they want to know how the whole thing fits together and how it work all the way through. “Integrated solutioneers” are now required to take a global view of creative content and adapt it for the web, iTV and mobile.

Whatever happens in the industry, creativity and business skills will remain core. The demand for designers, technicians and marketing people to work together is forcing people to find new ways of attracting clients and reaching their consumers in a crowded marketplace.

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