Struggling to hire and retain talent? It's a challenge that regularly crops up in our conversations with the Gather community. So for our latest Gather event we assembled a line-up of leaders, experts, and talent to share their insight and experience.

Here are our top takeaways from a keynote and panel discussion on recruiting and retaining talent with John 'Sinx' Sinclair, co-founder of ustwo, Paalan Sood, owner of digital agency Sood, and Georgia Savage Client Services Manager at Blaze Media:

Takeaway 1 - Get comfortable with a more transitional workforce

According to Sinx, ustwo ‘used to have designers queueing round the door’ but now it’s a real challenge to find and retain the right people. He said that the average tenure over the past ten years has halved – over the first seven years barely anyone left the business but now it’s normal for a designer to stay for two or three years and then move on.

It’s hard not to see this as a negative but getting comfortable and changing your approach to people development can help. A two-year training program might not be right for right now. Try to rethink and reframe how you’re investing in your team.

Takeaway 2 - Make sure the right foundations are in place

Ustwo are well known for their strong culture, but for Sinx it’s vital to get the foundations of your business right first. As he put it, ‘By far the best way to attract and retain talent is to have a healthy growing business that is doing really good work. Without those foundations anything else becomes so much harder. They are the most powerful tools you have.’ Sinx and his team actually saw staff engagement go up when they focused less on their people and more on improving the clients they work with, the quality of work and utilisation.

He also highlighted the importance of having the right senior people in place as they are vital to the health of the business and the quality of the work. Senior hires aren’t looking to tick a CV box and move up, they are looking for to be on the right ladder. One with a purpose and a long-term vision that matches theirs.

Takeaway 3 - Be creative with hiring

Try to think beyond the obvious talent pipeline. Palaan partners with local organisations and programmes to nurture and recruit talent for Sood Marketing. Through the Chamber of Commerce and Kickstart programmes they connect with young people who have the potential to make a difference to the business. Palaan tries to expose young people to all areas of the business till they find the right fit for them, and they now have three permanent hires from the kickstart scheme.

For Palaan providing a ‘safe environment for people to fail’ is key to this. Sood have long-established internal projects like food blogs, social media and SEO projects that his apprentices can ‘practice on without fear of failure but the freedom to really learn.’ He also uses these projects as a way to reach out to universities to hire interns. It gives young people the chance to get experience and as it puts it ‘When the time comes to find talent we already have those connections and relationships with people who know how we work and we know can fit into our culture.’

It’s an experience echoed by Georgia who made lots of contacts in the sector through Agent Academy. From the perspective of a jobseeker, Georgia said meeting not just leaders but those in the positions you’re aspiring to be in really fosters connection between talent and businesses.

Takeaway 4 - Understand your people

It sounds basic, but in a people-based business it’s key to really understand the people you have, those you want to hire, and those who choose to leave. Ustwo have ‘tell us’ engagement surveys twice a year and although according to Sinx they can be ‘quite sobering…’ they are great for taking a temperature check across the business.

In a similar vein he believes transparency is key. Whether it’s in-depth 360 reviews for everyone from non-exec directors to interns, or exit interviews when people leave, be open and try to get all the insight you can about what people love, and what they don’t.

Takeaway 5 - Stand out to the right talent

Ustwo dial up their difference to stand apart from those circling for similar talent. They can’t match the tech giants on salary, but they can offer variety, a big learning curve, unique culture and values – and those people that offer appeals too are likely to be the right fit for the business.

Points of difference and a strong company culture are vital – especially in digital as there’s a sea of jobs and not enough people to fill them. As Sinx shared, renumeration is almost like hygiene now, when it comes to recruitment, talent want to know about B Corp accreditation, progression in the business, meaningful work, and ustwo being an employee ownership trust.

Takeaway 6 - Consider all touch points

Georgia gave us the final piece of the puzzle: make sure prospective talent can find you and get to know you. As she shared, 'I was googling for jobs in Liverpool and the same sea of faceless jobs came up on Indeed and not much else’.

Make sure you’re thinking beyond Guardian jobs and Indeed. Georgia’s hunt took her to agency careers pages and the ones that authentically shared who they are, their culture and values made the real difference.

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