Talent & Recruitment Archives | Page 12 of 13

Here at Armadillo we’re excited to announce that we will now be offering all staff external coaching with renowned confidence coach, Jo Emerson.

The introduction of external coaching follows our decision to move away from a traditional line managed structure. We have chosen to replace line managers with networked support; task-based support to bring clarity to deliverables, skills-based support to build expertise in key specialisms, and growth-based support. This is where the coaching will come in. We hope that this move will give people the headspace to work through their challenges, ambitions, frustrations and ideas, as well as empower staff to seek their own solutions and decide their own actions.

Fiona Craig, our Strategy and Planning Director, explains why external coaching was a must-have for us: “Internal support is very much focused on the work we do for our clients – you could say the client is the key stakeholder here, and all efforts are focused on doing a good job for them.

Fiona continues: “The support offered by external coaching is centred exclusively around the individual – often there can be a tension between the two areas of focus, and in a traditional structure, line managers can struggle to do a really good job of supporting on all fronts. So, this allows those who are exceptionally skilled in one area to excel, while the individual still gets supported on all sides.”

Jo Emerson is a confidence and human behaviour expert, author, and the winner of International Executive Coach of the Year (2019-2020).

Fiona goes on to say “Jo is highly experienced in dealing with change and confidence, and has a wonderful energy that felt right for us here at Armadillo. She will spark some great conversations and even greater ideas, we feel sure.”

Jo adds, “It’s a real privilege to be working with Armadillo at such a critical time and to support team members as they grow and develop within an incredibly fast-paced industry. Armadillo’s new networked-support structure coupled with external and objective coaching shows what an innovative and agile company they are!”

We hope you will join us in offering Jo a very warm welcome. We thoroughly look forward to working with her and cannot wait to see members of the Armadillo team succeeding in their career and self-development goals.

Spicerack has been named highly commended for the South West in the National Apprenticeship Awards 2020. The virtual ceremony to announce the regional winners was held on 6 November.

Spicerack’s motivation for offering an apprenticeship each year is primarily to offer an alternative to mainstream education that has the potential to really propel a deserved individual into a happy and fulfilling career. If you refer to any online blog, article or government site, the benefits of hiring an apprentice are often very much focused on the employer. It’s true that an apprentice can breathe fresh air into a business, as any employee has the potential to do. When an apprenticeship with Spicerack is successfully completed, we also feel great about the collaborative part we played in that.

As a relatively small company, working for large international clients, we offer an exposure to an array of projects. Our studio environment is extremely collaborative, and it’s an ideal environment for apprentices to absorb the work that is going on around them.

We’re a steadily growing agency, and now see apprenticeship programmes as key to our business. We don’t expect apprenticeships to offer us a low-cost team member. We’re primarily looking to send someone out into the world with exceptional experience and skills. The first apprentice we hired was a great experience for both parties. Although we were unable to offer him a full-time position following the apprenticeship, we were able to support him in joining a competitor agency in the same city, where he still works 4 years later. We were able to offer our second apprentice a full time position, and he has now been working with us for nearly 2 years since completing his programme, working on genuinely innovative web development and agency R&D.

Spicerack have been patient and encouraging every step of the way. Working here has opened my eyes to a new way of work and design. I have been given so many opportunities to learn more and grow my career.
Before starting at Spicerack, I had no idea what networking was. I did not even know that design seminars were running in Bristol constantly, and I have been here all my life. We are constantly given opportunities to go and see talks from other creatives, or meet up in networking events to meet others in the south west. It is also invaluable to be allowed to sit in meetings with clients that we are working with, like Dyson or Hill’s Pet Nutrition.

We primarily offer apprenticeships to give something back; something we really believe in. Typically, during the first few months, apprentices aren’t skilled to work on commercial work. College work and commitments also take priority, which in turn dictates the type of commercial work our apprentices can work on. But the overall experience as a result is intended in a small part to meet our industry’s future needs. Also, as has been the case previously, if we are able to offer a full time position at the end of the apprenticeship, we will, in the knowledge that the programme we have supported and delivered has resulted in an exceptional candidate who would stand out proudly amongst the more traditional university-educated applicants.

Creative development agency, Noughts & Ones welcomes Caragh Jones to the team as Project Manager 🥳

Caragh brings invaluable experience from previous roles at Huggg, Bristol 24/7 and comms agency JBP to help shape the agency’s project and strategic partnership delivery.

The appointment marks an important step in Noughts & Ones’ growth and promises an exciting future for the creative development agency.

As well as helping to shape project and partnership delivery Caragh, alongside the wider Noughts & Ones team, will be playing a key role in shaping the agency’s identity as they embark on a brand repositioning project that is set to launch in early 2021.

ADLIB, a B Corp certified recruitment business based in Bristol has become one of a handful of recruitment agencies in the UK to transfer 100% of its business to its employees. The company provides recruitment solutions across several core sectors, including Technology, Data, Engineering, Science, Sustainability, eCommerce, Marketing and Design. The business works with all manner of clients, from start-ups and scale-ups, through to global brands across the UK and increasingly overseas.

The Employee Trust will work alongside ADLIB’s Directors, to oversee strategy and growth, with an emphasis on ensuring that the business’s sense of purpose and values remains paramount.

ADLIB’s major shareholder, Nick Dean, will remain part of the Trust for the foreseeable future, whilst staff will play an increased role in directing business profits and inputting into the running of the business via the Trust, a model similar to that of the John Lewis Partnership.

A share ownership scheme will provide each and every employee access to share options based on length of service and responsibility. New employees will also be eligible to access the scheme and take advantage of a reward and ownership model that will significantly boost their earning potential, whilst creating a deeper sense of purpose and engagement.

Nick Dean “Over recent years we’ve been considering the future of ADLIB. We’ve always felt it would be a challenge to find a suitable buyer who would retain ADLIB’s ethos, substantiated by our B Corp certification in 2019, and the drive to balance profit and purpose. The most important factor was retaining our independence and the flexibility to invest into our growth, whilst ensuring we retain our B Corp certification. By far the best solution to ensure ADLIB has a long standing future, was to hand over the business to the people we know and have helped create it into what it is today, whilst adding an additional layer of employee attraction for those who will help spearhead our next phase of growth.”

Bristol Creative Industries is the membership network uniting Bristol, Bath and the South West’s creative sector. We are the largest creative network in the South West with over 500 members and a robust following across all the main social media channels. Industries include, advertising, marketing, design, digital, PR, graphic, film, TV, video, radio, photography, IT, software, createch, publishing, events and games.

Guess what? We are also open to students and graduates looking for work experience placements, short term contracts and full time jobs. It’s the place to join if you are looking to build a digital portfolio, make contacts and find employment. And, for students and recent graduates, it’s totally free to join.

Bristol Creative Industries brings together a community of like-minded individuals and creative businesses to promote opportunities and support sector growth. Each member gets an online profile in the membership directory which is a great place to get to know local employers. We also have a jobs board and host training and speaker events to inform and inspire our network.

As a Student / Graduate member you will get your own profile in the directory so employers can get to know you too. Also pick up discounts on training workshops and speaker events, and a host of other perks like money off your coffee fix!

All in all, it’s a great place to get noticed by employers, discover what’s going on in the creative sector and hear the latest industry thinking at our training and speaker events.

Twitter @Access_Creative | Facebook @accesscreativecollege | Instagram @accesscreativecollege

Joining the Tech Team

After finishing my Physics Masters at the University of Oxford and then trying out research, I found that what I loved most was coding – so I started looking for a job where I could do that full-time. Torchbox jumped out at me as somewhere I’d have the opportunity to try a range of different projects, and I was excited about their ethical focus as well – so I applied. Thankfully they were willing to train me up on the web development side of things.

In the month before I started, I was able to meet some of the team at a Wednesday lunch and for a punting trip (in turn, they were also introduced to my baking obsession). During this time, I did some reading up on Django and database design, but once I started in earnest, this got a lot more practical. My line manager, Nick Smith, and the head of the Tech team, Helen Warren, came up with some requirements for a test website to build to get the hang of Django fundamentals, as well as arranging code reviews from the rest of the team. While building that, I also got involved in a little support work for our existing client sites.

First projects

Soon, my first big project began. The Motley Fool were sponsoring extensions and development on the open source Wagtail CMS, which Torchbox founded. I was excited to get the opportunity to work on such a big open source project – I started contributing in small ways, with documentation updates, then minor feature changes like adding a way to disable moderation, but quickly was able to gain experience with the support of Karl and Matthew, the other developers on the project. I always felt supported, no matter what I was taking on.

Before long, I was able to get stuck in to developing Wagtail Content Import: an app for importing documents from Google Docs into Wagtail StreamField (since then I’ve had the opportunity to expand it to Word documents as well). From then on, I was nearly full time on this work (as well as some support work for our existing clients). I loved the diversity of it, since it gave me opportunities to pick up experience in all sorts of areas. Over my first year at Torchbox, I’ve developed apps like Wagtail Image Import (my first React-heavy project), Wagtail Content Import and Wagtail Draftail Anchors, helped on others like Wagtail Transfer, and worked on big features for Wagtail itself – of which the biggest, Workflow (a fully-customisable moderation system) has just been been officially released as part of Wagtail 2.10. Early this year, I also joined the Wagtail core team, responsible for keeping the project going, so I’m looking forward to staying involved with Wagtail’s development, with work on features like inline commenting in the edit view and page analysis tools planned for the near future.

Why a supportive environment makes all the difference

I’ve just finished my first year, and thinking back on it, I couldn’t have asked for a better combination of a supportive environment and constant new technical challenge in which to grow into a developer role. The tech team has always been keen to provide advice and learn from each other, and on the other side, there’s always interesting new requirements from clients driving development.

Access Creative College, an independent college for the creative industries, which launched a new state-of-the-art campus in Bristol in 2019, has made two senior appointments. The move signals its continued commitment to education and learning within the creative industries in the city.

The announcement follows a significant year for Armstrong Learning group*, the owners of the College, during which it secured investment from Apiary Capital, announced its new Bristol facilities and welcomed the National College for the Creative Industries (NCCI) to its portfolio.

Jo Johnson has been appointed by Access Creative College as Chair. The former Minister of State for Universities brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in education, technology and the creative sectors. Jo will provide leadership and guidance to the College, helping the team to navigate the educational environment in which it operates during a period of growth.

Steve Stanley has been appointed as Director of Evaluation and Impact. He has worked in education for 33 years. Around half of which, was as an inspector at Ofsted and the Adult Learning Inspectorate. As a former inspector, he brings an aptitude for assessing the impact of the curriculum on learning. As an educator, he has expertise in how education can make a positive difference to the futures of young people and adults.

“Welcoming Jo and Steve to the team is big news for us. They will help us to have a voice on a national scale and deliver education and learning that students want and industry desires.

“The creative industries will be a very different place post Covid and we are aware of the challenges ahead. But, with the creative industries sector having grown at a rate more than twice that of the total UK economy over the last decade, we are confident that it will bounce back.

“By adapting to change, bringing in the right expertise and listening to the needs of our students and the wider industry, we’ll be in the best position to provide meaningful education for the new creative economy and continue our track record of high student achievement and progression.

“There are exciting times to come. As we approach our 30th academic year, we are focused on growth at our existing sites and in new cities. We are adapting our curriculum to support the increasingly digital market and we are extending our commitment to support BAME learners, staff and minority communities within the College network.

“Our passion to help young people from a diversity of backgrounds prosper in the creative industries remains constant, and at the heart of what we do.”

*The Armstrong Learning Group owns Access Creative College and Coaching Connexions and delivers creative industry apprenticeships under licence to NCCI Ltd. as part of a partnership with South Essex College and DfE.

This article was written at the outset of COVID-19.

Having gone through the set-up of home offices, and the adoption of new business practices, processes, and tools, many now can’t wait to get back into the office. Why is this?

It is because the choice to do so was taken away.

According to recent research by Forbes, millennials in particular have struggled to adapt to working from home, which is hardly surprising given that they had no choice in the matter. What is absolutely critical here, though, is that this is not a struggle to adapt to remote working, it is a struggle to adapt to isolation. The opportunity to go to the gym, see friends, eat out, visit family, or indulge in any of the escape mechanisms that life usually affords us has been curtailed, and this is a struggle that I’d guess most of us are feeling.

Despite running a creative agency specifically set up to work remotely, I too am desperate for a change of environment, and that is because this is not really remote working. However, there has been a shift in working practices which is unlikely to be completely undone even upon the return to the office, so how can we make the most of this moving forward?

If the role of the office is likely to change, along with greater flexibility and working practices what is the key to remote working success?

The difference between those organisations that have been forced into adopting new working practices and those already set up to operate remotely is choice. Do not underestimate how important a factor this is, and it works on two levels. Recently, the Harvard Business Review investigated the link between levels of motivation and working location, finding working from home to generally be less motivating. Critically, though, they also determined that this suffered a huge plunge when the option to choose the environment is taken away; being forced to work from home is the worst possible option. Human beings react negatively when their freedom to make a choice is removed, and this ‘psychological reactance’ generates such negative feeling that it’s unsurprising motivation dwindles as a consequence.

This leads me into the second branch of why choice is so important. As I mentioned previously, being forced to work from home is not true remote working. The effect on all of our lives has been drastic, and our psychological reaction has been one of stress and anxiety. But let me be clear, we must break the cognitive link that has been formed between forced isolation and remote working, because it is false. However unintentionally, we now associate it with this sense of cabin fever and lowered productivity that we are feeling, and this damages the true potential of authentic remote working.

98% want to work remotely at least some of the time for the rest of their careers.

Source: Buffer – State of remote report.

For many that have chosen to forge their own path away from permanent employment and the office, the choice to do so has been made accessible to them as a consequence of their level of experience and expertise. Their years within industry enable them to both perform their roles with a greater degree of autonomy, and fit this around other aspects of their lives; family, exercise, hobbies, personal projects etc. The difference here is that, whilst traditional agencies may well be ‘pivoting’ (sorry I know that word belongs in a box with ‘Agile’) away from the office, they do not benefit from the intrinsic culture of an organization comprised of people that have chosen to work this way. Well before the Covid-19 crisis, which has confused the reality of remote working with forced home working, the majority of companies had flexible working policies in place, and an investigation by Vodafone back in 2016 found that 61% of respondents reported increased profits, and 83% reported increased productivity.

Setting up Sparro House Creative, flexibility and wellbeing have been at the forefront of my mind, and it’s clear to me that these are inextricably linked not only with each other, but with improved output and increased value. With the level of experience in my teams, it benefits neither myself nor them to impose a work routine that fails to take into consideration both the other important things in their life, and the fact that they may well do their best and most creative work at 5am, perhaps before their children have woken up (hopefully!), or at their local coffee shop, in our clients offices or collaborating in shared spaces. This is true remote working – the option to choose how the work thread weaves into the rest of your life. It’s important this message is clear, this freedom reduces workplace stress and increases productivity.

Of course, this structure is dependent on trust between team members, including myself, that the work will be completed efficiently and to the highest standard. In turn, this trust is reliant on industry experience. It is the senior team members who have the expertise that allows them to work in this way and make effective and timely decisions. With the acceleration of decision-making caused by the current crisis, this is vital.

Janine Woodcock; professional coach, speaker and author of The Power of Choices discusses ‘Conscious Leadership’ with Sparro House MD, Paul Kirkcaldy.

An event with Tonic Creative Business Partners

About the event

The demand for greater choice, flexibility and meaning was challenging leaders to think differently about their approach to talent and the workplace even before the pandemic hit. Recent experiences have just deepened these desires and been a catalyst for broader change in how agencies work, behave and operate – as businesses, and communities of people.

What comes next for the world of work is not a ‘return’ to anything. It’s a transition to a new era and every business needs to raise their game when it comes to how they lead, the culture they create and how they support and leverage their best talent. Get the balance right and it will be a win-win for your business and the people you want to stay and draw.

Based on detailed research and hands-on experience in recent months, we will explain how agencies need to respond to these new expectations. We’ll share our knowledge and experience and explain how you can manage change in a way that sets your business up for success.

This event is for Bristol Media members only and aimed at all agency founders and leaders seeking valuable insights to help shape a positive and progressive working culture for their agency.

This is the third event in the Future Positive series. The next session on 7th October will cover how to create and manage business value. More details to follow on this.

To book

Places are limited to allow for a more personal and productive discussion. To reserve your space, register here

Whilst this is a free event, we’d be grateful if members would consider making a donation.

Although some of our members have been unaffected by COVID-19, we recognise for others this is still challenging business climate so we want to do what we can to support. As many will know, Bristol Media operates as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company and revenue comes solely from membership fees and events. We receive no other funding or financial support. We’re hopeful that the donation approach will allow all members to continue accessing our events whatever their financial situation whilst also allowing us to replace some of the revenue we’ve lost over recent months. All our speakers give their time and expertise voluntarily. Thank you for your continued backing and we hope that you’ll be able to support this approach and look forward to being able to deliver a series of worthwhile events that our members enjoy and importantly find beneficial to their businesses.

About Tonic

We’re the business consultancy to add clarity, colour and confidence to your ambition.

We add our collective knowledge and specialist expertise to help you realise your full potential and value.

The Future Positive series will be run by the Tonic senior team, who will draw on their experience leading and guiding some of the best agencies through challenging times.