The Perfect Candidate Isn’t Always the Perfect Fit…
Recruitment is something that many organisations are struggling with right now. From economic issues to employee morale in the post-Covid world, recruiters are facing increased challenges in getting and retaining the right people.
One major problem we are seeing is skills shortages, not a new issue, but one that seems to be more problematic than ever.
“More than three quarters of Scottish businesses (77%) report that skills shortages mean reduced output, profitability, or growth”.
Therefore, it baffles us when companies seem to hold back their own recruitment by placing rigid requirements on candidates and within job specs. We believe that flexibility is key and there’s more than one way to get the people (and the skills) you need.
Our Recruitment Style
One thing we do pretty well at Quorum is hiring the right people – it’s of the utmost importance to us for two reasons. Firstly, our company culture is one of our most treasured assets and we want people who will complement that and uphold our values. Secondly, the success of our customers means everything to us and without the right people, we’d never achieve the high level of delivery and customer satisfaction that we do.
Flexibility – Yes, skills are key, but being open to the right person is more important than a robotic list of education requirements, skills, and experience. We don’t really care what route you take to reaching us, as long as we can see you have the potential with transferable skills, that’s ok by us!
Culture – This is probably the most important part of hiring for Quorum and so we actively look to find people who are a good cultural fit. Our values are a natural progression of how Quorum has grown and evolved and is driven by behaviours from the leadership team and every one of our employees.
Learning – We invest heavily in training and certification at Quorum, so you’ve got to be a willing learner. Cloud providers are releasing new functionality and services every day, so learning is a key part of an employee’s working life at Quorum and we treat training and development as part of our day-to-day activities and support lifelong learning for our employees.
We believe that you can exclude some brilliant minds if you’re not flexible in your recruitment. Below you’ll find stories from two Quorum employees who have turned out to be a brilliant fit, but that we may have lost out on if we had stuck to stringent experience requirements or ‘essential’ qualifications.
Ben Stalker’s Story:
“When I look back at the path I followed to be employed by Quorum, I’d likely still refer to it as “lucky” that I was offered the job. There have been many times in my career where I have speculatively applied for a role hoping an employer “gave me a chance” and let me prove myself with my ability to learn or work ethic. My skills were mostly in infrastructure support and change, supporting 10-year-old operating systems on even older kit in large enterprise environments. I knew I wanted a change and started to work on cloud certifications with an emphasis on Azure which seemed popular locally.
During the interview process, there were many questions that were not technical, trying to work out if I was the “right fit” for Quorum with my temperament and thirst for knowledge. It was clear Quorum didn’t hire based solely on my experience or existing knowledge, but they wanted good people with transferable skills who would uphold the culture they were building in the organisation.
As part of my offer conditions, I agreed that I’d work towards an expert certification within the first 6 months which was a fair ask for the opportunity that was in front of me. This seemed like a great way to meet my employment condition, learn new technologies I was interested in, defeat my “imposter syndrome”, and improve my career prospects. With this mindset, the encouragement and support I receive from my colleagues, and a learning culture that seems constant throughout the whole company, I’ve been able to gain not only the certifications I needed but several more totalling 2x expert, 3x associate, and 2x fundamentals within the first year with no intention of slowing down.
Quorum’s strategy to recruit passionate people who have the right attitude and drive to learn, over rigid requirements, has built an incredible company. I can honestly say over my almost 20 years in IT, I’ve never worked with such a high concentration of brilliant and passionate people who are as helpful as they are knowledgeable. “
Kevin Kelly’s Story:
“Having spent 17 years working for the same organisation, in just 2 different roles, I felt I had become “just a number.” A small cog, in a vast machine!
In the summer of 2021, I saw Quorum advertising for the position of consultant. It was time for a change, but imposter syndrome was running high!
I knew I had the skills that Quorum were looking for, but I had no direct experience working in consultancy. How would I learn a new role, and fit into a team that was working fully remote due to COVID restrictions? Only one way to find out; I submitted my application.
The following day I had a call from Jackie, Quorum’s Recruitment Manager. After only a few minutes, it was obvious that Quorum was as focussed on me as an individual, as they were in my existing knowledge and skillset. My lack of consulting experience was entirely outweighed by their appreciation of a candidate whose skills AND personality would be a good fit for the team.
Now, summer 2022, I find myself as a consultant, firmly entrenched in the Quorum family.”
We are growing a lot right now and are always on the lookout for good people, if you are looking for your next opportunity and think you might be the right fit you can find a list of our vacancies HERE. Below you’ll find a few more articles on what it’s like to work at Quorum!
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Quorum
18 Greenside Lane Edinburgh
UK EH1 3AH
Phone: +44 131 652 3954
Email: marketing@quorum.co.uk
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