Every year Darragh Lee is tasked with hiring around 500 new staff at Salford-headquartered communications group TalkTalk.
The company鈥檚 sponsorship of flagship TV programmes聽in the past聽like The X Factor have made it a household name but it remains a challenger brand to the likes of BT, Virgin and Sky.
TalkTalk employs around 2,000 people and the company鈥檚 head of talent acquisition says the pandemic and the working from home phenomenon has changed the recruitment rulebook.
Lee will be speaking at an exclusive event on June 29th聽in Manchester 鈥� 鈥�The Great Renegotiation:聽Is HR director the hardest job in the world?鈥�聽鈥� about the extraordinary lengths companies now have to go to in order to hire the best staff.
Recalling his own experience he said: 鈥淚 joined TalkTalk in November 2019, a few months before the COVID lockdown, and people were typically working three days in the office and two days at home.
鈥淭he fact that we were already operating a hybrid, flexible working model, was seen as very appealing to candidates.
鈥淣ow everybody is offering hybrid working so we鈥檙e having to be a lot more flexible. If we鈥檙e struggling to fill roles聽in and around Greater Manchester,聽we鈥檙e聽having to be more geographically flexible.
鈥淵ou have candidates who won鈥檛 consider a role unless it鈥檚 all remote, even if they live less than 30 minutes from the office.
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鈥淲e鈥檙e not offering full 100% remote working聽as we feel聽it鈥檚 important that people come into the office for one-to-one meetings聽and other collaborative sessions on a reasonably regular basis.鈥�
Lee聽said the competition for talent got significantly hotter about a year ago when people came out of lockdown.
鈥淚t started to open up a year ago and it鈥檚 been massive ever since,鈥� he said. 鈥淓mployees felt more confident about moving and changing jobs聽again. There鈥檚 a large demand for talent and it seems like there鈥檚 not enough to go round.
鈥淒irect applications have dropped significantly聽despite our employer brand remaining strong,聽so we鈥檝e had to be much more proactive in searching聽and approaching the more passive candidates.
鈥淎nother significant challenge is employers don鈥檛 want to lose people so we鈥檝e seen some wild counter offers for candidates to stay where they are.鈥�
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He stressed it wasn鈥檛 all doom and gloom but said even an accepted job offer wasn鈥檛 a guarantee that somebody would start.
Lee said they recently聽offered聽a聽digital product role聽to four different candidates over a few month period before getting an acceptance at the fifth time of asking.
鈥淭he other four聽didn鈥檛 end up joining聽because of counter offers,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e all fishing from the same pools. We鈥檙e taking people from each other. Ultimately what we need is more grassroots talent in the tech sector coming through.鈥�
In 2018 TalkTalk announced it would be relocating its head office from London to Salford.
鈥淚鈥檝e worked in the recruitment sector for 18 years and it鈥檚 the wildest I鈥檝e known it聽in terms of it being a candidate-led market,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the聽biggest percentage increases聽I鈥檝e seen with offers and counter offers. You can鈥檛 take anything for granted.鈥�
Lee will be speaking at the event 鈥� The Great Renegotiation:聽Is HR director the hardest job in the world? 鈥� alongside Joanne Brien, partner, KPMG; Dean McGlone, Chief Revenue Officer, Talos360;聽Ben Audley, Chief Revenue Officer, Summize; Andrew Avanessian, CEO, AppLearn; and聽Gemma McCall, Chief Executive Officer, Culture Shift.
It takes place at KPMG鈥檚 offices at 1 St Peter鈥檚 Square, Manchester, and will be hosted by award-winning journalist and executive editor of 老九品茶Cloud, Chris Maguire.