Jon Martin on embracing the silver lining of the cloud

You’ve launched a business during a global pandemic, can you give us some insight into how the experience has been so far?

We actually felt that, as much as there are challenges, there was also potential opportunity as a result of the pandemic.

Prospectively, companies were a bit more open to listening and we could go in there, a little bit fresher at a time when their existing supply chain was a bit disrupted.

Within technology, especially, the needs aren't going to go away. In the period of a pandemic, companies are more apprehensive about investing in new headcount but that will change very quickly and we will be well positioned to respond.

What would you say are the biggest opportunities for tech industries right now?

We work across four main sectors: Cybersecurity, Service Management, Project Programme Management, and Infrastructure. All of those are real areas of opportunity because the move to a new way of working is driving the demand for technology skills.

With the influx of people working from home, it’s harder for organisations to control their behaviours and people are mixing their personal and professional use of the computer more. There’s a huge need for cybersecurity and that creates a knock-on effect down the supply chain.

Hackers are exploiting the increased use of computers to work from home. They’ve upped to their efforts, which causes a need for the security sector to do so too.

In project and programme management, and service management, this is a landmark point. Organisations are going to reassess what their workforce looks like and tech will sit at the centre of it.

What are the biggest challenges currently being faced by those sectors and how do you approach them?

In technology one of the biggest challenges is skills scarcities.

In terms of recruitment, it’s a huge multi-billion-pound industry in the UK; the majority of it is made up of small businesses and because it’s a non-regulated industry, it carries a certain type of reputation. Though good agencies exist, some have got bad practices. Our challenge is to add more quality than the perception of our industry.

Our approach to both of these is through some very core principles. From both a client and candidate perspective, we’ll be consistent with our level of service, treating everyone with empathy towards their situation. We have to be authentic and true to those values because if we do that, we will access a much broader and credible candidate market.

We’re also building genuine relationships with university networks, joining and being part of groups of professionals themselves, so we’re putting ourselves in their world.