Bringing technical talent in-house is key to technology companies seeking to expand.
That is the view of Dan Shorrock, HR business partner at Yorkshire-based data centre equipment provider Pinnacle Data.
“We have a global customer base now because of our investment in tech,” he told BusinessCloud at a roundtable to discuss the tech sector in Yorkshire.
“We’re at a point now where we’ve outsourced and we can see a huge amount of further growth – but in order to achieve that we need to bring those skills in house and have someone working on those topics 24/7, 365.
“The challenge for us is finding that talent… recruitment is key.”
As the number of tech firms grows – and expanding tech functions within traditional businesses – the education system is struggling to provide enough graduates with relevant abilities to plug the digital skills gap.
Shorrock says that dwindling access to talent had made it more difficult to attract qualified staff to his company.
“On the hiring side, we have adopted an aggressive approach which means making our benefits attractive to people who work at corporates,” he adds.
“Historically we can’t compete with corporate benefits – pensions, healthcare, incentives which attract staff – we now provide a corporate-level package which, for a company of under 50 staff, is pretty rare.”
He also believes that getting students into workplaces in an affordable way will benefit both parties long-term.
One jewel in Pinnacle’s crown is its location. Not only is it based in a picturesque North Yorkshire town in some of Britain’s most beautiful countryside, it is only 35 minutes from West Yorkshire tech hub Leeds by car or train.
He says Leeds has the potential to attract talent from far afield.
“We’re in Harrogate and we feed off the Northern presence that Leeds has,” he says.
“I believe its presence is understated but it’s still an up-and-coming and vibrant city with a lot of opportunity for raising its profile.”
The roundtable was held at the Leeds offices of KPMG and featured several of the region’s key business tech stakeholders.