The boss of a £40m turnover tech firm has warned that the UK economy is being undermined by the ‘generation of expectation’.
Rob Sims is the CEO of Chorley-based Elite Group and has spoken out at the unrealistic demands of some applicants.
He said: “I absolutely respect people’s right to choose where they work but I’ve noticed a generation of expectation.
“Employees, either at the interview stage or in the early part of their career, now believe it’s down to the business to feed them in a disproportionate way.
“I believe it should be a two-way process, whereby the employer invests in the employees to bring them on but equally the employees help to grow and shape the business.
“What we’ve seen in the last few years is the balance has been skewed more to ‘I want’ as opposed to ‘what can we build together?’
“That’s going to be a challenge if we don’t address that imbalance. I’m not talking from an Elite perspective but rather UK-wide.”
Sims, who has been CEO of Elite Group since 2018, sold his previous business – Leeds-based Nexus Telecommunications – to Elite in 2017.
He said a lot of candidates said they would only join the company if they could work completely remotely and that was unsustainable.
“In some instances we’ve ticked the majority of boxes and candidates have turned down more money and a package of benefits because they don’t want to come into office,” explained the CEO.
“I fully respect their decision but we offer hybrid working but they won’t come unless they’re 100 per cent homeworking. That’s not conducive to a good culture and, I would argue, it’s not good for their mental health and personal development.”