‘The war for talent is over – talent won,’ says recruitment boss

Business owners and in-house HR professionals should look for employees who are “insatiably curious”, according to the boss of one East Midlands recruitment firm.

James Taylor, managing director of Macildowie, said: “Whenever I go and see a client, one of the things I make sure I say to them is ‘consider the wildcard’. Curiousity is key in good quality candidates, while having an insatiable quality that means an employee will go home every evening and learn everything she or he can about their job is super-critical – much more than the person who simply leaves at 5.30pm and comes back in at 9am without learning anything.

Also speaking at TheBusinessDesk.com event to celebrate the opening of Macildowie’s new offices in Waterfront House in Nottingham was director of costs, UK cards finance at Capital One.

Dawn Conneely

She said: “What a company needs is someone with the right aptitude and attitude. At Capital One we go for the graduate talent very early on, but we’re also very good at promoting from within which means we have very little staff turnover, relatively.”

Taylor added: “What we’ve been saying is: the war for talent is over – and talent has won. That’s why the big brands and companies are currently in a scrap for the best talent. So, they have to look at how they recruit differently – that’s where we come in.”

The full report from the event will appear on TheBusinessDesk.com later this week.