Access to talent and retention are "biggest restrictions to growth"

Business leaders at a TheBusinessDesk.com round table hosted by law firm Gordons discussed the key issues facing aspirational private business in the region.

Ian Beaumont, partner at KPMG Enterprise, said: “Access to talent and retention are the biggest restrictions to growth at the moment. We are struggling in this region to attract top talent.”

Prof Christopher Prince of Leeds Beckett University agreed. “You will attract business and grow a business if you have the talent. We have to embed the people in this room with the colleges – there is a disconnect. If you can’t get the people, come and talk to us and engage so we can get that talent pool,” he said.

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Richard Owen-Hughes, director at Bradford-based recruiter SPS Group, said that fostering the right culture within a business was crucial to attracting and retaining talent and in turn in helping to grow the business.

“If you don’t have that culture it won’t thrive and grow in the way you want it to,” he said.

James Fawcett, partner at Gordons, said that’s where private companies can make a real difference. “People buy into the culture and the business, whereas with a listed company, the chief executive could be changing every two years.”

Nick Glynne is managing director at £100m turnover online retailer Buy It Direct, based in Huddersfield. He said private companies are also able to build more personal relationships between the company and people within the business.

Mike Briffett, director of project and cost management consultancy Turner and Townsend added: “It is very much about attracting like-minded people – people who embody the values you have. When you get it right, it is very, very right.”

Beaumont moved the conversation on by suggesting that companies should move away from an “obsession” with finding talented individuals to instead focusing on building talented teams of people who work together effectively.

“Those teams do need that leadership, or they are rudderless,” he said.