Why Hays Rise is the answer to scaling your startup post COVID-19

We’re in a bit of a spot at the moment. We’ve spent the majority of this year living through a once-in-a-lifetime health crisis, and we’re about to head into a brutal recession that will accelerate change — for better or worse — across society.

Regardless, businesses still have to keep going. For some, success will mean just making it through to 2021, but for others, it means pushing on with their expansion plans — trying their best to take advantage of the new world.

We’re already seeing a split of the job market, but it’s going to be even more noticeable as we go forward.

Take this into account if you’re one of the lucky businesses who plan on hiring over the next 12 months. If you’re looking for Software Developers, Data Scientists or Cloud Engineers, you’re not going to be inundated with applications. They’re going to be well looked-after and worried about moving jobs.

You’re going to have to go further to get your vacancies in front of the right people. When you’ve found them, you need to make sure they can see why your business is a safe, exciting and progressive place to join.

That’s easier said than done at the moment.

Our new subscription-based recruitment solution, Rise, is designed to do exactly this. Instead of working vacancies on a one-off basis, I’ll be an outsourced Recruitment Business Partner to ambitious Brighton- and Sussex-based businesses.

I know the word ‘disruptive’ is banded around pretty loosely these days, but Rise really is. We’re the UK’s largest specialist recruiter, offering a premium talent service for less than you’d pay a traditional agency.

So, how does it work?

Let’s say you plan on hiring 3 Software Engineers, a Product Owner and a Marketing Specialist over the next year. You’ve built your proof of concept, you’ve secured seed money, and you’re ready to scale. You’ve built something you’re proud of and you know people will want to come onboard when they see your road map.

You put some job ads up and wait for the applications to roll in, but unfortunately, no one knows who you are yet, so no one suitable applies. People are scared, so they’d rather stay where they are than take the risk of joining somewhere with no track record.

The trouble is, you know you’ve built something special, but it’s impossible to get this across in just a job ad. You need to shout from the rooftops that you’re doing amazing things and be in tune with your local community to know what resonates with them.

That’s where Rise comes in. We’ll build you a 12-month hiring and employer brand strategy to ensure that the right people know what makes you unique. We’ll map your market to find you the right skill sets and ensure you have an engaged pipeline of people who will be jumping to join you.

What’s more, because Rise is subscription based, it offers tremendous value for money. Instead of paying upfront at a time when your scaling business could really do with the cash, you’ll spread the cost over the year, working with a local partner who understands exactly what makes you special.

Hays is a big beast and we’re throwing all of our considerable weight behind Rise. Our size means we have candidate attraction tools and security that our competition can only dream of, but our local focus means we already have the networks in place to find you the niche skill sets your business needs to grow.

Take our Brighton office, for instance — we host programming user groups, one-off meetups and sponsor local conferences. We’re constantly talking with local top tier technologists. We know what the community wants because we’re very much a part of it.

The world of hiring is changing, and so are we.

Read more about Hays Rise here: https://haysrise.com/

Luke is Digital Lead and Manager at Hays Tech in Sussex. He’s missing Brighton’s world-class pubs and eateries, but is enjoying having a fridge full of snacks 2 metres away at all times. You’ll find him on LinkedIn and Twitter, or can email him at Luke.Thompson@hays.com.