SME's playing piggy in the middle?

If you're an experienced software developer and you have offers from a tech start-up, an SME and a multinational chances are the SME will be third choice. This is a recognised problem for SME's as nearly half of all CIOs who were quizzed on the subject plan on upskilling existing staff whilst just over a third confirming they'd look to the contract market to perform knowledge transfer to their existing workforce.

This might surprise a lot of people, especially as SME's tend to outnumber larger companies by quite some margin; in 2014 99% of UK private sector businesses were SME's, accounting for a respectable ￡1.6 trillion annual turnover.

But it isn't just the corporations that are the competition now, yes they may have pulling power when it comes to reputation, perks, bonuses and so on but the emergence of the start-up culture in the UK has drawn a lot of it's own talent. Making SME's the piggy in the middle.

The SME's who will thrive are the ones who recognise the need for change and they equip themselves with the necessary innovations or flexible work benefits that matter to employees.

This isn't to say that SME's don't still deserve a seat at the table, because that's far from the case but in order to have the pick of the bunch it's more about salary and "career progression" now. The market has changed and will continue to change, so get with the programme or get left behind.