“When the music starts again – do you want people sitting in the same chairs?”

Leadership interviews: Steve Ingham, CEO, PageGroup

Taking the opportunity to chat with some of the most influential names in the industry has been one of my biggest personal positives of the last few months. With things changing on a weekly basis, talking about how leaders are working to adapt their organisations, ways of working and supporting their people with such compassion and agility has been quite an inspiration.

In the latest in our series of leadership interviews, I had an incredible conversation with the long-standing and exceptionally passionate CEO at PageGroup, Steve Ingham about the past, present, and future of the industry.

Steve, it’s great to talk to you. Starting high level, I wondered if you could tell me how your business and teams are doing? As an experienced leader, how have you protected your business through this difficult time?

We’re actually doing ok. We were fortunate to go into this with a strong balance sheet so when the world went into lockdown we didn’t immediately think “will we survive?”, which I know a lot of companies did. We also had insight into what was coming, having learnt from the situation in mainland China, so we were able to prepare. Our systems stood the test and we had everyone up and running from home within 24 hours. From the start, it was important for us to stay connected with our people, giving them clear and consistent messages to communicate on what they should do, letting them know the business was secure, and supporting them with needs like stress and loneliness. We also held live Q&A events where I would take anonymous questions from employees around the world. In terms of wellbeing, we have leveraged tech to engage our people with sport and leisure activities, breakfast clubs and the ever-popular Beer o’clock on a Friday. Importantly, this also enabled our people to stay in touch with our candidates and clients.

On reflection, now we are over three months in, how has that worked for you?

In the beginning, our clients and candidates had other things to worry about. But after a couple of weeks, they settled down and wanted to be engaged. A lot of our clients are SMEs who don’t necessarily always know what’s available to them in terms of government schemes, financial support and so on. We were able to use our experience and resources to advise them. We started hosting a hugely popular series of webinars packed with real-world advice and have seen great engagement and feedback.

PageGroup is well known throughout the industry for its strong brand, identity and positive culture. I’ve spoken to CEOs who have been concerned about how to maintain / evolve a culture built on a model of presenteeism, so I’m curious - how do you keep that culture alive and how does this evolve at PageGroup?

Our physical team culture is a huge part of why I joined in the first place, but I do think that by using technology and the tools available you can still feel like a team. That said, I do think something has been lost and our people seem to agree. We ran an engagement survey recently; 90% of our people said they want to work in the office full-time, or at least part-time. We’re always going to have offices in some form. We might have less interview rooms in the future, but we like to be together to punch the air when there is something to celebrate and also pick each other up when there’s a disappointment.

It is likely the more experienced people are comfortable working from home, but do you agree that employees who are more early on in their career are missing out on that in-situ mentoring and coaching?

Absolutely. When you’re new and you have to perform it is tough - recruitment is an easy thing to measure. Fortunately, a few years ago we introduced digital learning, covering everything from pre-on-boarding, to ongoing training. This means that from day one, newer people have had the opportunity to learn while we track their results. We’re also continuing to push the rollout of our front office software – the pandemic hasn’t stopped us!

Yes, I’ve heard a lot of people saying they’ve accelerated digital learning. People are having to become more data literate, but also have more time to train.

These days, our clients want added value. We have a huge amount of external and internal data, which allows us to map trends including client and candidate behaviour. We use the data to nurture our relationships and have engaging conversations. Let’s be honest, there are less jobs to fill at the moment, so we need to add value in other ways. If we know a 27-year-old engineer typically behaves in a certain way, it makes sense to share the information with our clients and they really value that.

There’s a lot of debate around productivity at home. What’s your personal view?

Without doubt, there are people with vast amounts of experience that are just as productive working at home as they are from an office – frankly, I don’t care if they work from the moon if they can perform. But this is a growing industry. We’re recruiting over 2000 people a year, some with no recruitment experience and they need to be nurtured, learning from people on the ground. I do however realise that it is important that we can meet the differing needs of our people. These days, old school doesn’t work. When I started out, we were proud of working from 8am-8pm, to attract candidates. A competitor even ‘one-upped' us with 7am-9pm. Imagine how that mindset would repulse candidates today. Four years ago, we signed a flexible working charter that says we’ll judge you on your performance and that’s it. We’re really proud of what we have achieved in that area, as it has allowed us to improve inclusivity and diversity. Maternity returners used to be 60% a few years ago. Today that number is significantly higher – we've made real progress.

And speaking of diversity, do you think Covid-19 will create a more level playing field?

Absolutely. It will be a step change and businesses that aren’t diverse will suffer. There’s a talent war and that won’t go away because of Covid-19. The better your talent, the better your results. You’ve got to meet the needs of your people, not the other way around.

What are the big conversations you are having in your meetings at the moment? Where are you driving the business over the next 12 months?

Some CEOs say never waste a good crisis and I agree with that mentality. This is a unique situation we are faced with and we have seen widespread disruption globally, but people still need to be paid. The music has stopped – when it starts again, do we want our people sitting in the same chairs – or do we want to take the opportunity to land the business slightly differently?

What will you take from this personally going forward?

I honestly didn’t know how much revenue we could make with 100% of staff working from home, or not at all. We have been transacting entire recruitment processes, from reaching out to the candidate to them starting, sometimes on a ￡150k salary, without anyone ever meeting face-to-face. If you’d have asked me if that was possible a year ago, the answer would have been no.

The big question - do you think we’ll see a mass acceleration in online staffing models?

I think tech will make recruitment more efficient, particularly during those early conversations, but I still think there is a time and place for face-to-face – and I’ll never change my opinion on that. Recruitment isn't just about filling jobs; we’re judged on the success of the candidate. If we place hugely successful people, the client will use us again. That is why we have to hire people ourselves. Personally, I want to see and meet candidates.

That human exchange is really important. I’ve always been passionate about companies turning mission into purpose and would be interested to learn how you approach that.

Purpose is worth nothing if the person delivering it isn’t authentic. I used to be a metallurgist and purpose didn’t really come into it. When I first joined Page, I didn’t call it a purpose, but I knew why I loved it here so much. It’s because we make a difference to people’s lives. It’s just the most amazing thing to celebrate with candidates and clients – I still love making that life-changing call.

100 per cent, we’re so much more than making a placement. How do you drive your “why” through the whole population?

People might criticise, but no one will say I don’t have a passion for what I do. I think sadly, a lot of companies don’t talk about their mission statement authentically. Most have a purpose – but no one believes it. Everything we do revolves around that meaningful language, and all roles, no matter where they sit in the business, play a part in changing those lives. What’s more is that it is genuinely believed throughout our whole business. I have always engaged face-to-face with our people. No matter what part of the world I visit, I go to as many offices as I can and talk to every single employee via a presentation and Q&A. During my last trip to India, a receptionist asked for a ‘selfie with the CEO’ – she already had seven with me! I don’t think every CEO thinks it’s their job to be that visible and accessible, but I do.

I recently read that the best measure of purpose is the legacy you leave behind. What legacy would you like to leave behind?

I genuinely believe in the power of this industry to make a truly meaningful difference to the lives of the people that we work with; both for the organisations securing the talent that they need to thrive and for a candidate landing a dream job. I love being a part of it. Not everyone wants all aspects of a legacy, but I do. We pass through this life briefly and I want to make my mark. I want to be remembered for doing something good – for my company and amongst my family and friends. I want to be famous for things that matter and to be remembered for genuinely changing people’s lives.

Let me know what your view is by commenting below or sharing with #TalentVoices.