Capgemini - a clear focus on talent attraction and retention

Support from HIE

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) actively works with international companies who are looking to establish new operations in the Highlands and Islands, or who are looking to expand their existing operations in the region.

“We make it our business to understand their ambitions and drivers. It can then often require innovative and creative thinking at a strategic level to support growth opportunities,” explains James Cameron, Global Accounts Lead at HIE. This kind of original thinking, he says, can be illustrated by a decision HIE took back in 2013 in its efforts to help Capgemini expand its operations in the Highlands.

“In 2013, Capgemini in Inverness was heading towards a period of sustained growth,” says James. “The company needed new premises and needed them quick, and so at HIE we took the bold and ultimately right decision to vacate our own offices in Cowan House on Inverness Business and Retail Park, so that Capgemini could relocate its fast-growing operation to new and appropriate premises immediately.

“Fast forward 10 years, and what was once viewed as a ‘call centre operation’ has evolved into a critical UK hub of a global business delivering world-leading technology and security services to clients across the country and beyond, opening up opportunities for employees to develop a range of skills across the company.”

Developing skills

A primary focus for HIE is working with partners across the wider skills system to help ensure that national policy, and the funding to support it, is working at a local level. Ensuring that policy delivery is meeting the needs of companies like Capgemini and others, both large and small, right across the Highlands and Islands, who are now facing a range of challenges in a tightening employment market. As Morven Fancey, Head of Universities, Education and Skills at HIE, explains:

“We want to understand the challenges and help employers to address them, so that we can retain more of our young people here in the Highlands and Islands. Many of the big employers that we work with, such as Capgemini, will naturally have more resources and a greater willingness to invest in their people development and retention. We recognise this, and so it’s important that we work with them, and with others such as UHI and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to ensure the appropriate support mechanisms for learning and development are in place.

“This is particularly important here in the Highlands and Islands where global companies based in the region play such a crucial role in helping to offset out-migration, not only by giving young people excellent career opportunities, but also by attracting others back to work in the Highlands, or indeed to move here for the first time.”

Developing and retaining talent

Capgemini has also engaged with UHI Inverness to deliver technical training and has some 20 employees completing certification through that process. As Innis explains, with these developments and others, the aim is very much to develop and retain talent long term. He says:

"Across the UK, the real recruitment challenge Capgemini faces today is finding technicians across a multitude of disciplines, and increasingly we are having to pay a premium for these skillsets. So here in the Highlands, our strategy is to build up that capability internally through the various training and development initiatives that we are pursuing.

"We want to retain our people, as it is much better for the business long term. And to help with that we offer clear and structured career frameworks across all roles – and indeed all employees have very different careers paths open to them."

"I myself joined Capgemini in 2014 having been Director of Technology at the Houses of Parliament. I’m originally from Lewis and had worked in London for 24 years before the opportunity to return to the Highlands and Islands came up.

"If the same kind of opportunities that Capgemini is now offering local young people today had been available then, I would probably have stayed here.

"My colleague, Susan Mackenzie, did just that. She joined the finance team at Capgemini in Inverness 25 years ago, and now 11 roles and 10 promotions later, she is Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Northern and Central Europe. These career opportunities are here, maybe not all to that level, but they are here!” Read Susan's story below.

Success stories only serve to illustrate and underline the fact that any career path that is available in Capgemini, from entry level right to the top, can be done from the Highlands.

Of course, for potential recruits who may want to remain as a service desk analyst long term, then there will always be a need for these career skills, but for the more ambitious, then there will always be opportunities to take a career in a technical discipline to a higher level.

Indeed, for the right people with the right skills and right attitude, there is the potential to realise all their career aspirations with Capgemini in the Highlands.