How ESP Has Adapted to the New Reality: Flexibility, Digitisation, and Wellness
The pandemic propelled (nearly) every industry into the future, and it left many scrambling. Adapting to the new world has been crucial for businesses to stay afloat.
Like many businesses, we were thinking “how can we work from home?”, “do we have the right software?”, “does everyone have laptops?”, “will we perform as well as we were doing?”. It was completely new to everyone. It’s quite amusing reflecting on our bewilderment at just the thought of working from home. Thanks to the efficiency and organisation of our Operations Manager, Georgia, ESP managed to get all processes online and working well for everyone. But, we were still in our old style of working and it was going to take time and commitment to shift those patterns.
Big changes in a business happen gradually. But, if a business remains stagnant, especially in times of extreme change, it’s essentially the kiss of death. Here are some of the changes that ESP has made over the past 15 months:
Flexible working
‘Flexible working’ has become somewhat of a buzzword synonymous with the pandemic (move over, ‘unprecedented’).
Buzzword or not, we’ve really embraced it – most of the team come in to the office 3 days a week. Like many other organisations, we’re enjoying the mix of working in the office and from home. Getting the balance right is important and with a collaborative job like recruitment, coming into the office can really benefit the team. But there are so many factors in favour of working from home, that 5 days in the office seems unrealistic.
Working from home is here to stay!
Cold Calling
Admittedly, we were a bit of an old school recruitment agency. Making 100 calls a day (and leaving 95 voicemails…), based from our office 5 days a week. Pretty much what the consultants were doing 10 years ago. It was an “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?” mentality that kept us doing well, but not reaching our full potential.
We’re now embracing different avenues for messaging and making fewer cold calls. Sending videos to clients and candidates, either quickly breaking down a candidate profile or a recent vacancy. We’re finding this to be really productive, resulting in brilliant leads and a few placements.
Breaking America
Becoming more comfortable and proficient with digitised processes means we’re better equipped to break into the American market. We’ve been doing some business across the pond, and it’s exciting to know we are consistently growing.
Events
Prior to the world shutting down, we hosted great in-person (remember that?) sessions for IT Sales Leaders to network, learn, and have a laugh. Since then, we’ve started a new event series: Sales Leaders Virtual Meet Ups. We took the events online, with the help of Calum Kilgour and John Bissett from Slingshot Edge, and changed the format in order to support salespeople through their challenges. Of course, nothing compares to the buzz of being at an event in person, but hosting virtual events means they can be hosted more regularly and more people can attend.
The events did span across the UK and once in Stockholm, but that reach is nothing compared to the possibility of being online. We’ve had people attend the events from across the world. Going virtual opens the sessions up to anyone and everyone in sales leadership! It’s also been beneficial for the people that come along. One of the Sales Leaders that regularly attends the events told us that being exposed to Sales Leaders from varying industries, different countries, and at differing points in their career, results in a much more varied experience.
Wellness Afternoons
The day-to-day of the business has changed, but it’s what we’re doing while we’re not at work that’s increasingly important. We’ve introduced wellness afternoons twice a month for the team to spend as they wish! It’s an important reminder that we all need to take time for ourselves, do things that we enjoy and that relax us. We believe in being open and considerate towards mental wellbeing, and we strive to live these values everyday.
No business has been immune to the effects of the pandemic and we haven’t been left unscathed. However, we have reached the other side thanks to hard work, determination, and most importantly…being open to new ideas! We’ve finished off the best quarter in our 15+ year history AND May was the best month we’ve ever had.
