The Lockdown Treasure Hunt for Britain’s Most Talented Workers

The unwelcomed arrival of COVID-19 has left the UK, and specifically London, in major economic and cultural shock. Now, with all legal lockdown restrictions lifted, businesses are optimistic about the future. As such, spending by UK businesses is set to surge as directors prepare for a sharp increase in hiring and investment, according to a new survey by Deloitte. Almost three-quarters of chief financial officers expect rises in capital expenditure, while 76% forecast increases in hiring in the year ahead.

Data from the Institute for Employment Studies has now estimated that there are now over one million jobs available in the UK, yet many firms are struggling to fill vacant positions and now the availability of workers has hit a 24-year low. This data comes after the lockdown period provided a forced hiatus for employees to revaluate how they want to merge home life and work. For this reason, Britain’s most talented workers are electing and dictating who and where they work, and seeking this very talent can now no longer be fulfilled in pre-pandemic ways.

With this in mind, many businesses today are now questioning – how can we get access to these experts whilst scaling? An enormous poll of this ‘non-indexed talent’ – highly skilled, c-suite workers who are not on recruiters radars – are falling off the corporate ladder and becoming ever harder to access.

To combat this issue Future Strategy Club connects the power of networking, partnerships and little black books, collecting this into an agency structure that is accessible. Collating the very talent that a recruiter cannot find, from Gareth Tennant, the former Head of Intelligence at the Royal Marines, Hector Arthur, former Digital Director of The Times or Karl Weaver and former CEO of the Data Practice at Publicis, FSC make previously inaccessible talent open for business.

Justin Small, CEO of FSC – a network of the UK’s tier 1 creative, strategic and forward-thinking talent – discusses why the hunt for the UK’s top talent is now over:

“Non-indexed talent refers to the talent that are not on recruiters radars or don’t have an obvious job title – those such as Gareth Tennant, the former Head of Intelligence at the Royal Marines to Hector Arthur, former Digital Director of The Times who are partners at FSC. FSC is organised around its Partners, former corporate C-level executives and senior consultants and founders with huge experience in initiating and leading change.

In today’s business world, organisations need a robust stream of outside-in thinking, plus the capacity to execute the change that’s required to stay competitive. As such, businesses can source creative freelancers to enrich a team and drive fresh results – using their outside-in expertise to thrive. From helping businesses recalibrate and survive the effects of the Covid pandemic to re-designing leadership models and cultivating a culture of innovation and autonomy -these experts are unphased by the acute challenges in how we are doing business today and can be accessed through FSC.”