Partner Article

Putting people first

Kay Lees is HR Manager at Perfect Image – a consultancy providing tailored IT solutions to bring about business benefit. Here, she reflects over the past year and urges business leaders to put people first if they want to see success in 2016.

Whether you’re a fan of Christmas or not, there’s no getting away from it, the festive season is rapidly approaching. Regardless of whether you’re trying to avoid the early-Christmas-tree-decorators and avid carol singers before we’re even into December, the fact is, 2015 is rapidly coming to an end.

And as the New Year is just around the corner, it’s only natural to reflect on what you’ve achieved over the past 365 days as we look forward to the start of 2016. Whether it’s personal or professional, it’s good to look back and think how far you’ve come over the past year and plan where you’re going in the future.

At Perfect Image, it’s been another bumper year for us – as a team together we’ve achieved so much. From high-profile client wins to strategic partnerships with industry-leading technology providers such as Alteryx and Ruckus, from a number of new appointments to seeing several members of staff promoted into new roles, 2015 has certainly treated us as a company well.

But the fact is, our success isn’t just down to good luck or good fortune; our success isn’t a case of fate, rather, it’s the result of a carefully crafted team of experts in their own field working together to deliver the very best intelligent IT solutions for our customers, that bring about real business benefits.

We understand the value of our people and so invest a lot of time making sure that we have the best people in place across all areas of the business (it’s not just about the technology!), and then actively promote the growth of our team both personally and professionally. We do this through tailored career development plans, workshops and demos with the vendors we work with, attendance at conferences and events so we can learn from figures-heads in the industry – the list goes on.

The point is, by actively promoting the growth of our people, we are in turn creating an expert and engaged workforce who are delivering cutting-edge IT solutions, tailored to meet the needs of each individual client we work with. In turn, by focusing on the growth of our people from our office on the Cobalt Business Park, we’re also focusing on the growth of the IT sector in the North East.

As well as developing ourselves over the course of the year, we’ve also dedicated a lot of time to developing the IT people of the future. For example, we’ve been working with students at Gateshead College, setting them practical projects to help them develop their skills. We give them a fictional client brief and then ask them to come back to us with a solution. The students work on the project for a full term and then pitch their ideas back to us. The prize at the end of it all is a placement with us at our offices, gaining real-life work experience and a first-hand insight into the IT industry.

Of course, as well as developing others outside of Perfect Image, it does indirectly benefit our business too. In working directly with students, we’re able to spot the up-coming talent of tomorrow and keep an eye on them as they progress through their studies. In fact, we do have a number of people now working for Perfect Image who we first met through some form of student engagement programme, contributing their skills and expertise to the team and adding to what we can offer our clients.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the success of any company lies with the people in it. And so while 2015 has been a great year for Perfect Image, credit must go to our team – from techies to admin, sales to project management, and everything in between – each and every one of us has played some part in it. So if you’re looking back at your business over the past year and you’re not quite where you’d like to be as 2015 draws to a close, my advice would be to make people development a priority and your resolution come the New Year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Perfect Image .