Member Article

Waymark's new recruitment idea pays off

AN innovative way to help plug the skills gap in the regional IT sector paid swift dividends at a leading software developer.

Waymark, a bespoke software house based in Metro Riverside Park, was planning to further expand its software development team, but like other companies in the sector, was finding recruiting the right calibre of candidate a challenge.

So the firm came up with the idea of incentivising its staff to help bring in suitable talent. The initiative proved successful very quickly.

Waymark Software Development Director Jason Hylton-Jones explained: “One of our developers, Andrew Blacklock, knew of someone, Chris Gibson, through a relation and suggested we try him. So we gave Chris a ring, put him through our recruitment process and now he’s a member of our team.

“Recruitment in the IT sector is a challenge so we were willing to try new ways to attract the right people. Our new referral system rewards members of our existing team – with hard cash - and means we can have ready references on the proposed recruits as they could be personally known by one of our team.”

Chris, 36, who lives in Seaham, has 20 years experience as a software developer. He was recruited from safety equipment supplier TRW in Peterlee, for whom he’d worked for 13 years.

“I’d heard of Waymark through Andrew’s dad, so was interested to talk to them when they rang me. I’ve been here a few weeks and it’s going really well. The working environment is friendly and supportive and it’s good to be able to concentrate on one product,” he said.

Chris is working on the development of the Trace software for Waymark client HomeServe, the national home emergency repairs business.

Waymark was set up five years ago, and began developing software for utility services. It has since expanded into the education, health, logistics and commercial sectors, working with more than 30 clients, rapidly expanding its workforce in doing so

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Lofthouse .