Business Surgery: Green Chameleon

Year established: 2012

Where the company is based: King Street

Sector: Design and Marketing

Number of staff: 8

Owners: Nathan Riley, Rollo Lewis, Tom Anderson

Key clients: World Snooker, Bramley & Gage, Travelwest, Forthglade, Kiddimoto, Fitco, Sassi Holford, Studio Indigo

Website: www.craftedbygc.com

Company overview

Green Chameleon is a design and marketing agency who focus on creating awesome digital experiences and stunning visual identities for their clients around the world.

Rollo, Tom and Nathan founded the studio in 2012 from a shoe box office in the back streets of Bedminster. Their love of design brought them together and that shared passion for delivering exceptional creative work, backed up with in-depth strategic and technical knowledge still remains at the heart of what they do.

Within the last 3 years they have grown from 3 to 8 full time employees and counting. The last 6 months have been particularly notable as they have moved to a central office on King Street and have started work with a number of exciting clients both locally and internationally.

The team is quickly growing and starting to gain some traction in the industry.

The new studio is helping support their ambitious plans to expand and evolve and they have recently partnered with a video production team, which helps strengthen their digital arsenal as well as opening new doors in the industry.

The Challenge

Our business is only as good as the people that work in it, so recruitment is incredibly important to us. However using recruitment agencies is not particularly appealing and due to our size the upfront cost is not particularly viable. What can we do to navigate the barrier recruitment agencies have placed between candidates and businesses so we can find those talented people we know are out there? Is there another way?

FEEDBACK

Eira Jones, Director at Deloitte

Lower cost routes to connecting with potential candidates do exist. Job adverts can be posted on sites such as BeKnown (from Monster) and premium membership of online tools such as LinkedIn allow employers to search profiles for potential candidates. Do you involve your employees in recruitment and reward them for it? Seek referrals and leverage your team’s knowledge of who within their networks has the skills and experience you’re after. Plus consider graduate or other recruitment fairs and industry networking events where you’ll meet candidates in your field. For example, the Marketing Network in Bristol, Bath and Cardiff may provide opportunities for you meet or learn about potential candidates. But remember, attracting new talent has a lot to do with reputation, prospects and career opportunities, so promote these too.

James Woollam, Managing Director at Hayes Parsons Insurance

Every employee is an ambassador for your business, so getting the right staff is critical.

Agencies have their place, but there are absolutely other ways:

·       Schools/colleges are always keen to have presentations on careers, where you can show your passion directly to the designers of the future, so give some local schools a call

·       Remember interviews work two ways.  Make sure you explain your exciting plans to potential employees so they want to take the job if you offer it to them

·       Use your network base – people love helping good businesses, tell everyone you know what a great business you have and that you are looking for more staff – you’ll be surprised by the results!