Commercial Sector in Guernsey
You wouldn’t think it at times, but there is more to life in the Channel Islands than the finance industry. Our famously adaptable workforce may have enthusiastically embraced the banks, trust companies and so forth, but other spheres of work do still exist.
People often ask me, as someone who recruits for the commercial sector, ’With very little unemployment in the islands, how easy is it for companies to recruit the staff they need?’ In fact, we are usually able to supply even large companies with what they’re looking for. The specialised staff that one might expect to be scarce seem to be here, but working in different roles, and delighted when a position crops up that allows them to do what they are best at. That they can be out there doing something else is due to transferable skills.
If anything, the situation is tighter in Guernsey than Jersey. Two of our major clients are Indigo Lighthouse in Jersey and Sportingbet in Guernsey, and for the purposes of this article I sought their views on the subject.
Sportingbet moved its base from London to Guernsey last autumn, having established a link with the islands through Alderney.
’It was as easy and as difficult as we expected, and it varies according to the level,’ said HR Director Ron Jenkins. ’We’re always looking for qualified accountants, and obviously traders [the people who set the odds on sporting events and often update them and introduce new betting opportunities while an event is in progress] are difficult to find.’ Difficult to find already trained, that is – but the skills can be passed on and nurtured. This presents a very different opportunity for those who are numerate, particularly good at mental arithmetic, and interested in sport, provided they don’t mind Sportingbet’s unusual shift patterns, which mean working when the major sporting events are on, including weekends. The fact that they are dealing with a subject they are actually interested in, rather than spending eight hours a day managing someone else’s wealth, can make this a rewarding career.
Indigo Lighthouse has been in Jersey since 2000 and, said Operations Manager Mike Rann, had always managed perfectly well as regards staff until it introduced a new venture, Indigo Starfish. ’It is different from other parts of our business in that we own the stock [CDs, DVDs, games], whereas before we were doing the fulfilment on behalf of somebody else,’ he explained. Where we have struggled is in finding team leaders and managers with relevant experience because, although fulfilment seems well established in Jersey, it hasn’t actually been here that long, so we’re having to recruit people from retail and even banks.’
Part of the equation for Indigo Lighthouse is the fact that its business is very seasonal – in the fourth quarter of the year it escalates, necessitating more staff for a short time. Fortunately, this coincides with the end of the tourist season, so a certain number of hotel workers are suddenly available.
The company might be seen as broad-minded in its attitude to potential employees, welcoming people with special needs, along with groups such as mothers returning to work. Mike described this approach as an opportunity, rather than a necessity. ’Our biggest challenge is to retain staff, rather than the initial recruitment,’ he said. ’We develop and improve our people, which means we sometimes lose them to the finance industry. So retention is a constant challenge.’
The experiences of these two companies are fairly typical of how it is in the commercial world in the Channel Islands at the moment. However, the credit crunch, which is making life difficult across the board, could actually be good for this sector, in that people who had been firmly entrenched in the finance world are now seeing that there are other ways of using their skills and talents. Accountants, for instance, are needed everywhere, from multinationals to small companies that need to keep track of their incomings and outgoings, whether they are making surgical instruments or building houses.