Why Cathcart Only Hires Trainees

When you’re on the lookout for a new employee, experience is often the top criteria – but is it always the most important? Though it may seem counter-intuitive, taking on a trainee can actually benefit your organisation. 

 

As a company committed to hiring and upskilling individuals who are completely new to the industry, we thought we’d share our reasoning behind this, as well as the rewards you can reap, and why it pays to have an open mind when creating your hiring strategy.

Mould the perfect candidate 

Every company has their own set of values which tend to outline the soft skills required from candidates – things like the ability to work in a team and a can-do attitude. You’ll also have a unique set of processes that ensure the efficiency of your operations – after all, is there anything worse than a new starter who constantly quips “At my last company, we did things like this…?” By hiring a trainee, you’ve got a blank slate to sketch out your own values and processes – making it much easier to mould the ideal employee.

Get ahead of the competition

Competition remains fierce for tech candidates. With more jobs than applicants in the current market, experienced tech professionals can afford to be picky. Nonetheless, there are plenty of promising tech individuals keen to kick-start their careers, so why not capitalise on this enthusiasm? Bringing ambitious people into your workforce before they start climbing the ladder lets you tap into top talent ahead of your competitors – plus, fresh minds are more likely to offer different ideas on new ways of working.

Improve employee development

Trainees are typically assigned a mentor, which helps to promote a learning culture in your business. Not only does this relationship allow fresh talent to gain new skills more easily, it also allows your existing staff to build up their training and management experience. Overall, it indicates to your workforce that you’re committed to investing in their personal development at all levels, promoting employee retention as a result.

Increase profits and add value

Let’s not beat around the bush – hiring a trainee is cheaper than hiring staff with tons of experience. You might be thinking that upskilling them is more expensive – when in fact, this frees other, more experienced members of staff from junior-level tasks that can then be delegated to those working their way up. With this in mind, opening up your recruitment process to trainees is a simple and cost-effective way to expand your business.

Create a loyal and committed workforce

One of the biggest paradoxes of starting out in your career is that you can’t get the job without experience, but you can’t experience without the job. Creating entry-level positions where you equip staff with the skills they need to succeed helps to tackle this issue – and your new employees will grateful to you for enabling them to get a foot in the door, inspiring long-term and maximising staff retention.

A word from Murray, Director at Cathcart Technology

“I joined Cathcart straight out of university in 2013. Like everyone else, I started out as a trainee with no experience – before progressing onto consultant, senior consultant, principal consultant, and now director.

I’m immensely grateful for the opportunities I’ve been afforded by Gordon, Stuart and Sam – the people really are what make the team here at Cathcart, and it’s really rewarding to play such a huge role in a company I’m incredibly proud of. Earlier this year, we welcomed our latest batch of trainees, and they’re already showing lots of promise – who knows where there’ll end up!”

Ready to welcome the next generation of tech?

When it comes to training staff from the ground up, the talent is most certainly out there – you just have to know where to look. At Cathcart, we’re not only seasoned tech recruitment experts, we’re also highly attuned to the graduate market.

Get in touch for guidance on scoping out talented and ambitious individuals that add value to your team.