The Outsource Group

Nov 15, 2022

Sign Up Our interview takes place during a wave of job losses in the tech sector, affecting big players like Twitter and Meta . Another big headache, that’s particularly acute for tech and IT, is the dilemma over whether to coax or even force your staff back into the office. Terry thinks the best approach is a middle of the road one. A bit of the office can do us good, he maintains. “Somebody explained it to me yesterday as, on the one hand you give your kids medicine, they don’t want it and you don’t want to have it give it to them, but everybody will feel a lot better once they take it.” The issue of working from home has been a bugbear for new Twitter owner Elon Musk. He banned remote working, not long after sacking half his workforce. “There’s a lot of upheaval and everyone is trying to interpret the upheaval in their own way so the story suits their own agenda,” Terry says. “I would say that certainly there’s been a far amount of fat built into that industry over the years and it certainly feels like job losses were always coming. “The size and economics of some of those businesses doesn’t seem to stack up unless they can continue to fuel continuous, stellar growth, and that doesn’t seem as if it was ever likely. “But they’ll maybe confound us all and reset and go again.” Expand Terry Moore, CEO of Outsource Group and chairman Patrick McAliskey He thinks there are big questions for the industry over remote working. “There’s the idea that you just make it okay to never work in the office again, then there’s the Elon Musk approach that if you want to work from home, you work somewhere else. “There are two extremes, and the best approach is probably somewhere in the middle.” His own business, which includes ANSEC IA after acquiring the cyber-security specialist last year, has a routine of getting people in on ‘core days’. “It’s trying to create moments where groups of people can get together so that we get that overused word, ‘synergy’. “It’s very hard to achieve that when people aren’t rubbing off each other and getting those wee interactions that produce something that wouldn’t have existed otherwise. “I wouldn’t say we’re forcing it or taking a really heavy hand, but we’re trying to say that there are loads of benefits to being around each other. “One of our best people has worked in Scotland from the day we hired him. He’s been in our building in Antrim about 10 times in the last four years. But we do have a number of roles where it’s just impossible not to come into the office, and with those, we have to say, remote won’t work.” The company last month took its workforce on a teambuilding weekend in Spain, involving watersports and socialising. “No matter what they say, people want to be together again. Read More “Yes, we all have our own social circles but one of those is work. Stats about homeworking are used like a drunk uses a lamppost, for support rather than illumination.” He regards the present cycle of job losses in tech as a challenging time, though there have been many others. “Due to proximity, the one closest to you feels the worst. “I would have said this time two years ago by some measure was the most traumatic experience I’ve ever had in business, when the pandemic was in its early stages. But I don’t think it ended up being as bad as that from a business point of view, although the societal impact was greater.” Inflation is one of its thorniest problems, particularly when it comes to pricing long-term contracts. “That is just unbelievably challenging, and I feel we’re having to be very innovative in how we protect ourselves. “Everyone has an idea of where inflation will go but if they get it wrong, that could be catastrophic for a lot of businesses.” He cites one contract which the company is in the running for at the minute — a seven-year deal with the option to extend for two years, then one more year. “For the seven-year part, there’s an attempt to fix the price for that through to 2024, and that’s pretty much impossible.” With inflation of 10.1% this year and around 6% forecast next year, he thinks the company should be hedging around price increases of 17%. “That can add hundreds of thousands of pounds to a contract.” He thinks that IT itself faces inflation of 20%. “My experience is that it’s more expensive to operate in IT than some of the sectors we support.” Expand The cost of labour and the continuing shortage of chips are the biggest inflationary factors. He estimates that a mid-earning software engineer has seen their salary go up by around 62% in the last few years. “Over last two to three years, that person at £40,000 is now on £65,000 in the space of two to three years, where they’ve got to. That would be right through the technology stack or different roles in the workplace.” And he welcomes the trend for rising salaries. “I think it’s probably fair that there’s a bit more of an even distribution of the money that’s made in business. “For years I think a lot of that money has made it way to the top of organisation and I think that it’s fair that this is almost a bit of a redistribution, which I would definitely be in favour of. But the labour market can get overheated and then there has to be a correction. “If wage inflation settled, I would be happy enough. The technology sector in any economy should drive a better standard of living, we should be paying people more, we’re in a high value sector, so I think it’s wholly fair that happens. I think it’s just getting a little too hot.” It’s time to get the word out about his business’s success, he believes. “In the past I’ve probably hidden Outsource’s light under a bushel a bit, but now I’ve probably grown up in accepting staff want to meet their friends and say where they work and not to have to explain what that is.” The business now has five offices in  Antrim, Belfast, Cookstown, Dublin and Edinburgh. As for what’s next: “It’s highly likely our next office will be in England rather than NI or Ireland. We have the capability now that we might want to point at that market and that’s what the last few years have been about as we build out OSG Cloud. After acquiring ANSEC IA we do have a capability now that I think would land really well. “Our entry will be probably through acquisition in the north of England. We’d be as selective with that as we’ve been with other things. We’re not in a panic, but realistically trading an acquired company’s numbers by 2024 would be acceptable to us.” Q&A: ‘Surround yourself with great people’ Q What’s the best piece of business advice you have? A Surround yourself with great people and be clear about where you want them to take you. Q What was your best business decision? A Appointing our company Managing Director, and investing in OSG Cloud at the height of the pandemic. Q If you could take one measure to improve the NI economy, what would it be? A A greater forward-thinking focus on supporting the local SME sector, whether it be by supporting new start-ups or more mature local business’s which need help to grow. Funding for growth remains an issue for us all and whilst there is definitely a place for the private lenders and funders, it strikes me that there is a gap in the market where a local SME needs government financial support to be able to breathe and grow prior to the right time to avail of more commercial funding. Q What’s the most important attribute for good leadership? A Be authentic. Q If you had a spare £500,000 to spend on improving staff motivation, what would you do with it? A With the cost-of-living issues that everyone faces, it’s hard to look past sharing it out amongst the team. If it wasn’t that, I’d make sure we all took time to celebrate the wins and acknowledge the hard work together more often. Q Can you recommend a business-related podcast or book? A The Diary of A CEO podcast with Steven Bartlett. Q Do you reply to work emails when you’re on holiday or do you believe in a complete switch-off? A I believe in a complete switch off for the team but I prefer to stay in touch. That said I do try to limit it to once or twice per day when I’m on leave. Q How do you relax? A Hike, exercise generally, being outside — being active in other ways, even working on other things. Related topics