A remote-access round-table meeting
Tuesday 2 June 2020
4 – 5.30 pm
Our topic
This round-table meeting was for professionals involved in recruitment, talent management and staff retention in IP sector organisations. It was a candid discussion about what professionals are looking for when they decide where to work, and the extent to which an employer’s diversity and inclusivity credentials influence the decision to join, stay with or leave that employer. These are crucial business questions, because recruiting and retaining good people can be a challenge in a fast-growing sector like ours, and D&I could strongly influence success. Nobody wants to invest in finding, hiring and training new talent, only to lose it to competitors who offer, for example, a better work-life balance, or a more open approach to team-building.
We heard from experienced IP sector recruitment consultants, about what motivates the candidates they work with and influences modern career choices. Contributions from Lesley Babb at the UK IPO also shed light on how to maintain employee engagement and loyalty, particularly during lockdown, and on attracting the next generation of recruits. Audience members were able to participate in the discussions and put further questions to the panellists.
The key outcomes from this meeting are available here, and we hope will prove useful to employers who want to build inclusive workplaces and recruitment procedures post-lockdown.
Our speakers
The discussions were chaired by Andrea Brewster OBE, Lead Executive Officer of IP Inclusive. Our panellists were:
- Lesley Babb, UK Intellectual Property Office
- Pete Fellows, Fellows and Associates
- Catherine French, Sacco Mann
- Stephen Gill, Caselton Clark
Registration
This meeting was hosted as a remote-access video/audio conference on Zoom. You can watch a recording here.