“I think a lot of businesses have obviously been doing it tough, but inwardly companies are still looking to upgrade their IT systems and so on. There is still tech spending going on, businesses have upgrade paths and while we’ve seen a bit of deferral in that area, there is still a lot of money being spent.”
Eldridge says a number of other problems have come in the form of maintaining corporate culture as the company grows, alongside maintain the firm’s reputation.
He also says the looming skills shortage should provide a challenge for the company, but he believes the company will survive by focusing on lucrative, larger contracts.
“The hackney term right now is the “war for talent”. Making sure you can get the right person is a challenge, not just with the right technical skills that person has but also with the right attitude and cultural skills to fit in to another organisation.”
Eldridge says a number of contractors have moved into the mining industry, making talent hard to come by for other industries. For the time being, the company hopes to focus on long-term contract jobs to fulfil its quotas.
“I think it’s just going to be cyclical. You’re going to have some industries doing better than others, the resources industry looks strong for the next five to 10 years, assuming projects keep going as they are projected to now. There’s always going to be projects, and there will be labour, but it’s just going to get tighter for awhile.”
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Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
