How recruitment has become tougher for Yorkshire's digital agencies - founder of Tall

He told The Yorkshire Post: “It’s not just a problem that I am having. I have close contact and conversations with lots of other owners of digital agencies in Leeds. They’re all finding it very difficult. We’re obviously competing with some big companies in Leeds for talent. There are some big salaries being thrown about.

“Not only are we competing in Leeds, but because of remote working we’re also competing with agencies in London. There’s talent here accepting positions in London but are able to work from Leeds.”

This is likely to result in agency costs rising that will most likely filter down to clients, Mr Utley believes.

Despite the switch towards remote and hybrid working, Tall, which was founded by Mr Utley in 2011, has just taken on new office space.

The firm is in the process of moving to riverside development Brewery Wharf from its previous office at Marshall Court. It will give Tall more space to grow but also allow it to adopt a more agile approach.

“This space that we have developed here is a more nomadic, agile working space,” says Mr Utley.

“We’ve got 20 desks on one side of the office but 50 per cent of them are static and 50 per cent of them are agile, which means that the rest of the office is basically multi-function.”

Tall’s staff will work a minimum of three days a week from the office with the rest of the week up to the employee’s discretion.

Mr Utley says that his whole team, which is made up of 15 staff including himself and co-owner Behrooz Saeed, are all on board with the hybrid working arrangements in place.

The business has launched a new service to help firms become more efficient through the use of design tokens, which help to track and make changes across a range of areas.

Digital brands usually have a design system. When a firm has multiple teams or products, it can become difficult to manage, says Mr Utley.

Tall developed its design token concept while working with Bradford-based consumer finance giant Provident Financial Group. Provident has brands such as Vanquis and Moneybarn under its umbrella.

“We looked at it and said we’re duplicating a lot of work,” Mr Utley said.

“We thought, why don’t we come up with a tokenisation method, apply it at group level.”

More than a token gesture

Guy Utley says efficiency was a key driver behind the digital tokens with the product being aimed at “enterprise level businesses”.

He added: “The reason we have done it is to make things more efficient, more cost effective for the client and allowing speedier changes and speedier delivery. Things can take days rather than weeks or weeks rather than months.”

For example, if a firm decides to make changes to its terms and conditions, it can be time-consuming to update all of its materials across all of its brands with the new information.

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James Mitchinson