If you would like to discuss DEI at Futureheads please contact <a href="mailto:team@wearefutureheads.co.uk">team@wearefutureheads.co.uk</a>

<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>We aim to be brave. We won’t get it right all the time, but we believe it's better to say and do something rather than nothing, and to learn from our mistakes.</strong></div>

 <p>                     <strong>                       But we’re now striving to be better and to drive positive                       change. We firmly believe that everyone is welcome at                       Futureheads, and we aim to demonstrate that in everything                       we do.                     </strong>                   </p>                   We’re committed to creating a culture that reflects the                   make-up of society, we believe diversity promotes innovation,                   growth and equality. We are committed to being intentionally                   inclusive by understanding who we have in our culture and how                   we can best add equity to each individual, and contribute                   towards their professional development. We are actively                   helping our clients do the same. We celebrate the difference                   and rich experience that diversity brings, and we commit to                   ensuring that everyone we interact with, both within and                   outside our business, is valued, respected, and treated                   equally, regardless of their background, identity or                   circumstances. We aim to understand every individual’s                   capabilities, and to give them what they need to succeed to                   their fullest potential.

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<strong>M365 Modern Workplace & Security Engineer</strong> <br><strong>Hampshire (Winchester, Guildford & Petersfield)</strong><br> <strong>£40,000–£45,000 (flexible for strong candidates)</strong><br> <strong>Full-time | Permanent | On-site<br></strong><br> We’re working with a growing Microsoft-focused consultancy that delivers secure, well-governed Microsoft 365 environments to professional services organisations across the South of England.<br> This role sits at the intersection of Modern Workplace engineering and Microsoft cloud security, ideal for someone strong in identity, endpoint security and tenant governance who also enjoys client-facing responsibility.<br><br> This is a fully on-site position split across:<br><ul><li>1 day per week in Winchester</li><li>1 day per week in Guildford</li><li>Remaining days based in the Petersfield office</li></ul>The Role This position combines embedded client engagement with structured Microsoft 365 security and platform delivery.<br><br> You’ll act as a trusted Microsoft 365 specialist, helping clients improve security posture, governance, collaboration structure and overall tenant health.<br> Alongside stakeholder-facing work, you’ll contribute to internal delivery projects focused on identity, endpoint management and security optimisation.<br><br><strong> Core responsibilities include:</strong><br><ul><li>Administration and optimisation of Microsoft 365 environments</li><li>Entra ID (Azure AD) identity management and role governance</li><li>Designing and implementing Conditional Access policies</li><li>Microsoft Intune configuration (device enrolment, compliance, application deployment)</li><li>Microsoft Defender deployment and endpoint security improvements</li><li>Supporting Zero Trust-aligned configurations (MFA, least privilege access, access control)</li><li>Improving Teams and SharePoint governance and lifecycle management</li><li>Assisting with tenant reviews, remediation work and security enhancements</li><li>Working within structured, ISO-aligned operational processes</li></ul><strong>Required Experience</strong><ul><li>Strong hands-on Microsoft 365 administration experience</li><li>Practical Entra ID / Azure AD knowledge</li><li>Experience configuring Conditional Access policies</li><li>Microsoft Intune experience (compliance policies, endpoint configuration, app deployment)</li><li>Exposure to Microsoft Defender (Endpoint and/or Identity)</li><li>Solid understanding of security best practices within M365 (MFA, Zero Trust principles, RBAC)</li><li>Experience supporting Windows endpoints</li><li>Comfortable engaging with non-technical stakeholders</li></ul><strong>Desirable</strong><ul><li>Microsoft certifications (MD-102, MS-102, SC-300 or similar)</li><li>Experience in ISO 27001 or Cyber Essentials-aligned environments</li><li>MSP or consultancy background</li><li>Familiarity with Power Platform or automation</li><li>Awareness of Microsoft Copilot / AI governance considerations</li></ul><strong>About You</strong><ul><li>Security-conscious and detail-oriented</li><li>Professional and confident when working directly with clients</li><li>Comfortable balancing hands-on engineering with advisory conversations</li><li>Interested in improving long-term tenant governance rather than purely reactive support</li></ul><br /><br /><em><em>We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, so if there is anything we can do to make our recruitment processes better for you and to allow you to show your best self, let us know. We also understand that some people require extra time to complete assessments, require alternative application methods and can also benefit from having interview questions or a guide to the type of questions pre-interview. We are open to any suggestions or requests that you may have and are always looking for creative ways to assess talent. Our commitment to you is that you should always feel safe and secure when you’re working with us. Futureheads is a B Corp™ accredited digital recruitment agency based in London. We specialise in recruiting permanent, contract and freelance digital and tech professionals in creative, data, design, digital marketing, engineering, product, project and programme management, UX and service design jobs.</em></em>

M365 Infrastructure Security Engineer

<strong>Technical Operations Lead</strong> <br><br>About the Company Our client is building a next-generation global financial institution focused on digital assets. Designed from first principles, the organisation prioritises market integrity, operational efficiency, and scalable infrastructure in a rapidly evolving financial landscape.<br><br> Its core capabilities span institutional liquidity provision, advanced trading solutions, OTC execution, and comprehensive treasury management services. The company operates with a disciplined, systems-oriented mindset to deliver resilient, high-performance platforms across all business lines.<br><br><strong> The Role</strong> <br><br>As Technical Operations Lead, you will drive operational execution across Engineering, Infrastructure, IT, and Cybersecurity functions.<br> This is a delivery-focused role centred on execution, coordination, and operational excellence. You will translate ambiguous requirements into structured plans, align cross-functional stakeholders, manage vendors and procurement workflows, and ensure complex integration initiatives are delivered on time and to a high quality standard.<br><br> While the role requires technical fluency, the primary mandate is ownership, execution discipline, and cross-organisational coordination.<br> Key Responsibilities Program Delivery & Execution<ul><li>Lead critical engineering, infrastructure, IT, and security initiatives from concept through delivery</li><li>Translate strategic objectives into defined scopes, milestones, and actionable workstreams</li><li>Facilitate project rituals (kickoffs, status reviews, risk tracking, retrospectives)</li><li>Maintain clear reporting across timelines, dependencies, risks, and required decisions</li></ul>Requirements Gathering & Cross-Team Alignment<ul><li>Partner with Product, Trading, Research, Finance, Compliance, and Operations teams to gather requirements</li><li>Convert business requirements into technical deliverables with defined ownership and acceptance criteria</li><li>Manage cross-team and vendor dependencies proactively</li></ul>Vendor Management & Procurement<ul><li>Coordinate vendor selection processes (requirements definition, RFPs, demos, evaluation frameworks)</li><li>Oversee procurement workflows (quotes, approvals, renewals, contracts)</li><li>Manage vendor delivery including timelines, SLAs, escalation paths, and performance tracking</li></ul>Cross-Organisation Integrations<ul><li>Lead integration projects spanning systems, teams, and environments</li><li>Ensure interoperability requirements are documented and validated</li><li>Drive system cutovers and migrations with structured communication and rollback planning</li></ul>Operational Excellence<ul><li>Implement lightweight processes for intake, prioritisation, and execution</li><li>Maintain a clear “single source of truth” for plans, decisions, and delivery metrics</li><li>Identify recurring operational friction points and improve through automation, standardisation, and robust documentation</li></ul><strong>Required Competencies Must-Have</strong><ul><li>Strong ownership mindset with high agency and end-to-end accountability</li><li>Demonstrated ability to execute in ambiguous, fast-paced environments</li><li>Experience delivering under time-sensitive conditions while managing trade-offs effectively</li><li>Strong programme/project execution capability (planning, dependency management, prioritisation)</li><li>Clear and concise communication, including escalation and stakeholder alignment</li><li>Experience with vendor sourcing, evaluation, and contract coordination</li><li>Comfortable partnering with engineering and security teams on technical trade-offs</li></ul><strong>Technical Baseline (Supportive, Not Core)</strong> <br>Working familiarity with:<br><ul><li>Basic scripting or automation (e.g., Bash, Python)</li><li>Observability and monitoring tools (e.g., Grafana or equivalent)</li><li>Work tracking systems (e.g., Jira or similar)</li><li>Documentation platforms (e.g., Confluence, Notion, Markdown)</li></ul>Ability to ask structured technical questions, validate acceptance criteria, and identify delivery risks.<br><br> <strong>Preferred Experience</strong><ul><li>Experience operating in regulated or compliance-heavy environments (e.g., SOC 2, DORA, ISO 27001)</li><li>Exposure to infrastructure initiatives (Kubernetes, networking, IAM, cloud or hybrid environments)</li><li>Familiarity with incident management, change management, and operational support models</li></ul><br /><br /><em><em>We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, so if there is anything we can do to make our recruitment processes better for you and to allow you to show your best self, let us know. We also understand that some people require extra time to complete assessments, require alternative application methods and can also benefit from having interview questions or a guide to the type of questions pre-interview. We are open to any suggestions or requests that you may have and are always looking for creative ways to assess talent. Our commitment to you is that you should always feel safe and secure when you’re working with us. Futureheads is a B Corp™ accredited digital recruitment agency based in London. We specialise in recruiting permanent, contract and freelance digital and tech professionals in creative, data, design, digital marketing, engineering, product, project and programme management, UX and service design jobs.</em></em>

Technical Operations Lead

<p>Sam Cohen is the COO and co-founder of Lifted, a Care-Tech company that aims to transform later life using tech to revolutionise the care experience for families and Carers.</p>

<p>Sam is a graduate of the London School of Economics with 10+ years&rsquo; experience building scale-up businesses. His career began in Equity Research but he soon followed his passion for tech by joining Wonga and RateSetter to launch new markets &amp; products. His next role was at Yopa, joining the founding team as Operations Director, where he played a central role in supporting the business scale from 40-450 after raising &pound;75m in Series A-D funding.</p>
<p>Sam spoke to Futureheads as part of our FFS series, a regular interview series where business and industry leaders share their insights and personal experience. Other articles in the series can be found&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.wearefutureheads.com/tag/ffs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here.</a></p>
<h2><strong>1. Tell us about the impact that Covid-19 and the lockdown measures have had on your business?</strong></h2>
<p>The logistical challenges overall have been manifold, moving our management of the business and the field online simultaneously. However, everyone has been incredible and more than met the challenge. Family members of clients on Furlough have seen a slight reduction in demand for Hourly care however Live-in inquiries have increased.</p>
<h2><strong>2. How have you adapted your operational and hiring practices?</strong></h2>
<p>Given our carers go into clients homes we have had to be incredibly diligent in ensuring they have the correct PPE at all times. To ensure this, I have set up a mini-distribution centre at home, posting out PPE parcels daily. Sourcing PPE has become a critical project managed by the Operations team.</p>
<p>In terms of hiring new carers, we have ramped up phone and zoom screening and held 2 training sessions in lockdown, onboarding a dozen carers digitally. We can also conduct risk assessments remotely for certain clients.</p>
<p>We have also had 4 new starters in &lsquo;Remote HQ&rsquo;. For them to understand our culture / lore quicker, we have put together a &lsquo;Lifted Potted History&rsquo; doc with salient moments (pictures, screenshots of archaic s/sheets etc) that captures some of the journey to date.</p>
<h2><strong>3. What are your top tips for successfully managing a remote recruitment process?</strong></h2>
<p>Don&rsquo;t rush and where possible, ask a subject matter expert outside of the organisation to objectively assess the candidates against their protocols. That helps remove any unconscious biases hiring managers have toward their preferred candidates.</p>
<h2><strong>4. Has this crisis made you look at your business differently or consider changes moving forwards?</strong></h2>
<p>Yes. It has accelerated the need to digitise certain face to face interactions that were previously thought essential. Whilst the act of giving care must remain physical, lots of the upfront work to onboard a client can be done more efficiently remotely.</p>
<p>The process of building rapport and empathy is slightly trickier online, especially when meeting older clients not used to talking to screens. However, through active listening and patience all parties can come away feeling understood and comfortable with aligned expectations.</p>
<p>We are also on the lookout for volunteers with care experience who are minded to make a difference in these turbulent times. Being able to onboard volunteers, therefore, is another tweak to how we will recruit going forward.</p>
<h2><strong>5. What advice would you give to anyone in a similar position to you at the moment?</strong></h2>
<p>Where possible, continue to add top tier talent into the organisation to elevate overall standards. We need to all continue moving forwards as preserving cash is not a strategic goal for early-stage growth companies in itself. Be sensible, hire only when necessary, but really get behind moving things forward in new and creative ways. The time is now!</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Futureheads Five Stories: Sam Cohen

<p>Robert is the Group Human Resources Director at Reward Gateway, an employee engagement platform. The business has over 1,800 clients using products to attract, engage and retain the best employees.</p>

<p>He is the lucky custodian of the People &amp; Experience teams at Reward Gateway. He is responsible for all of their people worldwide across these numerous teams and departments, including Employee Engagement, Learning &amp; Development, Reward &amp; Benefits, Diversity &amp; Inclusion, Office Experience, People Ops, Internal Communications and Recruitment. Basically anything and everything people related.</p>
<p>Robert spoke to Futureheads as part of our FFS series, a regular interview series where business and industry leaders share their insights and personal experience. Other articles in the series can be found&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.wearefutureheads.com/tag/ffs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here.</a></p>
<h2>Tell us about the impact that Covid-19 and the lockdown measures have had on your business?</h2>
<p>COVID-19&rsquo;s impact on businesses is immense, but it has also put a spotlight on just how important employee engagement is, especially in unprecedented situations. Many businesses who have offices around the world are feeling more connected than ever before because of the encouraged use of video calls and conferences.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve also seen a rise in internal communications. According to a poll we conducted that looked at year-over-year increases for the months of March and April across our 1,800 clients and 5 million users, there was a 96% increase in internal communication blog post frequency and a 560% increase in internal communication blog post views.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s also been a time where leaders needed to show compassion which is crucial when going through a crisis. We launched and delivered a work from home support package where employees received a budget to purchase items like desk chairs and laptop stands to make remote work easier. This was received very well and saw a huge take-up by our people.</p>
<h2>How have you adapted your operational and hiring practices?</h2>
<p>Operationally we have fine-tuned our processes to be more remote, and we&rsquo;re always reviewing this on a regular basis to ensure we&rsquo;re supporting our employees the best way we can. With that being said, we&rsquo;re taking real value into the feedback being given by our colleagues.</p>
<p>We have been putting out frequent pulse surveys specific to the current environment as we want to know how and what our people need to be most effective whilst working remotely. Taking full grasp and understanding of the needs of our employees is our main priority.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve also had to make some adaptations due to the current circumstances, and this meant that recruitment for some roles has been paused. However, this has given us an opportunity to look at the talent we currently have and focus more on the health and wellbeing of our team.</p>
<h2>What are your top tips for successfully managing a remote recruitment process?</h2>
<p>Setting expectations early is key, as well as providing transparency on our core values and processes. We want to ensure we&rsquo;re recruiting people who align with our core values, and it&rsquo;s equally important that we&rsquo;re the right fit for the person we&rsquo;re speaking to on the other end.</p>
<p>Organisation and communication is also important as you work out the timings and logistics of the interview process. As we&rsquo;ve shifted to a remote workforce, we&rsquo;ve made it clear on what our expectations are, so both parties can come prepared. It&rsquo;s also important to keep the interviewee engaged without overwhelming them.</p>
<p>Lastly, make sure you have approval for an offer as you move a candidate through each stage of the recruitment process to make sure you maximise your time efficiency. This step is important to ensure your capabilities are being used where needed.</p>
<h2>Has this crisis made you look at your business differently or consider changes moving forwards?</h2>
<p>I think we&rsquo;re seeing many discussions arise on flexible work, specifically around whether organizations should put a more formal work from home process in place as offices begin to reopen.</p>
<p>At Reward Gateway, the rise of internal communications has inspired us to keep this going whether in lockdown or not. For many businesses, that may mean the need for more communication and collaboration tools to be formally brought into the workplace.</p>
<h2>What advice would you give to anyone in a similar position to you at the moment?</h2>
<p>My advice would be to support your colleagues, be transparent, honest and most importantly, show compassion during this time. Don&rsquo;t keep anyone in the dark; include everyone in decision-making and give them the opportunity to share as much as they can.</p>
<p>We have also seen a significant increase in our peer-to-peer employee recognition solution across our company and our clients. It shows that employees are supporting each other and want to say thank you. It has made a big impact for us by connecting our people and I encourage organisations to make it easy for their people to do the same.</p>
<p>Lead from the front and be accessible, accountable and approachable. Your employees will need you now more than ever and it&rsquo;s important to show you are available should they have any questions.</p>

Futureheads Five Stories: Robert Hicks

<p>Jonathan is the Chief of Staff at Lightful, a technology company for social good, who support charities through consultancy, social media products and a unique online learning programme.</p>

<p>He&rsquo;s spent 15 years working in tech for good, first for over a decade at JustGiving where he managed their Crowdfunding product from an idea to raising &pound;100m in five years, and more recently as an independent consultant supporting a range of small and large tech-for-good startups and charities with strategy, growth, product management and business model validation.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Jonathan spoke to Futureheads as part of our FFS series, a regular interview series where business and industry leaders share their insights and personal experience. Other articles in the series can be found here.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>1. Tell us about the impact that Covid-19 and the lockdown measures have had on your business?</p>
<p>The most obvious impact, as with many others, is that we&rsquo;re now a fully remote company. We decided to move to working from home a week before the lockdown started, so we&rsquo;re now in week 7 and the team has adjusted really well &ndash; we have always encouraged flexible working, and so most people were used to working remote work some of the time already.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>We&rsquo;re also fortunate that our main clients have also managed the transition to remote work and we&rsquo;ve been able to continue delivering excellent work for them.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The charity sector has been hit very hard &ndash; with huge declines in income and huge increases in demand for services &ndash; so we&rsquo;ve adapted to support it in multiple different ways. We&rsquo;ve had to cancel some in-person events, but we have always run regular webinars for charities and so we have increased the frequency of them, and covered more topics like top tips for getting better at online meetings and free digital tools for charities.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>2. How have you adapted your operational and hiring practices?</p>
<p>We have two &lsquo;all-hands&rsquo; meetings a week now. One was a regular operational meetup to share important information which has moved online. But we also added a new &lsquo;WFH update&rsquo; at the end of every week for a chance to share any more news, and where different team members share two things they&rsquo;re grateful for and one thing they&rsquo;d wish to see.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s a great way to foster a sense of connection when we&rsquo;re all apart, as is showcasing each team&rsquo;s work from the sprint. We are also sharing tips on a very active and engaged #work-from-home slack channel.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>As for hiring, we&rsquo;re having more video interviews with different team members to make sure everybody gets honest and good insights. We&rsquo;re also making COVID-19 topic we cover &ndash; both in terms of its impact on us and our partners, but also as a way to ask how people deal with stressful situations, how they are coping and how they respond to constraints by being creative or solving problems.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>3. What are your top tips for successfully managing a remote recruitment</p>
<p>process?</p>
<p>For recruitment, we&rsquo;ve tried to increase communication and transparency. Both internally and externally. In terms of onboarding, we&rsquo;ve made use of various online tools (zoom, slack, HR software) to make the process smoother, but are also erring on the side of over-communicating to help people start well.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>We&rsquo;re trying to set really clear expectations for the first few weeks, months and probation in general. As well as that, we&rsquo;re getting more of the team involved in onboarding and connecting with new joiners.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>4. Has this crisis made you look at your business differently or consider changes moving forwards?</p>
<p>Yes, in terms of how important it is for us to fulfil our vision: we believe those doing the greatest good deserve the best technology. For example, we run a 12-month programme to support charities in building resilience in digital engagement, and we&rsquo;re adapting that to include topics related to COVID-19 and the lockdown. We&rsquo;re committed more than ever to delivering support to our charity partners at a time when the need is even greater.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>5. What advice would you give to anyone in a similar position to you at</p>
<p>the moment?</p>
<p>To start, here are eight tips for managing remote teams from our wonderful HR team. We&rsquo;re also working hard on checking in on the team&rsquo;s wellbeing and mental health &ndash; everyone has a &lsquo;WFH buddy&rsquo; outside of their immediate team who they&rsquo;re encouraged to talk to, and we&rsquo;ve done regular surveys to see if anyone needs anything &ndash; be that equipment or a chat.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>In addition, we&rsquo;re making a lot of effort to build and maintain a virtual company culture through virtual coffees, WFH tips and regular Friday showcases of the work different teams across the company are doing. We&rsquo;ve had really good feedback about the variety of things we&rsquo;re doing, so it&rsquo;s also really important to listen and adapt &ndash; what was appropriate in weeks 1-2 of lockdown may not be relevant from weeks 6 or 7.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>All in all, it&rsquo;s a delicate balancing act between trying to deliver excellent value to customers as best you can in difficult circumstances, whilst listening and responding to the needs of your team. This needs regular attention and commitment to get right.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Futureheads Five Stories: Jonathan Waddingham

<p>Matt Pilgrim is an experienced channel and alliances director and is Partner Development Director for the UK business of global digital experience platform provider Episerver. Matt took five minutes to share his thoughts about the impact of Covid-19 to Episerver and the changes they are making as a result.</p>

<p>Matt has perviously held leadership positions at companies including Microsoft, Sitecore, Tealium and now Episerver, and has experience of designing, implementing and managing channel and alliances businesses globally. Episerver are a global software company providing a customer centric digital experience platform. They provide content driven commerce with personalisation and analytics built in, all delivered in a cloud environment.</p>
<p>Matt spoke to Futureheads as part of our FFS series, a regular interview series where business and industry leaders share their insights and personal experience. Other articles in the series can be found&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.wearefutureheads.com/tag/ffs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.</p>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">Tell us about the impact that Covid-19 and the lockdown measures have had on your business.</span></li>
</ol>
<p>I think we have a similar story to tell as many businesses at this time. We are a partner-driven business meaning we rely on a network of agencies and system integrators to help us position, sell and implement our solution. Covid-19 has seen a lot of digital projects we were working on being be put on hold while they work through the next few months.</p>
<p>From an operational standpoint, it has been a relatively smooth transition to lockdown working. Episerver has a strong framework in place to support employees and we are a distributed business so remote working was already a key element of our business.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">How have you adapted your operational and hiring practices?</span></li>
</ol>
<p>There have been a number of changes operationally, mostly centering around morale and employee welfare. The business has gone to great lengths to ensure there are lots of virtual touchpoints for employees. We have creatively moved almost our entire social calendar for employees to online events and introduced specific content to help with working at home such as cookery classes, skills talks, home schooling advice most of which have been supported by the business but run voluntarily by staff. We even ran a red carpet event where people dressed in tuxedo and cocktail dresses, nominating their favourite lockdown movie. We have also increased the frequency of regional and company all hands meetings, this has helped with a feeling of inclusivity around key decisions the business is making.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25);">Has this crisis made you look at your business differently or consider changes moving forwards?</span></li>
</ol>
<p>We are definitely taking a different view on how we operate and there will be long-standing changes. We have tried to improve our communications both internally and externally to clients and partners. We are trying to be more considerate than ever of the challenges facing our partners &ndash; trying to notice the pressures that they face that we may not necessarily be exposed to, and I think we are a better business for it.</p>
<p>Episerver has demonstrated this ability to listen by releasing a number of initiatives designed to help our Partners and customers during this time, all under the Covid-19 &lsquo;come back stronger&rsquo; response. We have made all our online training courses for developers and business users of the Episerver platform free until the end of June, we have a content diagnostics tool as part of the platform that we have made available for free to equip resource-stretched content teams with fast, actionable and real-time intelligence on how well content is meeting the needs of visitors. Plus, we have also developed a version of our digital experience platform designed for frontline industries. It&rsquo;s a way for us to work with our partners to provide a website for the companies that need it most right now with really attractive commercial terms but more importantly a quick time to market. We have customers that have built a full website or commerce experience in under two weeks! Full details of our come back stronger response can be found at:&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.episerver.com/trust-center/covid-19-come-back-stronger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.episerver.com/trust-center/covid-19-come-back-stronger/</a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Futureheads Five Stories: Matt Pilgrim

<p>Sandy Manuel is the co-founder of baytree.co, whose mission is to help create a better model of impact and disrupt venture with real ROI. He&rsquo;s taught and led teams within innovation over a 20 year period, creating new innovation frameworks based on the patterns of successful businesses from the last century.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h2>What&rsquo;s the story of your career so far?</h2>
<p>Well I&rsquo;m self-taught and it&rsquo;s been quite a journey. I did pretty badly at school, and found myself at 22 working in a credit control department which wasn&rsquo;t exactly inspiring or fulfilling, so I quit. I had always been fascinated by innovation from a young age and spent the next decade studying the patterns and lessons from those businesses that had succeeded over the last 100 years. This led to managing innovation and business design teams, where I advised the likes of adidas, Burberry, Barclays, Swiss Banks and more. If you look beyond the jargon in our industry, most innovation efforts are effectively just throwing darts at a board (&ldquo;MVP&rdquo; is a good example) so this work led me to create new types of innovation frameworks to better the current ROI on innovation. All this then culminated in me launching baytree.co, where our mission is to help create a better model of impact and disrupt venture with real ROI. We also advocate for half of all innovation funding to go to female-led businesses.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>What&rsquo;s the most important lesson you&rsquo;ve learnt over the course of your career?</h2>
<p>When it comes to innovation, it&rsquo;s all about probabilities and improving the odds in your favour. I learned that to discover new revenue streams, we needed an objective framework to make decisions that have the greatest probability of commercial success. This is why I created the &ldquo;Confidence Model&rdquo; based on the patterns of successful businesses from the last century. For too long we&rsquo;ve been enamoured with the &lsquo;innovator&rsquo;, the strong personality in the boardroom banging the table declaring &ldquo;this is the future&rdquo;. We&rsquo;re not Steve Jobs, so whilst you may get lucky once in your career, subjectivity is not a strategy. Any innovation framework you use should be based on real human needs which are timeless, not the latest tech fad of the week. It&rsquo;s better to say no to ideas, and be more focussed on two or three concepts that have a greater probability of success since they&rsquo;re based on real needs not technology, rather than spreading your finite resources on twenty different ideas. Crucially, this leads to greater transparency in decision-making, reduces bias and inspires your teams.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>How can organisations ensure they thrive, rather than simply survive, as they attempt to return to a &lsquo;new&rsquo; normal over the next few months?</h2>
<p>Very simply, look after your staff. I don&rsquo;t mean asking how everyone is, that&rsquo;s a given, but actually looking at their welfare and wellbeing in this moment. Culture trumps process, and it&rsquo;s this which helps organisations thrive, not a new process we now need to design for today&rsquo;s &lsquo;new normal&rsquo;. It&rsquo;s recognising that we do our best work when we feel happy, confident in ourselves and have a sense that what we do contributes to the wider goal. Today, that&rsquo;s hard &ndash; we all know friends and colleagues working longer hours, trying to adapt, manage childcare, loneliness and more, so genuinely looking to see how we can support our team wellbeing will lead to an organisation that can grow rather than simply trying to survive.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>You&rsquo;ve talked previously about the need for companies to be &lsquo;purpose driven&rsquo; &ndash; what do you mean by this, and why do you consider it so important?</h2>
<p>We need to move from the current mode of survival to becoming a source of employment which means discovering new service models to enable growth. To quote Mike Kruzeniski, &ldquo;you won&rsquo;t discover the future on a spreadsheet&rdquo;, or in other words, the future isn&rsquo;t in ROI. For example, would ROI have led to the invention of electricity, creation of the car, determining the potential of the Web or &rsquo;the next big thing&rsquo;? No. I&rsquo;m pretty sure the iPhone and microwave weren&rsquo;t validated through a PowerPoint presentation. There will also be a war for talent as more individuals become available, and put simply, companies need to ask themselves why these individuals would want to join their team above any other. Being purpose-driven is the answer. ROI isn&rsquo;t a good sales pitch to prospective employees. To be driven by a &ldquo;Return on Purpose&rdquo; as opposed to ROI is what gives us the commercial and intellectual headspace to go from creating the car to creating that next big thing, because we want to have impact in this world. It ensures market relevance, staff retention and growth, and in a world where everything feels unstable, having purpose in what we do is a very welcome anchor.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>What&rsquo;s going to be the biggest challenge in your particular industry over the next 12 months?</h2>
<p>Budget cut and growing job losses. We all agree we need mechanisms for job creation and that&rsquo;s best achieved through creating new service models. Equally, we all know creating new types of service models is incredibly hard, even in a growing economy. Across the world, from Governments to the community outside our window, they are all looking to experts within innovation for new models of growth and impact. Those of us responsible for innovation, whether as a funder or executor, are needed by our industry to meet this call to action.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

Futureheads Five Stories – Sandy Manuel

<p>Rajeeb Dey MBE is the founder and CEO of Learnerbly, a professional development platform supporting employees to achieve their goals by connecting them to the best development experiences and enabling businesses to engage, develop and retain talent.</p>

<p>Rajeeb is a graduate of the University of Oxford and was appointed as the world&rsquo;s youngest Young Global Leader (at 26) by the World Economic Forum in 2012. Following university, he went on to found Enternships, a portal connecting students and graduates to roles in over 7,000 start-ups and fast-growing businesses for which he was named the &ldquo;02 X Young Entrepreneur of the Year&rdquo; and became the youngest recipient of the Queen&rsquo;s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2013.</p>
<p>Rajeeb is also the Co-Founder of StartUp Britain, a national entrepreneurship campaign launched by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2011 and served as Trustee of UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs for over 10 years.</p>
<p>He was appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen&rsquo;s 90th Birthday Honours List in June 2016 for services to Entrepreneurship and recognised as one of the 1,000 Most Influential People in London by The Evening Standard.</p>
<p>Rajeeb spoke to Futureheads as part of our FFS series, a regular interview series where business and industry leaders share their insights and personal experience. Other articles in the series can be found&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.wearefutureheads.com/tag/ffs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here.</a></p>
<h2>1. Tell us about the impact that Covid-19 and the lockdown measures have had on your business?</h2>
<p>Internally, we had to do what many others have had to do, and that was transitioning to full-remote. We&rsquo;re a tech company and already have team members who are remote 100% of the time. The structures were in place already; we just had to expand them to the whole team. Where COVID-19 has really had an impact is externally.</p>
<p>L&amp;D is the only work-related activity that furloughed employees are allowed to engage in, so we created a free version of the Learnerbly platform featuring our curated content. We want to help organisations support their furloughed employees, and this just felt like the right way and the best way we could do that.</p>
<h2>2. How have you adapted your operational and hiring practices?</h2>
<p>We&rsquo;re spending more time actively communicating with each other, and we try to be as transparent as possible in that communication. To deliver clarity through video calls and messaging, our new primary mediums of communication, we need to make conscientious efforts and have structures in place. One way we do that is by having conversations on public slack channels rather than private messages.</p>
<p>With hiring, our process has become virtual. Our in-house hiring practices were already clear and structured, making the switch relatively easy and streamlined for what questions we ask, why we ask them, and what makes a good answer.</p>
<h2>3. What are your top tips for successfully managing a remote onboarding and/or recruitment process?</h2>
<p>Offer clarity, provide structure, implement social time and make them feel welcome.</p>
<p>Before you do anything, say what you&rsquo;re going to do, whether it&rsquo;s in the form of a &lsquo;first-day agenda&rsquo; email or a stand-up call you should openly communicate as a first step. We also value our&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 25); background-color: transparent;" href="https://linkscan.io/scan/ux/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubm90aW9uLnNvL2xlYXJuZXJibHkvTGVhcm5lcmJseS1zLUVtcGxveWVlLUd1aWRlLTNhMDk2NGVlNjNhYTQ5MGE4NjA2ZmI3YmViZTQyNzIy/570E29765F79BDB328441905F6A34E923AD8D1C00F89236C361BFB8EF16AD7E8?c=1&amp;i=1&amp;docs=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Employee Handbook</a>&nbsp;which is visible to anyone and clearly communicates to prospective applicants and hires our culture and values whether we&rsquo;re onboarding them virtually or traditionally.</p>
<p>Provide structure. Written guides, agendas, and action points drive productivity and keep everyone in the know for what they&rsquo;re supposed to be doing and when they should be doing it.</p>
<p>Implement social time to compensate for what is missing in a virtual work environment. Organise virtual coffees for people and encourage non-work related conversations over video and messaging channels.</p>
<p>In general, with virtual onboardings, it means making an extra effort to ensure new joiners feel welcome. I schedule check-ups with them to get feedback, and we try to continue our onboarding rituals which include taking people out to lunch on their first day. Now we ask people to get food delivered and expense it, as well as the team signing and sending virtual welcome cards rather than giving a physical one.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve long had Empathy Guides that each new joiner fills out to help people get a better insight into their colleagues, how they work and what their interests are, but these guides have become even more important given that we haven&rsquo;t met many of the people who have joined the business over the last two months.</p>
<h2>4. Has this crisis made you look at your business differently or consider changes moving forwards?</h2>
<p>We&rsquo;re working surprisingly well given the circumstances. We know this is not a regular WFH situation because there are threats to physical and mental-health impacting all of us but that doesn&rsquo;t mean we aren&rsquo;t seeing sustained productivity and employee engagement. Our Officevibe employee engagement score is at an 8.9/10 &mdash; putting us in the top 10% of Officevibe companies. These results in a time of crisis do prompt us to think about our office of the future and reflect on how we will work going forward. We&rsquo;re listening to our team and surveying their attitudes towards returning to physical office space and whether a permanent office for all will even be the best way forward or not. We&rsquo;ll go ahead with what we think is best for everyone.</p>
<h2>5. What advice would you give to anyone in a similar position to you at the moment?</h2>
<p>This too, shall pass. If you&rsquo;re making decisions that are good for your people, then the stability of your business should follow. Make sure you over-communicate during these times as people can feel uncertain and anxious.</p>
<p>The more transparent and compassionate you can be during these difficult times, the more your colleagues will respect and appreciate you fostering a happy and engaging environment. If you can be anything, be kind to yourself and to others as the way you respond as a leader during this challenging period will be a defining moment for how your colleagues perceive you and your employer brand in future.</p>

Futureheads Five Stories – Rajeeb Dey

We partner with organisations to identify and deliver security professionals who can safeguard environments, manage risk and build resilient security strategies.

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  <p>As cyber threats continue to evolve in scale and sophistication, organisations face increasing pressure to protect their systems, data and people. Securing the right cyber security talent across GRC, security operations, and cloud and application security is critical. We partner with organisations to identify and deliver security professionals who can safeguard environments, manage risk and build resilient security strategies.</p>
  </div>
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    <h5>Our network includes professionals in:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Cyber Security Analyst (Entry to Senior)</li>
      <li>SOC Analyst (Tier 1–3)</li>
      <li>GRC Analyst / Consultant</li>
      <li>Security Engineer (Cloud, Application, DevSecOps)</li>
      <li>Penetration Tester / Ethical Hacker</li>
      <li>Incident Response and Threat Intelligence Analyst</li>
      <li>Security Architect</li>
      <li>Cyber Security Manager</li>
      <li>Head of Information Security / CISO</li>
      </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Cybersecurity

With positions across agencies, brands, start-ups and tech companies, we work with Creatives delivering new brands, campaigns and integrated experiences. From hiring freelance Creative Teams to your first in-house Copywriter, we’ve got it covered. 

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    <p>With positions across agencies, brands, start-ups and tech companies, we work with Creatives delivering new brands, campaigns and integrated experiences. From hiring freelance Creative Teams to your first in-house Copywriter, we’ve got it covered.</p>
  </div>
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    <h5>Our network includes professionals in:</h5> 
    <ul>
      <li>Motion Graphics & Video Editing</li>
      <li>Branding</li>
      <li>Copywriting</li>
      <li>Art Direction</li>
      <li>Illustration</li>
      <li>Digital Design</li>
      <li>Marketing Design</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Creative

Navigating the complexities of AI, machine learning, and data integrity presents a growing challenge for businesses, especially when it comes to hiring professionals with the right blend of compliance, system integration and advanced analytics expertise. That’s where we come in. 

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    <p>Navigating the complexities of AI, machine learning, and data integrity presents a growing challenge for businesses, especially when it comes to hiring professionals with the right blend of compliance, system integration and advanced analytics expertise. That’s where we come in.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network of data professionals includes experts in:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Data Engineering</li>
      <li>Data Science</li>
      <li>​Data Analytics</li>
      <li>​Machine Learning</li>
      <li>AI Research and Development</li>
      <li>​ML Ops</li>
      <li>​Data Governance</li>
      <li>Head of Data</li>
      <li>CDO</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Data & AI

Our niche is technical experts who specialise in IT and digital projects, across multiple platforms and technology stacks. Come and talk to us about all things Engineering, from entry to CTO-Level.

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  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>Our niche is technical experts who specialise in IT and digital projects, across multiple platforms and technology stacks. Come and talk to us about all things Engineering, from entry to CTO-Level.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes professionals across:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Front-end</li>
      <li>​Back-end​</li>
      <li>​Full-stack​</li>
      <li>Native Mobile​​</li>
      <li>Cross-platform​​</li>
      <li>Technical Architecture​​</li>
      <li>Solution Architecture​​</li>
       <li>DevOps / SRE / Platform Engineering</li>
      <li>Testing & QA</li>
      <li>Engineering Managers</li>
      <li>Head of Engineering</li>
      <li>CTO</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Engineering

We know that the world of Digital Marketing moves at a fast pace. That’s why our teams are on hand to support, and always ahead of the curve.

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    <p>We know that the world of Digital Marketing moves at a fast pace. That’s why our teams are on hand to support, and always ahead of the curve.</p>
  </div>
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    <h5>Our network includes professionals in:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Multidisciplinary Marketing Management</li>
      <li>Product Marketing</li>
      <li>Growth Marketing</li>
      <li>Performance Marketing</li>
      <li>CRM</li>
      <li>Social Media</li>
      <li>Marketing Ops</li>
      <li>Affiliate Marketing</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Marketing & Sales

From recruiting your first Product Owner to hiring your next experienced Product Managers, our recruiters have developed a specialist Product network in the design and tech space. They are trusted experts in sourcing and delivering both permanent and contract professionals in the field.

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    <p>From recruiting your first Product Owner to hiring your next experienced Product Managers, our recruiters have developed a specialist Product network in the design and tech space. They are trusted experts in sourcing and delivering both permanent and contract professionals in the field.</p>
  </div>
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    <h5>Our network includes:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Chief Product Officers (CPO)</li>
      <li>VPs of Product Management​</li>
      <li>Directors of Product Management</li>
      <li>Product Managers​​</li>
      <li>Product Owners</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Product

Part of our founding offering; since 2009 we have been part of the growth and evolution of the Design market in the UK. With a comprehensive network across all major skills-sets we have consistently helped businesses hire world-class Design talent. 

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  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>Part of our founding offering; since 2009 we have been part of the growth and evolution of the Design market in the UK. With a comprehensive network across all major skills-sets we have consistently helped businesses hire world-class Design talent.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5> Our network includes Designers with skills in:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Digital Product (UX/UI) Design</li>
      <li>User Interface (UI) Design</li>
      <li>​Visual Design</li>
      
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Product Design

With a deep understanding of what is required from Project Managers and Programme Managers in the digital and tech space, we can help you find the talent to deliver better budget controls, communication and reporting as well as ways to introduce new processes, tools and technology to optimise efficiency. 

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  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <p>With a deep understanding of what is required from Project Managers and Programme Managers in the digital and tech space, we can help you find the talent to deliver better budget controls, communication and reporting as well as ways to introduce new processes, tools and technology to optimise efficiency.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>Digital & Technical Project Managers</li>
      <li>Programme Managers</li>
      <li>Delivery Managers</li>
      <li>Business Analysts</li>
      <li>Scrum Masters</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Projects & Delivery

From helping shape the London UX market in its early days, to running and sponsoring some of the best-known UX networking events in the UK, we're highly regarded for our breadth and depth of expertise in this space and for our ability to match top-tier UX practitioners into brilliant opportunities. 

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    <p>From helping shape the London UX market in its early days, to running and sponsoring some of the most well-known UX networking events in the UK, we're highly regarded for our breadth and depth of expertise in this space and for our ability to match top-tier UX practitioners into brilliant opportunities.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col-12 col-sm-12 col-md-6">
    <h5>Our network includes practitioners with skills across:</h5>
    <ul>
      <li>User Research</li>
      <li>UX & Interaction Design​</li>
      <li>​Service Design​</li>
      <li>Content Design</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Sectors we cover

Cybersecurity

Latest Cybersecurity Jobs

Latest Cybersecurity News