"We're passionate about providing the pipeline for local talent": 10 talking points with Toru Digital
Toru Digital is a growing digital business settling well into life in new surroundings at one of Northampton’s historic icons.
Sean Toru tells us how the move came about, why he prioritises the happiness of his staff and what lies ahead.
Our office is based in Delapre Abbey and I really like it. We've been here for 7 months. I didn't know too much about it before we moved here but now I go out for a walk around the place at lunchtime every day.
We were previously in the Innovation Centre opposite the railway station, then lockdown happened and we went virtual. When we came out of lockdown, we'd already hired 3 or 4 people and we were looking for another place.
Delapre Abbey said they were specifically looking for a digital agency for this space so although we had to wait for a little while and put some work into it to turn it into a nice office, it was totally worth it. There are ten of us in the team at the moment - two of us who are always in, and most other people work a couple of days a week in the office.
We picked up a lot more work during lockdown because people wanted to go digital and quickly. It was obviously quite disruptive working out how we would do it all remotely, but we were able to hire people from further afield. We try to see our remote workers once every couple of months. One of the events we got everyone together for was Merged Futures.
I went to university in Brighton and studied music. There was a lot of tech involved. I did a masters in design and taught myself to code, how to create animations and graphic design.
I decided to start up as a freelancer and in 2008 I moved into the Portfolio Centre, which was opposite The Racecourse and run by the University of Northampton.
There's always been demand for coders.
Once I decided I wanted to make the most of that demand and turn what I had into a company, I started speaking to people about how to do it.
I don't think you can focus too much on mistakes. There's so much to do when you're starting from scratch. You can't do it all at once. You might look back and think you wish you'd done something in particular earlier but that would probably have meant neglecting something else.
The first recruitment is the hardest step when you're a one-man band. It's a big jump to make to grow in confidence working with other people. To start with I thought it was all about coding and design, but you really need people with project management and administration skillsets as well. Delegating that first task was like jumping off a high diving board! But then you do it and you start to learn about people, how to manage a team and that becomes a lot more interesting than the coding and design part of it - building and motivating a team.
We've recruited absolutely loads of people from local colleges and the university. We've had apprentices straight out of school. We're really passionate about providing the pipeline for local talent. We've been doing it for over ten years now and we know who and what to look for.
We're always looking to recruit talented young coders, so we connected with local colleges at Merged Futures and we'll be following that up over the next few months.
The biggest thing for us has been Investors in People. That had a great impact on us as a business and made us focus on culture and work out what our values were. We really made sure our recruitment process was geared up to bring in the best people. We try to find the right people, keep them, train them and make them the best they can be.
We're building our own software at the moment. We want to get to the point in the future where we can sell that.
We're trying to build a company that focuses on education and learning.
If you bring in people as apprentices or even graduates, as we have, you have to prioritise their development and build your company's structure around that.
We're currently writing a piece of software that runs our business. It's a win-win because it makes us a lot more efficient and, because it helps us, everyone loves working on that project. It's about creating a happy workforce. If you create a team of talented problem-solvers, you need to give them some independence and something to work on by themselves.
There's always a lot to do but that excites me. In the past I've had to work long hours. Right now I'm working a 35-hour week and as long as I can do that, I love all the challenges that come along within that time. I've had to work evenings and weekends in the past, but I don't want anyone else in the company having to do that. We don't offer overtime. We're focusing on project management now so that nobody has too much of a burden.
Knowing there are lots of similar companies in the area is really helpful. It's reassuring to know it's not just us - there's a real economy here. I really am genuinely interested in what everyone else is doing - companies like Bambino Mio and CityFibre that have given talks at Digital Northants events before.
We've picked up local clients through networking at events. It's also good for our staff, to come along and watch talks and they feel like they're integrated into the local digital community. The people I've met through these events have been great to trade ideas with and learn from.