Balancing Values and Growth: Our Unique Approach to Recruitment at Balance Power
At Balance Power, our recruitment philosophy is more than just finding the right skills—it's about finding the right people. We believe that individuals who align with our core values and principles are the key to our success and growth.
We sat down with our, Chief Operating Officer, Ruaridh Mitchell, who deep dives into how we built a team based on and around our core values.
At Balance Power, we seek individuals who mirror the values we uphold in the company and the principles we have established over the last seven years. These values form the foundation of our team. We value integrity, thinking outside the box, and a solutions-driven approach. We prioritise complete transparency in all dealings with each other internally, and with external parties, openly communicating our processes and methods. This has been particularly important in an industry that has historically faced significant skills gaps.
Unlike other developers, we focus on recruiting people who exhibit our core traits rather than focussing on specific skill sets, although certain skills are obviously beneficial. Our approach to training and development includes offering several hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) each year. Employees can use these hours in ways that benefit both themselves and the business. For example, some employees have pursued additional training in CAD, while others have taken courses related to their specific roles and skill sets, such as planning, grid management, and commercial modelling. We encourage this proactive approach to personal and professional growth, aligning with our values and fostering a solutions-driven culture.
In my experience, the skills gap in our industry has been quite prevalent for about five or six years. We've proactively and intentionally navigated around this issue by prioritising people with the right traits over those with specific skills. This strategy has supported our growth successfully over the last seven years. We’ve found that people who are rigid in their approach to work have not necessarily benefited our company’s growth strategy. We see potential in people with personal goals for advancement, often they come from larger organisations where they have felt like small cogs in big machines. These employees thrive here because they feel (and are) actively involved in our business's growth. Consequently, we haven't experienced the same skills gap issues as some of our competitors. This is largely due to our unique recruitment strategy.
Our recruitment practices have evolved, with our staff now actively using our embedded values and vision to recruit new team members, mirroring these principles. This approach has brought in high-value individuals in areas we previously hadn't catered to. As we continue to scale, we'll incorporate additional skills that we have identified as future needs, particularly on the delivery side of our operations.
Initially, Balance Power focused predominantly on development. Over time, we’ve recruited to ensure we can utilise our team across various business areas, including standalone development, behind-the-meter solutions, and project acquisitions at various stages. Our existing skill sets add significant value to these acquisitions; and our behind-the-meter solutions benefit from our seven years of experience in the development team. Our team is equipped to work across any technology and at any scale.
Our in-house capabilities include a Connections team experienced with DNO and National Grid connections, strong relationships with independent connection providers, and route-to-market specialists. We also have a planning and design team with substantial industry experience. For example, our planning manager, who joined us nearly five years ago, has grown into the role and shaped it as his own, despite not having a planning background initially, and has significantly contributed to upskilling the design team over the last 18 months.
Our development side covers a broad range of functions from our land team and key account leads for businesses to Delivery risk. We have a commercial team, a finance team, marketing, process, and operations management which all actively contribute to each and every project we undertake.
This comprehensive approach ensures that our employees and the day-to-day business operations are well-managed, allowing everyone to thrive in their roles.