Broker Case Study - Team Rubber
The Company
When three Bristol students created a satirical website to mark the 2001 general election, they little knew that a few years later they would be directors of an award-winning company whose work spans e-democracy, film production and buzz marketing. But since inviting a bored and jaded voting public to take part in games such as 'Get to the right of Jack Straw', the umbrella company Team Rubber has grown to employ 15 full-time staff, gained offices in Bristol and London, and won both awards and major international clients - not to mention the odd cease and desist order for particularly cheeky campaigns.
Bristol is developing a strong reputation in interactive media and related industries. The city's location at the end of the M4 corridor, and the growth of its international airport, has given it prime access to technology companies such as Hewlett Packard and Orange. The universities of Bath, Bournemouth, Bristol and the West of England have developed research expertise in computer science and creative technologies to exploit the booming high-tech and creative market in this area.
Team Rubber comprises three creative companies under one umbrella: Rubberductions, a film production company; Delib, a company that helps organisations further participation through e-democracy tools; and Rubber Republic, a company specialising in viral marketing. Along with their team of full-time staff, on average in their early or mid-twenties, the company employs a network of freelancers, and also takes students and recent graduates on a summer placement scheme.
The Meeting
Corrina Fowler of Skillset and Pauline Collins of Train to Gain met with Team Rubber's Andy Parkhouse to discuss whether the scheme could help the company develop further. "I knew that it was a trial to see if Train To Gain could help this industry," Andy says, "so I thought it might be worth a punt."
Andy told Corrina and Pauline that although the company employs an HR consultancy service "to keep us legal", recruitment and retention can be difficult. The Bristol office has trouble holding onto talented people: as Corrina puts it, "The lure of London is great". So the company is keen to develop training schemes that will help source qualified and talented new entrants. To this end, Team Rubber is working with City of Bristol College to help them develop a two year vocational foundation qualification for media.
The Outcome
"The visit was useful," says Andy. "Pauline pointed out that we need to do a training audit and strategy - that was the main benefit for us from the meeting."
But while Team Rubber has many training needs, particularly in sales and project management, Andy felt that nothing Train to Gain currently offered would match these. "Team Rubber recruits highly skilled graduate staff," he explains, "but Train To Gain seems to be mostly core numeracy and so on, for relatively unskilled people."
Although they discussed health and safety, retention of staff and other HR issues, and Pauline gave an overview of the Investors in People programme, Andy did not think that the company would have time to look at this in the near future. However, he still found it generally helpful to talk through training and development.