FINDING the right staff has become the number one headache for Dorset’s digital and creative businesses, an event heard.

A discussion hosted by support service Silicon South heard there were 160 unfilled jobs offering a total of £4million in salaries in the BCP Council area alone.

The event, called Ready For Take-Off, heard calls for companies to collaborate to attract people into the area, rather than continue competing for a pool of talent that will “run dry”.

Silicon South, which was previously supported by European Union money, now receives no public funding.

Director Anthony Story said: “Silicon South was set up in an era when austerity was all-important. Silicon South was set up to look at how we could support the people being laid off at the time, into the digital sector.

“We’ve got lots of people saying unemployment is no longer the problem. It’s actually finding people to employ that’s the problem.”

He added: “Our aim is to come up with a concrete plan which hopefully you can get behind and support it because it’s going to be directed by you.”

Consultant Matt Desmier, who is working with Silicon South on the project, said many of the conferences and events that used to bring the sector together had stopped before the pandemic.

“We’ve got nearly 40 agencies that are bigger than the national average and we’ve got nowhere where they meet up or do anything,” he said.

“The biggest elephant in the room is there are currently 160 jobs advertised from maybe 40 agencies. Those 40 are looking for 160 people. That’s a phenomenal amount of money. That’s £4m in salaries Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole are offering out to the world that we just can’t fill.”

He added: “It’s completely unsustainable. We’re just moving people around. We’re not getting the right talent for the right jobs and it’s going to run dry at some point.

“The biggest agencies are going to afford it and they’ll grow. The smaller agencies are going to fall by the wayside.”

Sam Smith, managing director of Christchurch-based advertising agency April Six, said her business had good staff who had come to Bournemouth to study at its universities and had decided to stay.

She added: “How do we get people to move here? Because I’m born and bred in Bournemouth and I’m really proud of the area we have – not for the lifestyle or the forest or whatever it may be – but for the work we do.”

She said her industry had a part to play in “getting people looking up and out again” after the “horrific time” of the pandemic.

“I think we’ve got a huge role to play in society, to get people to think differently about the world,” she added.

Silicon South is urging businesses to take part in a survey which will shape its plan for promoting the area. It intends to publish the plan in May, along with a new website including a freelance database and “talent exchange”.

It also wants companies to join the Silicon South Supporters Network and share their news and events.

  • The survey is at bit.ly/38eGZ9N