Business Link West Midlands has begun its recruitment of the new advisers it claims it needs after sending more than 20 of its existing consultants home on gardening leave.
The support organisation said earlier this month that 21 of its advisers were facing the axe because they did not measure up to tough new standards recommended following a review by the Institute of Directors.
Adverts inviting applications for the new posts are offering salaries of circa £35,000 plus benefits with the package under review.
Business Link has stipulated that the new recruits will have to understand and identify client business requirements, propose solutions and present recommendations together with a clear action plan for the improvement of the businesses in question.
Additionally, they will “inspire” clients and help them make the right choices for their business. They will also identify training opportunities and highlight funding streams with a view to having a “real impact on the performance of the client”.
The candidates have to be educated to degree level and have undertaken a senior management role previously or run their own business. They also have to be a strategic thinker and have a good insight into the business world.
Business Link revealed last week that the 21 advisers had been placed on 30-day gardening leave while a staff consultation was carried out.
The move stemmed from a review of the organisation carried out by the IoD which concluded that if Business Link was to serve the best interests of the West Midlands business community then it needed to improve its service offering.
Chief executive of Business Link West Midlands, Alison White, said the review had been carried out in the best long-term interests of not just Business Link, but the business community as a whole.
She said the organisation was now building for the future with the aim of becoming the best publicly-funded business support organisation in the country.
The IoD was called in last year after the various strands to the Midlands Business Link set-up were merged into one combined entity. However, the new organisation got off to a disastrous start and the SMEs it was set up to help shunned it instead.
The organisation’s paymaster, regional development agency Advantage West Midlands, was forced to parachute in secondees at management level to try and make it work. In the past year Business Link has worked with the IoD to improve its offering and the move has been partially successful. It has attained a “quality mark” surpassing the national standards required by Department of Business Enterprise Regulatory Reform and the Learning and Skills Council.
The staff consultation ends on September 19.
