If you rely on tech skills, but don’t want to enter a bidding war, you are going to need a different strategy. If you choose this path, learning will become a key component in almost everything you do. You will have to hire for attitude, not skills. And if you want your investments to pay off, you’ll have to actually care about the individuals that work with you. This is a cultural shift that requires courage and buy-in from the entire company. There is no pretending.

In this talk, I’ll talk about the journey we’ve gone through the last decade, and I’ll include examples from other companies in the field with similar philosophies. Amongst other things, I’ll touch on learning culture, retention, wage policies, coaching and growth. I’ll warn you in advance: none of this is going to be easy. But at the other end of it lies a future where HR has become ‘human relations’ instead of the other meaning it usually carries. And that is worth fighting for…