Having spent decades of his career in cybersecurity and intelligence, Guy Segal, General Manager (GM) of local cybersecurity start-up Custodio Technologies, knows how hard it is for good tech talent to come by – and how much harder it is to keep them.
Custodio Technologies was established by Israel’s major aerospace and aviation manufacturer Israel Aerospace Industries and 20% of its shares are owned by Secura group today. It has called Singapore home since 2014.
In fact, it has not only managed to hire over 70 per cent of its staff in Singapore but also retain them in an environment where the skills required are niche and hard to come by. All staff are based in Singapore.
Beyond pay and benefits, Mr Segal shares his views on what a young and fast-growing tech company must do to hire and retain the industry’s best talent.
The cybersecurity industry has a serious problem: there could be as many as 1.8 million unfilled roles by 2022, according to the Wall Street Journal.
As a result, it is not uncommon for companies in the industry to vie neck-to-neck with one another for skilled professionals, who make up a limited pool of human capital with niche expertise.
The issue of competition is a global one, affecting even talent hubs like Singapore.
When starting the company back in 2014, the company’s management was worried about finding the right people. But over the years, we’ve built a solid team of 27 people, most of them domain experts in technology and cybersecurity. We are also proud to say that over 70 per cent of our total staff strength are made up of Singaporeans. All of our staff is based in Singapore.
We did it by looking beyond paper certificates, creating a fulfilling working environment, and getting our people to stand with us in our vision for the company.
My predecessor, former GM Mr. Arron Eilat, played a key role in recruiting the team and creating its successful culture.
Although it is challenging, I am confident that start-ups can find the right people and keep them, if they create the right company culture.
- Look beyond paper certificates
Education is important, it is not everything – this is a critical mindset shift that managers should adopt when looking for new hires.
It isn’t some fluffy ideal. A 2018 article by tech giant IBM found that high performing cybersecurity professionals not only have technical skills, but a set of key behavioural attributes as well: they are adaptable, compliant, dependable, inquisitive, and resilient.
One of our software engineers, Stewart Wong, had zero formal education in computer science. He taught himself coding and computing, after spending nearly 10 years of his career as a rental car agency salesman. He went on to do well in our test and interview, and has been with us since December 2018.
In this industry, technical skills are critical. We deal with complex and complicated issues, and our tech guys must be experts in their field.
Stewart is an example of someone who did not have the relevant paper certificates, but had the skill and knowledge to carry out the job.
Another reason why we hired him was we believe that our staff need to have the right spirit to fit into our culture – people who are self-motivated, with a drive to learn and build things.
In fact, it makes sense for tech companies to look beyond just a potential hire’s educational background, especially today because of the multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary world that we live in. Staying open to job applicants who come from non-traditional backgrounds in cybersecurity could bring new and unconventional ideas to the table, without limiting the talent pool.
- Invest in talent development & groom future leaders.
Often, the easiest way for tech companies to come out on top of one another in the battle for best talent is to offer better pay.
An attractive pay package is undeniably a top priority for many workers – and rightly so, because good and hard work must be commensurate with good reward.
Equally important for us is the need to groom talent from within – both to sustain the company’s long-term survival, and to help employees grow while finding satisfaction and meaning in their work.
Research by recruitment specialist Robert Walters found that 85 per cent of professionals surveyed enquired specifically about career progression during the interview process. Clearly, it matters for jobseekers whether their employers are able to map out a clear career path for them, or not.
Last December, one of our staff, Alvin Cheng was promoted from Cyber Security Manager to Director of Research & Development (R&D). Alvin has been empowered to lead some of Custodio’s most challenging R&D projects to date; gaining invaluable experience in the process and achieving well-recognized results.
He is now responsible for strategic planning in the area of cybersecurity R&D, mentoring our employees and leading the team based on the directives from the General Manager.
- Tech people are a hungry bunch. Feed them.
It is important to recognise that all employees have various other needs beyond a good pay and career progression, such as professional development, or being able to exercise independence or creativity in their work.
The 2019 Hays Asia Salary Guide noted that of those who were looking for new jobs, the quest for new challenges was the second biggest factor behind a salary raise.
This is why our management is in constant communication with our staff to understand and “feed” those needs. On top of informal conversations and team meetings, I meet with our employees individually every quarter, where they can air their opinions or have their needs addressed. Such openness is critical to our success.
Creating a challenging yet fulfilling working environment is key, and one way we do this is to encourage ownership over ideas. At Custodio, even junior engineers take responsibility of their own concepts and projects, and they go out to pitch ideas to clients. They receive on-the-job mentoring from the senior staff, who are always around to help.
We also have a “lab” for cyber-innovation, and all employees go for both internal and external training courses at least once a year to keep their skillsets current.
- Create a shared vision.
Having a strong vision is crucial in setting the company’s path forward, and letting employees know which way to go.
Custodio’s goal is to offer a unique solution in what is a very crowded cybersecurity market. We want to sell indigenous Intellectual Property (IP) created for Singapore, by Singaporeans. In the next five years, we aim to grow our market share by selling our own products and generating new IPs, by tapping both the Singapore and Asian markets.
To make sure that staff are aligned with and invested in the company’s vision, we share product roadmaps and objectives with the teams to get them excited about what they are doing..
As a result, our employees don’t think of themselves as merely workers who complete their tasks and go home – they want to be involved in the company.
It helps that we have created a fun, open working environment here at Custodio. Every now and then, you would see some of us break into a Nerf gun “war” or a mini soccer game in the office (as long as no windows are broken). We also celebrate all kinds of religious or cultural holidays, from Chinese New Year to Hanukkah, because of the diverse fabric of our workforce.
The world’s most successful workplaces are working hard at creating a good company culture, too. In fact, job and recruiting site Glassdoor’s 2019 “Best Places to Work in” list ranked Bain & Company first, citing its “really supportive and fun work environment”.
