Super Connect for Good 2021 Meet the Judges exclusive: Martin Pardey, Hays
As we celebrate the success of Hays’ and Empact Ventures’ 2021 Super Connect for Good competition, we catch up with Martin Pardey, Director at Hays Technology.
Hays’ and Empact Ventures’ 2021 Super Connect for Good was a resounding success. The virtual final, which took place in November, saw the regional winners go head-to-head by pitching live for the Super Connect for Good 2021 Overall Champion. We spoke to the judge of both the Smart Cities entries and the South Regional Tech for Good competition, Martin Pardey. Pardey is a Director at Hays Technology, the leading recruitment experts.
Pardey has worked for Hays for 15 years. “When I joined Hays, our client-base was really large-scale corporate businesses, but over the years we have diversified our client base, and the recruitment support that we now provide is to a wide and diverse portfolio of clients ranging from startups, helping many scaling technology companies to grow as well as supplying into more established clients,” he said. “The South Coast technology scene is booming, and I’m very proud to be part of that economy for the future.”
Pardey is one of the top supporters of the Super Connect for Good competition. He assisted in launching the partnership between Empact Ventures and Hays Technology, which has resulted in successful events every year. “It’s been superb to see the quality of the applications, and I particularly love seeing companies that have been able to demonstrate that they can take a product or service out to the market and can clearly demonstrate that it’s solving a real-world problem. It’s well-publicized that there are many startup failures, so it’s really rewarding to see successes. It’s also great to see some companies that we have helped grow further,” he said.
Empact Ventures have partnered with Hays for almost four years, and Pardey has observed that the startups that partake in the Super Connect for Good contest grow more impressive every year. “The quality of the entries has improved year on year, and I felt this year was a really strong pool of startups that were solving well-publicized and, in some cases, worldwide problems. The startups that were improving people’s quality of life impressed me most as well as those that were solving environmental problems.”
Smart cities and smart startups
Pardey observes some of the trends he is currently seeing in the smart city sector: “with smart cities, a few years ago everyone was talking about solving traffic issues, parking and how we engaged differently with public transport. I think now we are seeing solutions that focus on changing people’s quality of life through innovative products. This ranges from helping people with impairments to navigate or identify effective transport, to solving environmental challenges such as waste management, or air quality, or sustainable travel solutions for the future.”
When asked what makes a great startup, Pardey answered: “a great startup has a great idea that not only has good traction initially but is scalable. Great people are important to any business as well as embedding an early vision and culture that everyone can buy into.”
For those startups that are keen to scaleup, Pardey emphasizes that good people are vital. “You need a strong founding team, but then you need to hire people with the right mentality in the future; people that can grow with you and can also adapt to the changing demands of a startup business. In my experience, not everybody can adapt to the pace of change in a fast-scaling, dynamic environment. Hence, the ability to deal with that is as important to the technical skills that you are hiring.”
About Martin Pardey, Director at Hays Technology and lead across the South East region
Martin Pardey is a Director for Hays Specialist Recruitment, the world’s largest specialist recruitment company. Pardey has 15 years of experience at Hays, specializing in recruiting within the technology and digital sectors. He is currently the Director for Hays’ Bournemouth Office, which supplies staff across technology, finance, marketing, office support, construction and property and supply chain sectors. He also leads the technology recruitment business across the South East region.
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About Hays
Hays is a leading global professional recruiting group, and an expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, making it the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific, and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. Hays operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. With 10,000 staff operating from 250 offices in 33 countries across 20 specialisms, last year it placed around 70,000 candidates into permanent jobs, and around 240,000 people into temporary assignments.
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