Annexio is sponsoring the award for Small/Medium Enterprise of the Year at Thursday evening’s Media Isle of Man Awards for Excellence. Paul Telford talks about the difficulties for an enterprise this size in attracting talent on, and to the island.

The Award for Small/Medium Enterprise of the Year at the Media Isle of Man Awards for Excellence is always one of the categories with the largest number of entries.

In many ways these businesses are the powerhouses of the economy and winning an award like this can really help them to consolidate their success and grow their businesses further.

Paul Telford, director and general counsel at Annexio, who are sponsoring the award this year, says that they very much identify with the businesses in this category.

He says: ‘We chose this award because it is in keeping with the type of company we are: we too are a medium-sized enterprise, employing 48 people on the island and looking to expand.’

The biggest barrier to this, he goes on to say, is recruitment: ‘We are quite a niche business in egaming and, when we need people to fill specific roles for what we do, we’re struggling to find them in the Isle of Man.’

We are talking in Annexio’s first floor offices at Fort Anne in Douglas, the landmark building where RNLI founder Sir William Hillary once lived. It has been transformed into a stunning place to work, with onsite parking, views over Douglas harbour and a gym and swimming pool in the basement.

Annexio was founded in 2011 by Tom Brodie, initially as a lottery betting product focussed on the UK market.

Now trading as Lottogo, this business gives customers the chance to take part in major lotteries, like the US Mega Millions and Powerball, without being resident in the countries that run them.

By 2013 Annexio had become the fastest-growing e-gaming firm in the Isle of Man.

They have since diversified into casino games and Keno and expanded their business beyond the UK, to Ireland, South Africa and Australia.

Although they now employ a further 41 people across the globe, the Douglas office remains their headquarters and they are keen to add to their head count here.

However, recruiting staff with the right skills, especially in IT and compliance, is a problem not just for Annexio, but more generally in the island and around the world.

These skills are in short supply and the company has been developing training and other initiatives in order to be able to offer opportunities to a wider range of prospective employees.

Paul says: ‘We are a local company that wants to employ local people.

‘We want to give school leavers and university graduates opportunities and we want to encourage locals who’ve moved overseas and want to come back to work here. We want to let them know that there are good jobs here for them.

‘We always try and look locally first but sometimes due to the skillset we require we will bring in graduates and school leavers, or people with transitional skills and mentor them.

‘We invest in that to make sure we get the talent that we need, so we’re building the talent pool locally.

‘We’re also a Junior Achievement Youth Champion: we’re trying every avenue to encourage young talent into the business.

‘If it’s a really niche role we need to fill, we will struggle on the island, so then we will work with Locate and look for people we could bring to the island, or people who want to return here to work.’

Paul goes on: ‘We want people to know that this is a great place to come and work: we make sure that everyone’s looked after here. Fort Anne is a gorgeous building and our staff have access to a pool and gym, which is great for staff wellbeing.

‘We always try to promote people internally, within our team and we invest in training and professional development.

‘We’ve also got a very flexible culture here with our employees: if they need time out, if they need support, that’s all there.

‘We’ve really grown in the last few years and we are looking for the right people to help us grow some more.’

* This year’s Media Isle of Man Awards for Excellence Awards Night takes place this Thursday, November 21 and the Villa. To purchase tickets please email [email protected]