Tough to keep the talent

• It will become harder for service providers to recruit and retain staff
• Clients will increasingly expect diversity in their advisers
• Staff will have to be redeployed to new roles

IP service providers will find it increasingly harder to recruit and retain the staff necessary to achieve their goals. “We are clearly going to be hiring more and more software developers and business analysts. They will replace paralegals and salespeople. You can get a pipeline of opportunities with software or supported by software,” says one.

But hiring such people is difficult given the competition from IT companies, which may have more to offer in terms of salaries and prospects. “It’s tough for us to keep the talent,” laments one service provider in the United States. The challenge is compounded by the uncertainty over which products will prove popular and need further investment, and the need to take into account diversity in recruiting – something that clients will increasingly expect.

In the meantime, providers will also have to retrain or redeploy existing staff, such as editors, paralegals and salespeople. “They will have to focus on higher-value stuff. Skill sets will change towards analysis and trends and future-casting, and will move away from day-to-day operational stuff,” says one executive.