What if the talent you need is already inside your business you just haven't trained them yet?
THE CHALLENGE
Admiral faced a challenge that no leadership team wants to navigate: the need to simultaneously reduce non-technical headcount and scale its engineering capability fast, affordably, and without losing the culture that had made the business successful.The pandemic had accelerated automation across their call centre operations.
Roles were becoming redundant. At the same time, Cloud, DevOps, and Infrastructure engineers were in critical shortage. Traditional recruitment was slow, expensive, and delivering a talent pool that was neither diverse nor particularly well-suited to Admiral's way of working.The instinct to look outward for talent was understandable. But we made the case for looking inward first.
THE SOLUTION
We had an existing placement relationship with Admiral which meant we understood the business, the culture, and what good looked like there. That trust enabled us to propose something more ambitious than a transactional hire.Our first initiative was a 12-week internal retraining programme, transitioning call centre employees into Software Testing and Software Engineering roles.
These people were loyal, culturally aligned, and motivated they just needed the technical skills. We provided them. Redundancies were avoided. New engineers were created from within.Our second initiative introduced a 'pod' model in partnership with Opus Talent Solutions. Each pod pairs two junior tech consultants trained in Cloud, DevOps, and Infrastructure with a senior engineer who mentors them across a structured six-month period. Juniors start on 18-month placements, with conversion to permanent roles as the objective. The model is repeatable, cost-controlled, and keeps diversity built into every hire.
IMPACT
The relationship with Admiral has evolved from supplier to strategic partner. We are embedded in their long-term workforce planning not called when there's a gap, but involved in ensuring the gap never appears.
WHAT THE CLIENT SAID
“The way nology shaped their programme around our changing business need and to fit in with our budget was nothing short of phenomenal.”
— IT Programme Manager, Admiral
“The consultants have been like sponges over the last 6 months, absorbing everything we throw at them. Now we are at a stage where they are adding value to the Platforms team and making a real difference.”
— Group Squad Lead, Platform Services, Admiral