How The Knowledge Academy prioritises growth to support its workforce

To mark the E2E Job Creation 100 list for 2024, we spoke to Barinder Hothi, Group Managing Director at The Knowledge Academy

Barinder Hothi, Group Managing Director at The Knowledge Academy (The Knowledge Academy)

Can you provide a brief overview of your business, its core activities, and how it was founded?

“The Knowledge Academy was founded in 2009 by husband-and-wife team Dilshad and Barinder Hothi. It is one of the fastest growing global corporate training providers. We provide learning solutions to large organisations to aid growth through learning and the development of workforces. We enable organisations to excel by up-skilling rapidly using instructor led and technology-based learning programmes. We are trusted by over 50,000 organisations, have over 10,000 subject matter experts, and trained over 3 million learners. We also have over 15 years of award-winning experience with over 1100 employees.”

How has your business successfully created and maintained jobs over the last two years?

“Creating jobs has been a direct result of growth which has been multifaceted. Our growth is driven by three key factors:

• Geographical growth from expanding internationally into new regions
• Growth in our product portfolio through innovation and R&D
• M&A activity

Simply put, if we maintain the growth, we maintain the workforce.”

How has the spirit of entrepreneurship shaped your company’s culture and decision-making processes?

“As a business owner and founder led business, for us the spirit of entrepreneurship runs through the DNA of our organisation. Entrepreneurship starts and ends with applying creativity and innovation to solving problems. In order to grow a business beyond 1000 employees, empowerment of decision making is key; but is much easier said than done, layered with the need to control risk, but the key factor is of course always trusting your staff. In order to grow and create a workforce of great decision makers it requires excellent communication, training and ongoing support. However, the key differentiator for us has been building out a bespoke technology platform to help run and manage a global workforce.”

Can you highlight any innovative approaches or initiatives that have contributed to your success with job creation?

“We have used technology to support our recruitment strategy from video-based interviewing and LinkedIn strategies to multi-level and cross functional interview methods to ensure right first-time recruitment decisions. For example, a sales candidate could be interviewed by recruitment, HR, finance and operations, not just by the sales management. We challenge ourselves to consider not only if a candidate would be a good fit for us, but if in fact we will be a good fit for them. Recruitment is an investment in both time and research, and like many aspects of life, you get out what you put in.”

Could you share some insights into the challenges faced and lessons learned during this phase of creating and maintaining jobs?

“The challenge to maintain a global and diverse workforce begins with identifying opportunities for growth and aligning new roles to our top growth business streams. Setting clear measurable objectives at a strategic level that cascade through to the departmental level is essential to ensure both existing and new staff are aligned with a common purpose of growth.”

Looking ahead, what are your ambitions for further job creation and growth at your business?

“We believe in a continuous but evolving recruitment plan to support our agile and fast-growing global company. Recruitment is of strategic importance to us and always will be at the top of our KPIs. As of today, we have over 50 open positions to fill and so our focus continues on being an employer of choice. We have longer term plans to grow our headcount by creating 1,000 new jobs by 2027.”

Based on your experience, what advice would you offer to entrepreneurs aiming to provide further job opportunities?

“Teamwork is essential to scale any great business in 2024, so only select staff who will truly value the opportunity you can offer them. Present your staff with a clear path for growth and you will not go wrong. Cast a wide hiring catchment area including less affluent regions where job opportunities are not obviously abundant - this is where you will find highly motivated individuals seeking a chance at success. Never judge a candidate by just their previous experience alone, focus what they can do in the future.”

What does it mean to your organisation to be included in the E2E Job Creation 100 list for 2024?

“We are deeply honoured to be featured in the E2E Job Creation 100 list for 2024. It is a privilege for all our leadership team to be recognised for having a huge societal impact through the creation of new career paths for so many amazing members of our staff. We aspire to continue our work to make a positive impact to people’s lives through our work and the wider economy.”