Employment seems to be a hot news topic at the moment with the debate about foreign workers, minimum wage and the headline grabbing ‘living wage’ that politicians keep talking about.
With Mole Industries being based in the south of England, even school leavers seem to want more than the minimum wage! Once you add overtime into the equation, most of my staff are on the ‘living the high-life wage’, reflected in their holiday destinations each summer.
On the subject of staff, we’ve been trying to bolster our numbers recently and recruitment has become a subject of debate in the office.
Recruitment companies seem to churn the same batch of CV’s over and over again and very rarely does one really stand out. And even more rarely does the person interview as well as their CV!
We’ve tried a few recruitment avenues, including local and industry specific recruitment agencies who promise much and deliver little for their 20% commission, a jobs page on our website and, for the first time, LinkedIn. Having interviewed for a variety of vacancies it was clear that a new approach was required if we were to strengthen our team and a bit of lateral thinking was the order of the day.
My first vacancy was for a marketing manager. Keen on somebody with good experience in marketing and communications we had been finding it difficult to attract somebody of the right calibre. By chance, we heard about an agency that focuses on finding jobs for mums (and dads!) looking for work that fits in with their family commitments. What a revelation! With a stream of well-educated and experienced people to choose from we quickly recruited somebody with a decade of heavyweight marketing experience working for big brands. At a part-time and affordable rate too!
I’m now moving onto other roles that need filling, including sales, production and operations. Time for more lateral thinking.?I’ll keep you posted!
Comments please to industrymole@imagereportsmag.co.uk