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Join us as we get to know the business, the team, and the industry through candid, fireside-style chats packed with insights, advice, and a few laughs along the way. Whether you’re an employer or a job seeker, this series is designed to inform, entertain, and give you a fresh perspective on the recruitment landscape.
This monthly series isn’t your typical scripted podcast. Each episode is recorded or streamed live, creating a relaxed and engaging atmosphere with genuine, unscripted conversations. If you’re watching live, you’ll have the chance to get involved by asking questions or sharing your thoughts in the comments on YouTube, Facebook, or LinkedIn – and we may even feature your input on screen!
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# Responsive Personnel - Episode 2 - Full Show Podcast
Meeting started: 14/03/2025, 10:39:24
Duration: 43 minutes
Participants: Speaker
[View original transcript](https://app.tactiq.io/api/2/u/m/r/ph4XaRWPuPPFvWl3JtXc?o=txt)
## Transcript
00:00 Speaker: Welcome back. It's episode two of Recruitment Unplugged inside responsive personnel. This time it's called flexibility meets opportunity because I really want to delve deep into how it works and you'll be able to understand just how flexible the offerings and the way that it's done is with responsive personnel because it's one of the things as a business owner myself that really helped me understand.
00:27 Speaker: you know, why it's so important. My name is Chris Dawes from Visual PR. We're the production team for this. But the most important people I've got with me this time, I'm going to start with you and take the run up. Hazel Cattell. Yeah. I've got it. Well done. And Dominic Randall. I've got it right this time. There we go. Second time lucky. Go on well so far. Phew, there we go. By episode 10, it will be slick as anything, but it's fine, it's fine. Welcome back to the studio, guys. Good to see you. Thanks for having us back. It's good to be back, yeah.
00:57 Speaker: Yeah, seems like only yesterday. It does, and you've been busy in between, one of which I got to enjoy with you at the Swindon Wildcats when you put on the fun fair.
01:05 Speaker: Yeah. I think that was fun. Yeah, that was a good evening. Yeah, nice to see you down there. And, yeah, complete chaos, I think, by the end of it. There was people everywhere. But, yeah, again, a successful event and sharing about the hockey score on that night. So we did apologise to people that we said, oh, it should be fine. Come back again. It'll be better than that. Yeah, come back. But, yeah, no, all around a good night. Clients were there. They could enjoy it with their families. It was good. So, yeah, good fun. It was really, really nice. Thank you for putting it on. It was lovely to venture in for that one with mine.
01:35 Speaker: My little girl loved it all in there as well. Although at 13, she was in between age of what... What's cool or not. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Right, this time we're going to go a bit more into the nuts and bolts of how it works. And I always make this apology. Forgive me if I ask any daft questions because of my lack of understanding, but it means it will help us get to the heart of it in reality. Let's go right back.
02:00 Speaker: I mean, we can come from several angles on this, but I'm going to start as a recruiter, an employer. And we can come from different angles of new roles altogether. So a whole new requirement. It could be that I've got people from elsewhere in position, but there's one or two that I need sourced now.
02:23 Speaker: Or it could be that I want a wholesale move over to you guys. And I want to take it those three angles to start with. So Dominic, I know obviously you're the business development, so I'm going to start with you. I presumably, the idea is either we've been discussing or I get in contact with you and you would come out to get an understanding of what the roles are? Yeah, so we always like to come and see you in your habitat, if you like, to see what you do day to day, because it's easy for us to...
02:52 Speaker: think we know or find the right staff for you um but the easiest way is just to come and see it in in action yeah make no assumptions yeah exactly face-to-face is always easier i prefer a face-to-face conversation in today's world and you can give me a walk around the operation see what staff you've already got see what's missing see why you need someone new or what the why the gap is created whether that's an addition in business growth or someone's left or someone's gone on maternity leave
03:21 Speaker: Or someone's even gone on holiday and you just need a bit of quick cover to cover that. So it's all about getting to know you as a person and what business you're operating to then sit down and say, this is how and where we can help you. And instead of just being a recruitment, we're really an extension of your business into ours. It is an outsource, isn't it? I think that's the valid, which I think is going to come up more than once with you guys, is that that's very much how you try to operate with your clients.
03:48 Speaker: where wanted, where appropriate. And that makes sense. And I hasten to add, this is both permanent and temporary positions. Temporary is probably the easiest one to understand. Yeah. But it is permanent roles as well. Temporary is your quick fix. Like I say, if someone's on holiday for two weeks and suddenly that's created a gap and you think, I just need someone to fix that gap. And permanent is the more common that everyone probably thinks about when they think about.
04:14 Speaker: getting a new job um so yeah normally employed direct but we were touching on all sorts of possibilities there are people that do certain jobs that are more tend to sort of be temporary roles whether it's because they're used to seasonal fluctuations or whatever it might be we touched on when i was at university a little bit longer ago than i care to remember um but it was during those those vacation times is that doing the
04:42 Speaker: these kind of temporary jobs to earn beer money. I mean, book money. You know, they're kind of the obvious ones that are going to go, you know, temporary, that then satisfies the seasonal fluctuations or whatever. Absolutely. Our whole year is peaks and troughs of what happens in the world. Black Friday is big with all the free PR companies delivering goods. Of course. Christmas, again, the same. Black Friday is November, back end of. Runs pretty much into Christmas shopping. January sales. January sales. Not as big as they used to be. Oh, really? Yeah, not as big as they used to be. But, yeah, you get the summer workers from uni. They then find a little role and earn some money for...
05:24 Speaker: whatever they want to do with it. And then they normally say, oh, I'm back at Christmas. Can you sort me out again? And again, that's just building the relationship and looking after them so they trust to come back, slot straight back into a role. Probably a different role, being honest, from summer to Christmas.
05:40 Speaker: And then they're quite happy to always stay on our books and just pick up the seasonal work. And then you've got hospitality, which can traditionally be seasonal as well. Event season through the spring and summer. Yeah. So that's always a big one for us, bar staff, waiters, waitresses. So we look after all that as well. And so what I love there is that the essence is that you come out and you don't just take it as read that I've got these roles.
06:06 Speaker: I'm sure you will make it as simple as that, but you come out, get to know me as the business owner, get to know the company, the work itself and what the requirement is, and really get an understanding of that. That's the whole point of it, yeah, to understand exactly what you want from it. Because we can think we know what you want, but every client, every business owner is different. They've got a different viewpoint of what they need or what they want.
06:32 Speaker: We may not always agree with what you need or what you want, but from a consultancy basis, the knowledge that we have is say, actually, if you put that person there, your gap is half fixed and we just need someone here. So it's not always a case of just putting as many people in as possible and benefiting us. It's looking at you and saying, well, do you need that or can we help in another way? One of the other things that we touched on is that it's very popular to go
06:59 Speaker: Temporate opponent. I know we just separated them out. Temporary to permanent is a very popular way as well. It's almost a try before you buy. We said we were going to use that phrase. Get it in there somewhere. Yeah, it really is a try before you buy method. Both ways? Yeah. For the employee as well? Absolutely. So it's 12 weeks on a temporary contract. Week 13 on that Monday morning, if that's when it starts, they then go on to a permanent contract through the employer.
07:30 Speaker: directly onto their books. So they separate away from us. Obviously, if that goes as smoothly as that, we've done our job quite well because they've got a good fit and the employer wants them on their books. But yeah, if they get to week six and the employer says, Dom, they're not cutting the mustard. Can you get rid? Then that's down to us to have that conversation with them, not the employer. Oh, wow. So then they can have a replacement if the need is still there. Normally it is because they've needed it initially.
07:59 Speaker: um but yeah and if the candidate says look it's just not for me because i think we've all been there at times and thought oh it's great and then a few weeks and we think no maybe not um it's almost a get out of jail free card for them to come to us and say look i'm not feeling it can you find me something else and then we have the conversation with the client the business owner very obvious way to go isn't it it makes a lot of sense to do that um nowadays with people moving jobs easier or quicker
08:27 Speaker: um it's it's a nice way for not get tied in somewhere and also as a as a business owner you can really see okay in three months i'm going to know who that person truly is and presumably there are also instances forgive me if i'm being an idiot again but where you kind of go i think i need someone to do this work and you get them in and go actually no it doesn't
08:49 Speaker: It isn't a whole role in itself or something to that effect. Yeah, people go into a role and then they say, oh, they've finished the workload in three weeks and we don't really need them anymore, which does happen. It's not ideal for the candidates. Victim of your own success, I think. Yeah, absolutely. And that happens more often than you think. If the job is required a set amount of time on something, if they're thinking it's a 10-hour shift and they've done it in eight, they've almost put themselves out of work.
09:18 Speaker: which is, again, good and bad, like you say, victim of your own success. But yeah, instances happen and that's where the flexibility, like you mentioned, comes into it of it suits everyone at a certain point. Presumably, not every employer knows up front of exactly what they need, both in terms of maybe the role, maybe they'll know more about that, but in terms of what the pay needs to be. Yeah, absolutely.
09:47 Speaker: Being local in Swindon, that's where we again step in from a knowledge point of view. That really helps the client, especially recently we've had a client new to Swindon employing warehouse staff and drivers. And because they're from the Midlands, they said, well, what's the going rate around here that we need to use? So from our advice, we show them what other people are paying and what that needs to be to either attract what other companies are paying, but are the drivers going to move for that?
10:16 Speaker: put it a bit higher and you probably get the better drivers coming to you and then you have a better quality of staff for that 12-week attempt to perm role. If you do it similar, you're probably going to have drivers in and out. They're going to last two weeks, three weeks and jump over again because someone's paying a little bit more. But that's where we really put it to them and say, look, if you want average, this is what you pay. If you want to attract people, this is what you want to pay. And that's just our local knowledge in the area.
10:44 Speaker: But I like it. Again, it's that consultative approach as well, is that we're able to draw on your experience, your knowledge, your advice. And I like the fact that it is advice. If I turn around and go, no, no, then you go, okay. I did tell you, but okay, there you go. Yeah, it's up to the client at the end of the day, which way they go. If they completely ignore us, sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong. It's one of them. They may come back in a few weeks and say,
11:13 Speaker: We haven't found any van drivers because we'll say, well, if you pay a little bit more, this is what we advised you on. We'll never turn it away. We'll always help people any hour of the day. We're on hand. I think we spoke in the last episode. We're always there. So, yeah, always happy to help and advise on anything the client needs, really. Forgive my ignorance on this then, but how, and I'm not sure which of you I'm going to go to on this one, but...
11:40 Speaker: It's now established what that wage is going to be. You guys are obviously a business. There's nothing dirty about saying about that. You're taking all the stress away from me. You're doing a lot of the work. So therefore, that's the wage. There's then a fee that goes on it. Yeah. That's me. That's fine. So on a permanent role, it probably is the easiest one to start with. If there's permanent role, it's a percentage of the salary. Yep. So it's as simple as that. If you're doing that, it's a percentage of the salary with a rebate term because we appreciate, again, it's not always going to work out perfectly. So if the candidate does leave within eight weeks, you get some money back.
12:25 Speaker: essentially, or a free replacement. We can just find someone else for you. The temporary one's a little bit more complicated. So every hour they're working, so they will earn an hourly wage. We, in our back office, which is Hazel over here, so we cover holiday pay, apprenticeship levy, sick pay, national insurance, everything like that is in our costs. So we take that away from the employer.
12:53 Speaker: So the employer doesn't have to think about any of that. So when we say we make it easier, that's where we say, look, you just tell us the hourly wage that you want to pay them. That's what you pay them. So then we build our rate up from there, and then we add a little bit of margin on, as we are a business. We have to open our doors and make some money. So we add the bit of margin on, and then it's called a charge rate. So you have your hourly pay rate, then our charge rate, and the client will pay our charge rate, but we cover all the...
13:22 Speaker: percentages in between yeah of like the national insurance and things like that and that's all ahead that we know what that's going to be and and off we go and that no surprises no exactly and that still uh you know is is on a scale with with the amount of hours amount of people yes it's an hourly charge rate so they just pay for the hours they use the stuff fine so it makes sense um
13:48 Speaker: We really shouldn't touch on national insurance with the changes coming up. Yeah, it's probably a bit of a rabbit hole there. We don't want to go down. But what I will say as an employer is it is good news from my perspective that you guys take care of that. You get that sorted. Absolutely. That is the benefit coming up that we don't delve too much into. But with all the changes going on, we look after it. Yeah. Big one is that I remember when I first employed.
14:17 Speaker: And as an employee, as I'd have been before I was a business owner, is that you just get paid every month or a week if it's a wage thing. And you just get your payslip and it appears in your bank and you go, happy days. Well, surely that's what it should be. And then you suddenly find out that for every member of staff, the amount of work involved, if I employed them directly, is significant. It's like, okay, so there's their take-home pay, pay that on the payday, then the tax is all paid within 20 days of the following month for each member. And it's like, oh my God, then multiply that by every... But you guys, and that does come to you, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. You guys take care of that completely.
14:59 Speaker: Yeah, so we'll obviously get a timesheet from a client that's approved how many hours the candidate's done. That will come to me. I'll input onto a system. The candidate will then obviously get their payslip. And some people are like, that's not why it works. So then obviously we deal with that. They don't need to deal with it. Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. They obviously get paid at the end of the week. We then invoice the client saying, right, this is what so-and-so's worked. This is the hours. This is what we charge, obviously.
15:28 Speaker: And then they pay their invoice. So it's that simple. So from my perspective, it's nice and easy as I get. Is it an invoice from you or an invoice per member of staff? An invoice with a list of the members of staff that have worked. So it's just one invoice. Done. Pay. Wow. It's a dream, isn't it? Yeah.
15:48 Speaker: For a business owner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially, I mean, I guess that's why a lot of your work is the temporary roles, because by nature, they can quite often be high in numbers, can't they? That's, yeah, a lot of companies will say if a new warehouse appears in Swindon, suddenly they haven't got the time to sort a HR department out to bring in loads of staff with them, especially if they've moved location out of the area into Swindon. So they'll say, can we have X amount of staff quickly?
16:18 Speaker: um i've heard sometimes it's really quickly yeah so sometimes it is have you got any today um we had a case today of someone wasn't happy with a staff member and they said have you got a replacement today um so we did in fairness i think we had someone there within the hour um on site working ready to go um so it just has you just have to be ready for anything can happen at any time um as we said again in the last episode it doesn't matter
16:45 Speaker: going to sleep at night it's it's there and we just just help out can it work that let's say heaven forbid but we haven't started a relationship with responsive personnel yet and my recruitment is done through another agency but there is a need even if it's just one and i need them quick but but we're not working together yet
17:07 Speaker: Could I come to you and say, guys, I can't get this anywhere else or I'm not happy or just physically not an option. Can I come to you and say, I've got one role that needs fitting? 100%. It's one role, 100 roles. Whatever you need will work with you. Speed is normally the key because if it's one role and it's quick, it's normally a panic. Someone help me, I need help. If we haven't got any relationship at all, we'd probably even bring a candidate to you and be there ourselves to meet with you and say, well...
17:37 Speaker: We've never spoke before, but here we are, this is who we are and what we do. Which is beneficial to all three parties, in my mind. They're the employer, the employee, or the candidate, as we call it, and you guys. Yeah, it's like we said, I think, last time, taking your kids to school on the first day. We're going to walk them into the door. We know who they're looking for because we've spoken. And then they'll say, right, go and see the team leader. They're going to look after you. That leaves me and you to say thank you. And where do we go from here?
18:04 Speaker: And I'd also say you'd need to sit down and get my kind of paperwork sorted. Compliance-wise, obviously, a new client comes in quickly. I'll send Dom out with the counter date, potentially, and just sit down with the client, get the paperwork sorted there and then.
18:18 Speaker: whilst the candidate started doing the work. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I presume your hope, therefore, is that you'll be able to do the job that you know you're capable of and convince them to come over with more of the roles. It starts as a small relationship, and like any relationship, it can blossom. That one role could be that candidate could stay there for three months and end up as a permanent member of staff. In that three months, we'll be on site, checking everything's OK. We'll be checking in with the client. We'll be talking to them.
18:46 Speaker: We'll be offering solutions, knowing what they do. If we've got a candidate that's similar to the one that they've taken from us, we'll say, well, hang on a minute. If you needed that one, could you make use of this one? We'll offer them to you first because we know you use that type of person. And if they say, well, actually, yeah, we do need that. Great. That's another one in there from our point of view. And it fits what they're looking for. Of course.
19:09 Speaker: Forgive me, which bit did you say that Dom has to do the paperwork on for you? Compliance. Compliance, that was the word. I had a mental block then of what word? We are going to go in a second onto it from a candidate's perspective because that's equally as important, but it just made it more logical to start with employers first.
19:31 Speaker: What is this compliance requirement from your side there? So obviously we've got terms with them. So when they pay invoices, how they send timesheets, things like that. So when Dom goes over, he needs to get signatures from them to say they're happy with our terms, they're happy to pay invoices within a certain amount of days. Credit checks get done from a legal side.
19:56 Speaker: just to make sure that, you know, we do get paid. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, yeah, just that's it, really. Fair enough. Yeah. I know we're not going to go into much detail this time, but there's even compliance from protecting the candidate as well, isn't there? Yeah. Not just for yourselves, it's protecting the candidate from a whole host of bits and pieces as well. Yeah, exactly. So they don't go out to work, for example, and then in the end, they don't get paid. Yeah.
20:22 Speaker: said to this candidate, you know, we're going to get you work. They've gone and done the job. And they've not got it. And if they're not getting paid, they're not going to be happy. And they're not going to get hurt or all of those things. Exactly. We like to look after our clients and our candidates. Yeah, keep an eye on the role. That makes sense. Key benefit. No, I'm going to come to the benefits in a minute because they're fairly obvious, but I'm going to now turn this on its head unless I've missed something and go from a candidate's perspective.
20:52 Speaker: How would my relationship as a potential candidate to be placed into roles start? I think we touched on there being two most obvious ways. Yes. So the first one would be job adverts that we put on job boards. They simply just apply for the job as you normally would if you're doing a job search. And we then ring them, vet them, get them to come register with us. So it's that way. If they're already registered, we...
21:22 Speaker: have an availability list of candidates that are available and ready to go. We also send out notifications. And this is a big one I love with you guys, is you've got this wicked app. And so if I've registered, and that was the other way that I was thinking of, by the way, so apply to a job that's there, whether that's successful or not, I'm now registered with you. Or I just turn to you and go, like we were talking students is the obvious one. Guys, I'm back for some holidays. Can I register with you so that you let me know if any roles come up? So that's the given of those most obvious ways. But the beauty we're touching on now is the app tells me.
22:00 Speaker: Yeah. So our app, we get all of our candidates to register on the app now. And once they're registered, they're made compliant. They all just, we send out notifications, don't we? And it comes up on their phone like you would if you ordered a pizza and it says it's on its way. It comes up on your phone and it says van drivers needed. This is the location. This is the pay. Give us a call if you're interested.
22:27 Speaker: And forgive me if I'm about to ask a question that isn't the perfect answer, but I think that would I be getting notifications of all of the jobs that are coming up or is it ones that are suitable to me? So we, as a brand, push everything out because if you didn't want the job, you may know someone that does. So it's the old two business cards trick.
22:53 Speaker: give one to you but i take two because if someone needs me pass one on yeah um so if someone's just out and about so i've just had this job it's not for me if they're in a car and they say oh i need a job what is it it's very much just send it to everyone because you never know who's with anyone that may be looking true it's just brand put the brand out there in front of that makes sense and i would know if it came up i go no it's not relevant to me and it's done and dusted if you think of the pizza analogy dominoes probably send them
23:19 Speaker: every few days but no one deletes the dominoes app because when they need a pizza they still go on it yeah yeah other food other food is available other pizza outlets are available yeah stop advertising it's fine it's fine um so and just to sort of we are going to do a lot more detail on the app but literally the thing would come up and i would then get in contact and we'd go through from the candidate's perspective whether i've applied
23:49 Speaker: for a role that is that's on one of the job boards or whatever or i've come and said i want to register what happens first and which of you are my aim in this too either or yeah because i quite like this when you were telling me about this before this is not just you take my cv yeah um or i fill in a form and then you'll let me know when something comes up there's a lot more to it than that yeah so the the best part and probably our unique part is
24:18 Speaker: Firstly, where our office is, we're not the most accessible place in town being based in West Swindon. So you can't just be in town centre and every bus goes to town centre and walk up the high street and say, I'm going to go in every recruitment agency and register with all of them. We're a bit out of the way. So we need people. With more parking. We need people to come and see us. Firstly...
24:41 Speaker: for Hazel to verify documents to make sure they are who they say they are so we knew who we're sending to work. But secondly, to just have that conversation in person with them about who they are, what they do in a week, why they're out of work sometimes, what commitments they've got to stop them working, whether that's kids, whether it's football clubs, whether it's hobbies, it's whatever is in their weekly schedule. Yeah, because it's valid, isn't it? If I say I cannot work...
25:05 Speaker: Tuesdays and Thursday evenings because I've got training or whatever, then it is what it is. But over the phone, you might think, I'll just say yes to everything and they'll get me work. But it's just looking people in the eye and saying, will you turn up for us? Because they're representing our brand. Yeah, it is your reputation. So they have that consultation, if you like.
25:26 Speaker: um to say what roles they'll fit what they're suitable for some people come in thinking one thing then they say i can't actually do heavy lifting so i can't do that job um some people have a driving license and want to do van driving say they haven't been driving long enough for insurance reasons so we have to say right you can't do that one but we've got x y and z that you could do um so it's just getting to know them on a personal level to say this is what we're going to do for you
25:53 Speaker: Which equally, and I know because when we've had conversations in the past, it's helped you when there's potentially been several people that might be suitable for a role, but you're able to go, another one we've got to put forward to this. Because you've got to know them a little bit more than just a piece of paper or a digital form. And the workers we work with, no disrespect to them, they don't have great CVs because they're manual workers that...
26:18 Speaker: that just go to work. So if you said to them, write me a CV, they'll think, I'm not doing that. But talk to them and they'll tell you everything about what they've done, everywhere they've worked before, what they've done, who they've worked with. That's a good analogy, actually. And straight away you think, yeah, if you've worked there, there and there, you're probably going to be quite good for there. And that's just knowing them, knowing our clients and knowing not everyone works for us in Swindon, but if they've worked in another warehouse, you sort of know what's going on in there.
26:46 Speaker: I think that's a great analogy, and it's why I don't blindly trust CVs, for better or for worse, is that they could be the hardest grafter ever. You would not know that from them trying to put together a CV all of a sudden. But a quick conversation, and you'd start to learn and build a picture of what they can be.
27:09 Speaker: Do you get involved in references from past employers? Yes, that's for me. Obviously, it comes as part of getting them compliant. We always chase two references just to see what employers, obviously, have thought of them in the past. Yes, guaranteed. It's part of the registration. So, yeah. What if I can't? Either I can't get a reference or I don't want to because I really fell out with that boss through no fault of my own.
27:38 Speaker: We'd ask them directly. Yeah. We'd literally say, why won't you give a reference? You know, we need two references. Some potentially might just give one and a personal reference. But yeah, there's not really been a time unless... They've not gained enough UK experience, so there isn't anybody, there physically isn't anybody. I'm almost imagining, we're using the example earlier, that the victim of their own success, they go and do the job and they get it all done in three weeks. It's difficult to take a three-week reference. And yet, actually, they should because they did so blooming well that they got it done. That is it. And that's what...
28:20 Speaker: when we're sat down face-to-face talking to them, they can't just run away and say, oh, I haven't got anything, or if they're on the end of the phone, just not answer. There's always an answer given. For me, it's getting away from that computer says no. Yeah. There's a lot more to it.
28:38 Speaker: Dig a little deeper and you find out what you need to find out. And sometimes they're ashamed to say, oh, I've fell out with someone. But as long as we know and we say, why did you fall out? Because not everyone's going to get on with everyone. No, no, absolutely. Not every warehouse is the right fit for every candidate. It's not a dirty thing. It happens. And it could actually be the other person's fault, not yours, et cetera, et cetera. Or you've learned and moved on. Whatever. There could be all sorts of examples. Getting to dig deeper. Now, as an employer, I'm also then going, I'm pleased that you're going to this detail.
29:08 Speaker: because you're kind of pre-vetting them before they get anywhere near being put forward to me. Yeah. Which is, it sounds like a good thing as well in reality. Yeah. I mean, as a business owner with new staff coming in, you want to know they've had their references done. They've had good, they've had people speak well of them on their past experience. You don't want one choice. If you rung me for one role, we'd always give you more than one option, whether that's a...
29:37 Speaker: well that's actually a good angle i was about to go this angle because i think that this is important to understand from both an employer and a candidate's perspective so there is let's make it nice and easy a role yeah one role and obviously this can be multiplied by any number there is a role what happens now do you turn around and go i've got just the person or do you put everybody who's interested or do you shortlist
30:06 Speaker: a particular number? There's no set way. So clients that have worked with us for a period of time will say, just send me your best one. No questions asked. And that's the relationship and the trust that we like to work with. And then we can just make a few phone calls and say, right, we've got the best one. They'll be with you tomorrow. They turn up, we check them in.
30:29 Speaker: Happy days, off they go. A new client, if they said, I've got one role, we'd probably look at two or three options. So we can email the client with, as we said about CVs aren't always great. We'll write our own little bio on each one.
30:43 Speaker: Okay. So just to give them a bit of background, a bit of information, and then they can say, I like the sound of one and two, or I like the sound of one, two, and three. Can you advise further? We then suggest, or some clients will automatically like a walk around. So they can see, as I would come and see you to see the operation, they want to show the candidates the operation. And again, send all three down, let them all walk around, have a chat, get that conversation going. They're not going to sit in a meeting room across the table and...
31:12 Speaker: tell them everything they're better walking around having that conversation to say this is what i've done in the past it's just a more relaxed environment for for candidate and client does it ever get into the formal interview permanent roles and office jobs is more interview process driven yes um
31:33 Speaker: the industrial side of the market we work in is more walk around and you know how can you have an interview with a driver yes i drive yes i've got a license yes i've driven for five years it's there's not a lot you can go with it other than let's have a walk around this is what we expect and as you know and as this title flexibility meets opportunity is that there's that flexibility there that says you take them on then they don't cut the mustard for whatever reason and it's like nope
31:58 Speaker: Again, being flexible in our office, we've had companies come into Swindon and they've interviewed, for the better phrase of the word, in our office. So they've come to our office to meet the candidates and sit with them in our office to employ them for their business. Yeah, yeah. Just because they haven't got their setup yet. So we've said, well, we've got a setup. The candidate can get to us because we've already seen them. You can get to us, come and see them in our office and have a chat with them there. That makes sense. When you haven't got Danny's...
32:27 Speaker: Tan booth in there. No, that's gone now. We're all a bit whiter now. Sorry, dropping you in there, Danny. No, but okay, so that makes sense because it's an interesting one. And again, I'm speaking as a business owner myself, is that we're definitely touching on, and I'm loving that, the outsource, the work, the responsibility, all of that sort of stuff. But as a business owner, you're also there.
32:54 Speaker: not control freak, but you're kind of going, I kind of want to have a say on this. But once you've got to that trust thing and you kind of go, no, I know you're going to throw me the best people. Yep, absolutely. I go, happy days. I don't have to do a walk around or an interview or whatever. And off we go. But the fact that I can do either or, that's the essence of it. Whatever works for you. And that's what it's all about. However you want it to work best for you, however you work best.
33:20 Speaker: picking a new member of staff, that's how we'll work. If you want three people for every one role, we'll send you three people and you can choose. If you then get to say, look, just send me Joe Bloggs and choose your best one, we'll send that. It really is as simple as that. No, it does make sense. And it is really certainly outsourcing recruitment. Yep. But with your role, Hazel, is that we're outsourcing HR, I guess it is, isn't it? Yeah.
33:49 Speaker: Well, I guess HR and payroll, because sometimes they're different, aren't they? Because you take care of all of that. Yes, I think with HR, if there is ever an issue in the client, they'll then come to us, communicate that there's an issue. We then communicate with the candidate. Then it's all sorted, done. In regards of payroll, obviously, like I said, we get the timesheets, we send it off, the candidate gets his payslip.
34:17 Speaker: gets paid the next day, that's done. And me as an employer, I get one invoice with every member of staff. I keep getting overexcited about that, don't I? But I'm not going, oh, this didn't make my... Like Christine's staff, we're well in there. We're done. Holiday pay, obviously, if a candidate wants holiday, you don't need to worry about that. They'll call us, say, I need holiday in two weeks' time.
34:43 Speaker: We let you know, then we can say the opportunity, right, so-and-so is on holiday. Do you need a replacement for that holiday cover? Done. It's an interesting question then. Holiday cover, someone comes in and they're better. What now happens? A variety of things could happen in that situation. I've just pulled a pin and I've thrown it. They could keep who they've got in. If it's a pure temporary role, they could say, actually...
35:10 Speaker: Candidate B is better than candidate A, so we're going to keep them. And that's that flexibility meets opportunity, isn't it? We'll find candidate A a new role because it's not that they were bad necessarily. No, no, no, exactly. It's just someone was better. In a really jackpot world, they'll say, oh, we'll keep this one and we'll have the other one back. That would be great. Yeah, that works well for all parties. But yeah, normally they'll just be really honest and say, look, we're getting through the workload quicker with candidate B on holiday cover.
35:39 Speaker: Can we keep them? And all being well, normally, yeah, they can, is the truth. As long as candidate B, if it was like a temp to perm role for the first candidate and they're on holiday for a week, if candidate B is only looking for something shorter and then goes back to uni. It's like, no, it's not relevant. They could be great, but they're not going to be there. The question I meant to ask earlier, and you remind me by saying that, that temporary to permanent essence, do you sign up? Would I be signing up as an employer to that in advance that that's what it is?
36:09 Speaker: yeah or is it something that actually we kind of go oh do you know what there's no specifics on it you you can the contract you sign with us will always offer you candidates for 12 weeks if you choose to take them onto your books at week 13 week 15 week 18 week 52 at any point after that 12 weeks they will just roll as a temporary member of staff until you actually that was the other question so because i misunderstood that so 12 weeks in
36:37 Speaker: They don't have to stop being a temporary staff with me. Because I kind of almost misread that as being, oh, well, now that's it, you've still got them. Unless you're going to change to someone else, they become permanent. It's like, no, but it's not until that week 13 that they would become a permanent... Yeah, and they don't have to become permanent at week 13. So we've had temporary workers two years, probably. Wow. On a temporary, because some people don't want to go permanent because they like the weekly pay.
37:06 Speaker: they like dealing with us sometimes believe it or not so they just they think it's easy it's seamless they know they're going to get a call on a friday making sure they're ready for next week they're going to get checked in with every now and again and they'll get paid every friday i think the biggest thing when someone does make that transition that second week in permanent they go i haven't been paid this week because they then go to monthly pay yeah so
37:33 Speaker: when you actually say to people you go to monthly pay a lot go i don't do that because they like every friday they know how much they're going to get they get that then they go to work the next week again and they're quite happy um the only difference from a client point of view an employer um at week 13 you just have to pay the temporary staff the same rate as you pay your permanent staff oh is is a regulation is it yeah
37:59 Speaker: So you could have your permanent staffer on £13 an hour and your temporary staffer on £12. That's completely okay in the industrial world. But from week 13, they have to move to £13 an hour. It's almost to encourage to take them permanently, to give people a permanent role. Oh, I see. Okay. But presumably that only works as a regulation if I've got people in that role on the books permanently.
38:25 Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. If there's no one there, there's no one to compare it to. So it has to be comparable to a permanent worker in the business. So if you're a van driver and you're doing the same job as every other van driver, it's comparable. If you're the only van driver, there's nothing to compare it to. OK. No, that's just interesting. That's the way my mind goes, is going, oh, but how does that work? Yeah, it has to be comparable, job work. Yeah, OK. That makes sense.
38:52 Speaker: Have I got any more questions? You've always got more questions. Well, I do. I think we're kind of largely there because we've kind of answered a lot of it as we've been going through. Is there anything that you think I haven't covered that is relevant to this or have I been peppering you with? No, you've probably asked all the questions people want to know the answers to because you're coming from it.
39:18 Speaker: Add it from a not knowing point of view. Yeah. So then just to understand what we do. I found it really interesting because I am. I'm sat here as a business owner that could want to employ staff through yourselves there. But equally, I've done a lot when the university was the example for me. Yeah. That it would be the summer, the Christmas and all of that doing the jobs.
39:46 Speaker: But you're naive to everything that's going on behind the scenes. I mean, no offence, Dom, I know your job is really hard in the business development side of things, but I cannot believe that every week, Monday, Tuesday, or half of Tuesday or whatever, is mayhem with everybody's timesheets, getting it all on the system, getting the paperwork triggered. Yeah, it needs to be on at a certain point, otherwise that's it. They're not getting paid on Friday.
40:11 Speaker: I was never aware that that was kind of going on. And yet, despite all of that work, process-wise, there is still that touchy-feely, nice relationship building with employers and candidates. And that, for me, is where, and I know that has been Danny's remit since day one, hasn't it? Yeah, it's all about looking after and making it a...
40:39 Speaker: Good journey for all involved. So the client has a good journey using us and the candidate has a successful journey. Hopefully finding full-time work and permanent roles is through us. If I think I may have some roles available, or I've got roles, but they're covered elsewhere at the moment, but I'm interested to reach out and have a conversation, presumably there can be a no-obligation conversation with you to explore what could be done, how it could be done. How do I do that?
41:09 Speaker: Get in touch with us, call, email, LinkedIn message, Facebook message, whatever is easiest for anyone in the world nowadays. There's always no conversation is ever tied into anything. We can meet off site. We can meet in our office. We can meet on site where you are. Just grab a coffee and just talk over what you need or what you think you need. And if that conversation goes no further, probably just get a check in text and say, hey, we caught up. Everything OK?
41:38 Speaker: um and if it does go further then yeah come on board and come for the journey and is it the kind of thing that pays to have this conversation i know we've talked about examples where The emergency kicks in and that's great that you're able to help out. But if at all possible, it makes sense to start having those conversations, even if I don't actually know whether I have any need or desire to come over. It's a conversation to start that relationship. Absolutely. I think people do speak to us and say we potentially need this. We might need this. Some come to fruition, some go nowhere. But the more people we're aware of, we can get people ready. And if candidates come in and specifically.
42:17 Speaker: are coming in for that because we'll always do our background work thinking if it does come off they're going to need x y and z but if it doesn't come off it's again it's for us to explain to the candidates what's happened why it's happened and find them work elsewhere essentially it makes sense i mean i think you could see where i was going with that question is that in my mind it was like the most obvious thing to do to be honest with you the more warning we get and foresight and planning the better but again whether it's a week a day a month
42:46 Speaker: The same conversations will happen and they'll have the same approach. Love it. Well, I think that does cover everything now. So thank you for that one. That brings us to the end of episode two. And episode three next month is actually designed at the moment. Understanding is key.
43:06 Speaker: We might have done enough on that. So we might revisit that, whether that's definitely the topic. But you get the idea. We're really trying to take you into the heart of this to make sense of this whole recruitment process. And the reason why we're having these conversations is that... responsive personnel seem to have really sort of addressed most of these if you have any questions any other areas that you think you'd like us to to delve into do drop a line as well and we'll be able to put it into a future episode but for now thank you very much for joining us we'll see you next episode