Housing from a Recruiter’s Viewpoint
The latest news from The Synergy Group.
Housing from a Recruiter’s Viewpoint
In these recent times of austerity and economic downturn I have seen a plethora of changes in how recruitment has manifested itself. Slightly obviously, gone are the days of bulging public sector budgets where vacancy levels on my books outway candidate availability.
Traditional methods of recruitment have been reviewed with increasing emphasis on better value of service and quality coupled with diversifying these older methods into new techniques.
One particular recruitment offering seems to have struck a chord of sensibility of late, which is a ‘grow your own’ scheme called the ‘Kickstart’ programme.
Kickstart in effect takes on a whole brief from a client where there is a need for a number of staff in a particular area. The scheme attracts, vets and then trains grass-roots candidates ( generally from an unskilled background) with skilled trainers and cutting-edge training courses and places them into the roles fully tuned and ready to do the job in hand.
The benefits to clients are numerous but perhaps most pertinently, considering my first paragraph, is the cost-effective nature of the programme. There is no further burden on staff already there who possibly already have increased workloads. The candidates are generally taken from the catchment area of the client, aiding regeneration programmes. There is an immediate return on investment with the flexibility of putting the new employees on any type of contract they wish.
My company alone has undertaken over 200 Kickstart programmes, training and placing over 3000 individuals.
As ours and your industry evolves, undoubtedly into more stable times, it would seem folly to ignore these new methods and ideologies. Along with the tried and tested, more traditional forms of recruitment, I feel this will provide a more rounded attitude and service to the Housing sector, hopefully safeguarding our industry for any future turn of events.
By Alex McKenzie, Housing Team Manager, Synergy Group