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2005 News:
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TURNING RECRUITMENT IN HALIFAX AND HUDDERSFIELD ON ITS HEAD
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June 2005
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Relay Recruitment is bringing its unique approach to staff supply and HR services to Kirklees and Calderdale, with the opening of new area headquarters on Halifax’s Central Street.
After revolutionising recruitment in Bradford, Leeds and North Yorkshire
with our uncommon emphasis on the supply of high quality staff and relevant
consultancy services, we worked with a stable of local clients for some
years. Now we feel the time is right to be nearer to them.
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(Pictured above: Relay's Kirklees and Calderdale team.)
Says managing director, Steven Street: “The growing demands of existing relationships and those who want to work with us in Kirklees and Calderdale, plus in-depth surveys of private and public sector organisations, made us realise that employers here are increasingly receptive to our offer.”
Challenge accepted practices and attitudes
Street’s avowed aim is to turn recruitment in Huddersfield and Halifax on its head. “We challenge accepted practises and attitudes and are simply not interested in clients who seek short-term savings. The willingness of traditional agencies to work for the lowest rates means they can’t bring top staff to clients; less productive workers take longer to train and record higher absenteeism and drop-out rates, which are all extremely costly to employers.”
“We only appeal to progressive companies who see the benefits of high calibre, enthusiastic personnel and who are happy to attract and retain them by paying realistic salaries, offering proper training and embracing reward and recognition schemes. It’s not as if this even requires sky-high fees - just an uplift on the minimum. With the labour market at its strongest in 30 years and workers acutely aware of their scarcity, any other course is crazy.”
“We deliver clients long-term benefits through raised working efficiencies and slashed attrition rates. When productivity lifts and downward pressure is applied to departures, income will rise as spending on personnel replacement and re-training dips. Reductions in staff turnover from 40 per cent down to just two or three are not uncommon.”
“Slowly, very slowly, the days of selecting workers on the basis of how cheap they come are drawing to an end. Bosses are waking up to the fact that it is cheaper in the long run to invest in their most valuable resource. We encountered a lot of resistance to our ideas when we started, but now other agencies are trying to copy our blueprint.”
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Peerless HR disciplines
Underpinning the Relay philosophy is the rigorous application of peerless HR disciplines - starting with pinpoint targeting and thorough matching, reference checking and skills verification procedures. Relay offers the full range of personnel services on an outsourced basis, which clients simply select according to need.
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(Pictured above: Relay managing director, Steven Street, outside the group's new Kirklees and Calderdale centre.)
Uncommonly, the group, which was the first Bradford agency to achieve Investors in People status, recruits its consultants for relevant industry experience, rather than how much agency time they have under their belts.
Equally rarely, all staff must achieve Recruitment & Employment Confederation qualifications. This full, voluntary adherence to REC working practices will put Relay in a strong position when anticipated strict re-regulation of the recruitment industry comes into force, leaving other agencies wrong-footed by tough new operating requirements.
Eleven national awards
Relay’s business model has led to rising year-on-year growth since it was launched in 1996. It has also brought the company eleven national awards - taking the top recruitment industry honours in 1999, 2001 and 2004, when it was up against national and international players. The company was a finalist yet again this year – in the Best Managed Service category.
Relay is an innovator of nationally recognised value-added initiatives, such as Careers Question Time Roadshow, the Away Teams service offer and regular client briefing events on Employment Law changes. Repeated independent client surveys have seen emphatic endorsements and near unanimous praise for the Relay approach.
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Pre-eminent regional force
The move marks an important stage in the company’s strategic development from strong niche player to pre-eminent regional force and satellite offices are already planned.
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(Pictured above: Seasoned HR specialist, Joanne Smalley, will run Relay's new headquarters.)
This heightened visibility has come only after extensive research - including studies by management consultants on both the Relay group and the local market - concluded that the working philosophies and operational blueprint that had brought success in other areas would justify the major investment.
Seasoned HR specialist, Joanne Smalley, will head up the new centre. The former Swinton and Collonade executive has particular experience of financial and professional services, but her team will represent all Relay disciplines; Commercial, Industrial, Engineering and Logistics. It is expected that the number of consultants at Central Street will double in its first year.
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