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RELAY INTO YORK
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June 2006
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After revolutionising staff supply in West Yorkshire, we have opened flagship offices on Micklegate, York, where we plan to tackle North Yorkshire’s staff and skills shortages.
Relay York will be run by managing director, Steven Street, and operations director, Alex Golding.
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Already, they are supplying Link Conservatory Systems with shop floor and technical staff, recruiting for a large electronics company and working with a number of companies at York Science Park.
Relay was established ten years ago, amidst the chaos of a recently de-regulated recruitment industry whose reputation was being damaged by shoddy players and sharp practice. Founders, Steven Street and Laurence Elliott, differentiated by “setting out a quality stall.” They recruited and supplied the best workers to top employers across a range of sectors and made no apologies for demanding higher fees - or being selective about the clients they serviced.
Group managing director, Street, said: “Too many consultancies were ruined by their own working practices. A willingness to pitch for the lowest rates meant that they couldn’t attract the best staff. Obviously, this damaged clients, since poorer workers spell lowered productivity and increased absenteeism and staff turnover – with re-recruitment and re-training costs ramped up in the face of this attrition.
“We have replaced a vicious cycle with a virtuous circle. If you invest better rates in the first place, you get heightened working efficiencies from superior staff that are motivated and loyal. In the long run, this is a far more cost effective option, as profits rise while total personnel costs drop.
“As such, we’re simply not interested in ‘short-termist’ clients who seek the lowest common denominator. We only appeal to progressive, innovative companies who see the benefits of properly rewarded, engaged workers and who are prepared to attract and retain them by paying realistic salaries 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 nationally at its strongest for 30 years, despite a few ‘blips’ lately, and with North Yorkshire workers particularly aware of their marketability, any other course is crazy.”
This blueprint proved phenomenally successful, with massive year-on-year growth, a branch network across the Leeds, Bradford and Halifax conurbation and 11 national awards. Indeed the company took the recruitment industry’s top prize for excellence three times in five years – an achievement yet to be matched. Clients include Microsoft, Princes Soft Drinks, Mercedes, Grattan, Boots the Chemist and Filtronic.
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Providing high quality skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers and executive staff in all sectors, Alex Golding reports that both candidates and companies in the city and outlying areas seem ideally suited to the Relay way of doing things.
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She said: “It’s early days, but we have been highly impressed by the sophistication of both candidates and employers in York and North Yorkshire. Flexible, top performing staff know their own worth - and organisations are prepared to put in the time and money required to attract and retain them.
“We are successfully matching high calibre people with forward-thinking, industry leading employers here. Like everywhere else, though, demand for the best workers and skill sets exceeds availability and, as we have done in other areas, we hope to boost employing companies by bridging that gap.”
Relay places permanent, temporary and part-time workers and also offers a full range of human resources services on an outsourced basis.
Relay York is at 116 Micklegate, (01904) 613213.
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