An evolving business

Nikki Wheeler, HR Manager is responsible for hiring staff for the business and was finding talented staff to work for L & S Waste hard to come by.

The criteria required for such diverse roles needed to be a cut above the rest…

“We have a number of quite niche roles that are particularly difficult to find quality candidates for” Nikki explained.

L & S Waste have continually expanded and developed their business over the years diversifying to meet the expanding needs of their customers and as such they have had to demand more from their candidates.

“It’s trying to find the right candidate to fit the role, because certain roles have evolved over the years. For example, what would initially have been a basic admin role - answering the phone, taking orders, etc has now become much broader, more of a sales advisor role and has been rebranded as such”

A new approach to recruitment

L & S Waste were advertising their vacancies on the company website but were not having the uptake they needed and with Nikki in charge of the whole recruitment process she needed some assistance finding quality candidates.

Her experience of recruitment agencies hadn’t always been positive…

“A lot of agencies promise they’re going to deliver but they never do, and some are just too pushy.”

But in 2015 she got in touch with Workshop Recruitment and they have been supplying her with candidates ever since.  It’s a relationship that she simply says “just works”

What initially impressed her was the teams’ willingness to listen to her requirements, understand the business both in terms of what was required from a skillset perspective but also candidate fit with the company ethos and this was reflected in the candidates that were sent through to her.

“Workshop have been so good at finding the right candidates with the right skill set and also culture fit as well. Over the years they have sent me some excellent candidates and therefore it makes sense to go to Workshop Recruitment for any vacancies that we have, knowing that they are going to be able to fill them for us.”

Filling challenging roles time and again

Nikki explained that their workers don’t always have smooth days and they need people who can respond under pressure when things go wrong…

“You might have a vehicle breakdown and all the implications of that to deal with. It’s not like we’re delivering goods from A to B. We have customers ring up during the day with specific requests that need immediate action. There’s a lot of juggling that goes on within the traffic officers’ roles and we do understand that those roles in particular are very difficult to fill.”

She notes that Workshop Recruitments’ recruitment consultant Kerry Carter has been instrumental in finding such candidates and notes that she is never one to shy away from a challenge!

Nikki is so happy with the service from Workshop Recruitment, it’s her number one choice for finding the right candidates…

“I have no worries or qualms about giving Workshop all our vacancies.  They have completely nailed the process, it works perfectly, and I don’t need to go anywhere else.”

An enduring relationship

The relationship between her and Peter and Kerry of Workshop Recruitment has been so successful, she notes.

“It’s a genuine agency, you almost forget that it’s a business. They act as an extension of my team. When Kerry sends candidates to me, she’s completely honest about them. She wants to do the very best for us. It’s just pitched at the right level, all the way through.”

Nikki knows that instead of just sending over random CVs and hoping one of them sticks, Workshop always puts the time in to fully understand the needs of L & S Waste…

“I always know that the people that are being sent across are genuinely interested in the vacancies and I know that they wouldn’t send somebody who wasn’t going to be a potential employee.”

It’s a relationship that has evolved over the years and Nikki sees it continuing in that way for the foreseeable future.