The challenge
Ball & Berry is a leading corporate inspection company that carries out approved inspections in England and Wales. Reed has successfully provided the firm with professionals who support the firm’s senior colleagues and clients with any administration needs for over four years.
Karen Simons, Administration and Finance Director at Ball & Berry, has worked closely with Victoria O’Connor, Regional Director and business support specialist at Reed, for many years. The relationship began after Karen had unsuccessfully worked with other recruitment firms: “I have previously used other agencies but have found Victoria more friendly, easy to talk to and accessible – she knows who will fit nicely into our team”, Karen said.
However, with the client needing to fill this role quickly and with a high-quality candidate, Victoria had to account for the state of the current talent pool.
Victoria noted: “The candidate market at the moment has a real lack of talent, with wages for the most skilled professionals being pushed up dramatically.”
The candidates Reed found have all performed excellently. Victoria knows the type of candidates we have placed previously, and she has matched the fit perfectly.
Administration and Finance Director at Ball & Berry
The solution
Victoria began by working with Ball & Berry to produce the perfect job specification. Once written, she promptly advertised the role as widely as possible, while also thoroughly searching Reed’s database and contact professionals who met the role’s criteria.
Victoria thoroughly screened all potential candidates whose skills matched the job description, while keeping Karen up to date during the whole process, addressing and advising on any issues that arose.
Once Karen received the candidates’ CVs to review, interviews were arranged within the week.
The results
“I was honest from the off with regards to the lack of candidates in the local area,” Victoria said. “But they had four top-quality CVs within 48 hours of the vacancy going live. Karen was very happy with the speed and the calibre.”
From the four candidates that were presented to our client, Karen decided to employ two of them, even though only one vacancy was live at the time, as she was impressed with their level of talent.
“The candidates Reed found have all performed excellently,” Karen revealed. “Victoria knows the type of candidates we have placed previously, and she has matched the fit perfectly”.
Likewise, one of the successful candidates, Senior Administrator Jenny Hodgson, said: “Victoria stayed in contact during my four weeks’ notice and contacted me on my first day in the role to see how I was.
“In the past other agencies contacted me, but I never heard anything back, but Victoria kept her promises”.
