Neaves and Neat Employment Services writes:
G’s Group, based in Barway near Ely, was one of the national FMCG firms which joined the Pick for Britain campaign, calling for students, furloughed and unemployed people to fill fruit and vegetable picking jobs when lockdown restrictions prevented many of the usual European workforces from doing so.
Charlotte Downing, Head of Resourcing and Talent at G’s Fresh, recently joined Hayley on the East Anglia Business Webinar series to talk about high volume recruitment during the lockdown. During the episode, Downing highlighted strategies that she and the team embedded and we broke them down for you.
Better job adverts
With budgets being a big concern for businesses going into the second half of 2020, you need to think strategically about how you present jobs to potential candidates. Companies need to understand who they want to attract the job advert. A well put together job advert, which covers all of the essential qualities the candidate needs to possess to be successful is a great starting point.
Have a screening process
Currently, there are hundreds of applications to single vacancies. How can you reduce them down quickly but ensure you are capturing the right people in your search?
Downing explained that for their seasonal pickers they needed to find the right people for the job- and quickly.
They had thousands of applications and the way they managed to funnel these down was to ask screening questions. For example, it was also essential that the candidates were physically able to pick the fruit and vegetables, adapt to long working hours and flexible for evening and weekend work. The successful candidate also needed to be able to transport themselves to potential rural locations and unsociable hours. All of this information was broken down into screening questions to determine if the candidate would progress to the next stage of the process.
Communicate company culture
Candidates want to know what it is like to work for a company before they work for them.
Attracting candidates whose values and work styles align with those of your company will make your recruitment process smoother, as you won’t have to sift through candidate profiles that aren’t a match in any way. It also works the other way around. Candidates who don’t like what they see will deselect themselves from the selection process.
To ensure you’re getting candidates who fit in your company, showcase your company culture through as many channels as possible and communicate why you’re a great place to work.
Make your employer brand work for you
By Downing’s admission, G’s Fresh had a very limited employer presence in the market, this is despite employing thousands of people across East Anglia. So how do you build an employer brand presence to attract candidates in a short space of time?
The way Downing approached it was to focus on the product they were dealing with. Downing explained that if you were to buy iceberg lettuce in a supermarket, chances are it’s been grown by G’s Fresh.
Don’t forget about quality
Even if you need to hire a lot of people during your high-volume recruiting drive, you should never compromise on the quality of hire. Always keep an eye out for transferable skills such as active learning or communication skills, and don’t rule anyone out just because they don’t have your specific hard skills, those can always be taught.
Soft skills are as important and are harder to teach, and you’ll find that a lot of people simply don’t have them. You need to weigh up whether a specific skill is potentially more or less important than effective communication or timekeeping.
To find out more about G’s Fresh and their high-volume recruitment campaign, watch the latest episode of the East Anglia Business Webinar