Tell us a bit about your background?
My background is in banking and finance. I spent 20 years at NatWest and HSBC, working in various roles from cashier right through to becoming a project manager. I left the industry in 2007 as it was a bit too corporate and stiff; I felt it hadn’t changed with the times. I eventually got a job for Capita, working from home and outsourcing work to their operations in India and Poland. I stayed in that job for 15 to 16 years, moving from a business analyst to project manager to account manager, working in Krakov for three years, travelling to India with work, both of which were incredible experiences.
I was made redundant from that role in 2017, so I moved back to the UK and worked for another part of Capita, in Remediation Services, dealing with PPI claims for high street banks, where I eventually stepped in as head of the recruitment team and was later offered the job. I loved it.
“What gets me out of bed in the morning is being able to have a direct impact on the day-to-day running of a business.”
What did you enjoy about recruitment?
It was completely different to what I was used to. I had a great, supportive team around me. It was difficult sometimes, but I genuinely loved the feeling of coming to work and getting people jobs. I enjoyed developing the team and seeing members of that team going on to do really exciting things was a great feeling for me. I think having the autonomy to build a team that we were all proud of was something I thrived on. I did that for five years, until the end of 2022.
When COVID-19 reared its head, my team was essentially disbanded and blended into existing operations. I was moved from my smaller team in remediation into wider group resourcing across the whole of Capita. Again, it began to feel a bit too corporate, and I lost that sense of autonomy. The office was closed for good, so we were asked to continue working from home even after the lockdown, and I began to realise that it just wasn’t working for me anymore.
How did the opportunity arise at Andy File Associates?
I kind of knew Andy already, in the sense that our kids went to the same rugby club and school together. He contacted me within 24 hours of my CV going online. We met up, had a few conversations and it grew from there. He explained how it would be a different working environment moving from direct recruitment to agency recruitment, but he offered me a role here managing the team and I accepted.
What does your day-to-day role look like?
As a recruitment manager, I sit between our MD and the rest of the team. Before I came in, Andy would have to deal with much more of the day-to-day internal operations, which took him away from the business development side of the company. Now I can look after the running of the team, making sure they have all the tools they need to do their job, checking all job adverts are posted and conform to our standards, and also looking at the data and overseeing the progress of job applications across the whole team. We do one-to-ones every fortnight with the staff, checking in on how they’re getting on and addressing any issues they may have. I also have my own recruitment desk to look after, so I’ll do some of the recruiting myself. That’s a small taster of job description!
“It was completely different to what I was used to. I had a great, supportive team around me. It was difficult sometimes, but I genuinely loved the feeling of coming to work and getting people jobs.”
What are the key challenges in the recruitment industry?
A key challenge is managing candidates. You can often be ghosted: they apply for jobs then disappear, or don’t turn up for interviews and you can’t get to the bottom of why. That can be difficult to deal with. There are more jobs out there than candidates. It’s a candidate market; they’ve got a greater choice of jobs and have a wider set of demands when it comes to the type of work culture they’re looking for, especially when it comes to things like working from home. So, there’s a challenging situation of clients needing to move with the times in certain aspects as well, but also trying to keep tabs on candidates themselves.
On the flipside, what motivates you to do this role?
I think, after working as a small cog in a big machine previously and being unable to see my contributions, I’ve joined a business where it’s very transparent and I feel trusted to do my job, which is very refreshing. What gets me out of bed in the morning is being able to have a direct impact on the day-to-day running of a business.
For the recruitment of permanent, temporary or contract staff contact Andy Files Associates on 01709 717841. Head to www.andyfileassociates.com for more information.
