From LGV Drivers to Executive Search: The Journey in Recruitment
After concluding my initial career, I was searching for a new business venture. That's when I identified a significant shortage of LGV drivers in the UK. With nearly a decade of experience working in Germany and fluency in the language, I noticed the high unemployment rate there. The solution seemed clear.
Equipped with specialized training from the Recruitment Employment Confederation, delivered by Romney Rawes, I established EU Recruitment Link. Our mission was straightforward yet ambitious: to bridge the gap between the UK's demand for LGV drivers and Germany's available workforce.
Numerous trips to Germany ensued, some in collaboration with the European job centre. LGV drivers were our inaugural recruits, but we soon broadened our scope to the hospitality and industrial sectors, sourcing talent from across Europe. This successful expansion led to EU Recruitment Link receiving the Recruitment Employment Confederation's Industrial Worker of the Year award in 2007. The award ceremony, held in the House of Commons dining room, was a day of celebration and achievement.
Fast forward almost 20 years, and we've transformed into Focus Point Consulting, a premier executive search firm specialising in construction engineering design consultancies, in-house design teams, and construction management consultancies in the UK and overseas. Our journey has been marked by growth, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to fulfilling the recruitment needs of our clients.
“MARTIN CROWNED THE UK’S TOP TEMPORARY WORKER
Martin has won the Agency Industrial Worker category in the One in a Million Award, the highlight of National Temporary Workers Week, which is being staged from June 4-8. The week is organised by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the trade association for the UK’s £24.8 billion private recruitment and staffing industry.
Martin from Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire, and the other 13 category winners will all be attending a House of Commons reception on June 6 where the overall winner will be announced and presented with their prestigious award.
Nominated by EU Recruitment Link Ltd of Fornham All Saints, Bury St Edmunds, Martin was offered a job as a warehouseman by Land of Leather plc after responding to an online advertisement posted by the agency’s business associate in his native Slovakia. The agency was particularly impressed with his command of three languages.
Taking the job he thought would help him improve his language skills further, as well as enabling him to start a better life - and also lose some weight!
Arriving in the UK, he was one of a contingent of 20 Slovak workers who were assigned to the company’s new warehouse in Welham Green near Hatfield. In addition to being warehouseman, he also became both spokesman and foreman for the group, acting as central point of contact for them.
His leadership qualities soon emerged when he successfully organised the men into groups after the agency decided to offer them language training. He even took it upon himself to have a quiet word with those perceived to be not working up to standard.
Then last December, the warehouse manager offered Martin the position of line manager with the company saying he was “a good man who will do well”. Martin’s life is about to get even better as he and his wife are now expecting their first child.
National Temporary Workers Week celebrates the contribution the UK’s 1.2 million strong temporary workforce makes to the economy and in keeping business on the move. It also highlights how working in a temporary, contract or interim suits increasing numbers of people in allowing them flexibility to work to suit their busy lifestyles.
Marcia Roberts, the REC’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “We never cease to be amazed and inspired by our One in a Million winners and their dedication to the work assignments they undertake. Martin’s achievements have been laudable since he arrived in the UK. He came here with some specific objectives in mind, which he has met much to the delight of both his agency and his employers.”
For more information about the One in a Million Award and National Temporary Workers Week, visit the website, www.tempweek.uk.com.
For more information, call Alison Henderson, Press Manager, the REC, 020 7009 2157.”