Over the last few months the Job centre has come in for a considerable amount of criticism (me included!) in the way that they are not able to help the millions of job seekers that need real help.
So when I come across (and work) with a Job Centre that is proactive, responsive, helpful and extremely efficient, then it is worth shouting about!.
As you may know I am working with Primark,on a recruitment project. Their new store in Bristol (which successfully opened yesterday), was a project that started (from a recruitment perspective) back in May. As with all new stores we endeavor to build relationships and work closely with the appropriate local Job Centres. Bristol was no different.
What we found with Bristol Job Centre (the corporate team) was a team of people that not only knew the local market very well (that may sound surprising, but many don't), but also proactively worked with us to make sure we recruited the people that we needed. Again that may sound strange, but too often Job Centres "encourage" you to employ people you don't want, just to reduce their long term unemployed stats!
From day one, Andy Scull and his team, were superb and even actively assisted us and participated in the whole of the 10 day long recruitment event, showing genuine care and a real passion to help us be successful in our recruitment goal.
I met with Andy again at the store opening yesterday, and he was genuinely pleased that we had successfully recruited over 400 new staff from all backgrounds in the Bristol area.
I would like to hope Andy and his team are not a one off in the Job Centre network, but unfortunately in 20 years of working with them across the UK, I have not yet met anyone that has even come close.
So if your company is thinking of moving to Bristol or you are recruiting staff in Bristol, then make sure you contact Andy Scull - he really is worth working with.
If you know of any other equally efficient Job Centres, then please share the information in the comments below............I am not expecting it to be a long list....unfortunately!
