Confidence coming back, says recruitment agency

Jun 30 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

A RECRUITMENT company says it has won contracts worth about £10m to fill hundreds of jobs in the next few years.

Middlesbrough’s Jo Hand Recruitment, which also has a Darlington office, has secured six major supply contracts in less than two months and has taken on three extra staff to cope with its growing workload.

Two of the contracts are with Darlington and Stockton borough councils and the others with large companies in the Tees Valley.

The contracts will run for two to six years and involve hundreds of jobs.

The contracts are potentially worth about £10m in sales to the recruitment company over the full period of the deals.

Founder Jo Hand said: “It is the surest sign yet that employers can see past the economic downturn; and, while some are reluctant to commit to permanent new staff, they are making the necessary preparations to take advantage of improved trading conditions.”

The firm recruits temporary and permanent office staff as well as cleaners and catering workers for schools.

Launched in 2006, the business turned over £1m in its second year and has built up a client base of more than 150.

Ms Hand, who was a regional manager with Manpower UK before launching her own business, said: “Recruitment is a very good indicator of employer confidence.

“What is most pleasing is that the new contracts have been shared between our two offices, due to their locations marrying up with our customers’ locations, but also indicating a general mood that better times are on the horizon. Rather than shrinking back in the face of the recession, our strategic plan was to triple our marketing activities, relationship management and our face to face sales and canvassing activities as well as our networking during the past 18 months.”

“Having worked in the business through the last recession, I knew this was a tried and tested approach that guarantees survival in business. We’ve kept in regular contact with all existing and prospective customers and have worked hard to stand out from the crowd.

“We are now seeing permanent placements come in once again as the temporary business continues to increase sharply and currently have more permanent vacancies to work on in June than we have seen in the past year, which is a really positive sign for not just us but the local economy.”