Fresh thinking ensures national delivery success

Jun 17 2008 The Journal

A RECRUITMENT business headquartered in the North East with regional offices in Yorkshire and Scotland might not be the obvious choice for a national Government contract but Newcastle based NRG recently landed a slice of the biggest ever temporary recruitment contract to be let by the Home Office.

Recognising that there was no alternative to the one-size-fits-all approach of the national high-street recruitment brands, NRG set out to create a consortium of like-minded, high-quality recruitment businesses across the country capable of competing with the biggest national players.

The consortium, branded TOTALNRG, is one of only seven suppliers to be awarded framework supplier status for administrative and clerical temporary staffing to the Home Office.

NRG's managing director Therese Liddle believes the consortium is successful because it combines regional expertise with central control: "The model focuses on providing the very best local recruitment specialists, working with specific regional knowledge, backed up by central controls, processes, invoicing and management information.

Feedback from the tender process also highlighted the freshness of our thinking and the innovative nature of the consortium."

Just eight months into the four-year framework the consortium is supplying staff to HM Prison Service, the Crown Prosecution Service, HM Revenue & Customs, the UK Border Agency, the Home Office and the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).

Chief executive Lorna Moran said: "Winning through on this major contract is typical of our can-do culture.

We are constantly striving to find ways to do things differently and do them better.

We have reached the stage in our development where we must continue to punch above our weight and compete successfully alongside our biggest national and international competitors."

It is a strategy that appears to be paying off with the TOTALNRG model now attracting significant interest from the private sector, including a recentlyawarded contract from GE.

NRG offers total recruitment solutions through its Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) division.

RPO can benefit businesses in a number of ways, including cost reduction, improved diversity, shorter time to hire and improved retention.

While improving and streamlining processes, it allows clients to focus on their core business and can be turned off and on to cope with major changes in staffing requirements.

NRG has built an enviable reputation for exceeding client expectations, for delivering business-critical projects to very tight timescales, for multi-location high-volume recruitment and fully outsourced solutions.

Therese Liddle is very clear about the ingredients required to successfully manage recruitment on this scale.

"Our commitment to technology is essential – both for business efficiency and enhanced candidate experiences.

We are experts in all areas of the recruitment process, from attraction strategy to response management to application sift, from interviewing and assessment centre design to hands-on candidate care programmes."

NRG's RPO division delivers solutions to clients in the private and public sectors at both local and national levels. Since 2004, NRG has been working in partnership with npower in providing full end-to-end recruitment and selection services for its customer contact centres.

NRG provides npower with a dedicated account team that manages the process from initial application and works alongside the client right through to sign-off at the end of the 12-week induction period.

What began as a local service has now been rolled out nationally and NRG has placed in excess of 3,000 customer service advisers to date.

Julie Jaglowski, head of customer services at npower, said: "We have been delighted with our partnership with NRG.

They have played a key role in helping us undertake a major overhaul of our recruitment activity, leading to real business benefits."

Frequently, organisations turn to recruitment process outsourcing when they are undergoing significant brand and cultural change.

HM Revenue & Customs, Ofsted and British Airways all selected NRG as their recruitment process partner when faced with business-critical recruitment projects for multiple locations across the UK.

Because RPO has no geographic constraints it makes a significant contribution to the business strategy of developing through technology rather than bricks and mortar.

NRG continues to expand its RPO offering and is celebrating its most recent win.

Therese Liddle said "We are delighted to announce that we have been selected by DCSF (Department of Children, Schools and Families) to manage two outsourced recruitment projects for staff in London, Runcorn, Sheffield and Darlington."