The Recruitment and Induction Process - Aston Business School

PLACEMENT REPORT
First name: Neha
Surname: Shah
Degree: Business and Management
Employer: Hays Specialist Recruitment
Job Title: Resourcing Consultant
Department/Functional Area: Hays Resource Management
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Organisational Background
Hays’ Mission:
“To be the best specialist recruitment consultancy in the world.”
Hays Specialist Recruitment Ltd is the largest and most profitable recruitment company in the UK. Hays
currently has 5800 employees and 769 business units operating in 22 countries including, France, Poland,
Australia and Canada.
Hays Specialist Recruitment derives its name from the way in which the company has historically developed
itself. It has a total of 24 divisions, with 17 in the UK, and each of these provide specific services for specialist
divisions. For example, Hays Construction and Property and Hays Accountancy and Finance are the largest
divisions within Hays.
Hays provide their clients with high calibre staff on a permanent or temporary basis, ensuring that their
clients’ recruitment needs are met. Recruitment consultants working within hays liaise with applicants and
clients on a daily basis assisting them to find a suitable job and ensuring clients find the right staff.
During my placement, I worked for the Hays Resource Management division. Hays Resource Management is the
managed service division of Hays Specialist Recruitment, focussing on increasing supply opportunities for
Hays. Hays Resource Management currently holds 28 managed service contracts with clients such as:
JPMorgan, Barclays and Leeds City Council. Hays Resource Management provide recruitment process
outsourcing and HR services to clients so that clients can attract and retain best talent, adapt to changing
market conditions and save time and money.
During my placement, I worked at Haringey Resource Centre, recruiting temporary workers purely for the
London borough of Haringey.
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Employment Experience
I was a Resourcing Consultant at Hays and I was treated the same as other permanent employees of the
company. The Resourcing Consultants role can be split into two main areas of responsibility:
• Job Filling and client Management
• Aftercare service and resolving service associated issues
Job Filling and Client Management
A Resourcing Consultant’s main role is to liaise with both suppliers (Hays brands and external employment
agencies) and the client (managers from Haringey Council). Each consultant is required to take job and person
specifications from the client and place adverts. These vacancies are later distributed to other Hays brands
and external employment agencies. Once a consultant has received many candidates for a job, they are
required to shortlist appropriate candidates and facilitate the line manager to select candidates for interview.
Consultants are also responsible for arranging and organising interviews by liaising with line managers and
suppliers (employment agencies).
Once interviews have taken place, consultants must provide feedback to suppliers who are expected to pass
this information on to candidates. Once managers have decided to offer a candidate, consultants are
expected to send out offers to the agency and provide information about start dates, pay, and so on. This is
later communicated to the successful candidate.
Aftercare Service and Resolving Service Associated Issues
Once a consultant has placed a temporary worker, they must conduct starter checks to ensure that all
workers have started work. Furthermore, consultants must provide aftercare service to the client and the
worker, by calling them to ensure that managers are happy with their workers. This is essential as it gives an
opportunity to develop repeat business with the client.
In addition to recording and managing all recruitment activity, a Resourcing Consultant must also provide
solutions to workers’ queries. For example solving queries about workers unable to upload timesheets.
Consultants must also solve manager’s queries for example, extending workers’ contracts, setting up overtime
timesheets and facilitating pay rises.
As I was a Resourcing Consultant, I had to take part in the above and I had to report to the Account Manager.
Consultants within my team had their own specific job roles and areas to look after. All together, there were
three main areas:
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• CARE – social care workers, crèche workers, domestic workers
• PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL – Lawyers, Personal Assistants, HR officers, IT Consultants
• GENERAL – kitchen assistants, cleaners, parking attendants, administrators
I was responsible for recruiting for the General area, specifically administrator roles. This meant I recruited
for administrative officers, receptionists, customer service officers, data entry officers and admin/finance
officers. I had to ensure that vacancies were distributed to suppliers, interviews were arranged and feedback
and advice was provided to both the client and suppliers.
On many occasions, I was also required to attend client meetings to discuss Service Level Agreements and to
investigate any issues that clients experienced with our service. This meant that I was required to develop
action points and derive solutions to client issues.
I was also required to meet key performance indicators. These were conducting starter checks, aftercare
calls, and filling jobs with Hays brands. As we had no impact on how many vacancies we receive, KPI’s did not
depend on how many jobs we filled, but on how many we filled via Hays brands.
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The Recruitment Process
As Hays is one of the largest recruitment companies in the UK the recruitment and induction process was
thorough. The process was as follows:
1. CV and Covering letter
2. Telephone Interview
3. Assessment Centre
4. Interview
5. Second Interview
The first stage of the process was to email my CV and covering letter to them, explaining why the role would
suit me. The next stage was a telephone interview, which lasted about 5 minutes, and involved questions like:
What do you think a recruitment consultant’s job entails? and What do you know about Hays? It also included
some competency-based questions. The interviewer was looking for confident responses and a good phone
manner.
Successful candidates were then invited to an assessment centre, which consisted of three exercises. After a
brief introduction to the company, the first exercise was a group business simulation exercise where
candidates were asked to complete a presentation on the launch of a new sandwich shop. We were required
to present a business plan to the assessor, which included a business name, target market and location. The
purpose of this exercise was to assess candidates’ persuasive and presentation skills. The second exercise was
to produce a job advert in order to attract candidates. This task tested written communication and
presentation skills, ideal attributes that a consultant must possess. The final exercise was based on a roleplay
where we were given a CV and a job description and had to ‘sell’ the applicant to the client (the
assessor). This task examined one’s ability to promote an applicant to the assessor and deal with any queries
or issues on the spot, something that a consultant is required to do on a daily basis.
Candidates were later notified whether or not they had been selected for interview. The first interview was
formal and contained competency based questions, which tested teamwork, organisation, persuasive, and
communication skills. For example, I was asked: Tell me a time when you had to give negative feedback to a
customer.
The final stage of the process was a second interview where candidates had the opportunity to ask any final
questions and learn more about the company. The interview is usually informal and the candidate may be
asked to participate in an in tray exercise. Candidates are notified by telephone whether they have been
successful or not. Successful candidates are made an offer of employment.
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The Induction Process
On my first day, my manager showed me to my desk and introduced me to the team. After doing so, I had to
conduct some online training using the Hays online training tool. This tool was very informative as it helped
explain Hays’ key objectives and the different divisions that operate within Hays. Furthermore, it clarified
how recruitment consultants work and what tasks they have to undertake on a day-to-day basis. In addition, it
also described the main process of recruiting a candidate right from the first stage of drawing up a job advert
from a vacancy, to providing the candidate with service once they have filled the vacancy. The online training
took about two hours. For the rest of my first day I was asked to sit next to a consultant while she explained
how the Hays Workflow system worked and what tasks she had to deal with on a daily basis.
I was given On The Job training for the rest of the week and had to closely watch other consultants deal with
clients/line managers and suppliers on the telephone. Once I felt confident to deal with clients on the
telephone, I was asked to take a few calls myself. This was nerve wracking at first, but I later got the hang of
things and was soon able to liaise with clients in a comfortable and professional manner.
I was told how to search for jobs and candidates on the company system and was told how to change data on
the system. As the system was quite complicated, I made sure I wrote down the steps of how to carry out
certain actions.
I was also required to attend two days of formal training, which took place outside my place of work. The first
day was an Introduction to Hays Resource Management foundation training and the second day was the
Workflow (in house system) training. During the first training session, I learnt about the organisation’s
structure, performance management and employment legislation. I was required to learn about the structure
and performance management because it helped me to understand how the organisation works and how
performance is monitored and improved. I was also required to learn about employment legislation, as this is
a crucial aspect associated with recruitment. During the second training session, I learned how to monitor and
conduct all recruitment activity using Hays Workflow.
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Advice For Future Students
Working for Hays is an excellent opportunity for a placement student. Hays offer specialist training and
provide a great deal of responsibility to students, treating them like permanent members of the organisation
and hence giving them the opportunity to gain experience in recruitment by enabling them to run their own
desks.
A Resourcing consultant’s job requires fulfilling targets and filling jobs in a short amount of time. This can be
stressful and demanding but can also be very rewarding. Furthermore, it can build your confidence and
enhance both time management and communication skills.
However, Hays simply do not find people jobs, they operate in a competitive market and are financially
driven. Many students mistake Recruitment/Resourcing consultants as a HR related job. In fact, it is primarily
sales driven and therefore very different to HR. Consultants at Hays also work long hours e.g. 8.30am to
6.00pm therefore I would advise placement students to be prepared to work long hours and find
accommodation close to work.
Hays have a number of offices located nationwide so you are likely to find work in an office local to home or
Aston University. Hays however, do not provide anything towards living costs but they do offer an interest
free loan for transport.
Before attending interviews, I would suggest researching Hays and the recruitment sector, as knowledge
about this is likely to impress interviewers and show them how keen you are.
I would also recommend placement students to go out on social events as it can allow you to get to know your
team better.
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