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Providing the best of both worlds

MARKING ten years at the helm of Select Appointments in Northampton, Eileen Pacey looks back with pride on the way the team has turned the businesses into a thriving, successful recruitment service.

Benefiting in part from being part of a major national network, and in part from in-depth local knowledge, Select Appointments has built an excellent reputation for providing mainly office workers on a temporary and permanent basis.

The economic situation has varied massively in those ten years, but Select Appointments has been flexible in the way it approaches finding both vacancies and candidates to fill the needs of local businesses large and small.

“The franchise became available at a time when I had been seconded to an office in Amsterdam and I was keen to get back to normal home life, so the franchise opportunity suited me perfectly,” said Eileen, who runs the Burlington House office with husband and Finance Director David Pacey and Senior Recruitment Consultant Ashley Dowsett.

“We decided then to concentrate on the core area, staying within the county rather than trying to go further afield, and on the core sector, which is the office market – so administration, clerical staff, sales and accounts – and that has paid dividends.”

Changing times mean adapting to the changing needs of businesses and Select Appointments have been successful in doing that. Difficult economic times often see businesses unable to call on temporary staff they way they may have done in the past, while changing business practices mean that short-term holiday cover for a receptionist or PA is not as important as it once was. Similarly, the current, more optimistic climate means that temporary roles are more plentiful as companies feel confident enough to start building their business again but are not quite ready to begin employing new full-time staff.

“It’s much easier to manage without a person for a couple of weeks now compared to a few years ago when we weren’t using the technology we have now,” said Eileen. “So it has been our job to learn what our clients’ needs are and respond to that by having the candidates available to meet those needs.

“Similarly, different sectors have different peak times and quieter times and we are always ready to work with them when they need extra people.”

The Select Appointments approach is to work hard to understand how clients’ businesses operate so that they can help identify what skills are needed to fill a vacancy, and also to understand the type of person that might be the right fit for the set-up. Getting to know candidates through interviews and meetings helps to ensure the right “chemistry’ as well as gaining an understanding of their skills, aptitudes and strengths.

“In the office environment, personality counts for a lot and if you put someone into a situation where they aren’t going to get on with their colleagues, you create problems,” said Eileen. “Rather than just filling a post because someone has all the right qualifications, we also try to make sure our clients end up with someone who can become part of a team that can work well together. Unfortunately, if someone joins a team and doesn’t fit in, an employer might find themselves losing good staff because they are unhappy before they actually realise what the root cause of the problem is.

“Our aim is to provide the best possible service to employers and job seekers. We’re a small business ourselves, with offices in Northampton, but we also have the back-up that comes with being part of a national organisation, so we are perfectly placed to work with everyone from sole traders to large corporates.”

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