Category Archives: Recruitment

Driving Through The Rain.

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Friday 21st September was Wallace Hind’s 16th Annual Golf Day, held at the lovely Thorney Lakes Golf Club in Peterborough.

 

It normally never rains in Thorney for the Golf day, however, it certainly did! In fact, it poured. Waterproofs went on and umbrellas went up. The drops falling out of the sky showed no sign of easing, but we all soldiered on nonetheless, in true British style.

 

The perseverance of our clients and staff made us very proud indeed: socks were dampened but spirits were not. The effort was not without fruition either - we managed to raise over £600 for the Mouth Cancer Foundation.

 

The bad weather did not seem to affect the golf. RR Donnelly did a trophy sweep, taking the title of Team Winners as well as both first and second place for the Individual Winners. Richard Adams flew the flag for Wallace Hind, whilst Julie White of Wyboston Lakes scored one for the ladies, by claiming the award for Longest Drive.

 

The new Yellow Ball competition brought much entertainment. Each team was given a yellow ball to hit round all 18 holes, but only four made it back to the club house. The winning ball came to glory with 36 Stableford Points.

 

As the day’s golfing came to an end, everyone made their way back to the club house to warm up and have a much deserved drink or two. A plate of steaming hot bangers and mash was served as the perfect reward for everyone’s perseverance and stories of the day’s events were soon being regaled.

 

It comes as no surprise however, that we are considering moving next year’s Golf Day to the summer months. Keep your eyes and ears open for the announcement for next year’s date!

 

Check our Facebook Page to see the photos of everyone in action.

Why it pays to know your competitors like the back of your hand

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With the Ryder Cup underway at the end of the month, what can we learn from the bi-annual golf competition?

 

The Ryder Cup is all about pitching the right pair to beat the opposing team. Put that into the context of business, it’s essential to understand the competition. Very few companies have no competitors, whether direct or indirect there’s always someone vying for the same customers.

 

Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses is just as important as knowing that of your competitors and can be the difference between winning business and losing out. Wallace Hind show you exactly what you need to know about your competitors and why.

 

Products & Services

For you to establish yourself as a market leader, you need to respect your competition and know what they are doing. Identify your competitor’s unique selling point(s) and pinpoint where your service is superior or on the other hand, what you need to do better to keep ahead of them.

 

What do you offer that’s better than theirs and why is it? Do you win on the range of products or RRP? Are you too high or low on price? If some of the information isn’t readily available to you, call up their office and pretend to be a customer looking for quotes.

 

The more you know, the better positioned you are to recognise how your company is unique, to spot opportunities for growth and identify areas for development.

 

Online presence

A company’s online presence includes everything from their website to social media accounts. It will inform you of their customers, promotional activity, what keywords they’re dominating the search engines, plus who they’re connected with locally.

 

Sign up to their newsletters and add yourself to their email database to be in the loop with everything new. Go onto their website and see how it compares to yours in appearance and brand image. Is there a lot of technical product information on their website? If theirs has been recently updated leaving yours to pale in comparison, you might want to put that as a short-term priority for business.

 

Social media is then the next place to visit. Check out their followers and what their activity is like. Are they popular? Have they built an online community? Does their Twitter double up as a customer service base? Are they on LinkedIn but don’t have a Company page? What are they doing that you should be?

 

Customer Service

Maintaining customer loyalty is difficult in a market with so many options. You can be certain that if one company isn’t serving their customers right, those customers will move their custom elsewhere – possibly even to you.

 

It’s advantageous for you to establish your competitor’s target market and their current customer base. This leaves you in a position to tweak your products or services to appeal to a new market segment but also aim to beat them on the level of service.

 

Are they offering enough payment options? Do they provide a way for customers to leave feedback or reviews? Is their service prompt and efficient? Are you considering linking your product pages with social networks so customers can share content?

 

Future plans

Slightly more tricky than the rest, but to really come up trumps you must continually look at developing the service you offer, staying ahead of the market.

 

Future events, collaborations and news releases provide valuable insight into where they’re heading, the kind of connections they have now and which circles they’re aiming for. Anticipate their next move and be aware of what new products or services they’re developing and their resources.

 

Scrutinising your competitors is crucial to progression in business so look at them first before highlighting opportunities for yourself.

 

Wallace Hind Selection goes above and beyond to tailor the right candidates for their clients, ensuring they stand above others. To benefit from our specialist recruitment services please visit our website to find out more and contact us today.

 

 

4 Top Tips for getting Headhunted!

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Headhunting is an important part of a recruiter’s arsenal. Successful businesses want to attract top talent from within their market place.

Being able to appeal to the right company is essential; getting noticed in the first place is a key role in giving you every opportunity to know what is out there.

Moving jobs is a stressful experience, new colleagues, new systems, and new pressures. A new move should never be taken lightly or taken just because it’s more money. However, if you can’t be found you are never going to have that option.

At Wallace Hind, we have put together 4 top tips and advice on how to get noticed.

NETWORKING

Building your network of contacts is key; the more people that know you and what you do, the higher the chance a headhunter will get to hear about you.

Nonetheless, quality over quantity plays an important role in this; networking is not about knowing as many people as possible, but getting to know the right people. Seminars, exhibitions, social and business media, conferences & industry events are great places to make new contacts. Taking part and having an opinion (as long as it’s worthy and insightful) can go a long way towards enhancing your reputation.

BE VISIBLE – Online

LinkedIn is an amazing tool.

Having a detailed profile about who you are, what motivates you and how good you are at what you do is vital. Joining industry relevant groups, commenting on articles, giving and receiving recommendations (both colleagues and clients) are great ways of raising your profile. As Head hunters having a candidate’s history, activity and recommendations available are fantastic tools in highlighting those individuals who are a step above.

CVs

A well written CV is an important way to sell yourself. It is important to ensure that it is up-to-date and relevant.  Head hunters want to know what you do, how you do it and how good you are. Breaking each job down into responsibilities and achievements (target vs actual, performance against peers, incentives/awards won) is certainly worth including.

BE OPEN TO THE CALL

It is a misconception that every headhunt call is because you have been recommended; this is often not the case. A researcher will build a target list of individuals at specifically businesses and all a head hunter may know is your name, employer and number. As long as they are professional in their approach, be open and listen to what they have to say, this role may not to right but you never know when you might want to call them. A

DON’T WAIT FOR A CALL TO COME, ACTIVELY IMPROVE YOUR CHANCE OF GETTING ONE.

To find out more of how we can help please visit our website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Wallace Hind celebrate their new partnership with PPMA

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Here at Wallace Hind we always aim to stay at the top of our game and boost our repertoire by working with great clients across all industries. We’re now very pleased to announce that Wallace Hind has become the exclusive recruitment partner to the PPMA (Processing & Packaging Machinery Association).

Representing over 400 members and associate companies, PPMA are the UK’s trade association for suppliers of processing and packaging machinery. Their principle objective is to promote the sales of machinery, both here in the UK and abroad by providing free technical and machinery information and advice.

Extremely positive about the future of this arrangement, Mike Horsely, the Managing Director of Wallace Hind, says:

“This is the result of 16 years of work building and maintaining a reputation in this niche market for high quality, ethical and value for money recruitment”, that helped create this partnership opportunity.”

With international status, PPMA also have an established office in the heart of the Chinese industrial trade – Shanghai. In a bid to assist British companies branch out to the Chinese market their ‘Chinese Dragon Service’ enables companies of any size totackle what is a challenging prospect.

Wallace Hind would like to thank PPMA and very much look forward to working with them.

For more information on PPMA please visit their website www.ppma.co.uk

 

Some great feedback for Wallace Hind….

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At Wallace Hind we specialise in placing the right people in the right jobs, helping the employee find a place where they can grow and progress, whilst giving the employer an asset that can help grow their business.

It’s always nice to receive some positive feedback, and we’ve got some great feedback from Matt Irish, who we have worked with in the past and is now the Sales Director of Objectif Lune UK and Nordics.

Matt was responding to the news of our 20th Anniversary celebrations, as April marked two decades of Wallace Hind. He said:

“When we first spoke I was a untried, untested young pup who was looking for his first sales role. You took a punt on me to which I have always been thankful.

Subsequently over the years, your company has helped either in my career or helped me build a team that has made me a successful person and for that reason you and Wallace Hind always hold a very special part of the path that I find myself.

In all honesty, if you had not taken that punt many, many years ago who knows where I would be now, certainly not in the place I find myself now and certainly not as successful.

So, thank you. I raise a glass to your anniversary and look forward to many, many more Wallace Hind moments in my career.”

To see what we can do for you, visit the Wallace Hind website and Like us on Facebook to see all of our latest roles.

Wallace Hind get behind MacMillan in Golf Challenge fundraiser

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Today sees the Wallace Hind boys compete in the Longest Day Golf Challenge for Macmillan Cancer Support, our supermen Matt, Richard and Paul have all put in the hours training and are raring to go, at this time they have raised almost £900 and looking to exceed the £1000 mark once all the donations are in.

The all-day fundraiser taking place on Monday 2nd July at Collingtree Park Golf Club will be no easy task as the boys caddy up to play four grueling rounds of golf in one day. They will walk the entire 24 miles, carrying their clubs and playing 72 holes in total. First tee off is at 4.20am, but the team show no fear and can’t wait to get started.

Unfortunately everyone at some point in their life will be touched by cancer, whether that is someone you know, work with or possibly yourself. Macmillan play an incredible role in supporting all those affected and we wanted to do our bit.

A huge passion for all of us is golf, the Macmillan longest day challenge allows us to enjoy our passion whilst making a difference and raising some invaluable funds.

Macmillan Cancer Support provide essential medical, practical, emotional and financial support to those one in three affected by cancer in the UK each year. 96% of the charity’s income comes from donations and in 2011 the Longest Day Golf Challenge raised an astonishing £395,000 to help towards their services.

It doesn’t take very much to help, just £25 could pay for a Macmillan nurse for an hour; £50 could fund 106 copies of The Cancer Guide, while £900 could pay for a Macmillan social worker or family support worker for a week.

We will be posting pictures of the day itself so you can stay updated with our progress. To pledge your support please visit our sponsorship page and we hope to see you there.

At Wallace Hind we also celebrated our 20th anniversary recently with our friends and colleagues at Towcester Races. To see what we got up to on the day make sure you like us on Facebook and follow Wallace Hind on Twitter.

Celebrating 20 years of Wallace Hind at Towcester Races

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At Wallace Hind we recently reached our 20 year anniversary and the celebrations have only just begun.

We have invited all staff and partners to toast two decades of Wallace Hind at Towcester Races on Monday 4th June.

The day begins at Duston in the garden marquee where everyone can enjoy some champagne and cocktails. Then we will set out towards Northamptonshire’s famous Towcester Racecourse.

Lunch will be served along with the all day complimentary bar and private tote. When the racing comes to a close we will make our way back to the Wallace Hind offices and a BBQ and drinks will be served all evening.

Wallace Hind was born on April 6th 1992 when the three founding partners, Mike Horsley, John Gowen & Gerry Bell decided to set up their own business.

In the last twenty years, we have blossomed into the number one sales recruitment company in Northampton, thriving through the tough economy of recent years. We’ve been working with clients around the world, from France and Germany to South Africa, and have transformed into a successful company.

In addition to the celebrations at Towcester Races next week, Wallace Hind are taking part in a charity golf tournament on 2 July, where members of our team will take on the MacMillan Golf challenge of completing 72 holes in one outing.

Last year the charity event raised in excess of £395,000 to help people affected by cancer in the UK. We will be setting up a page in the next few weeks where you can generously contribute towards our Golf Challenge Donations.

For all our latest news and events, as well as the latest recruitment news for the UK and abroad, make sure you Like Wallace Hind on Facebook.

New study finds more UK companies are hiring than firing

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More UK companies are planning to hire than fire this year, according to a new report.

The Labour Market outlook, which was conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), found that less employers are making staff redundant and are instead focusing on hiring new staff.

The report, which is produced in association with YouGov, found that the jobs market is embarking on positive territory for the first time in over a year.

The difference between the number of employers intending to increase and decrease staffing levels stood at +6 for Spring 2012, which was up from -8 for the first few months of the year.

With redundancy projections down for the summer down from 37% to 32%, this research marks a piece of great news for the jobs market.

With the office of National Statistics (ons) set to release their latest round of figures this week, it’s going to be an interesting time for the recruitment sector, with the hope that these figures can continue to improve.

The last set of ONS figures showed that unemployment had dropped by 35,000 over the last few months to 2.65 million, with youth unemployment slightly down to 1.03 million.

The CIPD’s Gerwyn Davies has commented on the new research, saying:

“The jobs market is desperately seeking good news, so this latest set of positive figures is very welcome.”

And it is. With the UK back in another recession, any good employment news is good news. What do you think? Let us know your thoughts below or on the Wallace Hind Facebook page.

 

20 Years Young: Wallace Hind Celebrate their 20th Anniversary!

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Wallace Hind began life on April 6th 1992 when the 3 founding partners, Mike Horsley, John Gowen & Gerry Bell decided to set up their own business with the support of a business angel called Alan Hind.

As you can see in the pictures they’re holding, back then they had a little more hair!

Starting off in rented office space at a converted manor house in the village of Moulton they quickly established themselves as the `go to` company for sales recruitment in Northampton.

Having added current partners Tracey FitzGerald & Rod Plowe to the team they moved to new rented offices on Moulton Park in 1994 but rapid growth in turnover and the addition of three more consultants and an administrator forced them to look around for new premises less than 2 years later.

In 1996 they found an ideal base which would allow for future growth which was the Old Vicarage in Duston. They decided to buy the property rather than rent and extensively renovated the inside of the 18th century listed building.

Recruiting more consultants they added marketing to sales as a specialism and continued to flourish hitting £1million turnover for the first time in 1999.

In 2006 the company decided to change the way it worked moving to a retained business model and recruiting outside of sales and marketing. This change added to a new management structure allowed the company to achieve £1.5 million turnover in 2008.

This turnover has been maintained since despite the credit crunch and the company is now set to achieve its long term target of £2 million turnover in the next 2 years.

As it stands Wallace Hind now employs 18 consultants including the 3 original partners (who all still actively recruit) and in its 20 years has produced turnover in excess of £20 million, placing over 4000 candidates at all levels from junior executive to the board room in sales, marketing & non sales roles.

They are able to offer a UK wide & international full recruitment service to FTSE 100 companies and SME`s alike. (In the last 12 months they have successfully worked in France, Germany, Holland, The Middle East & South Africa)

Their strap line is “where experience matters” and in addition to the three founding partners seven of their consultants have become full partners or associate partners.

In total they have in excess of 200 years of accumulated recruitment expertise; hence they really live by their motto ‘where experience matters…’

Check out our Facebook timeline where you can trace back through the company history and see all key milestones and events; or just wish us a happy birthday! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wallace-Hind-Selection-LLP/172866596152517

Who are your Heroes?

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Before an appointment last week I had something of a lightbulb moment…

…We often ask people, or you may get asked, ‘what motivates you?’ in an interview. I thought about how I personally would answer that question and what it was really asking me…?

Sure, the same old response popped into my head; money, nice car, holiday in the Algarve, golf membership…

Later on I found myself thinking about it over my coffee, in the car, and then mowing the lawn. If I understand better what motivates me then surely I will get the best out of myself; and that can only be a good thing. Furthermore, I wanted an answer that would differentiate me from the standard response, should I ever find myself on the other side of the interviewing table.

Now I am not going to pretend money doesn’t motivate me; as it naturally enables me to have a lifestyle I want and provide for people I love. But there is more to life than that, more about me as a person and who I want to be…

So…I started to think of who my heroes where…Who do I admire? Who do I try and emulate and aspire to be like? What have they achieved that inspires and motivates me to believe I can do the same? What attributes do I value in myself and others?

I thought of eleven and then arranged them in a football team in formation…(No I don’t have too much time on my hands!)

In Goal

Geoff Boycott – For making the most of his talent and for sheer determination & bloody mindedness.

Back Four  

Jean de Valette – Grand Master of the Hospitaller during the 1565 siege of Malta when 550 knights held out against 30,000 Ottoman Turks. For saving Europe from Muslim domination.

Margaret Thatcher – For saving Britain from a sad and slow decline.

Winston Churchill – For saving Britain & the world from Nazi domination.

Stuart Pearce – For taking and scoring that penalty.

Midfield

Hans Joachim Marseille – The best fighter pilot in the world ever.

Sir Richard Francis Burton – You need to read about him on Wikipedia to see why he was a great man!

Matt Le Tissier – Genius with a football and a one club man!

Steve McQueen – The coolest man ever to walk the planet.

Strikers

Harold Larwood – The best fast bowler ever and for refusing to apologise for bodyline.

Brian Clough – The best football manager ever & a fantastic striker.

So I admire determination, persistence, winning against the odds, talent, genius, loyalty, mavericks, anti-authority figures & never giving up for a start…

If I were to ask you who your Heroes are, what would you say?

Who do you admire? Who do you try and emulate and aspire to be like? What inspires and motivates you? It doesn’t have to be a whole person, it can be something they have achieved or accomplished.

It doesn’t have to be eleven people either, it can be as many or as few as you like!