The Challenge

Our client identified an opportunity within the market place for a local, low cost, retail “no frills” operation supplying both the consumer and trade.  A new business model with the brand name “Smileys” was created and three locations selected in the West Midlands. A go-live date was set for 31st March 2014 and  ResourceBank appointed to the project on 27th January 2014.

Implementation

Following a briefing meeting with Smileys management, clear profiles were developed for the staff required—in total 19 roles needed to be recruited including three branch managers and four team supervisors. Customer service and commercial skills were key requirements, as were the ability to speak Punjabi and Urdu.

ResourceBank quickly established a project team including a native Punjabi speaker, and developed an online advertising campaign to attract candidates.  The team also liaised with local job centres, searched our retail candidate talent pool and  utilised social media channels to promote the activity as well as engaging the wider client business for internal/external referrals.

In total the ResourceBank team managed 2,058 applications. Every application was assessed against the specifications agreed for each position. The criteria included experience, aptitude, location and customer service. Selected candidates were then interviewed to assess personality and aptitude as well as communication and language skills.

Just over half of the candidates interviewed were submitted to the Smileys management team for interview. From these candidates the team were able to select the candidates which best fitted the positions.

The ResourceBank team responded to every unsuccessful candidate at application stage. They also delivered verbal feedback to all candidates who were unsuccessful at interview stage.

Outcome

• All 19 roles were successfully filled within the deadline within 5 weeks of the brief being taken.
• Feedback from the Smileys project team was that the quality of candidates attracted was extremely high and they could have offered more roles than they actually needed.
• All three Smileys stores were opened on time.
• Since opening, the Smileys stores are trading well thanks to the calibre of the staff recruited during the ResourceBank RPO project and employee satisfaction is high.

A very big thank you for all of your hard work on our Smileys project. Your dedication to our project has gone above and beyond and we really appreciate it.
It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with you all.

Janette Kirk-Willis—HR Business Partner 

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If you have an upcoming project which needs some focussed resourcing effort then contact Melody Hermon on 07791 520495