The Technical Division is certainly moving in the Right Direction, having been awarded a highly prestigious contract with the UK’s largest Printing Company. Undergoing enormous and rapid expansion has meant our Client has extended two of their printing facilities in the South of England. The development has seen the introduction of state of the art Presses and Bindery machines. Their capacity to produce top quality magazines and catalogues is now unparalleled in the UK. The overall growth of the company has produced a huge number and huge range of job vacancies. Right Direction have been chosen to lead the recruitment project to source, assess against a set of competencies, and successfully place almost 100 individuals as permanent placements for our Client, filling all vacancies from Shift Managers to Press and Bindery Assistants and everything in between, to include Team Leaders, First and Second Printing Operators, First and Second Bindery Operators and even Customer Service Executives! The volatility of the printing industry in the UK has meant that the skills we needed to find are extremely scarce locally and even nationally. The result was for us to do our homework and find the skills! Wherever the journey took us! We are now in the middle of a superbly successful recruitment drive that has taken us all across Europe. We organised and ran recruitment fairs and Open Days in several European capital Cities and identified over 600 fantastic candidates with exactly the right backgrounds, experience and motivation to come to the UK. Subsequent return journeys to various European countries to facilitate and conduct in depth competency based Assessment Centres, has so far led to the successful offering and placing of almost 80 top class candidates. The journey continues and we are ahead of schedule to hit our target. It has been a wonderful project to manage and we are extremely proud of what the department has achieved. What a start to 2008!!
For more information on how Right Direction can help source the skills you struggle to find, please contact our office and speak to one of our team.
8th February 2008 Jonathan Johnson & John Simpson
RDUK begins Price work
RDUK have recently begun tendering for sub contract work on a price. The ideology of this move is to continue our innovation in the supply of services to the temporary labour market. A common negative with regards to agency supply is the perceived productivity of hourly charged staff – Do agencies offer value for money? Of course we endeavour to supply staff that are paying their way and are of value to a client on a productivity footing. By supplying staff and charging in relation to the work they achieve the client is guaranteed productivity in relation to cost. Additionally we are now being perceived as “much more than just an agency” (as one client stated) in so far as we are getting enquiries when ordinarily the client may go to a sub contractor. Once we have presence on site the chances of picking up further (more generic) business i.e. bookings for temporary workers are far greater. As always, we are looking to assist our clients as much as possible with a variety of services.
Additionally, we are getting involved in site cleans and final cleans whereby we quote for a cleaning project as a fixed price and then carry out the work with our specific cleaning staff, materials and machinery. The work is intense but again, offers absolute productivity performance as the client is aware of the final cost, as we are, and the work is completed within budget. This is unique to our industry and offers options to our clients on a performance footing.
6th November 2007 Jonathan Johnson & John Simpson
The sad loss of our valued friend and colleague, John Ballance
After a short and devastating illness our friend, John Ballance succumbed to cancer in St Gemma’s hospice, Leeds in June 2007. We had only recently experienced the tragic loss of another colleague, Ray Tough in December 2006 and so this hit is with a sadness and anger that hurt all the more. John was a magnificent man in every way. His work ethic was irreplaceable, he did the work of three or four, his commitment was unparalleled and you could not slow him down or stop him working – he took his work very seriously indeed and even said whilst in hospital how he would love to get up and do a days work.
John managed the Polestar account and was totally absorbed in its management, operations and its continuous improvement. They are involved in the print industry and are incredibly demanding however, John took it all in his stride.
Johns sense of humour was born of his Scottish roots and he always brought a smile to peoples faces. He won innumerable “Employee of the Month” awards but could never understand why he should be the recipient. He was oblivious to how different he was to the man in the street and his work ethic; he thought everyone were like him!
John will be sadly missed by everyone who knew him and though we keep in touch with Christine, John’s wife, we know we can only help so much. Our thoughts are always with Christine and our memories are filled with our time with John.
The directors are planning to become involved with raising money for the two hospices in Leeds, Wheatfields and St. Gemmas that looked after our two colleagues.
