Boosting our Production Capacity

Becky and Rachael recently visited one of our longstanding clients, Clearway, and had a factory tour whilst on-site. They were there to recognise and celebrate the success of two of our recent candidate placements, Murphy and Josh who have passed their probationary period with the well-known and respected window and door supplier in Cheltenham.  Celebrating alongside the two were another two of the team who’d found their way to Clearway via Truly Tailored Recruitment. Notably, Gary, who we placed a few years ago still remembers his dealings with Team TTR and said how grateful he was for the opportunity, as he’s now a supervisor at the site, having moved across from sister company, CDW.

Chatting with Tony, the Production Manager, it was a great reminder of why we have managed to maintain a great partnership with the company after all these years. It comes down to a shared synergy that is startlingly obvious, despite the very different nature of our businesses. The similarities in the way we both like to work, comes down to the people and having them at the heart of the business. Both businesses treat their team as they would a family; they appreciate one another and understand that as a small business, no single person is too important to do anything… and they’re also never shy to fling banter around the room at one another! As Tony explained, from the MD to someone coming in to sweep the floors, every single member of the team is appreciated and valued, as it is understood that without them, the business would not run as effectively. It’s like cogs in a machine – if you take even a small one away, it won’t work correctly!

We also discussed the fact that when you’re working as a small team, it’s vitally important to make sure the character fit of a new addition is right, for the good of both the business and the individual joining the team. This is where it’s really useful for Clearway to have a good relationship with their recruitment partner (us), and stating the obvious, but having transparent communication about available candidates ensures the best talent is snapped up at the right time. This means that sometimes we call with details of a candidate we have identified as “a Clearway candidate” as know the fit is right, and then we leave the difficult decision to the client to decide whether or not they’ve capacity to take them on as we are mindful then budgets can’t always allow for a speculative increase to headcount. Our job though is to highlight these candidates when they are available, as we all know the candidate market is tight. We can at least open a discussion to establish the best onboarding process for a new team member when it is appropriate. Having clear communication channels between the two businesses allows us to make contact on a ‘speculative’ basis without coming across as pushy, and allows Clearway to comfortably say, simply, ‘no’ when the time isn’t right!

Whilst being shown the production floor, we noticed further synergy between TTR and Clearway, namely the similarities in our quality of work. Tony took us through the exacting process of turning raw materials into bespoke windows and doors for customers and it was very clear that the processes and standards followed at Clearway were of extreme importance. Just the smallest deviation from standard could result in a poor-quality end product. In the same way, we find that if we skip or scrimp on any step of our processes, be that taking a new vacancy from a client, or registering a candidate, stones are left unturned, and we could find gaps in knowledge leading to a less-than-perfect placement.

Like Clearway, we ensure our team are trained thoroughly and learn the basics first, before moving on to the next steps, so that they learn and grow on a solid foundation. We’re in this for the long-run, and we are delighted to work with clients who hold the same values, as it makes our job so much easier when we work with clients we can genuinely recommend as great places to work! We mean it when we say we care about our candidates; to us they are a valuable cog in our business, and we want them to go on and be successful in their careers. Heck, we want them to come back to us as clients one day when they need to recruit for their own teams!

We thank the Clearway team for their time and for sharing their thoughts and views with us and we are excited about continuing our working relationship going forward. If you feel you have business synergy with us, and you’d be interested in discussing working together (no obligation), make contact and let’s arrange to get together! We are passionate about working with Gloucestershire businesses who are straight-talking, honest and fair. Like us.