The Client's Story

The challenge

Food production organisations often use recruitment companies to fulfil temporary staffing needs and we are no exception. Our difference is that we work with only one company and that’s Response!

I received a call from Response Recruitment around the same time that I received a letter from our incumbent supplier informing us of an immediate rate rise. The contact from Response wanted to meet and, as my existing agency did not consult with me over the rate increase, I decided I had nothing to lose.

Throughout our meeting I felt that they were genuinely interested in how they could help. They wanted to find out about my recruitment problems and offered helpful solutions to resolving them. It was also refreshing to me that they didn’t just tell me all the things they had done for their other clients.

I decided to give them a try but made my first order one which I knew would be difficult to fulfil!

The approach

One morning a forklift truck driver called in sick, so I called Response. The Consultant took all the necessary details and assured me that they would source a driver as soon as possible. They understood how critical this was to my delivery deadlines and arranged an update call in 15 minutes.

Sure enough, a quarter of an hour later they were on the phone with the details of a suitably skilled temp. Their service even extended to collecting him from his house and bringing him to the factory! When they arrived, I was relieved to see that the driver had already been briefed and could get on with the job immediately. Towards the end of the shift, Response contacted me to undertake a progress report and, as the day had run so smoothly, I decided to use the driver for another day.

The following morning I was pleased to see that the temp arrived in good time for his shift and soon afterwards the Response Consultant called to make sure everything was satisfactory. This was a very different approach to my incumbent agency. Normally we were chasing them for progress reports and missing staff! What’s more, previously when temps arrived they often didn’t know what they would be doing, some walked off the job because it wasn’t suited to them and some didn’t come back the following day.

The benefit

Response delivered consistently high quality customer service so finally we moved all of our temporary recruitment business to them. And as our recruitment needs have evolved so have our demands on Response. Today, Response has a team on site covering every shift. Their services range from new staff induction through to undertaking all the necessary health screening. They have even taken the lead in implementing new initiatives to help ease staffing issues.

Despite the best planning and systems even Response can be affected by a temp who calls in sick at short notice. What makes the difference is the way they handle the situation. Their proactive approach means that they have a contingency plan in place, often before we know there’s a problem!

For me it’s the security of knowing that even if something goes wrong they can put it right immediately leaving us to concentrate on what we do best, that’s produce food.

Response Recruitment works closely with its clients to gain a complete understanding of their recruitment requirements. Our consistently high levels of customer service originate from a genuine desire to solve recruitment headaches and exceed customer expectations.