RecruitRank Awards honour first class recruitment agencies based purely on candidate feedback

Quantica Search and Selection has been declared as a Top 10 finalist in the Most Improved Recruiter: High volume Jobsite user category of Jobsite’s 2009 RecruitRank Awards (www.recruitrank.co.uk). Recognising best practice and quality customer service in recruitment agencies, the RecruitRank Awards are the only accolades in the industry where finalists and winners are chosen by the feedback from candidates and not a panel of industry judges.

Launched by leading online recruiter Jobsite (www.jobsite.co.uk) in November 2005, RecruitRank allows candidates to feedback anonymously on the quality of an agency’s service after they have applied for a vacancy advertised by them on Jobsite. Recruiters have personal, private access to this free market research and it enables them to monitor and, if necessary, improve their service offering. The finalists within each category of the Awards were selected through a culmination of this feedback from candidates over the last 12 months.

The awards, which are in their fourth year, were held on 11th November 2009 at stylish central London venue, Jewel.

Commenting on the awards, Keith Potts, Jobsite CEO, says: “It has been a tough year for everyone in the recruitment industry, so we are really proud to see that so many recruitment agencies are still placing a high importance on providing outstanding customer service. With several thousand recruitment consultancies eligible for inclusion in the RecruitRank awards, being awarded Top 10 finalist status is a great accolade in itself. Finalists have the added compliment that they have achieved this position through the people who know their offering the best – the candidates – providing vital third party endorsement.”

MD of Quantica Search and Selection, Glen Prince, said “the fact that these awards are voted for by canditaes validates all the work we have done to ensure that the candidate experience is positive and adds value to the career search. I am extremely proud of everyone at Quantica Search and Selection who have worked tirelessly this year to help an increasing number of candidates.”

Leading recruitment agency Acorn is reacting to an expected recovery in the jobs market by appointing two new members of staff to its Preston branch.

Samantha Nieuwenhuizen, 30, takes on the role of recruitment consultant, while Maciej Gorczyca, 27, has been appointed as account co-ordinator, both will specialise in the industrial sector.

Samantha, originally from Cheshire and now living in Much Hoole, started out in telesales booking appointments for a recruitment consultant eight years ago. While there she was offered a position to train to become a consultant, and now has five years experience at senior consultant level.

Polish-born Maciej moved to Preston from his homeland four-and-a-half years ago and has two years of experience working in the recruitment industry.

Starting as a part-time recruitment agent while at University, after graduating Maciej gained experience resourcing for a national consultancy. Now, a year later, he starts his new role with Acorn, which will see him working with candidates and clients to provide multi-lingual support

Acorn’s regional manager, Christian Ash, said: “We’re delighted to have both Samantha and Maciej on board. We have seen an increase in business in the last few months, which in today’s market is very encouraging.
“A recruitment agency like ours that provides temporary staff to a range of different sectors is a useful indicator of recovery in a struggling economy. In a recovery period, employers will tend to take on temporary staff first before renewing their commitment to longer-term investment in permanent appointments.
“We have been experiencing that situation over the last couple of months, which we hope is a sign that the economy is turning.
“Samantha’s experience will be invaluable in developing new business, and Maciej will be an excellent link between our key clients and temporary staff. Both will help us follow the direction we want the Preston branch to go in perfectly.”

Established in 1992, Acorn now has 35 branches across the UK. Recent acquisitions include Advance Personnel, Exxell Track Safe Telecom and Concept Staffing.

Acorn places up to 6,000 people into about 850 different client companies each week, The company also delivers training to more than 3,000 individuals and makes 1,700 permanent placements every year.

Europe Solutions, an international recruitment agency, which is seeing growth of 10% in quarter 3 09 compared to quarter 3 08, is expanding its operations and established a company in Wroclaw, Poland at the beginning of the year. Marc van Ling, Director, states “Enquiries from companies looking for sales agents or customer service advisors with European languages are increasing to cope with an increase in export sales due to the weak pound.”

Europe Solutions recently moved in to the award-winning Sir Colin Campbell Building at the 12-acre University of Nottingham Innovation Park in order to expand its operations.

As well as providing business accommodation, high-speed IT networks, meeting, conference and events facilities, the building also hosts regular networking events in close proximity to leading UK researchers and their facilities.

Marc van Ling says “We are looking to develop close ties with the university and assist businesses tied with the university with recruitment and expansion into Central Europe.”

The University of Derby Student Employment Agency (SEA), which assists with finding students opportunities for temporary and part time paid jobs whilst studying and during their vacation periods, has enhanced its eploy® recruitment software platform to support its growing student placement process. 

“The eploy® software has provided SEA with a wide selection of user-friendly tools that we now rely on to deliver our student employment service.  Following the recent enrichment of the system we can now undertake a range of additional functions that will benefit the efficiency of the operation.  These include the automatic extraction of information from student CV’s to online registration forms and the ability to work live on individual vacancies,” said Ailsa Costello, from the University of Derby’s’ Student Employment Agency.

Since its adoption by the Student Employment Agency 5 years ago, eploy® has delivered a range of operational and technical improvements that have helped the University to develop stronger relationships with business clients and achieve greater flexibility in day-to- day management of the recruitment process. The web-based solution has addressed the dispersed nature of the University’s sites and the need for staff to work and liaise with others from any remote location.

“System access and mobility were significantly improved by introducing a web-based solution.  We can now update information, CVs and the diary function using a range of practical and easy to use tools, from the PC or mobile telephone.   Our work is taking us out of the office more and more so mobility has been a key benefit of the eploy®  system to us,” added Alisa.

The new 2009 enhanced application software will help SEA to monitor its performance against increasingly demanding Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by providing reporting information on metrics such as the number of students registered, their faculty, the number of students employed and percentage from each faculty and the number of vacancies and employers.

Paul Burgess, Managing Director, eploy® said: “Universities are large communities that need powerful solutions to address the employment needs of their students and clients but often do not operate like a high street recruitment company.  To ensure an appropriate and positive user experience we have tailored the eploy® solution for the University and continue to support their needs through regular product enhancements.”   

In addition to the University of Derby, eploy® is also the chosen recruitment software for many other Universities, including the University of Wolverhampton and University of the Arts London

For a free online demonstration or trial version, please visit www.itssystems.co.uk, or contact eploy® on 0800 073 4243 or email info@eploy®.co.uk.