Catalyst recruits top sales people for RED
Catalyst's recruitment drive passes the test for RED Driving School
Feb 9, 2015
CASE STUDY
RED wanted to attract and retain highly effective people who would perform well, transform the business and progress their own careers at the same time. They got that and more when they engaged with recruitment consultancy Catalyst.
In fact, Catalyst’s very first recruit for RED – Jon Sutcliffe – has proved to be a resounding success and progressed to become RED’s head of operations and transformation, responsible for driving the company’s sales and service approach. Working together, RED and Catalyst have recruited over 30 staff across a range of functions in the last three years. Today, many of those original recruits are still working for RED and others have progressed even further to become top sales people and part of the management team.
Our Client
RED Driving School is one of the largest driver instruction schools in the UK, teaching over 100,000 learner drivers to pass their driving test each year. RED operates from its head office and contact centre in Teesside providing a centralised lesson booking system and support for its national network of driving instructors.
The Challenge
When RED needed to find a new head of contact centre and a 24-strong team of sales and service advisors, they chose Catalyst to lead their recruitment drive. RED contracted Catalyst exclusively to manage the recruitment process so the team raced into action to provide a tailored service to match their specific requirements. The immediate priority was to find a selection of suitably qualified and experienced candidates to interview who could take on the important role of leading the sales and customer service teams at their contact centres. The next challenge was to recruit 24 new sales and service advisors as well as a team leader because work was being transferred to RED’s Billingham contact centre from another location.
The Solution
Within three months, Catalyst had completed the entire process of searching, shortlisting and interviewing and the successful candidate, Jon Sutcliffe, was appointed head of contact centre. Next, Jon and Catalyst worked together to agree a plan scheduling the time needed to recruit, then train and deliver a team of advisors ready to start work. The employees would join in two waves.
With the plan agreed, Catalyst began the recruitment process including advertising, searching for suitable candidates, designing and conducting all telephone interviews, shortlisting, then organising and carrying out a total of 40 in-person interviews. After careful consideration and close consultation with RED, Catalyst made job offers on RED’s behalf, organised start dates and met all candidates on their first day of employment to ensure they began as planned.
The Results
From start to finish the recruitment drive for the contact centre sales and service advisors was complete in under three months – well within the agreed timeline and the teams were up and running smoothly and successfully.
Catalyst’s first recruit for RED – Jon Sutcliffe – has also proved to be a resounding success and has progressed to become RED’s head of operations and transformation, responsible for driving the transformation of the company’s sales and service approach. Both the company and Jon have continued to rely on Catalyst as a supplier, with over 30 staff recruited across a range of functions in the last three years.
Jon comments: “Catalyst were recommended to me and I was very pleased to receive an individual, personalised approach that you just don’t get with a large corporate recruiter. They demonstrated their ability to move quickly and not get bogged down in red-tape or paperwork with a speed of attack and a plan that worked. Their ability to understand and agree the relevant plan, timescales and contingency gave me great confidence that Catalyst would deliver. Their particular focus on including our own recruitment specialists within the Catalyst process also helped.
“One of the key things that also distinguished Catalyst from other recruitment companies was the quality commitment in terms of offering us more attractive charges if the recruit moved on during training or probation. This meant our confidence was improved in the retention of these staff members as Catalyst were directly measured on tenure.”
Jon continues: “Today, we still have many of those original recruits working for us and others have progressed even further. For example, Michaela Hall has now become a recruitment manager selling our driving instructor training courses, Steven Snow is one of our top sales people and Tracy Garrod has become a key member of the management team in a team leader capacity.”