October 2017

Y ou don’t get to work every day in the shadow of an icon of British industry, specifically one of the only three glass cones left standing in the world. Glen Shepherd, co-founder of automotive recruiters Glen Callum Associates has ancestors who worked within black country industry. It’s appropriate then that the company is based in a complex, surrounding the historic Red House Glass Cone within the heart of the Midlands. “We were based around the corner and used one of the conference rooms here for meetings. One day we noticed that the offices around it were empty, and it turned out the tenant had left. We were able to take on the offices and the conference room and the rest is history.“ explained Glen. Fellow director Kerrie Richards said it worked well for the team: “We wanted somewhere that was in the centre and easy to travel to, was a nice location for clients to come to and was easy to find. This fit the bill perfectly.” Reputation Glen and Kerrie started the company 18 years ago, Glen had worked for other recruiters and had a sales management career within the automotive aftermarket, so was well placed to understand the industry. The aftermarket presents a very particular challenge, and a recruitment business working in the sector needs to truly understand it and appreciate how it works, and how to work with it. Glen spent many years working in the industry before he began the company, so was already highly knowledgeable from the beginning. Kerrie now has almost two decades of experience with the aftermarket, so she is also an expert in the sector. Over time the company has grown in reputation, and the team has grown with them. Apart from the directors, there is also Julian Curtis who comes from a factor background and is senior recruiter. He has been with Glen Callum for 14 years, having previously worked for the likes of Unipart, Autela and CLS. Julian was and is an automotive sector expert, and is now a recruitment expert too: “It’s changed over the years with the technology. It’s so easy to post a job now. Some of our clients think this means it is easier but it is actually harder as it is spread so wide. Also, we have such high employment many of the potential candidates are what I call ‘passive jobseekers,’ scrolling through job pages in their pyjamas on a Saturday morning without a real intention of changing role. The key is engaging those who are looking for a new role.” Process As new members join the team from outside the industry they are trained up the specifics of the aftermarket. To put me through recruitment bootcamp, I am placed in the hands of Kayleigh Bradley who is in charge of training at the company. She took me through the whole process: “When we get a brief from the client, they will give us a job spec. We will speak to them about it, going through it to find out what they really want, which enables us to create our branded job advert. We use most of the major job boards. “ To find candidates, they create a Boolean, which is a compendium of keywords that narrows the search for the team on the many websites where CVs get posted. On this occasion the Boolean search took the total number of CVs on the site from 11,915,117 to 432, and Kayleigh continued to refine it down. “With a brand new job, a search could take two days.” “What’s nice is when you have done the long, hard bit and you can get on the phone and talk to a person. That’s when it really comes alive” said Kayleigh, her face noticeably lighting up. “From there though we have an initial check, go through the CV with them, and go through the role. We want to be able to add value to the process. We try to get notice period, why they are looking and salary expectations. Then we go through the CV. Only then do we set up interviews. The client will get to see on average between six and 12 CVs, and from there with the client we set up a shortlist for interview.” Training “Training is on the job. Take Tom,” she said, pointing out recent starter, trainee recruiter Tom Gould. “He started a month ago and we are drip 50 AFTERMARKET OCTOBER 2017 DAY IN THE LIFE Above: The team meet the Mayor of Dudley www.aftermarketonline.net GLEN CALLUM ASSOCIATES Aftermarket visits sector recruiter Glen Callum Associates to find out about the recruitment process, and glass production… Continued...