I had been in hospitality since leaving University, I was part of the management teams for the Harvester Restaurant brand as well as for the Spirit pub company. I wanted a change and it came by chance when I had a conversation with a manager of a company called HIT Training, they were a training provider to the hospitality industry. Unfortunately, this was not the right career move and less than a year later I knew I needed to find something else.
I remember reading the advert and applying for the Trainee Recruitment Consultant at Igloo and I was invited to give a 15-minute presentation to the two Directors at Igloo’s Head Office in Hinckley. Although very nervous I enjoyed the experience, and I was invited to a second interview with the two Directors and the companies Operations Manager. It was very icy when I pulled up in the car park, I had shoes on and within a yard or two I slipped over, as I looked up I could see the people I was due to meet with laughing, not the best start to the interview, however we all had a laugh about it and the final words from them was to take care in the car park. Needless to say, I slipped over again on my way back to the car much to everyone’s amusement at the time and still to this day. I am not sure if it was my presentation, the way I came across in my second interview or the fact they felt sorry for me for slipping over not once but twice in the car park, but I got the call and a job offer which I accepted straight away.
A month later, the 25th of February 2013 I started at Igloo, there was about 6 of us that all started in the same role that week and we were put straight onto a week’s training course which gave us the confidence and the skills to succeed in our new careers.
Once the training was out of the way we cut our teeth for the first few months making cold sales calls to companies within the sectors Igloo specialise in, we had to generate our own leads as well as using the companies’ databases to call through.
After a few months I joined the automotive recruitment team and started to recruitment for skilled automotive staff. I was given full support and training so I could understand exactly what I was recruiting for, and the skill sets involved. I was taken to sites and shown around, I saw first-hand how a bodyshop operates and got to speak to staff in all areas of the business and built my knowledge of the industry from there. I would complete site visits to have meetings with our client’s management teams, as well as our teams working for us. We would share the 24/7 emergency phone between the team to deal with any emergencies or problems outside of the usual office hours.
In 2017 I migrated away from the recruitment side of the business and was responsible for the installation of a biometric clocking in and out system across our clients’ sites and the setup of rules in the back end of the system. From here my role at Igloo evolved and a compliance and business support team were built providing crucial support to the operations teams within Igloo. Since the birth of the compliance and business support team we have had two very successful inspections from the Government’s Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, the last inspector stated that Igloo go above and beyond with their compliance and that it was one of the best inspections he had done.
Within my role and the compliance and business support teams remit we also place all adverts and receive all the ad response to distribute to the relevant teams, we report on this data to the director and senior managers in the business. We also manage the social media platforms for the business and parts of the website content. I have also supported with office moves and setting up IT equipment for colleagues to work on and with.