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E
arly in his career, Phillip Hodson carved an
impressive path through some of the big names
of UK engineering. But with every step — as he
etched the names of Perkins, Caterpillar and Alexander
Dennis onto his CV — one thing left him unsatisfied
with his move. “When I went for interviews as a
candidate I was always left feeling like it had only been
about a single transaction,” he says. “There wasn’t
much investment of time from recruiters in people
relationships. There was a lot of investment in the client
but not enough on me as an individual.”
It was this discontent which inspired the ethos
for Hodson’s own company. “After a couple of
promotions I got to the stage where I needed to use
recruitment companies to hire people myself,” he says.
“My first thoughts were to stay away from those that
I’d had a poor relationship with as a candidate. So
that’s basically our attitude at Kensington — today’s
candidate is tomorrow’s client.”
Kensington does not see one client when a
company asks it to fill a position; it sees many. There’s
the company, the successful applicant, and all of the
other applicants too. And no one takes priority. This is
in contrast to most of Kensington’s competitors, who
tend to follow the ideology that so aggrieved Hodson
in his engineering days. What’s more, the situation has
only got worse since the recession began. “Recruiters
panicked when the work dried up a bit and seemed
to say ‘right, let’s just concentrate on the client and
get the money in’,” said Hodson. “But we made a
bold move and decided to keep our focus on the
relationships throughout the service, comprising the
candidate, the client and us.”
Mismanagement of applicants is not a folly
committed only by rival recruitment firms though.
Most manufacturers have, unfortunately, not
been able to take on many more staff over the last
year-and-a-half. However, of those that have, some
have had to take on the task themselves, due to
cost-cutting, rather than outsourcing the job to a
firm like Phil’s. And some have found this a slightly
trickier affair than they first may have thought. “They
didn’t anticipate how many applications they would
receive, and didn’t have the skills in-house to handle
the relationship with the candidate properly. They
didn’t give feedback for instance. That’s been a real
issue with the recruitment industry in recent times,
candidates become despondent and frustrated at not
being kept in the loop.”
From the individuals’ perspective — entry
professional to boardroom level — Kensington’s services
involve a post candidate care process to ensure that the
new role is meeting expectations. There is a triggered
system on the job seekers database for a Kensington
consultant to call all of the individuals they have found
jobs for at regular intervals. They can then act as
mediator between the company and the employee if
any issues need ironing out. Other services they offer
job hunters include CV and interview preparation and
psychometric testing. From the employing companies’
perspective — SME to blue-chip — Kensington provides
salary surveys, job specification creation, redeployment
services and some legal advice. In sourcing appropriate
applicants it uses its database of job seekers, holds open
days at assessment centres, advertises where it sees fit,
and actively head-hunts suitable candidates.
If the first bedrock upon which Hodson has built
his business is maintaining relationships, the second
is keeping real links to industry. All of the employees
Hodson has taken on have previously been engineering
professionals, some of them with 25 year stints in
the industry. This adds names like GEC Alstom, CAT,
Perkins, Michael Page, Pricewaterhouse Coopers NIS
and Faber Design to the firm’s collective credentials,
along with many special purpose manufacturers
covering most of the mechanical engineering and
process industries.
Kensington also has an engineering alliance with
North West Projects Advanced Engineering Design — an
expanding engineering design consultancy specialising
in a variety of mechanical handling projects largely for
the Nuclear Industry.
And the efforts have not gone unnoticed.
Kensington recently won two national awards at an
annual event run by Job Site. The Most Improved
Recruiter and Best Understanding of Candidate
Needs for 2009 awards have seen the business gain
increased interest from both the candidate and
client communities. There were five awards in total;
Kensington was nominated in all five.
The competition heats up
Of the firms that haven’t trimmed their payroll in the
last couple of years, only a minority have added to it.
That naturally means there has been a large increase
in the number of applicants per job; Hodson estimates
four times more on November 2008 levels. He says
recruitment-wise, the industries worst hit for jobs
since the downturn began have been automotive and
aerospace, along with some general manufacturing.
However, there has been an increase in job availability in
green industries like waste management and recycling,
as well as the design and manufacture of things like
alternative energy equipment and energy efficient heavy
machinery. Advanced manufacturing of new technology
and composites have remained strong too.
Hodson’s advice to so-called traditional engineers is
to jump aboard the green wagon. “There are definitely
transferable skills from other areas of manufacturing
into the green industries. We can help candidates
recognise that they already have the necessary skills
and then we can help market those skills. These are
industries that are going to be around for a long time
so people need to take advantage early.”
In terms of the skills recruiters are now looking
for, Hodson says leadership and people skills and
continuous improvement (CI) understanding are
becoming increasingly important. “They want a real
understanding though, not just buzzwords. I wish I
had a pound for all the people who have 5S on their CV
and don’t fundamentally understand it. They may have
been involved with it and may even be able to articulate
upon it to a certain degree but that’s not enough,
employers are looking for a real understanding.”
A thorough understanding of CI is important
for another trait that recruiters now want; good
business acumen right through the ranks. “Clients
want candidates now that see the clear path to
the customer,” says Hodson. “Engineers struggle
to represent themselves and show how what they
do affects the bottom line. Reducing costs while
improving quality at the engineering stage is where
the two marry up. After a thorough interview it is,
however, apparent they do possess the skills and
experience but find it awkward marketing these to
potential employers. Selling their skills does not come
naturally to them and so we have to work hard to
ensure they see the fruits of their labour and can sell
these benefits.”
Overall, the types of skills that employers want and
the sub-sectors with job vacancies might be changing
but the ethos that Kensington employs when finding
the right person for the role stays the same. The
company’s success is inherently linked to the success
of its clients; employer and employee. You can be sure
you’re in good hands — Kensington Consulting’s best
interests are your best interests.
Kensington Consulting is a Lancashire-based engineering and manufacturing
recruitment services firm that was begun by Phillip Hodson in 2006. He tells
Mark Young about the driving force behind the firm, and shares some insights
on manufacturing recruitment in the midst of a transforming economy
Employing a little care
I wish I had a pound for all
the people who have 5S on their
CV and don’t fundamentally
understand it. They may have
been involved with it and may
even be able to articulate upon it
to a certain degree but that’s not
enough, employers are looking for
a real understanding
Kensington Consulting is an engineering and
manufacturing recruitment services firm based in
Lancashire, serving Northern England from Staffordshire
up to Cumbria, and North Wales to Yorkshire.
Sub sector specialities:
Automotive
Aerospace
General Manufacturing
Defence
Power – (Renewables, Nuclear, Water,
Oil/Gas, Petrochemical)
Process Industries
FMCG
Engineering Disciplines, from
professional level to senior
management
Research / Design / Development
EC&I
Process / Lean / 6Sigma
Manufacturing
EHS
Quality / Validation
Maintenance
Planning / Project Management
Sales / Application / Proposal
Manufacturing / Supply Chain
Disciplines
Production
Operations
Shift Management
Purchasing
Supply Chain