Liverpool pioneers ‘premium’ job search

Jul 18 2007 by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post

RECRUITMENT giant Adecco has chosen Liverpool as the location for the first branch of its specialist premium service.

Adecco Premium, based in Chapel Street, will offer a more tailored approach to recruitment for both clients and potential employees.

It will focus on roles in secretarial and administration along with the specialist areas of insurance, finance, accounts, law and human resources whether that be for an administrator or senior executive with a salary range from £13,500 to £135,000.

Manager David Wafer told the Daily Post the aim was to go further than the traditional recruitment agency to make sure the right person was matched with the right job.

He said: “Adecco chose Liverpool for the launch of the Premium brand because they recognised how up and coming the city now was.

“Markets in places like Manchester and Leeds are now quite mature and we felt Liverpool offered the right potential.

“The store here will have a very different feel and look to our more traditional stores and we want to get away from the reputation this industry sometimes has of putting the wrong people into the wrong jobs and failing to do any follow-up work.”

Adecco Premier staff will put potential job candidates through a “rigorous” process to find out their exact strengths and weaknesses.

They will also be given the opportunity to attend workshops on putting CVs together and interview techniques and some sessions will be held out of hours to accommodate people already working in other jobs. They will also offer training to candidates where necessary.

Mr Wafer added: “Our work won’t stop once the person has been placed with an employer. One week after they have started their new job we will take them to lunch to find out how they are settling in. There will then be other follow-up meetings.”

Adecco expects to extend the Premier concept across the UK to around 18 other locations.

The Swiss company is the biggest recruitment agency in the world and has 350 branches in the UK alone.

Earlier this month it became embroiled in a racism row in France when, along with cosmetics company Garnier, it was found guilty of running a recruitment campaign in 2000 to find only white women to sell make-up in Paris.

The company was fined, but officials said they were astonished by the verdict and might appeal.

tonymcdonough@dailypost.co.uk