Searching for a Career? Why Should You Join Essential...

There are many recruitment agencies out there for you to join, so how do you choose who to develop your career with?

At Essential, we believe staff should feel valued and appreciated.

We are proud of our staff retention rates, with 68% of staff being with us for over 3 years, 51% of staff being here for over 5 years and 15% of staff being with us for over 10 years!

Here’s why we think you’ll love being a part of the Essential family…

1. We are employee owned!

In December 2021, we made the decision to become employee owned. We made this decision as we wanted to commemorate the loyalty and dedication of the employees that had been with the company for 3 or more years, as well as embracing the enthusiasm and optimism of our newer staff members, and opening up a world of opportunities to future colleagues.

What does this mean for you?

Our company is fully owned by our employees – meaning we can’t be bought out by another investor unless the whole company agrees, therefore providing even more job security
We are empowering our employees by giving them a say in how the business is run
You receive a financial stake in the business
The more you put in, the more you’ll be rewarded!
It protects our current workforce to ensure we are securing the ethos, values and culture of the business for the longer term
It provides our colleagues with a positive environment in which they can thrive
It opens a world of opportunities to future colleagues
The business is being left in the hands of the people who care about its future

You’ll automatically become an Employee Owner after 12 months of service, but there’s no need to buy shares – 100% of the shares are held in a Trust on behalf of the company, so you’ll receive all of the benefits without having to front any cash!

2. We teach you everything you need to know

No experience is required to work in recruitment, as you will be provided with all of the knowledge you need. At Essential we run our own Essential Academy where you will go through 2 stages of learning, taking around 6-12 months to complete Level 1 before continuing with Level 2 to reach Senior Recruitment Consultant status.

Our internal training is provided by our Training & Development Director Lisa. After her 30+ years of experience within the recruitment industry Lisa wanted to share her knowledge to help Trainee Recruitment Consultants develop their careers and grow personally and professionally. In 2015 the Essential Academy was born, our training programme for our internal staff covering all elements of the Recruitment Industry. This training gives all staff a good grounding and understanding of the Recruitment Industry. Lisa enjoys seeing people achieving their goals and developing their careers further within this rewarding industry.

In your training you will cover topics including:

Advert Writing
Ad Response Handling
Interviewing Process and Techniques
Client Account Management
Candidate Management
Sales Processes
Modern Day Slavery & Human Trafficking
Employment Agency Act
REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation)
GDPR & Data Protection
Working Time Directive
Agency Workers Association
GLAA (Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority)
Payroll Process
Right to Work in the UK
Referencing

As well as Lisa’s training you will also receive training from Frankie, our Compliance Manager to keep you up to date with everything compliance, plus you will receive training from other department heads such as our Business Development Director Kristyan, Operations Director Alison Orli, Financial Director Carl Wootton and Marketing Manager Emma Coleman.

We also provide external training with Andy Cain where you will receive training on a variety of topics. We recently completed a 8 month Management Training course with Andy.

3. Be financially rewarded for your hard work

Fancy receiving bonuses for your hard work? Of course you do! At Essential we have multiple schemes available where you can gain a % of the profit made on new clients you’ve brought onto the plan or a % of the fee for a permanent placement.

1. Branch Bonus

10% of the net profit for your branch is split between eligible team members

2.New Business Incentive

Gain a new contract? As a well done, you’ll get 10% of the gross margin generated in the first 6 months. This is uncapped and can be extremely rewarding!

3. Perm bonus

Place a permanent member of staff with a client? Your bonus is 20% of the fee we charge them.

4. On-call Bonus

We offer 24/7 support to our clients, so our consultants take it in turns to take care of the branch mobile. You’ll get £50 for each week you do this!

5. Profit share

As an Employee Owned company, the profit our business makes is shared between all staff with over 1 year’s service.

4. Social Events

Every year we get together to celebrate our hard work, get to know each other better and take part in team building exercises to strengthen our working relationships and branch network.

We choose something different every year, in the past we’ve visited Manchester, Poole, Wales & more! In May 2022, we took part in a Hunted experience in the Peak District where we were fugitives for the day being hunted down by the Peaks Go team.

5. Dress Down Fridays

We have a option for you to opt into our ‘Dress Down Fridays’, where you get to dress more casual on a Friday. Everybody who participates makes a £2 donation out of their monthly wage which is added into our charity pot and donated to a charity event.

6. Our Culture

At Essential we aim to continually keep a positive culture within our business, we have recently started re-writing our company values after becoming employee owned to reflect the input and feelings of us, now we are employee owners.

We get involved with many events over the year, including:

1. Work Anniversaries

We celebrate our employees anniversaries with us by posting them across our social media pages and you receive recognition for your 3, 5 & 10 years of service. We have an annual event for our 5 year club where you will spend a day at the races with fancy food and a free bar!

2. Birthdays

It’s not in writing, but we’re a lovely bunch so you can expect to come into a decorated desk for your birthday from your team! You also get a full day off on your birthday too, additional to your annual leave.

3. Mental Health Week

We take part in Mental Health Week every year, doing something different to raise awareness each year. This year we created a portal on our website for useful wellbeing resources and visited our clients and candidates to promote our portal and spread mental health awareness.

4. Remembrance Day

Every November 11th, we remember those who gave their lives so we could have ours. Our Chesterfield Branch Manager Rob, who served in the military, sends out a poem about remembrance to the company and we wear our poppies with pride and observe a two minutes silence.

5. Modern Day Slavery

In October our Compliance Manager Frankie & our Marketing team organise an anti slavery campaign with our candidates and clients to raise awareness of Modern Day Slavery and we donate £500 to the Salvation Army to help them support victims of MDS.

6. Christmas Jumper Day

We hold a Christmas Jumper Day competition and the winner receives a free lunch!

7. Halloween

We even get dressed up at Halloween!

8. International Women’s Day

We also show our support on International Women’s Day too, in the past we have done featured blogs and videos on some of our female staff about their journeys working alongside motherhood.

Here we are taking part in the 2021 theme ‘Break the Bias’:

Plus, most of us do like to order a breakfast on a Friday…

7. Progression opportunities

There is opportunity to develop yourself within our company! We’ve had staff join us as Resourcers and move through the ranks to Recruitment Consultants, Senior Recruitment Consultants and Branch Managers! There are also other departments you could expand into such as permanent recruitment, compliance or training.

We also do 1-2-1 sessions so we can track your progress and set new goals for you to work towards so you can keep growing within your role.

Don’t just take our word for it, here’s what our Chesterfield Consultant Jodie had to say after her first couple of months with us…