We are a specialist food production recruitment agency supplying vetted temporary and permanent staff to small, medium and large businesses across the Midlands and South Yorkshire.
We can support your operations with flexible solutions tailored to your needs, whether that’s temporary cover, ongoing staffing, or temp-to-perm placements. Our temp-to-perm option is a popular choice with clients, giving you the opportunity to assess new hires in your environment over a probationary period—ensuring the right fit before making a long-term commitment. This approach reduces hiring risk, supports better retention, and gives you complete confidence when offering a permanent contract.
We place a vast majority of candidates into warehousing and logistics roles. We have been recruiting in this sector for 20 years, working in partnership with a variety of companies from SME’s to large distribution centres, supporting for one off vacancies, dual supply with other agencies and sole supply agreements.
- Food Production Operative
- Food Packing Operative
- Bakery Assistant
- Labelling Operative
- Butcher / Meat Processor
- Kitchen Assistant
- Production Line Worker
- Machine Operator (Food Processing)
- Batch Mixer / Blending Operator
- Quality Control (QC) Technician
- Quality Assurance (QA) Officer
- Farm Worker / Potato Grader
- Catering Production Assistant
- Production Supervisor
- Line Leader / Team Leader
- Shift Manager
- Production Manager
- Factory Manager
Recruitment Solutions for Production and Manufacturing
In a fast-paced production/factory environment every second counts! The smallest disruption can impact your entire production line. That’s why, while our standard hours may be 8–5, we understand that your world doesn’t stop at 5pm. Our dedicated 24/7 call-out service operates 365 days a year, ensuring that whenever challenges arise, we are here to support – day or night.
Demand can shift in an instant and flexible staffing gives you more control. Whether you’re facing peak periods, sudden spikes in volume or unplanned absences, we provide reliable support exactly when you need it – helping you maintain productivity without overburdening your core team. By scaling your workforce levels to meet real-time demand, you reduce fixed costs, improve cash flow and gain greater control over your spending.
We become a visible presence within your operation. Through regular check-ins, induction support and job shadowing, we take the time to truly understand your working environment and expectations. This hands-on approach ensures every new starter arrives prepared, confident, and ready to contribute from day one. By embedding ourselves into your operation, you get peace of mind that your team is supported and your standards are consistently met.
We can step in quickly to cover a single, unexpected vacancy, ensuring your operation continues to run smoothly without disruption, maintaining productivity and service levels while you plan a longer-term solution.
Our dual supply approach complements your existing agency, giving you additional flexibility and capacity during peak periods or fluctuating demand. This collaborative support helps reduce pressure on your core team.
By managing your entire staffing requirement, we act as your single, reliable point of contact for recruitment and workforce management. Sole supply improves consistency and ensures your operation benefits from an aligned partnership.
Why businesses choose Essential
“Essential Recruitment have worked with Haywood & Padgett now for a number of years and have been nothing less than exceptional.
With the business expanding constantly, especially in the past few months, the need for dependent staffing is ever present and Amy always delivers. Whether that be making sure we are staffed for every shift, day or night, or any last minute staffing issues that may arise, Amy is always on hand.
Her experience and passion for recruitment make her a pleasure to work with and the continued support from Amy and Esssential Recruitment does not go unnoticed.
Amy is not just in contact virtually but also makes frequent visits on site to complete inductions for new staff and is always herpful with any questions anybody has for her. She further proves her commitment and passion by keeping in frequent contact with me.
Thank you all for your effort and hard work.”
Ricky R, Shift Manager
“Abbie has been our main point of contact with Essential for a while now, and to be honest she has been a breath of fresh air to work with. Her communication is superb, nothing is ever too much trouble for her even when I am sometimes upping and lowering my agency requests last minute which I know can be frustrating. Abbie has always been understanding and patient…we’ve had some really brilliant workers come through recently that we’re keen to take permanent. When Abbie first started showing new starters around the bakery on site tours, she was a little apprehensive of production as the processes are complicated to explain. She took it upon herself to learn more about the production area and she can now do site tours very confidently. This growth and eagerness to learn is a rare and valuable trait.
She is a real asset to Essential and we’re really pleased that she’s taking care of our contract moving forward.”
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Locations
Our offices are located across South Yorkshire and the Midlands, giving us the ability to support operations across these regions and beyond. Our main areas of operation include:
FAQ Section
What checks does your compliance team cover?
Our team’s checks include right to work, visa expiry, modern slavery audits, forklift licence verification, young worker checks, 48 working hour checks and more. View the full compliance schedule here
What is involved in a candidate induction?
Each induction is tailored to you, which can include job details, accident reporting, fire procedure, health & safety, manual handling, company rules, PPE and more.
How do Temp to Perm contracts work?
Assess your new starter over a probation period of up to 26 weeks. During this time you can monitor the candidate’s work ethic and commitment to the role, see if they fit into the team and working environment and give you to flexibility to decide when the time is right for you to offer a permanent contract. If you decide you’d like to offer permanent employment the candidate will be transferred over to your company and we will be onsite to present them with a certificate of permanent employment.
How is candidate payroll processed?
All agency workers are paid weekly on a Friday via PAYE by our inhouse payroll team.
Which KPI's do you track?
We work to KPI parameters personalised to you and your areas of continuous improvement, this can include but not limited to:
- Shift fulfilment
- Staff turnover
- Quality of workforce
- No. of Timesheets
- Non conformances
Who do I speak to if I want to hire permanently not temporary?
For mid-high skilled roles, contact our Essential Professional team on 0333 99 66 988
