15 years in the making!

1st February 2012 marks our 15th year in recruiting!  We have weathered the stormy waters and are proud to achive what can only be descrived as OAP status in recruitment.  Of course we will be doing lots to celebrate throughout the year and we will keep you posted!

Major new PSL Win!

We are pleased to announce that we have made it onto the Recruitment PSL for a leading Retail Communication Agency.

More details to follow in the New Year, what a nice way to close 2011!

Downtime due to cable theft

If you have struggled to reach us at Straco blame the cable theaves!

Following two major thefts in our area during November, we have endured limited services.  Over 2000 meters of cable were stolen causing major upheaval.  We are back up and running and hoping that the cables will be staying where they should be going forward.

doing our bit for charity…

Recruiter Kelly Diver has done us proud this month taking part in a charity pole dancing event to raise money for local charity Firefly who is a cancer awareness and support foundation.  The event raised almost £3000 towards Firefly transport and was supported by the Straco team.

Recruiting with added value

Whilst we hear constant reports on the continuing rise in unemployment, there is also a shortage of experienced workers resulting in the re-emergence of the ‘War for Talent‘.  Leading think-tanks are predicting an increased overlap between life and work with prospective candidates wanting a full pitch on a role including an overview of the work ethos, corporate social responsibilities and ethics.  It brings a new dimension to the traditional job specification that simply covers skill sets and background.

It calls for what is being termed as ‘employer branding‘ and involves the Recruiter becoming a brand ambassador for the clients in order to attract the very best talent.  From our own experience, lots of clients would prefer to skip the ‘job spec’ stage and don’t put enough emphasis on what is perhaps the most important stage of the recruitment process.  We are tackling this by visiting as many of our clients as we can when they have an active vacancy so that we can gain a better perspective of the role and the company preferring the role of recruitment partner.

Recruitment firm expands…….. Press Release

A recruitment company specialising in the creative retail sector has taken on several new members of staff at its’ Doncaster branch.
Straco International started up in Doncaster in 1997 where it now has 12 staff. Having also opened a second office in Leicester earlier in the year, growth is high on the agenda.
Marketing Director Julie Horseman commented; “We recruit throughout the UK and are currently seeing a huge surge in vacancies within our areas of specialism. We have tackled this head on with the recruitment of Kelly Diver as Recruiter for Design and Rob Fothergill as Recruiter for Retail Interiors.’’
‘’ We will look to expand the team further in coming months, recruiting for the Leicester Office and looking to open a third branch in Hertfordshire.’’
Expansion plans have also seen Michelle Pullen promoted to General Manager.
Straco prides its’ staff on having direct industry experience and knowledge. Managing Director Simon Horseman commented; ‘’finding the right balance of recruitment skills and customer service is very difficult and we have struggled over the years to find the ideal match. It’s great to get a good team in place and look to the future.’’

From left to right: Michelle Pullen, Kelly Diver, Kelly B, Rob Fothergill.

half marathon update!

5 and a half (and yes the half does matter) weeks until the half marathon and I am quite literally feeling the heat! After a whopping 10 miler last night my whole body is in agony and it is all I can do to walk from my desk to the kettle.
And just who is it out there recommending Compeed? With a blister the size of a small country, I was guarenteed that Compeed was the answer but frankly there is more stick on stamp.
5 (and a half) weeks seems a long way off and as somebody who generally find excercise offensive, I am not looking forward to the prospect of increasing 10 miles to 12.
I’m sure it will be worthwhile when the pennies for our Africa appeal come rolling in!

The bosses Birthday

We thought this was a rather fectching picture to adorn the Birthday cake with!

social networking – is it a fad?

I went on a course this week looking at Social Networks – reaching out to new customers.  Despite being in marketing, I have to admit I am a little sceptical about the whole social networking ‘thing’ and I have to say in particular – Twitter.

I was immensely surprised by some of the figures quoted:

• 2/3 of the global internet population visit social networks

• Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popular online activity – ahead of personal email!
• The number of UK individuals joining a social network is expected to treble from 9.6million to 27 million by 2012.

Clearly we can’t ignore the subject!  Already quite active on Linked In,  I don’t really think that as a business, Facebook is for us but linked In offers a new way to keep in touch with clients and candidates alike.  We think it’s useful to keep up to date with market sector news and to tout our vacancies shamelessly – after all, that’s why people are in touch with us.

I particularly liked this video link and would recommend that anybody who like me might be a little sceptical takes 5 minutes to watch it – compelling stuff!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng Is social media a fad?

Straco cricket team wins first game in the Supplementary Cup

The Straco cricket team has won it’s first game in the preliminary round of the Supplementary cup!   It might not be the Ashes but we’re getting behind our team and showing some support!  We’ll keep you posted on their progress………

Pity we can’t say the same about the other two company teams – Doncaster Rovers and Leeds United!