A Day in the life: Jai Reynolds, Recruitment Consultant at Fircroft

Background

Born and raised in Aberdeenshire, I lived in Kintore as a child then moved to Alford where I attended Alford Academy. After finishing 6th year I went on to study Law & Business Management at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen whilst also working part time in a jeweller. I decided I wanted to make a move into an office based role that would provide me with longevity, progression and development and managed to secure a temporary position supporting Recruitment Consultants for a well-known agency and really enjoyed the variety and challenge of the role including communicating with clients and candidates, travelling for site visits and training and working across different sectors.

Company

For many in the Oil & Gas industry Fircroft will be a familiar name. But for those who don’t know, Fircroft has, over the past 50 years, been recruiting Technical & Engineering professionals to work for the biggest names in the energy, process, power and automotive industries.

Starting off above a hairdresser in Sale near Manchester, Fircroft has certainly come a long way and is now a $1 billion turnover business, with over 900 staff and 60 offices spread across 45 countries. Here in Aberdeen we’ve been supporting the North Sea Oil & Gas industry since 1980 and today we’re diversifying into the rapidly growing renewables and clean energy markets. As our industry changes, Fircroft is changing with it.

Itinerary of average day?

There really is no average day in recruitment! I work with very experienced Account Managers and Contract Service Co-Ordinators in our Aberdeen office as well as our HR, Payroll, Legal, Compliance and IT teams who are based in our Head Office in Warrington who all provide support on our day to day recruitment business to ensure it flows as efficiently as possible. We all communicate with clients and contractors alike to ensure they are receiving the best experience possible.

As the Engineering & Technical Recruiter for Fircroft Aberdeen, my role is to ensure we are servicing all of our clients to be the best of our ability, finding excellent candidates and providing comprehensive support in terms of providing personnel, but also acting in a consultative manner in the form of benchmarking rates, providing guidance on IR35 and keeping up to date with the recent north sea projects.

What does your job involve and who are your clients?

My job as recruiter is to get to the heart of our clients requirements and provide the best solution and outcome possible. This includes providing a consultative approach to finding out what they need best to support their organisation and how we can provide this to them within their required time frame to ensure their business flow isn’t impacted.

From a candidate perspective I qualify candidates to find out what they are looking for in their next role, this includes; finding out about their current role and circumstances, their personal and professional goals, what drives them and what they deem to be essential for them in their next role. This allows me to marry their wants and needs to a client’s wants and needs to ensure their next role has longevity and gives them the satisfaction they are looking for.

All within this process, I set up interviews, ensure candidates are kept up-to-date on the status of their applications, provide feedback on applications and interviews, advertise jobs and keep active and engaged with LinkedIn.

What are your biggest challenges?

IR35 is possibly one of our biggest challenges at the moment but also one of our greatest strengths.  Fircroft set up a project management team to deal with IR35 and come up with a robust and strong solution for our clients, offering them advice and guidance during this period of significant change.
With our new IR35 expert partners Fircroft are very proud of our IR35 solution and are enjoying working in collaboration with our clients on this and in some instances completely project managing the process for them. It has been a challenge raising market awareness of the reform and dispelling some of the common myths that exist about IR35 in the market, we have been running a lot of contractor and client engagement sessions around this.

Our hopes are that all the positive steps are clients are introducing ahead of the reform will really strengthen the contracting community

What do you enjoy least?

Recruitment is an emotional job which requires you to be very level headed and professional as well as being empathetic. One thing I enjoy least about my role is letting a candidate know they have been unsuccessful for a role they have interviewed for, especially when it is a role which means a lot to them and have invested a lot of time in!

Our role is also not your usual 9-5, we are constantly working whether it be searching LinkedIn for that golden candidate, responding to emails or setting up interviews. As more and more of our clients are  working on a flexible basis and can be emailing us at 9pm, we have to ensure that we are available to relay this information to our candidates as soon as possible so as not to impact workflow.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Definitely the satisfaction of placing a candidate in a role! A lot of hard work goes into the recruitment process which is unique for every client and role, so when you manage to get it all right it’s a very fulfilling and it’s great to see the candidate and client so happy! I always wanted to work in a role that helped people and required a lot of communication and recruitment does just that.

We work with a number of the biggest operator and service companies globally which means there is always lots to keep us busy! We also have the opportunity to travel for work and have secondments to other international locations to develop our skills both personally and professionally.

We also get to attend some excellent events such as the OGUK Awards, Offshore Wind UK as well as visiting clients and getting to check out some of their state of the art offices.  I also get to travel quite a bit for work and the commission isn’t bad either!

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

Joining Fircroft – cheesy I know but it’s true! Ever since I entered the recruitment industry I always had a goal to work in Fircroft due to its longevity and establishment within the market globally as well as in the UK and more specifically Aberdeen. Now I’m one of 2 consultants who specialise Engineering & Technology both onshore and offshore for the North East of Scotland Oil & Gas industry.

How is your company evolving to ensure it delivers value to its clients?

Fircroft may be half a century old, but we’re certainly keeping up with a rapidly changing world. As I mentioned above Fircroft is exploring new markets – in particular the renewables and clean energy space which is seeing a lot of attention from traditional Oil & Gas companies such as Shell and BP and state-owned companies such as Equinor.

Not only is Fircroft exploring new markets, but also new services. We recognise that many of our clients are always seeking to reduce their capital expenditure and to secure leaner more innovative services. So, we are looking at offering a broader range of services beyond recruitment such as integrated project management and an array of training and oilfield support services. No doubt you’ll hear more about these new services soon!

What plans does your company have for the future and how do you see your role evolving?

Moving into new markets such as renewables and developing new services are certainly part of Fircroft’s plans for the future. I know that we have very ambitious plans to continue our growth in Aberdeen and develop our permanent placement and executive search business in a more in-depth way. We’re also examining opportunities beyond Aberdeen in other parts of Scotland to take advantage of the country’s buoyant construction and infrastructure sectors.

Read More: https://www.oilandgasvisionjobs.com/jobs-magazine