Doug Robertson tells OGV Jobs about his new recruitment business..

After a successful career in Agency Recruitment, Doug Robertson has returned to his native Aberdeen and established ie. Resources (Named after his daughters Isla & Edie) enabling local candidates and clients to benefit from his extensive experience within the Energy sector.

A respected Recruitment Leader with more than 22 years of experience sourcing and managing Engineering and Technical resources within the International Oil & Gas Industry. Doug has held several Senior Director level positions within one of the world’s premier Technical Recruitment Businesses, including that of Group Recruitment Director where he was responsible for managing recruitment delivery across the world and Client Account Director, establishing and maintaining key relationships within major Oil & Gas Operating Companies.

As well as holding an extensive knowledge and network within the UKCS, Doug also has significant international exposure with direct experience of working in and assisting with the establishment of recruitment businesses in Russia, Nigeria, Brazil, India and North America. He has recently spent three years in Calgary, in Canada where he was successful in turning around a struggling operation and establishing a diverse and sustainable Recruitment Business in a very challenging market.

Speaking to OGV recently Doug outlined the vision behind the new venture:

“Since returning to Aberdeen last year, after three years in Canada, it was clear that the Oil & Gas recruitment market in the UK had changed beyond recognition.”

“With the downturn came a plentiful supply of experienced personnel and with the access to candidates via job boards and social media, Internal recruitment teams were easily able to fill the majority or roles themselves. If you combine this with the cost constraints that were imposed from the low oil price, this meant that there was an obvious market reluctance to see the value in paying professional recruiters for their services. “

“As with all areas of the supply chain recent years have seen considerable margin pressure within the recruitment industry. One result has been that the larger agencies have accepted lower margins in return for high volume, with the focus turning more to a transactional business providing payroll management rather than a professional recruitment service.”

“Both external agencies and client recruitment teams will undoubtedly continue to form part of the future recruitment mix, however with market conditions improving and impending changes to IR35 legislation I believe that the time is right to offer the market an alternative and complimentary services that address the issues and concerns that clients and candidates have been voicing to me in recent months, specifically:

• Impending skills shortages and pressures on rates, as activity and demand for key skills and expertise increases.
• It is becoming increasingly harder for clients to both attract and retain the core staff they need to take advantage of improving market conditions.
• Requirements for additional resources and the flexibility to deliver projects whilst continuing to manage overheads.
• The potential exposure for clients who continue to utilise Limited Company Contractors, under the impending April 2020 changes to off-payrolling rules in the UK Private sector.

At ie. Resources we have come up with a flexible business model, that has seen us working initially with a small and select cross section of clients and offering a range of services aimed at addressing the aforementioned points.

Clients to date include some local Aberdeen based specialist technical businesses, an International Commissioning Consultancy and an exciting strategic Partnership with Aberdeen business Cadherent, an established and respected specialist in Engineering Design, Laser Scanning, Surveying, Animation and 3D Modelling.

Tailored service offerings include a combination of:

• COLLABORTATIVE RECRUITMENT SUPPORT: working alongside clients existing recruitment processes and with all stakeholders to ensure that they identify, attract and retain the right candidate at the right price
• STRATEGIC CONSULTANCY: working with client to review and update their existing recruitment processes and procedures, social media utilisation, improve their candidate attraction and retention, strategic business development and account management
• ENHANCED PROJECT SUPPORT: providing clients with a project specific, fully flexible, added value solution in response to the impending changes to IR35 legislation.

To hear more about the collaborative and compliant recruitment solutions being offered by ie Resources, please contact Doug directly:

Email: doug@ieresources.co.uk

Phone: 07493 058454