Recruiting sophistication

UK fresh produce companies face greater competition for the best talent than ever before and the entire industry needs to invest more in professional recruitment, development and personnel management if it is to attract and keep the best players in the future, says Louise Beales of fresh produce recruitment specialist Tailor Made Resources. “These are watershed years in many ways,” she says. “Competition between suppliers both within the UK and from outside sources is higher than ever and every fresh produce company has to make sure it is armed with the best people it can find.”

With a move to larger growing enterprises, automation and a general decline in numbers working in horticulture, the industry is in danger of regarding quality of key people as secondary to technology development and cost management, she believes.

“One of the biggest problems facing fresh produce businesses is a shortage of top people entering the industry and to a certain degree we must accept this is self-inflicted. If the industry believes good people are no longer important then the image we present to the outside world and anybody interested in horticulture will be wholly unappealing as a career choice.”

The irony is that this is happening at a time when other food sectors are doing much to improve their image and convey to people that they offer exciting work in a progressive environment with real career prospects, she says.

“Fresh produce is a uniquely challenging and exciting area. Where else do you get the same combination of marketing, innovation, competition, environmental issues and commercial pace. But not everybody sees it that way.”

The implications of category mangement to the industry are a good illustration of this. Technical excellence, customer service and price competitiveness are no longer enough to get to the top of the listings. Retailers increasingly want to deal with suppliers who have a strategic view of the fresh food business and who bring real innovation to the table in terms of NPD, supply chain management, finance and marketing.

“In essence, retailers are looking for suppliers with ideas on how they can move the category on, and ultimately this is a people issue,” says Beales.

“The fresh produce industry must realise it is in direct competition with other sectors of the food industry, and indeed industry at large, to bring these people and management skills into their businesses. Without top skills, it is difficult to see how we can compete with other countries in the future and improve our bargaining power in the overall food chain.”

At industry level, an initiative to present horticulture in a more positive light is sorely needed. But there must also be a genuine commitment to ongoing training and personal development at all levels within horticultural and fresh produce businesses.

“Human resource (HR) management as a subject needs to be taken much more seriously than at the moment,” says Beales. “As technology and marketing routes become increasingly sophisticated, we must be able to attract the right people into our businesses in the first place. Then train them up and keep them enthusiastic about the industry in terms of their own career development,” she says. “It is much easier and more cost effective to invest in finding, developing and rewarding the right individual than constantly looking for new people and trying to achieve this as cheaply as possible. Imagine what this approach does to your reputation as an employer as well.”

To achieve the steep change necessary, businesses must be more open to receiving professional help in the areas of recruitment or training and senior managers and executives must be prepared to start thinking more creatively about their own organisation’s HR needs.

“It is no good benchmarking ourselves against others in the immediate horticultural industry - we need to aspire to management standards achieved in the best industry sectors. Furthermore, we must appreciate that to bring best practice into senior levels within horticulture, we will have to look outside our immediate spheres of operation,” says Beales.

“Only 50 or so pure horticultural graduates enter the industry each year anyway, but the best marketing, financial and logistics skills actually exist outside the horticultural sector.”

The majority of management skills are directly transferable from one industry sector to another. Although there will always be a need for specific technical and practical skills, increasingly the areas that can really make a difference are generic ones.

“The industry has to seek new approaches actively and bring in new skills such as vision, planning, listening, teamwork, human relations, leadership and motivation,” says Beales. “But above all else, a return to a culture that respects the critical role of people in the industry must be made. Good people are the catalysts that make all change happen, they make the right decisions and develop commercial opportunities. But this can only be achieved if we have an environment that encourages good people in the first place and provides them with opportunities and resources to make it happen.”

A recurring theme in produce recruitment is that of image, says Peter Hunt, director of recruitment specialists MorePeople. “If, for instance, you are an up-and-coming graduate, you may feel you are coming in to an industry where there is a lack of instantly recognisable brands,” he says. “This is not unique to produce, but there is a tendency to think that this is not a dynamic or sophisticated industry whereas in reality, the rewards are there for those who can achieve.”

MorePeople is able to differentiate itself from other recruiters by encompassing a broader focus and emphasising people management. To combat the sometimes negative view of the industry says Hunt, companies can form links with colleges and the local press and encourage people into the sector with open days. Although there can be difficulties with generic products in the sense of who will pay for promotions.

Persuading potential candidates to overcome their preconceptions of the industry is not the only hurdle, says Hunt. “There is a marked shortage of people coming through from a horticultural point of view. The number of courses has declined and that makes things more difficult but it does mean there may be more scope for technical people from eastern Europe to gain positions, but that is not as relevant in customer-facing positions such as importing.”

Good horticultural candidates are always in demand, Hunt continues, although with consolidation in the industry there is less scope for commercial people. “The challenges are there but we do find that the more adept people are, the more transferable they are - although the speed of the produce industry makes it very different to a lot of other areas.”

The wholesale market is a very different proposition and is fairly static and very localised when it comes to recruitment. “There is a large proportion of workers who are over the age of 45,” says Hunt, “and the early hours put younger people off, so there is a definite need to attract more people into the sector. The people who are selling are getting older and so are the ones who are doing the buying. The structure of the industry means that people are always talking about going off-market and there is a trend towards greater emphasis on deliveries so in that sense, there is less need to get up early. Ultimately, there will always be a need for early hours and the same applies in foodservice - it is inherent in the nature of the business.”

Redfox was formed more than two years ago, and is now a team of six people, majoring in the fresh and fine food sectors. It sources directors through to graduates for market leading companies and the bulk of its work is confidential advertising and researching within the sector on behalf of a client to find the best candidates. It is also launching an HR and Training services business under the Redfox banner, with a known HR industry professional, as requested by its clients. “Our clients are becoming more demanding as to the type of candidates they wish us to source, especially so on the commercial and technical aspects,” says director Max MacGillivray. “With increasing demands from the retailer, suppliers have to have individuals coming into their businesses with an existing track record and the ability to hit the ground running, to add value straight away. Training (or lack of) is another issue we are regularly coming across. Clients need to train and motivate their staff, but it is very difficult to do so in such a high-pressure commercial sector with constraints on time and margins.”

The industry is definitely facing a lack of skills, he continues. “There are not the individuals coming into the sector from colleges and universities,” says MacGillivray. “This is also compounded by the reluctance of some companies to look at individuals from other related sectors. These individuals could bring potentially bigger growth to a client, but would require a longer period to bed in. Clients are not prepared to take that associated risk, or don’t have the margin returns to fund that type of investment. It is an ever-increasing problem.”

MacGillivray does not believe the image of the industry is outdated. “There have been some excellent marketing campaigns recently, for instance Capespan, and Picota cherries,” he says. “But, the general consumer still does not have an understanding of where the product comes from, and how it is brought to the supermarket shelf. The market opportunities are huge for the sector, but they have to be paid for. Margins are not allowing this to occur in the short term.”

Grade One is a specialist executive recruitment company. Its approach combines a depth of industry understanding with a dynamic attitude to searching for and delivering the best. “We are very much geared towards the produce industry,” says managing director Victoria Gipps, “and we also deal with cut flowers and plants. This is one of the fastest growing sectors in fresh produce, and we are finding there is potential on the added-value side. Whether it is trimmed or florette vegetables, there is a need for convenience and that is where the business is.”

Because of this, there is an increasing need for candidates with high-care experience. “Factories have exacting standards for ready-to-eat produce,” says Gipps, “so there needs to be a good knowledge of hygiene. High care is where the money is made and where the high salaries are.”

There are all kinds of issues in the produce recruitment sector, says Gipps. “We deal with a huge breadth of clients from cut flowers to shredded lettuce but we find that in the produce industry, recruitment goes in waves,” she says. “And as the expectations of the supermarkets increase then so candidates must have the appropriate knowledge. Nowadays, companies want their employees to have technical expertise, commercial acumen and to have charisma. That’s the blend that is expected, and that is what sells.”

According to Matt Steel-Jessop, managing director of HR software specialist P&A Software Solutions, maintaining a good relationship with job applications is of key importance. This can be achieved thanks to the benefits of on-line recruitment. “If you have ever been unemployed, or made redundant, you will be familiar with the roller-coaster of emotions that arrives every day with the postman,” says Steel-Jessop.

“It is not necessarily the letter of polite regrets that leads to depression; at least you tried, and at least they had the courtesy to acknowledge your CV. What hurts far more is the big black hole of not knowing; that creeping disappointment that overtakes you when companies fail even to acknowledge you exist.”

From the other side of the equation, many organisations find themselves fielding dozens or hundreds of speculative letters of application and the resources of time and effort can mount to intolerable levels - and that is before any advertisements have even been placed. “The inevitable response is no response,” says Steel-Jessop. “Eventually it simply becomes impossible to reply to everyone.”

To view this problem as merely an HR issue is to take a very blinkered approach. Prospective employees are often also consumers of products and even potential shareholders of the companies where they seek employment.

“They will form an opinion based on many things, not just high-profile advertisements and expensive marketing campaigns,” says Steel-Jessop. “A simple thing like the lack of a rejection letter can make the difference between someone having a high opinion of a company and utter contempt. So communication with job-seekers should be an integral part of the public relations of any organisation - in the same way that existing employees are informed of what’s going on.

“Fortunately our electronic age means it is far easier to solve the problem of sackfuls of unsolicited mail. For companies that find themselves weighed down by traditional recruitment methods, internet-enabled systems provide a real alternative. What’s more, job seekers are increasingly turning to the internet to access employment information and to post their CVs. The whole process can be incorporated into one seamless and semi-automated electronic operation where the benefits accrue not only to the organisation doing the recruiting but to the job seeker as well.”

The most vital element of an electronic recruitment strategy is the adoption of on-line application as the preferred method. This means that all enquirers are encouraged to visit the company website where details can be submitted on-line. Such a strategy immediately removes one large but essential administrative task - that of data entry. It is to be hoped - although not assumed that typographical errors are less likely when the applicant themselves is inputting the information.

“Far more usable information can be collected from each applicant using multi-page application forms, and information volunteered in this way is a great deal easier to manage,” says Steel-Jessop. “There is no opportunity on-line to scribble in the margin. Drop-down menus that only allow pre-determined answers, and multi-choice tick box options mean that the resultant data can be searched and sorted efficiently and accurately. Of course there are still opportunities for applicants to include paragraphs of their own.

“The use of on-line killer-questions is also an extremely effective way to pre-shift candidates and deal with time-wasters. For instance, if a position requires the possession of a full driving licence, anyone responding no to the question can be eliminated early in the process. An auto-responding e-mail can be sent to the applicant informing them kindly that they are, unfortunately, unsuitable for the position. This use of personalised auto-responders ensures that applicants are informed of the progress of their application at all times. The essential message that the applicant gets is that the company cares, that it appreciates the application. It is this element of an electronic process that can bring about a revolution in the HR department and more widely where line-managers get involved in the selection process.”

So the benefits of such systems are not only kinder to applicants but can save vast amounts of time and resources for HR departments. An on-line system integrated with a recruitment software package will enable management of the entire process with the minimum of staff and resources and is likely to bring significant cost savings. Where applications are made on-line it can be assumed that communication can be predominantly by e-mail. And where e-mail is used in place of printed letters, the costs and time taken in administration shrink by significant degrees.

Even if the job seeker is unsuccessful, says Steel-Jessop, their opinion of the organisation is likely to be unchanged at the least, and probably enhanced. For companies with really joined-up thinking, where it is appropriate, there are all sorts of additional opportunities, such as, sending marketing messages with emails, special offers or opt-in newsletter offers. “Today’s job seeker may be tomorrow’s customer and being overloaded with applications is no longer bad news,” says Steel-Jessop. “It can be turned into a positive and extremely advantageous opportunity to maintain good relations and build a reputation worth having.”

Sometimes, recruitment agencies can go further than simply recruiting. MorePeople, for instance, places its emphasis firmly on people management. “This is especially relevant now that businesses are coping with the effects of consolidation,” says Hunt. “MorePeople was started in January 2001 to meet the need for a pragmatic recruitment solution in the sector and our vision is to be the people solution business. We recognise that recruitment is not always the best way to achieve objectives - sometimes there are training and development issues as well.”

MorePeople launched its training and development side last year and it has already taken off. It also runs monthly leadership courses to give people core skills.

“Potentially, if you’ve got good people in the workplace then you want to keep them there,” Hunt concludes. “Recruitment is not always the only solution and that is how MorePeople has evolved. Getting the maximum value possible out of recruitment is the key thing. If we do this correctly, we can add value and it seems to have worked - the image of recruitment is much better than it was.”