Friday 16 May 2014

Recruitment consultants and the recruitment industry

Good afternoon ladies and gentle readers, you'll notice things have been a tad quiet on the blog this month, this is down to me throwing myself into getting back into employment. If you'll indulge me for a moment you may remember a blog entry from last year where I went into detail on my ongoing adventures with HR and recruitment personnel, for this blog I'm going to go into depth on my ongoing relationship with a particular recruitment firm over the past few months. Due to the fact I don't want my potential employers reading this and suing me I'm going to refer to the company in question as Nile and the recruitment agency as Abacab.

In late January I was going about my daily routine working for Nile and I asked my area manager if I could speak to HR. I had some ongoing issues and I wanted to speak to someone officially about them (actually these issues weren't work related, they were personal and I felt it was only fair to inform them), the manager said he'd send a message to my gun later in the day when he could spare me. So towards the end of the shift I got a message on my gun to come down to the desk, stood there was a woman I'd never seen and she said she was taking me up to HR. So off we toddled up to the meeting room which was empty, I asked if it was her or someone else I was having this meeting with and she replied "oh I'm not apart of HR I'm a site rep for another agency, I just brought you up here to be released because your agencies site reps were on a break." Needless to say I was shocked, I'd been meaning to talk to HR about being made permanent after six months of target hitting brilliance from myself and here I was being let go.

After being released I hung around the canteen to have a word with the Abacab site rep, when he saw me he came over and said "don't worry, I was shocked when I saw you were on the release list too, your one of our top guys we're going to get you back in here asap and hopefully within six weeks so you can keep your bonus." Reluctantly I exited the FC after putting across how disappointed I was that no site reps from my agency told me, were not even at the meeting and didn't back me up when I stated my case to the Operations Manager over why I shouldn't be released. The following Monday I took the train to the Neath branch of Abacab to hand in my locker key, boots and hi viz. I had a chat with the recruitment consultants and made sure I was placed at the top of the rehire list then proceeded to sign on.

I then spent the next few months applying for various jobs always calling Abacab once a week. By 12/04/14 I was still looking for work and noticed an advert for Nile on line. I gave them a call again on the fourteenth, the girl I spoke to asked when I'd have my tests (drugs/aptitude/alcohol) done and I informed her I hadn't even been in for one. She then asked how I knew they were a recruiter for Nile and I informed her I had been registered with them for 18 months. We then scheduled my tests for two days time although for some reason which I wasn't told I'd have to go to the Swansea branch. So two days later I walked in to find I wasn't taking the tests and I was being registered as a brand new agent. I was then told that the Neath office had been closed down and for the past few months instead of sitting atop the rehire list I wasn't on the Swansea branch systems and my physical paper file was in a filing cabinet they'd had sent from the Neath office which hadn't even been opened yet. After proving I was an existing agent of there's they said they'd get my tests done asap which turned out to be fourteen days later on the 28th.

After these tests Abacab have one month to register and started with Nile, I gave them a ring to check for news twice the following week and eventually got a call on 09/05/14 saying I'd be starting the following Wednesday. To save money buying food on site I popped to the supermarket where my friend Tes goes and bought two weeks worth of work lunches. The following Monday I popped along to the job centre to sign off, mere yards from entering I got a phone call from Abacab. Apparently "Nile lowered the order they placed" and my spot on this weeks income had been cut. Rather than swear down the phone I laughed it off and then asked them to confirm I was now top of the rehire list and get the next spot in Nile that becomes available. Nile tell the agencies how many staff they'll be ordering, as I post this blog its just gone end of play Friday 16/05/14 and after a phone call I made to Abacab earlier this afternoon I have heard nothing. A week after being told I was employed I am unemployed and sadly nobody else is even responding to my applications.

I hope this goes some way to explaining my contempt and loathing for recruitment companies and recruitment consultants. I'm off to boot next doors dog up the bum, here's a video of Abacab by Genesis:


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