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Meet our Aerospace & Defence specialist, Michael Sweeting

Specialist Recruitment, Real People series.

Name: Michael Sweeting
Title: Aerospace & Defence Team Leader
Click here to contact Michael

We spoke to our Aerospace & Defence Team Leader, Michael, to discover how his team have helped clients with their specialist recruitment needs.

How do you ensure excellent service for your clients?

As team leader, my focus is filling our Aerospace & Defence client’s roles with the best possible talent in the market, within their timescales.

I can summarise our teams approach to excellence in 3 simple stages:

Understanding the client’s needs. I work closely with the clients Account Manager at First, gaining a full understanding of the requirement, the clients culture and who would be a great match for their business.
Applying market knowledge. Next I pass on that knowledge to my team, ensuring that the right recruitment consultant is working to fill that role, helping them to devise an effective candidate attraction strategy.
Communicating throughout the process. Finally, and importantly, I ensure that communication of progress is passed back to the Account Manager so they can keep our clients fully informed.

It’s a simple but effective approach, as I’ve seen the department grow and exceed our client’s expectations over the past few years.

How do you ensure you have the right industry knowledge?

An important part of building our sector’s market intelligence is by maintaining close relationships with our clients. Our Account Manager’s delve to the heart of our client’s priorities and challenges, upcoming projects and any skills shortages, and then my job is to apply that understanding to the attraction of the right talent.

We have regular candidate attraction discussions to tackle the issues and produce proactive solutions, working closely with our candidates to better understand the market. Our team regularly review industry news and networking discussions to ensure we are always leading the way in talent attraction. I have personally been involved in a number of benchmarking and marketing knowledge exercises with our clients to add value to our relationship.

What’s the most interesting project you’ve personally worked on since working in Aerospace & Defence?

I love a challenge so when we were sent 30 contract roles for an important Aerospace & Defence precision engineering project in the South West, our team jumped into action. The client required candidates including Inspectors, Manufacturing Engineers and Quality Engineers to name a few. Due to the strict timescale for delivery, we worked with our marketing team to devise a robust targeted attraction strategy, accessing our talent pool through personalised email, advertising, social media and networking. The results meant that we filled 80% of the roles for the client, whilst working within a competitive PSL.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Liverpool FC’s club historian.

Testimonials

"Their knowledge of the industry, our organisation and candidates is one of the leaders in the market. They have always been able to supply us with the right calibre of engineering candidate no matter what the discipline or regional location is.

"First Recruitment Group’s service delivery has always been to a high standard and the customer service provided by the team has ensured that First Recruitment Group will remain a preferred supplier of engineering personnel to WorleyParsons on our future engineering projects."

WorleyParsons

"In my dealings with First I have found them to be responsive, knowledgeable, quality-focused and engaging in their approach. I would have no hesitation in recommending the services of First Recruitment Group to any prospective customers."

Global Engineering Consultancy

"We have a good working relationship with First Recruitment and they always put every effort in to filling our positions whether it's on a permanent or contract basis. First have an honest and open approach to recruitment and their clients which is refreshing. First offer an excellent payroll service which compliments their overall delivery service to MWH Treatment."

MWH Treatment

“As the biggest services supplier to the nuclear industry our demand for personnel is significant, when I have an urgent requirement I know I can rely on First Recruitment to rise to the challenge.

“As a preferred supplier for temporary labour and a fundamental part of our permanent recruitment process we get the right people at the right time. Whether its highly technical/specialist resources or back office support personnel the approach is to the same high standard.”

Veolia Nuclear Solutions

"It’s great to work with a recruitment agency we trust. The team at First Recruitment Group are friendly and straight talking and they continue to provide an excellent service. We’re proud to still be working with them after 20 years."

Simon Carves Engineering Ltd

“There is nothing negative about the service that we’ve received from First. Without fail they have produced positive feedback. The fact that they have placed a diverse range of skills from PA's to Engineers, just goes to show that they have the core skills, intelligence, and initiative that make them great recruiters, and preferred partners.”

Multi-Sector Client

"I have had the pleasure of working with First Recruitment Group over recent years and we have formed a great working relationship. Their understanding of our exacting requirements is outstanding.

"The First team are highly experienced and knowledgeable across the recruitment spectrum and operate in the manner you would expect of a professional outfit of their stature. Their attention to detail and approach is faultless and their commitment and drive has helped our business with unique, complex and difficult recruitment requirements.

"Sarah, our Account Manager, is an incisive thinker as well as hardworking, diligent and reliable and has an extremely helpful and flexible approach to her work. This reflects in her team and with their ability to communicate at all levels in an honest and trusted consultative manner and gives us great faith in their ability to identify candidates who can help us to drive forward and achieve our business goals.

"I have no hesitation in recommending First as a recruitment partner and feel they would be worthy of selection for any engineering or manufacturing business looking for an intelligent and innovative solution."

Nuvia

“I have worked with First Recruitment Group as my partner of choice across a number of large and challenging Oil & Gas projects internationally over recent years.

“First are a high performing business who are built on credibility, honesty, expertise.

“As we push the frontiers of projects and move in to more and more challenging and locations, First will continue to be my partner of choice to help us deliver our projects with confidence.”

TechnipFMC

“We have required a number of Quality Assurance/Quality Control candidates within the Nuclear Industry. Since early 2016 First Recruitment Group have provided a number of QA/QC professionals in locations across the UK.

“We have been very pleased with both the quality of supply and the customer service demonstrated and will continue to use their professional services in the future.”

Bureau Veritas

Read all Testimonials

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