Manafucturing giant Merloni Elettrodomestici UK has taken to the streets, quite literally, in a recruitment drive to fill vacancies at its new call centre in Peterborough.
The team set up a stall in the city centre and spent an entire day speaking to potential new employees, handing out more than 250 application forms and speaking to more than 750 people from a range of ages.
Call centre managers Gordon Wedgwood and Steve Hodgson manned the exhibition stand for the duration, along with training and recruitment manager Maureen Matheau-Raven and James Learmont, of the contact centre.
Mr Wedgwood said: “It’s good to go into the city centre and talk to the individuals. We got some really positive feedback from it too. It’s good to get out there and meet the population in the locality.”
He explained Merloni has 30 to 40 full and part-time positions to fill within the new call centre over the next couple of months.
Mr Wedgwood added: “From our point of view it’s really good that we are still recruiting in the Peterborough area and growing the business locally rather than moving operations out to somewhere like India.
“We are also trying to work in partnership with businesses in Greater Peterborough, where they may be shedding staff from a similar environment.
“It was great to go out and see the level of interest in our business locally. It almost allowed us to handpick our own prospective employees.”
It is the first time they have undertaken such an exercise themselves rather than using external recruitment agencies.
In fact the demand was so great that the team had to extend the opening hours of the exhibition stand to cope with the interest being expressed.
They also worked in partnership with Peterborough City Council, local media, and the Adult Education Centre.
From Peterborough Today