We don’t just have to sit behind our desks!

posted by Sara Metcalfe
30 October 2015

We are the Resourcing Team for the UK Geography. Our role is primarily to find great, talented people to join our business in a variety of roles. Within retail, our focus is to help with the recruitment process for Store Managers. However, we also assist with the recruitment of Assistant Managers, Team Leaders and Sales Team Members. From an HQ perspective, we help to recruit across all the different business areas: Finance, HR, Buying and Merchandising, Marketing etc. We are very lucky as we have lots of specialist and niche roles within our business to recruit for!

We spend a fair amount of time with our internal customers or the recruiting managers. We’ll meet with them to understand their needs and to really get under the skin of the job roles, rather than just being given a job title and a job description. We ensure that we fully understand their department, strategies, what they are working on, and what would make the role exciting to somebody joining that department. As well as learning a bit more about the team structures and characters within the team, to make sure that the people we are attracting and then recruiting not only meet all the technical competencies required but also fit in to the team dynamic. We look at various attraction methods and we consider different advertising options: online publications, job boards, social media, blogs etc. We also consider if it’s the sort of thing which we feel we can do some proactive head-hunting for, utilising the likes of LinkedIn. We’ll also explore internal options if the managers think that there could be some candidates interested internally. We get the roles live on our website, job boards and social media and also spend some time proactively searching for candidates. When the candidates start to apply, we will spend a good amount of time thoroughly screening all the applications that come through against the criteria given to us by the recruiting managers in our initial brief. We have an initial conversation with the candidates, a bit of a qualification call, to make sure they understand the role they have applied for and whether they are happy with the location and salary and to find out what appeals to them about our business. Then we put the shortlist of candidates through to the manager and suggest who we think should come in for interview and assessment with the line managers. We can help to schedule interviews or arrange for psychometric or aptitude testing. After all this is completed, we can also help to manage the offer process.  

Another great thing about our job is being able to get out and about and in the stores. We don’t just have to sit behind our desks! We are encouraged to go to the stores, to fully understand all the roles we are recruiting for and to meet the area and regional managers. If there is a store that is performing really well, that’s only down to their people, so we go and observe them and find out what makes them so great. We can then use this information in our campaigns to try and find like-minded people.

Something we do that is great fun is supporting our stores with recruitment, either for store openings or particularly high-volume recruitment, by running assessment centres in their areas. So far, we have done this for the new store openings in Gloucester Quays and Rugby. It was really successful; we invited 32 candidates along to the day and ran a series of exercises, group discussions and one to one interviews. We were then able to recruit the full teams for those stores in one day! Furthermore, all the feedback from our assessors and candidates was really positive!

Clarks is a great place to work as we have so much heritage and history, which you can really feel when you are here. At the same time, we’re a really forward thinking and innovative company which lends itself to a really nice balance.  From a people perspective, we do have a lot of colleagues in the business who are so passionate and dedicated to our brand. Everyone genuinely wants to see the company succeed so you do feel like you are part of a little family! There are loads of great things about Clarks! The company is really mindful of the work-life balance, which is great as you can have the big job but still be able to get home to your family. Progression from within is actively encouraged. The fact that we fill between 45-50% of jobs internally really shows that we develop and help talented people to progress in their careers. We have so many people here that started as a part-time shop assistant and have gone on to really great things. It’s such a great Brand to work for!

The UK Resourcing Team

Sara, Tracy, Katherine, Donna and Wendy.

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