Welcome to the latest instalment of our You SCANtec series! This time we caught up with Senior Principal Consultant Paul Bradley, who is a Senior Principal Consultant within our FMCG division.
We discussed what he likes about working at Scantec, how his role has changed and how he was able to work towards his recent promotion through a career map and six-month promotional plan.
Welcome to You SCANtec, Paul! Tell us a little bit about your role at Scantec.
I’m a Senior Principal Consultant and I work in our FMCG division, so I cover predominantly food and packaging recruitment. Within this we cover five main disciplines - commercial, supply chain, production, engineering and technical. I recruit across all of these disciplines, and even though we have an area that we each focus more on, between us as a team we cover all five.
So I might get a commercial role in for a National Account Manager, for example, and it won’t necessarily be my specialism, so I’d pass that on to Lucy in my team. I mainly work in the manufacturing and production, engineering and technical markets, as well as a few commercial HR roles and some supply chain roles too. I recruit for perm roles at all levels.
How did you come to work at Scantec?
Before I joined Scantec, I’d worked at another recruitment company for eight and a half years, and my partner and I wanted to start a family so I wanted to find a job closer to home. I didn’t know much about the business before I came to work here, but one thing that really attracted me to work here at the beginning was being able to work in an autonomous environment. Plus, when I looked on LinkedIn, there were so many team members who had worked here for years and years, which is quite rare in recruitment.
It was made really easy for me to transition from my previous temp role into the perm role I am in now. It was mainly the lingo I had to get used to, and mapping out the different levels of roles within the markets I was going to be specialising in. The team members are so experienced and that really helped me to develop as well, because I learnt so much from them and could feed off what was going on around me.
You did temp recruiting before working at Scantec, but moved into a perm role when you joined us. How did you find that?
When I did temp, I always thought ‘I could never do perm, it’s too slow moving’. Temp recruiting is quite fast and things tend to move at a million miles an hour! However, when I wanted to start a family I wanted something that was a little bit more stable and within my control, and I’ve found that in perm recruitment - it’s a bit steadier and predictable, which I needed. I really prefer this type of recruitment model now.
It was so fast-paced working in industrial temp recruitment and I used to get phone calls late at night and first thing in the morning, and I loved that at the time. But by moving into perm, that changed and I needed that change to give me a better work-life balance. Plus, as soon as I joined I had a career development plan in place which I thought was great.
What else do you like about working at Scantec?
Probably the career development opportunities, because everyone has the ability to progress and work towards their next promotion while they work here. I also really like that it’s a family-owned business. I’d previously only worked for really large, national corporate companies, with a lot of management levels and a lot of complicated processes when it came to progressing your career. When I came to Scantec, it just felt like a much friendlier environment.
It’s changed a lot since I started, and I like the fact that you get a lot of freedom. Everyone is always rewarded for their hard work, the commission structure is brilliant. Since our new Ops Director was hired, there’s been lots of positive changes internally and there’s an exciting business strategy in place and cultural changes, which everyone seems to be happy with.
What benefits do you like the most?
Probably the commission structure! It’s the best I’ve ever seen in the recruitment industry, it’s very competitive. There’s also an annual trip that you can qualify for; I’ve just been on my first one to Puerto Banus which was amazing.
Also being able to work from home is one of the main benefits that I like, it just allows for a better work-life balance than having to be in the office every single day. I’m only up the road, but just having the flexibility to do the hybrid working model and have three days at home every week is perfect for me.
What would you say to someone who is looking for someone who is considering coming to work at Scantec?
If it was someone who had a lot of recruitment experience in a specific area and wanted to progress their career, Scantec is a great place to take your career to the next level. The recognition and reward schemes here are brilliant, as well as the commission that I’ve previously mentioned, but it’s definitely the ideal place for someone to develop their recruitment career.
Similarly, if someone without experience wants to start their recruitment career from scratch, Scantec is a great place to do that too. There’s training and progression opportunities available for all levels.
Since you joined, how has your career developed?
When I joined Scantec my role and job title were different. I was a Managing Consultant, and then switched to Principal Consultant - in March 2022 I was promoted to Senior Principal Consultant. When you’re at managing level here you manage a team, or you can go down the high-billing route which is what I did when I switched to the Principal side of things.
To get my promotion, I went on a six month promotional plan between October 2021 to March 2022, which I passed and was then promoted. Having a career map with details of exactly what you need to achieve during your promotional plan is brilliant, and it makes everything completely clear so you know what you need to do to get to the next level.
A lot of it you are doing day to day anyway, you just need to ensure you are on top of everything and organised - for example, getting feedback from your clients and candidates. Other things will take you a few weeks or even the full six months to achieve, but it makes you put the work in to achieve it when you know what the outcome will be.
Build and develop your dream career at Scantec
Here at Scantec, we are passionate about finding and developing the best talent for our business.
If you’re new to recruitment or an experienced recruiter and want to learn about building a career with us, we want to hear from you. Find out more or contact Andrea Davison at andread@scantec.co.uk today.
