About: Andy Szklarek

Andrew commenced his career in recruitment in November 2003 joining as a Trainee Recruitment Consultant. Andrew was initially tasked with establishing and developing our Commercial and Quantity Surveying delivery offering to the Midlands, North of England & Scotland.

Andrew, through his hard work, dedication, attention to quality delivery and service worked his way up our company hierarchy to be promoted to Director in October 2010 and is a Project Resource success story. Andrew currently manages the service delivery to employers and job seekers throughout the Midlands, North of England & Scotland from our regional office in Solihull, West Midlands. Andrew is looking to continue growing his Solihull team and their service capability, whilst also looking to open and establish our North West office from July 2011.

“Welcome to my page. I hope that you find what I have to say of interest and I look forward to blogging with you.”

Website
http://www.project-resource.co.uk

UK construction maintains recovery according to The Guardian

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9 May 2012

Phillip Inman, economics correspondent for the guardian, reported on Wednesday 2nd May 2012 that the UK construction industry maintains its recovery, according to financial data provider Markit.

The Markit/ Cips purchasing managers index (PMI) reported strong new orders and a rise in employment during April as growth fell back only marginally to 55.8 in April from 56.7 in the previous month.

Markit data shows much of the boost to output came from an upsurge in commercial building and civil engineering during the spring which is expected to continue through the summer months.

Commercial building expanded by 57.7 while civil engineering activity hit 56.5.

However, much of this activity is in London and the south-east where the Olympics, Crossrail and the development of King’s Cross are in full swing while projects like the Westfield shopping centre in Bradford remain on the drawing board. Read the rest of this entry »

Project Resource supports May Gurney’s Railway Children 3 Peaks challenge

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15 Jun 2011

I am very happy to announce that Project Resource has chosen to sponsor two teams from May Gurney who are taking part in the 3 peaks challenge in aid of the “Railway Children” charity which aims to help get children off the street in both the UK and abroad.

The two teams will be attempting this challenge between the 23^rd June and the 25^th June and it involves climbing the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales (the equivalent of 3 half marathons I believe!). More details on the challenge can be found here

As a Director at Project Resource I was very happy to speak to Lee Hermann at May Gurney and confirm our companies support for this event. Lee has been referred to Project Resource via the excellent work my colleague Tina Pardoe has been doing in supplying staff to May Gurney on a freelance/contract basis.

I will update you on the results of the challenge at the end of the month – good luck Lee and the team!

You can still sponsor Lee and his team via the following link

Free Breakfast Seminars taking place throughout the UK

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7 Jun 2011

As some of you are already aware we hosted our first 2011 breakfast seminar in Reading on the 7^th April at the Forbury Hotel.

The seminars are a FREE event hosted to offer value to you and your business. We invite a guest speaker who presents on a topic that is relevant to you. Our most recent events have involved Nicky Coffin discussing “How to spot a top performer by their values”

Due to the success of this event we are hosting an event in London on the 24^th August at Holborn Bars which already has over 50 confirmed attendees (contact me if you are interested in attending) and now we are starting to plan the next event for Birmingham

I wanted to get your thoughts/opinion on a suitable venue to host this kind of event. Should we look for a Birmingham city centre location? Or a location near the airport/NEC to make travel much easier for our clients based throughout the Midlands?

Am really keen to get your thoughts. I will keep you posted on locations as we select them!

Countdown to our 3rd regional office opening in the North West

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7 Apr 2011

This week has seen the next step in the process of opening our 3^rd regional office in the North West with a new member of staff commencing employment with Project Resource.

I am very pleased to welcome back to Project Resource Simon Griffiths who worked for us very successfully for 3 years until 2008. For the last 3 years Simon has spent time working as a recruitment consultant in the Middle East.

I feel very happy that despite the many other options that a good recruitment consultant would have when looking for a job, Simon chose to come back to work for Project Resource.

When asked why he chose to rejoin the company, Simon had this to say:

“Having worked for Project Resource previously, then gaining an insight into the way a number of other recruitment companies operate, it is glaringly obvious to me that Project Resource simply offer more than any of their competitors.  This covers both their internal offering to staff (strong management team, investment in training and development, career progression, incentives, scope for learning, atmosphere, etc.) and their external offering to employers and job seekers (size of database, industry specialisation, quality of website, level of service, professionalism and so on). As soon as I decided to come back to the UK after 3 years working abroad, Project Resource were the only company I needed to approach as I knew that there wasn’t any other business out there that could offer me more in terms of the infrastructure needed to meet my goals and aspirations.”

Simon will be running the new office and is spending the next few months working closely with me in Solihull in preparation for the office opening in July.

We already have a long list to do before opening including finding an office location, recruiting 3 new staff members and continuing to work with our existing client base in the North of England – with only 3 months left!

If you are interested in joining us in the North West please contact our internal recruiter Karen Ingram.

If you wish to discuss the job opportunities we have for our clients in the North West or if you are an employer, how we can help your business, please speak directly to Simon Griffiths.

Recruitment drive in our Solihull Office

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8 Feb 2011

2010 was another successful year for the recruitment team in Solihull. Since we opened in 2008 we have tripled in size and 2011 will see even more growth.

Why have we been so successful?

We take real pride in the quality of our training and development. Our consultants are trained to the highest possible standards and are therefore able to provide a top draw service to our clients. We offer a fantastic team environment and have excellent company benefits to keep our team motivated.

All this investment in our staff means we can offer our clients the very best service. This means we have strong and long-standing relationships with many employers to make us the first choice for so many.

What’s in store in 2011?

As part of the continuous investment in our business we have started recruiting for two fast track entry-level recruitment consultants.

These positions are ideal for anyone looking to get into recruitment as they will involve working directly with the top contract recruitment consultant in the company and the top permanent recruitment consultant in company – no better place to learn how to achieve in recruitment!

We are also always interested in hearing from experienced consultants at any level keen to find an environment to maximise their potential. All our vacancies and a profile of our consultants and business can be found on our website.

This year we are aiming to recruit 4 people to join our Solihull office and a further 3 for our new Manchester office (opening in July 2011) – exciting times ahead!

If you are interested in finding out more you can contact myself or our internal recruiter Karen Ingram on 01628 477 744.

My Recruitment Career 7 years on

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12 Oct 2010

Is it me or does time seem to be flying by faster and faster? Why do I ask? In the last few weeks I have taken the chance to stop and take a look at my career. My recent promotion to Director was a great opportunity to look back at the 7 years I have spent at Project Resource and reflect on where I have got to.

Why did I want to blog about this promotion? Not to show off honestly! – It just really brought home to me why I got into recruitment in the first place.

Being in control of my own development/career is what brought me from a corporate multi-national bank in the City to a small company (that was less than a year old) in Reading. Recruitment was not something I had a burning desire to do but I liked the opportunities it offered for anyone who demonstrated the right attributes.

7 years later and I have gone from Trainee Recruitment Consultant to Director – I don’t know if this is quick or slow but I do know working in recruitment has allowed me to make something of my life and play a part in making other peoples lives better!

There are many challenges still ahead for me with our North West office opening next year and we are currently on a recruitment drive for Solihull (maybe one of the these new staff members could be blogging about being a Director in another 7 years!) but I can honestly say that I made the right choice and working in recruitment is everything I hoped it would be.

If you are interested in talking to me about recruitment or how I can help you/your business please contact me in our Solihull office.

If you are interested in any of our other internal vacancies then please contact Karen Ingram.

Double dip recession? Where has all this negativity in the media come from?

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11 Aug 2010

Economic Growth

It can’t have escaped your attention that the moment any economic news comes out at the moment the media seem to take a negative view that this could be the start of a double dip recession. I don’t understand where all this negativity has come from?!

It seemed to start a few weeks ago with news about house price rises slowing. This was then jumped upon by the media as a sign of dark clouds on the economic horizon. Personally I see this as natural after a long recession – many people have held onto their homes waiting for the “green shoots” of recovery to then put their homes on the market. Its simple supply and demand – the demand is there but now there is much more supply than there was 6 months ago and this has flattened out any house price rises.

Even today I read on the BBC website about how the Bank of England has downgraded estimates for economic growth in 2011 from 3.5% to below 3%….immediately the media seems to start speculating – does this mean a double dip recession is possible? I don’t understand all the negativity! 2.5% or 3% growth next year is still growth! After the credit crunch of the last few years it will always take time to recover to “normal” economic conditions and with cuts in the public sector due to be unveiled by the end of October a flattening of growth predictions for next year could always be expected. This however doesn’t automatically mean all areas of the economy will slip back into recession!

Without sounding too technical the definition of a double dip recession is “When gross domestic product (GDP) growth slides back to negative after a quarter or two of positive growth. A double-dip recession refers to a recession followed by a short-lived recovery, followed by another recession” (definition from investopedia.com) – I don’t see that definition mention anything about 3% or even 1% growth being a recession!?

In my role as Regional Manager at Project Resource I have seen recruitment (always a good barometer for economic conditions) across the construction industry improve steadily throughout 2010 and I definitely expect this to continue into 2011. Has it dramatically improved? No but it has consistently and steadily improved throughout 2010. Perhaps slow and steady recovery just isn’t news worthy and that’s why the media have to make things sound so dramatic!?

What do you think? As always I am keen to hear your thoughts

Project Resource North West office opening summer 2011!

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16 Jul 2010

Summer 2011 will mark another key milestone in Project Resource’s history with the opening of our 3^rd UK recruitment office.  This will be in the North West of England.

Having personally moved from our head office in Reading to open our office in Solihull in 2008, I  am  probably best placed within Project Resource to highlight what a key moment it will be for delivery of recruitment services to job seekers and employers in the North of England & Scotland.

Despite opening the Project Resource Solihull office in 2008 at the beginning of one of the toughest recessions this country has ever seen, I am proud to say that we have grown from 3 staff to 11 (June 2010).  I believe being local to the employers we supply and the job seekers we are working with, really does make a difference. We have been able to develop existing business relationships to new levels and made many new ones with local firms, simply by being able to get in the car and get straight over to a client makes a difference!

It’s on this basis that I really believe our new North West office will help expand our service offering to the North of England & Scotland to new levels.

Over the next 12 months I am going to be involved in getting this office up and running. We have already made a key appointment to help run the office and I am now turning my attention to finding an ambitious recruitment consultant to work with me now in preparation for the office opening next summer.

If you are keen to find out about working for Project Resource in the North West or our Solihull office I would refer you to an article my colleague Karen Ingram wrote earlier this week.

Additionally, if you are an employer, please feel free to call me to talk about how we can help your business in the Midlands or North, contact me in our Solihull office.

Another new Recruitment Consultant joins our Solihull office!

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4 Jun 2010

It gives me great satisfaction to report that we have recently filled one of the vacant Recruitment Consultant positions to work in our Solihull office.

Our new team member started their employmnet with us this week and already has jobs to work on from a number of key employers!

This now leaves us with one more vacancy still to fill.  We are looking for a Trainee Recruitment or Recruitment Consultant to work from Solihull as part of our Freelance Project Management Team.

Are you interested in working in recruitment?  Please contact Karen Ingram in our internal recruitment team to find out more.

Great service reaps the rewards.

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21 May 2010

Project Resource has alwas known the value of building strong and meaningful relationships with job seekers and employers.  This week has really brought home to me the value of building relationships and performing above expectations in the construction industry.

We received a call in the Solihull office from an individual that had worked via ourselves as a contract/freelance worker to one of our clients, over 2 years ago.  This individual had now taken up a senior position on a new project, with a new employer, not working through us this time.  What was very pleasing was that  when his current company wanted to recruit, his first call was to us, as he knew how professional and efficient we are at Project Resource.

By keeping in touch with this him over the years and exceeding his expectations from the moment we first spoke to him (over 2 years ago) we proved our ability to be a great recruiter and supplier of staff.  He has now given us 4 freelance jobs and we have filled each of these positions (within 1 week), building an even better relationship with him and each of the freelance professionals we have successfully placed into these job vacancies.

It always makes me feel positive about the work my team do in our Solihull office to receive this kind of feedback about what we do as a business, and why we are selected as a supplier over other recruitment companies.

Doing a good job for someone really does make a difference!  I personally feel this kind of performance and relationship should be mirrored across the recruitment industry by all recruitment businesses, however, like all industries there are always great, average and poor companies.  I like to believe we are a great company which is why I work here, we have a very low turnover of staff internally, and most of of the people we help find jobs and supply with staff continue to use us more than our competitors.

What do you think?  How important are business relationships for you?  Have you had any similar positive experiences?