Employee recruitment and retention with Global Lifecycle Solutions EMEA

The recruitment process has evolved significantly over the years, with the increasing sophistication of technology and demographic shifts both playing a role in the changing dynamics of employee recruitment.

Generation Z, those aged between 4 and 24, now account for 32 per cent of the global population. Uniquely set apart from any other generation before them, Gen Z workers are the first fully digital generation, having grown up with technology, social media and smartphones entwined in every aspect of their lives.

Understanding how to engage and appeal to this new generation of workers means that many businesses are starting to place greater emphasis on the quality of their employment experience.

One example is Global Lifecycle Solutions EMEA (Global EMEA), an IT asset management and data destruction company, based at Sci-Tech Daresbury’s Innovation Centre. The company, which has been on site for six years, provides support to clients in the procurement, configuration, support, maintenance and end-of-life asset management services.

Their team of IT specialists provides a range of services to businesses and other organisations in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

As part of Sci-Tech Daresbury’s Talent and Skills Strategy, Global EMEA’s head of operations, Liz Huffman, was invited to attend the campus’s ‘War on Talent’ roundtable, where she was first introduced to Sci-Tech Daresbury Gold Partner and recruitment specialists, Michael Page.

Part of the Page Group, Michael Page provides advice to the Sci-Tech Daresbury community on talent attraction and retention. According to Liz, their insight has been invaluable for the business.

She said: “As a small business, the opportunity to have a team of recruitment specialists, such as Michael Page, on hand to offer insight about the modern recruitment process and what new generations are looking for when job hunting, has been fantastic.

“Thanks to their expertise, we’ve adjusted our recruitment techniques and this process has been fantastic for opening our eyes to fresh approaches.”

Since 2013, Global EMEA has expanded its team size to nine employees and now also operates out of a second office in Newport, Wales.

Liz added: “While the skill set that we require from new employees remains the same, we’ve noticed a major shift in the need for us as the employer to sell ourselves more. It’s definitely different from how it used to be, you’re trying to encourage a person to choose your business and the benefits and culture you provide – the power dynamic has, in some ways, shifted into the hands of the employee.

“The support from Sci-Tech Daresbury is helping us keep abreast of any changes in the wider world, not just strictly in recruitment but also in HR, sales and social media. Opportunities such as this open up a whole new area of expertise and information which isn’t always readily available to SMEs, and I think this has been massively key in helping us along as we grow.”