Why use a specialist recruitment agency?
A specialist recruitment agency is one that focuses on sourcing and recruiting candidates for a particular field or industry. Specialist recruiters typically have a deep understanding of the specific hiring needs and role requirements of their clients, alongside in-depth knowledge and experience of the sectors they serve. In other words, they really know their stuff – and know where to find just the right people for the job.
That’s good news for agency clients because that expertise translates directly into major benefits for them, including:
- Faster, slicker hiring
- More extensive candidate pool
- Smarter, ‘right first time’ selection
- Quicker onboarding
- Greater success with those ‘hard to fill’ roles
- Higher fulfilment and retention rates
- Proven recruitment cycles to meet seasonal/peak demands
- Closer operational alignment and working relationship
It’s also great news for candidates too. Because we know the market so well and have our finger on the pulse on who’s hiring, we can always find a role for the right candidate. We also know what we’re looking for and will fish in pools that others won’t, finding some great people that might otherwise not be aware of the opportunities available to them.
How did Kingdom Mercury become a specialist recruiter for the fresh produce, horticulture, and warehouse and distribution sectors?
Kingdom Mercury has been one of the UK’s leading specialist recruiters for over 20 years. Its directors Rob Carter and Gary Turner saw the need for a different recruitment model for those clients with seasonal demands and peak trading volumes to manage. So, spurred on by their fundamental belief in professional, reliable and honest partnerships they developed a recruiting capability that could take its clients from literally zero to 300, 400 or even 500 workers in the tightest of timescales.
Kingdom has a management team with over 70 years’ combined experience in the fresh produce, horticulture, and warehouse and distribution sectors; and an intimate knowledge of the Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire regions, from both a client perspective and as recruiting grounds. For two decades, it has been keeping companies equipped with just the right levels of personnel at just the right times of the year – and bringing employment opportunities to the widest range of talent resident in the region.
What sort of warehouse and distribution jobs does Kingdom Mercury offer?
One look at our live jobs webpage – and you will see just what a wide range of operational roles are available at any one time. Thanks to our clients often having different seasonal cycles or peak demands, there is a steady stream of vacancies throughout the year. That’s super helpful for candidates who need a job that fits around their life, so maybe it’s a short-term contract in the student holidays or a part-time post for a working mum.
Roles generally fall into these main categories:
- General operatives
- Line leaders
- Quality Assurance/Quality Control supervisors
- Cold store operatives
- Warehouse operatives
- Fork lift truck drivers
Operative roles are usually geared towards picking and packing and these are often the entry point into this sector for many candidates. The great thing is that you don’t need any prior experience, just a good attitude and a reasonable level of health and fitness. There’s full on-the-job training given and it’s an excellent launchpad to work your way up if you want to secure a more senior role; or it’s valuable experience that will walk you in the door of your next role if you just want to stay ‘on the floor’.
How does Kingdom Mercury differ from other recruitment agencies?
The most obvious differentiator is our fundamental belief in being best-in-class. We need to be the best of the best when it comes to looking after our clients and our candidates: we care more and we try harder. Kingdom Mercury has long prided itself on our people, partnership and professionalism – this is a people business that’s really personal to us!
- People – We’ve built a pool of 1000+ local, dependable colleagues, fulfilling a wide range of ‘on floor’ roles including ‘badly needed, hard to find’ talent such as FLT drivers. Our current fulfilment rate of 107% and our 100% audit success rate are testimony to our ability to deliver the right people to the right places at the right time
- Partnership – We relish working side-by-side (literally!) with clients to add lots more value, backed by on-site managed services, daily check-ins, online client portals and forecasting models. Our joint managing directors are known to staff and clients equally, and their door – and a 24/7 direct line – is always open.
- Professionalism – We do all we can to be a compliant, socially responsible, technology-driven specialist, from industry-leading worker welfare to digital employee apps, modern staff transport to multilingual support team. We respect our clients’ commitment to an ethical supply chain where care for our colleagues is paramount.
For more information on Kingdom Mercury, check out our About Us page, or view our job listings.