Encore Engineers A Result

Nylacast needed to find skilled machinists to fulfil its growing order sheet. Encore found the talent the manufacturer needed from Poland

The Challenge

With an increasing number of apprenticeship schemes announced over the past year, it the future talent pools for UK engineering and manufacturing appear more secure. However, what about today's engineering needs? What if a firm requires specialist machinist knowledge in a hurry?

With increased orders coming in, Nylacast, a Leicester-based manufacturer of engineering plastic components, was one such specialist firm that needed to find additional CNC operators. Computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines are programmed to perform hundreds of different functions drilling, cutting and shaping highly precise items that are used in industries such as automotive and aerospace. CNC programmers and operators write and perform the operations, so it was not simply a case of Nylacast training up an agency worker to press buttons: staff would have to have had a certain amount engineering training.

Ian Mallabone, HR manager at Nylacast, explained: "We needed more technical workers but there's a skills shortage locally." He told Recruiter: "Academia in the UK has changed the profile of professional careers towards the arts rather than skilled professions. But there are initiatives in place going back to old school engineering, restarting apprenticeships." To combat this shortage in the future, Nylacast has just established its own in-house training academy to upskill its existing workforce.

In the meantime, with just two members of the HR team doing everything for around 380 employees, as well as the recruiting, outside help was essential. "Our recruitment process starts off being word of mouth through internal advertising," he explained. "But Encore is very much our first port of call when we get increased work."

We had considered travelling over to Poland but this turned out best, using Encore's facilities. It was a quick turnaround, which was extremely beneficial for us

IAN MALLABONE

Midlands-based recruiter Encore Personnel, with its head office in Leicester, has worked with Nylacast for nearly a decade, helping the engineering firm mainly with its temporary staffing solutions. Ray Metcalfe, operations director at Encore, had been personally working with Nylacast for around seven years. He told Recruiter: "They were struggling to find machinists with the right skills and attitude. In the field of engineering in which Nylacast works, there's a real skills shortage." Metcalfe, like Mallabone, also believed that this was a result of apprenticeships going out of fashion around the end of the 1980s, leading to a serious decline in numbers trained. "Most of the manual machinists are over 50. Engineering lost out the most when the UK stopped investing in skills; those who would have gone into engineering chose to move into IT. So we've got massive gaps."

The Solution

Despite the lack of locally available talent, Metcalfe and his team looked further afield and turned their attention to Poland. Encore has a team of Polish consultants in the UK, as well as links to Polish firms. He explained: "Polish candidates are attractive because they have very good vocational training in Poland. If we're looking for a CNC operator, then you would get a really good quality operator [from Poland]."

Mallabone is accustomed to having Polish employees working at Nylacast. "We're a diverse workforce. Working in partnership with Encore, we're familiar with the process of recruiting from Poland," he said. "About five years ago we brought Polish workers over. Four of them are still working at Nylacast they're very loyal."

Encore carried out recruitment advertising campaigns to specialised magazines and job boards in Poland. As well as looking for the right skill set and certain level of English, candidates needed to have the right attitude. Interviews were conducted through Skype to get a shortlist from those initially selected. Nylacast was then invited to Encore's offices for a video conferencing interview of those shortlisted candidates. In addition to plasma screen TVs and headsets, there was an interpreter for the more technical questions. "They were face-to-face interviews, professionally done," he said.

And although it wasn't the easiest way to carry out an interview, Mallabone agreed that "from a time/cost perspective" it was the best method. He said: "We had considered travelling over to Poland but this turned out best, using Encore's facilities. It was a quick turnaround, which was extremely beneficial for us." In fact, from start to finish took just seven days. "We can turn it round really quickly," Metcalfe added proudly.

His small team of four managed the entire process of relocation and arrived with the four new machinists at Nylacast on their first day. "We have quality checks after the candidates are in place onsite to ensure both client and candidate are happy," Metcalfe said.

And Mallabone certainly seemed impressed with the results. "Encore gave us a managed service, they understood what we required as a business," he said. "They're like an arm of the Nylacast HR department."