Cracking Tough Recruitment Challenges for Jayne Pugh
April 1, 2019

Cracking Tough Recruitment Challenges for Jayne Pugh

Jayne Pugh has achieved spectacular feats in her marketing career so far, and the Adam team has had the privilege to support her along the way through expert recruitment consultancy and talent acquisition.

Here’s exactly how we’ve helped Jayne overcome major recruitment challenges and what she has to say on her experience working with us for the past 11 years.

 

From Candidate to Client

Jayne was originally a candidate for Adam. She became a client in 2008 when she started working at Merseyside Police as Head of Communications and Marketing. At the time she was looking for a new marketing manager to join her team and Peter Baker (a director at Adam) helped her recruit for the challenging role.

Later, Jayne left Merseyside Police to work on a new project for the Lake District National Park. During this time, Peter and his team filled two major marketing roles for Jayne and headhunted six other integral team members.

When several big and highly-successful campaigns were completed for the Lake District National Park, Jayne decided to start her own marketing consultancy business and began working for the University of Cumbria.

Since the project for the University was so large, Jayne was soon working full-time as Director of Marketing and Student Recruitment. She needed to expand her team so she collaborated again with Adam to build her team.

We recently caught up with Jayne to ask what she thinks of working with Adam. This is what she had to say.

 

Filling a Tough Talent Gap

“While I was working at Merseyside Police, Peter helped me find a marketing manager. It was a particularly difficult role to fill. We required a great marketer who had experience working for the police. The big focus for the role was helping the organisation grow confidence in the community through our communications plan. As such, the candidate needed an understanding of the unique challenges the police force faced as well as the ability to deal with serious subject matters.

“Peter spent quality time to understand the brief and the type of candidate we were looking for. Thanks to his attention to detail, extensive knowledge of the market and dedication, he helped us find an ideal candidate.

“She had first-hand experience working in the police force. She also knew exactly how to differentiate Merseyside Police and helped us have a positive impact on the community."

 

Building a Transformative Marketing Team

“I was working on a big marketing transformation project for the Lake District National Park. The existing team at the time had a very traditional focus when it came to marketing. My job was to put together a much more commercially-focused and results-driven strategy. 

“To achieve this, I needed to build a team of specialists - marketing professionals who possess a strong digital mindset. Ideally, I wanted candidates from a business or retail environment who were used to working quickly and under pressure.

“Peter found two brilliant individuals who fit the brief perfectly. We placed one of the candidates as a Team Leader and another as a Digital Editor to come in and develop a digital content plan across all our channels.

“Owing to their commercial background and inbound approach, they helped us drive people to the organisation and increase lead capture propelling the business forward.

“It was a challenging team to grow. The Cumbria area is very agricultural and lacking in people with digital marketing skills such as SEO and Google Analytics. Peter and his team did a fantastic job in helping me find two spot-on professionals who had the right skills to make a massive impact.

“The team has now grown to eight people. They have helped set the national park in a new direction by bringing to life all the amazing work we planned. They built an email list from zero to 12,000 people in just over a year. Also, through their work on the new website (which is now more modern and mobile responsive) and a world heritage campaign, they drove millions of visitors to the park that year enabling exponential growth for the organisation.”

 

Invaluable Support for a New Project

“I am now the Director of Marketing and Student Recruitment at the University of Cumbria. My task is to create a brand new strategy for the university using a much more commercially-focused inbound approach to drive student numbers.

“I recently contacted the Adam team again for support with building a new team. The numbers we need to obtain for this project make it very challenging which is why I need candidates who are super productive and result-driven.

“We are currently in the process of building out the core team. Peter has already helped me bring in two temporary hires who have gone on to be full-time managers within the team. Again, they are perfect for the role. They have come from a retail background which is actually very similar to the higher education sector (for example, student clearing days are not much different from Black Fridays!).

“They know how to build effective customer journeys and campaigns for prospective students, helping the university increase sign-ups and incoming applicants. Peter is now helping us recruit for six other roles and I am confident the candidates brought forward will be of the highest quality.”

 

Jayne’s Relationship with Adam

“I have been working with the Adam team now for 11 years and our relationship has grown incredibly strong.

“Peter, Nathan and Natasha always put in the extra effort to understand exactly what I’m looking for in a candidate. I’ve never been one to compromise on the quality of people and, thanks to them, I haven’t had to.”

“In the past, recruitment agencies have put forward candidates who have public sector experience rather than a background in retail or business. They’re simply not used to the pressure and demands of working in a fast-paced, think-on-your-feet environment making them highly-unsuitable for the role.

“This is rarely the case with Adam. Plus, if a candidate isn’t quite right, they are excellent at taking and acting on my feedback. It also works both ways. They aren’t afraid to push back if my expectations need adjusting in terms of what I want from the marketplace, offering consultancy when I need it to help me find the perfect candidate.

“I’m looking forward to growing our relationship further. Everyone at Adam is personable and a pleasure to deal with - I value their support enormously.”

 

Need Help Finding Top Talent?

We can help you discover the best candidates your market has to offer. Call us on 0161 359 3789 today for a friendly, no-obligation chat about how we can help you with your recruitment needs.

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