freshbaked step in to help war for talent

Fast growing business services provider, freshbaked Group, has taken another step forward in strengthening its offering with the launch of a recruitment division.

freshbaked People will sit alongside the Group’s six other divisions – freshbaked Training, freshbaked Business, freshbaked Corporate, freshbaked Communications, freshbaked PR and limegreentangerine – to provide organisations across south Wales with professional support staff ranging from administration roles through to managerial posts.

Aimee Bateman, 28, from Cardiff has been appointed managing director of the new arm bringing with her a wealth of experience in the recruitment industry having previously worked for Global recruitment groups Hays Plc and Robert Half International.

Having placed commercial and finance-based staff for companies ranging from SME’s to large global companies, she is keen to use her experience to turn any negative opinion of recruitment agencies on their head by working with HR departments to become their recruitment partner.

She says: “Unfairly or fairly, the recruitment industry often comes in for a bad press and when I hear the horror stories of agencies blanket mailing candidates details out, harassing potential clients with endless cold calls or passing CVs on without property vetting them; I can begin to understand why. Being well aware of the negative perceptions that exist about recruitment agencies, particularly amongst those in the HR sector, we will take a very different approach to the age old recruitment model.

“Clients can expect to receive a truly personalised service from someone who genuinely cares about their staff, their business and it’s bottom line. Every client is different and will have its own culture, skills gap, character, timescales, budgets and reasons for recruiting, therefore, at freshbaked People we will come out and meet our clients face-to-face, as well as the staff that the new recruit will be working with, to understand all of these criteria and ensure that we only put the right people in front of them.”

Cardiff-based freshbaked has experienced tremendous growth within the services sector since being established by husband and wife team Richard and Kate Matthews in 2004 as a training provider and now works with over 250 clients, including leading names such as Admiral, Principality, Warburtons and GlaxoSmithKline.

Utilising the expertise and support networks of the other divisions within the freshbaked Group, the move into recruitment is the next natural step for the fast growing business services provider. Group managing director Richard Matthews says: “Eighty per cent of the clients from our training divisions are HR managers and we have experienced firsthand their frustrations of using recruitment agencies. There seems to be a lack of trust that exists and we hope to combat any negativity and rebuild their confidence with the unique approach we are taking.

“A company’s most important resource is its people but it’s also the resource that is in the shortest supply. We know that there is a war for talent going on out there and as such we’ll work with our clients to find the best talent and ensure that it matches with their organisational needs. We’ve always been huge talent freaks here at freshbaked and we believe strongly in recruiting the best staff and then investing in them so that they can reach their full potential, so if we find candidates that have huge potential we will work with the training divisions of the Group to up skill them so that they are an exact match to our clients requirements.

“Recruitment can be an expensive business, but we know from experience that companies that spend the most energy on attracting, developing and retaining staff are often the most successful.”

For more information about freshbaked People visit www.freshbaked.co.uk

For further information on this press release, please contact freshbaked PR at pr@freshbaked.co.uk. freshbaked PR is a Cardiff based public relations agency which represents a number of private and public sector organisations in the Cardiff, Swansea and Bristol business communities, as well as Newport in south Wales, home of golf’s 2010 Ryder Cup at the Celtic Manor Resort Hotel. For clients based in Cardiff PR agency services are provided from the Head Office in The Maltings.