Tata Chemicals Europe: More than just a recruitment solution

Tata Chemicals Europe: More than just a recruitment solution

by | Mar 21, 2023

Tata Chemicals Europe: More than just a recruitment solution

At Morson Group we’re proud to offer a suite of talent, consultancy and technology services that go far beyond pure-play recruitment. One of our longest-standing MSP customers, pioneers of Vencuro and users of our employer branding and screening services, Tata Chemicals Europe (TCE) have enhanced their people strategy and talent processes by curating our services to meet their specific needs.

manchester united rpo

The background

Tata Chemicals Europe is one of Europe’s leading producers of sodium carbonate, salt and sodium bicarbonate. They are a world-renowned brand who maintain family-friendly values to create a secure and comfortable working atmosphere. As such their values closely align with our own allowing us to build a solid relationship based on mutual respect and understanding.

We have had a rolling MSP contract with Tata Chemicals Europe for over 10 years. Prior to that we were one of a number of suppliers, moving to the preferred supplier responsible for servicing three sites including head office. New projects including the largest carbon capture project in Europe mean that TCE require engineers with highly sought after, niche, technical skills. We recruit for the full scope of their needs from warehouse operatives all the way through to director level.

Not only do we support Tata with volume and niche recruitment our partnership demonstrates the possibilities created by our range of added value services…

 

Ian Hull, Morson executive manager

“We’ve been working with Tata Chemicals Europe and their hiring community for many years and our trusted relationship runs through the veins of the company. Every hiring manager knows our dedicated team on a first name basis, and while I represent Morson, I feel very much part of the TCE team.

 

The diverse range of services we provide to TCE, especially around technology, candidate screening and candidate attraction, have elevated, streamlined, and optimised the business’s hiring processes. We understand the most intricate details about their business and industry and work proactively to solve their challenges, adapting and scaling our solutions to their business needs. This enables TCE to see the true value in what we do and the benefits of a strategic recruitment partner.”

The services

Clients can pick and choose from our wide range of talent, consultancy and technology services depending on their specific needs or challenges from outsourced hiring, vetting, HR outsourcing, to employer brand building and digital health and safety technology.

As well as a slick managed service which gives TCE a number of business benefits such as recruitment efficiencies and cost savings, Tata Chemicals Europe take a number of Morson services which add significant value to their operations.

 

Vencuro | Talent Technology

Tata Chemicals Europe were one of the original users of our talent management system, Vencuro, providing valuable feedback during the pilot stages of its development. Vencuro gives TCE visibility of their entire recruitment process and allows them to manage the candidate journey effectively as well as reporting on their business-specific KPIs.

Vicky Watson, Head of HR | Tata Chemicals Europe:

“The tailored online dashboards have not only improved our performance reporting capability but also our ability to analyse the direct and indirect cost savings our Morson managed service provides. The best bit is it is so simple to use – a few clicks and we have access to all our information requirements!”

Morson Digital Studio

At a peak in Tata’s development, they needed to hire more contract and permanent staff for their plant in Cheshire than ever before. To help them do this, we developed a branded careers portal and produced an on-site video series with photography that told their story across a range of channels – and significantly increased applications.

Vicky Watson, Head of HR | Tata Chemicals Europe

The Morson recruitment portal, where candidates can access our vacancies all in one place, was a fantastic piece of work by the Morson Digital Studio team. We have linked it to our website and are constantly impressed with the traffic and brand awareness it generates.

 

Vetting & Screening

Our screening service works in sync with our MSP as we perform pre-employment DBS checks, and legal and financial checks. By combining the two services we streamline the onboarding and vetting processes to reduce admin and mitigate risk for TCE. 2

Originally this service was only requested for permanent members of staff but has more recently been rolled out to contract workers too.

 

The future

We are incredibly proud of our longstanding relationship with TCE and the bespoke people solutions we are able to provide for them.

Karen Lounds, Business Services Director | Tata Chemicals Europe

“Our relationship continually improves and in recent times, Morson have supported us to develop our marketing strategy for potential applicants, as well as building a recruitment microsite for us and even helped us develop our employee health and wellbeing offer, as well as support with GDPR. 

There are many examples where the relationship goes beyond pure recruitment.  We see them as a partner to our business.”

For our next venture we will be providing TCE with ED&I manager training and a standardised way of capturing diversity and inclusion metrics across its business. We are also investigating the benefits that our Fit For Work contractor engagement app could provide with a custom set up and trial.

Over the course of our 20+ year relationship, Morson and Tata Chemicals Europe have developed beyond what could be considered a standard customer/provider service. We have built a true partnership, a two-way street where information and best practices are freely shared. Continuous improvement is a focus for both our businesses, and we are able to give and receive feedback honestly allowing us provide the best possible service.

Whether you’re an existing Morson client or looking to explore what a new relationship could look like, our suite of integrated services is available to businesses of all scales. From global brands like Tata Chemical’s Europe to SMEs and start-ups, Morson Group can support your people strategy and solve your challenges with our customisable service offering.

If you have any questions, or would like to find out more, James Millward, Morson Head of Integrated Services, would love to hear from you, drop him a message at james.millward@morson.com

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Fit for Work app: AI-powered contractor safety

Fit for Work app: AI-powered contractor safety

by | Jan 9, 2023

Fit for Work app: AI-powered contractor safety

Fit for Work uses digital interfaces and AI technology to put the physical safety and mental well-being of contractor workers at the centre of digital interactions during their employment. The Morson Group first partnered with Fit for Work in 2019 to understand how they could ensure contractor safety, wherever they are and whenever they’re working.

Frontline, remote or distributed workers don’t often usually feature in digital transformation projects, but the Fit for Work team strive to improve the working environment for everyone, everywhere, through a digital interface. And where most enterprise solutions prioritise improving business processes, concentrating primarily on efficiency or margin gains, Fit for Work focuses on a problem – major risk to physical and mental wellbeing – and the user experience, i.e. the distributed worker interacting with their smartphone.

In 2019, Morson’s head of health and safety met with Fit for Work to explore a series of recent rail track incidents, and storyboarded a process for an app, from a user’s perspective, exploring the lifecycle of their working day and the interaction and practices they needed to remain safe and connected.

This was rolled out across Morson’s workforce – employees, contractors and temporary staff – offering access to the protection and resources they expect and deserve. It delivers a fully compliant solution via a mobile app that runs on all smartphones, so it’s accessible to everyone in the workplace.

 

Response to Covid-19

However, in 2020, Fit for Work was given another opportunity to evolve. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, ‘PPE’ was a term generally reserved for safety critical environments, but now goes beyond the typical hard hats, boots and gloves and instead must include relevant safety training, compliance, learning and development. Fit for Work was, in turn, adapted to offer Morson clients access to an intuitive, digital system which enabled social distancing by monitoring how many people were on site at any one time, and allowed contractors to answer a series of screener questions related to COVID-19 symptoms before being granted access to site for the day.

The Fit for Work platform was designed to solve a real problem, and it is actively solving that, but it has also been developed during the hardest two years in a generation. When COVID-19 hit, Morson was striving to offer people work, and keep their operations afloat. While clients were focused on paying the bills, Morson was able to offer them Fit for Work technology which not only brought innovation to their organisations but increased their focus on health, safety and wellbeing, while also ensuring distributed workforces remained COVID-compliant through various forms of lockdown.

 

Fit for Work in Australia

A fantastic example of delivery is with Morson’s Melbourne branch, when the onset of the COVID pandemic presented new challenges to rail contractor safety.

Fit for Work was quickly reconfigured to safeguard against the threat of potential COVID outbreaks on client sites, with rail operatives asked a series of health, safety and wellbeing questions at the start and end of their shifts to keep them and their co-workers safe.

Instant alerts and instructions via mobile helped operatives to make safe decisions throughout the day. With the support of Fit for Work, Morson has been able to tackle a new health and safety landscape proactively.

Results:

  • 200+ operatives protected on Melbourne’s rail infrastructure: Staff were able to check into sites safely via the mobile app and the threat of potential COVID outbreaks was proactively managed

 

  • 4,000+ interactions on staff health, safety and wellbeing: Remote staff reported daily on how they were feeling, helping to ensure they and their co-workers were safe and healthy

 

  • 180+ instant alerts to potential risks and issues on site: On average, the Fit for Work system alerted management to 2.5 potential health, safety and wellbeing risks per week

We actively collect feedback that feeds into our product roadmap, which during the last 12 months, has resulted in two new features suggested by frontline workers and an improved onboarding experience. But the primary technical challenge we’ve solved is ensuring that anyone on any smartphone can easily interact wherever they are. Rather than iterate through improvements to the user interface, like most enterprise software, our product development strategy relies on easing adoption and enabling engagement among frontline workers.

Together, Fit for Work and the Morson Group created the initial pilot which has rapidly evolved into the platform’s present-day offer. Fit for Work delivers a new era of safety for remote workers; we digitally connect the mobile workforce, putting their physical safety and mental wellbeing front and centre.

 

To find out how Fit for Work can work for your organisation click here, or, contact app founder Stephen Reilly directly @ stephen@fitforwork.ai.
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HIGHLIGHTS

  • 200+ operatives protected on Melbourne’s rail infrastructure
  • 4,000+ interactions on staff health, safety and wellbeing
  • 180+ instant alerts to potential risks and issues on site

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Atlas Elektronik UK: Transforming recruitment, inspiring strategic decisions

Atlas Elektronik UK: Transforming recruitment, inspiring strategic decisions

by | May 12, 2021

Atlas Elektronik UK: Transforming recruitment, inspiring strategic decisions

“From the moment Morson won the tender, you could tell their implementation plan was unlike anything else. The team was brilliant in terms of engaging our entire business with its strategy, while its processes were slick, agile and professional.” – Lisa Bowyer, Head of HR at AEUK

Until they partnered with Morson, Atlas Elektronik UK (AEUK) worked with up to 40 different local recruitment agencies. The defence and maritime high-technology enterprise was in regular need of niche skillsets to add to its ever-expanding workforce. Recruitment was key to its ongoing success, but the complex system in place needed improving.

Our appointment as a single supplier has supported AEUK with recruitment cost savings, supplied candidates with the expertise and the cultural compatibility to thrive, and provided an agile system that could quickly and effectively adapt and continue in the face of a pandemic. The partnership has transformed the recruitment process, but also inspired countless strategic decisions to further grow the business.

 

A new approach

As the company was embarking on an ambitious growth strategy, AEUK was in need of support from a single supplier in order to cut costs and increase efficiency. The tender process began to find a preferred supplier who could find suitable candidates with excellent culture fit.

Morson’s appointment would provide a more streamlined service and a strong, consistent relationship with AEUK, ensuring that future recruits were aligned to the business’ objectives, values and long-term ambitions.

With extensive knowledge of the maritime and defence industries forged over many years of working with clients in the field, we have established an enviable candidate network for the sector, enabling us to tap into the best talent available.

Able to resource extremely niche and otherwise difficult to fill roles around the UK, our knowledge of the market, its developments and trends also ensured we could help futureproof AEUK. Using various technology platforms, we set about implementing and expediting the recruitment processes with speed and agility.

Our innovative candidate attraction process, implemented using the Morson Digital Studio, utilises bespoke microsites, employer value proposition and branding development. This sees AEUK positioned as an employer of choice in its sector, making it first choice for suitable talent.

 

Working in partnership

From the very onset of the partnership, AEUK was supplied a dedicated Account Manager who works on site, in Dorset, acting as an in-house hiring manager but with the requisite duties of an external supplier.

Systems have been implemented that automate several elements of the process; AEUK simply approves a role requirement before handing the entire process to us. AEUK’s Account Manager briefs relevant, specialist teams about the role and niche skillsets required, after which we feedback with suitable candidates.

We have developed a true picture of the business, meaning the entire hiring process has become more efficient and tailored to AEUK’s needs. For example, a bespoke ATS system has been put in place to manage the entire recruitment journey from CV submission through to interview, negotiation and onboarding. Acting as a one-stop-shop for AEUK’s entire recruitment process and talent strategy.

Additionally, we are in contact with, and act as lead contact for, several second-tier suppliers. We issue briefs directly to them for particular roles that fall outside of our candidate database. While previously these companies couldn’t offer AEUK the sizeable, scalable recruitment service it required, their offerings have still proven valuable and can now be much more easily integrated into the recruitment process with us acting as the main contact.

Fully embedded in the business, the AEUK Account Manager goes well beyond their formal scope, taking on several duties that typically only come with being a full-time employee. For example, setting up interview rooms, ensuring relevant paperwork is made available to HR and greeting people on arrival for interview.

Throughout the pandemic, with AEUK continuing to operate as manufacturers of key defence outputs and investment to ensure facilities were COVID-19 secure, it was business as usual. We implemented remote interview technologies and online hiring practices, which achieved the same levels of efficiency as the previous, face to face processes.

 

Delivering results

Lisa Bowyer, Head of HR at AEUK said:

“From the moment Morson won the tender, you could tell their implementation plan was unlike anything else.”

 

“The team was brilliant in terms of engaging our entire business with its strategy, while its processes were slick, agile and professional. Within a matter of weeks, they had got to know our business, how we worked and knew exactly what we needed from our recruitment in the short-term and long-term to achieve our goals.

Moving forwards, they will become a key strategic partner of ours, involved in the decision making about our next steps. That’s where we’re going, together.”

The strategic partnership has significantly reduced time to hire and by working with a single supplier, AEUK has slashed the administrative burden of recruitment. More than that, however, we support AEUK to provide the best candidate experience possible, arming them with a proposition that has seen them build up a team that’s the best in the industry.

 

​If you would like to find out more about our MSP solution and how we can help your organisation cost save, continuously improve, and transform through talent, get in touch with Morson MSP director, David Lynchehaun at david.lynchehaun@morson.com

MORSON SERVICE HIGHLIGHTS

  • Significantly reduced time to hire
  • Slashed the administrative burden of recruitment
  • Bespoke ATS system

  • Innovative candidate attraction process, providing the best candidate experience to build team that’s the best in the industry
  • Lead contact for several second-tier suppliers

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Costain: Smart recruitment for smart infrastructure

Costain: Smart recruitment for smart infrastructure

by | Apr 27, 2021

Costain: Smart recruitment for smart infrastructure

Costain, the smart infrastructure solutions company, has used the Morson Group as its talent partner for well over a decade, benefitting from our extensive candidate reach and proven business improvement processes.

“The quality of their people is paramount, and they leave no stone unturned. We require specific engineering disciplines and operational skills, which are always delivered. Morson is transparent in its reporting, always open and honest about its results, which have been consistently strong in our time working together.

Morson is viewed as part of Costain, because the team is driven to go above and beyond their remit, supporting us to achieve our own objectives.”

– Richard Howell, head of supply chain at Costain

Costain, the smart infrastructure solutions company, has used the Morson Group as its talent partner for well over a decade, benefitting from our extensive candidate reach and proven business improvement processes.

 

A dedicated division

Having developed a dedicated, 20+ strong Costain recruitment team at the start of our relationship, we have been able to truly align with the business’ disciplines, implementing a four-step process which ensures the firm can meet its objectives to budget, and on time, for every project.

As part of our vacancy approval service, we delve into Costain’s future, flexible workforce needs, then talent pool candidates ahead of the approval process, to deliver a more efficient talent solution. For new requirements, we work with Costain’s discipline leads to understand all elements of the roles available, ensuring contractors are delivered with the right experience, qualifications and skills.

Equality and diversity are the foundations of our candidate attraction and recruitment processes. We support Costain to write job adverts that are inclusive and encouraging of all qualified candidates to apply so that no implied barriers exist. During the hiring process, we provide a 3:1 or better CV to interview ratio.

We act to time-bound performance targets to ensure a consistent candidate and hiring manager journey throughout, while our onboarding and time capture programme is digitally optimised. Through our contractor care team and online timesheet solution, we provide all Costain hiring managers and contractors with a dedicated point of contact whilst retaining a fully auditable log of compliance and hours.

 

Covid considerations

In March 2020, Costain temporarily paused some of its operations at the very start of the Coronavirus pandemic. We adapted our delivery rapidly but effectively in order to ensure it could continue operations, keeping its contractor workforce updated on process and policy changes as they emerged.

In line with new legislation, we implemented a ‘Covid-19 Support Hub’ for Costain, arming its permanent team, as well as its contingent labour, with support as the world around them continued to change.

As well as offering advice on workplace safety audits, flexible workforce solutions and providing interim HR support, the hub also shared advice on maintaining physical and mental wellbeing through a seriously challenging period of time, and as sites became operational once more.

While Covid-19 enforced an alternative way of working throughout 2020 and into 2021, we are committed to achieving the same outstanding levels of service we have for Costain across our previous years working together.

 

An ongoing commitment

Throughout our partnership, our dedicated talent team has filled more than 2,000 contractor roles on schemes, our robust delivery has seen us achieve 98% of KPIs, and we’ve achieved significant cost savings via our commercial and strategic recruitment model.

Richard Howell, head of supply chain at Costain, said:

Having developed a dedicated, 20+ strong Costain recruitment team at the start of our relationship, we have been able to truly align with the business’ disciplines, implementing a four-step process which ensures the firm can meet its objectives to budget, and on time, for every project. Morson’s partnership is one of our more strategic relationships; it’s collaborative, integrated and highly effective. The team is client focused, has an in-depth understanding of the markets we’re involved in – and those we want to enter in the future – and how we operate, and can anticipate our needs and support them through to fruition.

 

“The quality of their people is paramount, and they leave no stone unturned. We require specific engineering disciplines and operational skills, which are always delivered. Morson is transparent in its reporting, always open and honest about its results, which have been consistently strong in our time working together.

 

“Morson is viewed as part of Costain, because the team is driven to go above and beyond their remit, supporting us to achieve our own objectives.”

​

​If you would like to find out more about our MSP solution and how we can help your organisation cost save, continuously improve, and transform through talent, get in touch with Morson director, David Lynchehaun at david.lynchehaun@morson.com

MORSON SERVICE HIGHLIGHTS

  • 20+ strong Costain recruitment team
  • Equality and diversity are the foundations of our candidate attraction and recruitment process
  • Time-bound performance targets
  • Genuine strategic relationship
  • 3:1 or better CV to interview ratio

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Manchester Airport Group: Recruitment takes flight with Morson RPO

Manchester Airport Group: Recruitment takes flight with Morson RPO

by | Nov 19, 2020

Manchester Airport Group: Recruitment takes flight with Morson RPO

Jetting 59 million+ passengers to 270 destinations each year is an increasingly complex operation and requires top talent. With a portfolio comprising Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands Airports, the Manchester Airports Group (MAG) looks to its 40,000 strong team to not only keep passengers moving around the clock, but to drive efficiency, service quality, growth, and mitigate operational issues.

The challenge

Initially contracted to source engineering skillsets in response to MAG’s evolving needs, it quickly became apparent to us that what the Group required was support identifying the right professional services talent. Spanning HR, procurement, legal and more, we’re fully embedded within MAG’s operations to deliver cost efficiencies and attract talent to essential roles, both within the operation and group services, and to support the delivery of the transformation programmes at both Manchester and Stansted Airports.

Jacqui Jones, Head of Interim Recruitment at MAG, explains:

“We’re considered as part of the MAG team, to the point where we’re included in the Group’s headcount, team meetings and staff away days. As with any new contract, the initial challenge is to build our profile from within so that we’re seen as a true extension of the team, rather than us and them. Internal managers quickly recognised the value that we delivered to the business and the number of new vacancies rocketed.”

The action

In response to the growing mix of permanent and interim needs, our MAG team grew from two to six on-site recruitment experts to meet the growing demand. Jacqui’s colleague and fellow Head of Interim Recruitment, Sara Jackson, was also seconded into the role of Head of Recruitment at MAG whilst a permanent candidate was found.

Shortly into the contract, we won a competitive tender to support MAG’s core vetting services. Based at our head office in Salford, the vetting team report directly to MAG’s head of vetting and are responsible for delivering robust checks and clearing new staff to Civil Aviation Authority standards.

As part of MAG’s wider transformation programme, the business implemented a new ERP (enterprise resource planning) platform, leveraging the latest SAP technology so that its IT capability would support efficient and scalable growth. The challenge for us was the availability of SAP skills, especially as MAG became the first-ever organisation to adopt the full cloud-based end-to-end solution.

Jacqui continues:

“SAP skillsets are rare and are usually only found in the South of England. We were competing in the same talent pool with businesses worldwide and had the added barrier in that we needed to attract the talent up north. This wasn’t without its difficulties, but by utilising the Morson Group’s wider technical abilities, we were able to develop an attractive interim package and source the best candidates.”

Delivering a successful RPO has meant our team needed to remain agile and respond to MAG’s changing recruitment needs.

“Some of our larger counterparts are far too rigid in how they work. We’ve always prioritised client service and go the extra mile to maintain great relationships. If we need additional support to deliver our promises then we’ll recruit it, bucking the norm in recruitment where if an account makes you £X amount of money then you can recruit X many people to work on it.”

The result

During the four-year contract to date, we have filled more than 750 vacancies for the leading Airports Group.

Notable hires include recruiting the ‘head of’ and ‘director’ for the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) and MAG’s construction director. Utilising a number of targeted recruitment tactics, including dedicated search specialists, bespoke landing pages, print advertising in leading political and national news outlets and market mapping, saving MAG £thousands in search fees.

Some of the key innovations that we have introduced during its tenure with MAG include an online timesheet system that reduced admin time for hiring managers. Management information reports tailored to HR and procurement requirements were also delivered, as well as precise one-page flash reports that aligned to strategic objective outputs. In addition, we have provided a variety of process communication tools and a project-based RPO specifically for security performance leads.

 

Don’t take our word for it…

Working with Morson can only be described as ‘collaborative. This hybrid recruitment model has delivered many benefits including reduced cost, increased MI and greater governance.

Our on-site account team are truly part of the in-house recruitment function at MAG and have developed strong relationships across the HR team and hiring manager community with a focus on delivery at all times.

We have been through a number of operating and process changes, with RPOne proactively adopting, supporting and championing those changes. As a recruitment team, including volume hiring, non-volume hiring and interim solutions, we have on-boarded more than 3,000 people across our airports and the RPOne service has been invaluable to achieving this.

This hybrid recruitment model, which works extremely well, has delivered many benefits including reduced cost, increased MI and greater governance since implementing this four years ago, with further benefits to come as we move into a new phase of transformation at MAG.

– Group Head of Recruitment (non-volume) at MAG

 

​If you would like to find out more about our RPO solution and how we can help your organisation cost save, continuously improve, and transform through talent, get in touch with Morson RPO director, Sam Price at sam.price@morson.com

MORSON SERVICE HIGHLIGHTS

  • Onsite team, who operated as a true extension of the MAG team
  • Supported MAG’s core vetting services
  • A mix of permanent and interim needs
  • Introduction of an online timesheet system and MI reporting
  • Notable hires include recruiting the ‘head of’ and ‘director’ for the Northern Powerhouse Partnership

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