A funder who puts your business' best interests at heart is priceless!
Rock Recruitment is a boutique recruitment agency based on the South Coast and specialising in the supply of temporary staff to the hospitality sector. From temporary chefs, front of house and managers they have all roles covered.
The driving force behind the business is Director Siobhan Rowe who set up the business four years ago. Having mothballed the business for 18 months because of Covid lockdowns and the knock-on effect on the sector, Siobhan restarted the business and soon found herself growing at a rapid rate. As a start-up agency, Siobhan knew that she needed outsourced support. She needed to focus on finding clients and matching candidates but needed a supplier to work with her to ensure her back-office processes ran smoothly ensuring her candidates were paid and clients invoiced on time.
She was recommended to Pulse Outsource and came on board in 2021. As Siobhan explains: “They impressed me with their all-round knowledge. It’s not just about making sure candidates get paid, ensuring their pension contributions are paid and complying with all HMRC regulations. Recruitment is a people business and it felt right with Pulse – the team were personable and friendly”.
The relationship was working well but as the firm continued to grow so did the number of candidates being placed. A nuance in the hospitality sector is that candidates can be working for one client today and a different one tomorrow and as a result capturing that information to ensure no errors in invoicing or payments occur can become quite onerous.
Rock uses a CRM system for this purpose, but it could not integrate with Pulse Outsources system. We found that we were having to incorporate some manual work arounds to speed the process up. Our business was growing rapidly, and we knew we needed a something to change. We identified a new supplier who positioned their technology as unique and easy to use and that it would integrate with our CRM system so with a heavy heart, we took a difficult decision to switch away from Pulse Outsource.
As Siobhan explains “Leaving Pulse was a difficult decision. They hadn’t done anything wrong or let us down. Their team were knowledgeable, personable and their service was great. We loved them, it was purely a technology issue which was frustrating. Having switched across to our new supplier, we were looking forward to growing with confidence but sadly that wasn’t the case. We had taken what Pulse delivered for granted – their knowledge and expertise around all elements of the service especially payroll, dealing with pensions and HMRC, the speed, timeliness, and accuracy at which they do things and having someone at the end of the phone when you want to speak to someone were hugely lacking in our new supplier”.
As Siobhan continues: “I couldn’t believe the administrative errors, the inability to get hold of someone and when you did the lack of a satisfactory resolution. We realised that we had lost control of a major part of our business, and it was damaging and threatening our client relationships and the future of our firm. We had trusted them to do a good job, but they didn’t care. Once we became aware of the errors, we had to act quickly”.
Rock Recruitment found a solution – an APP that can integrate with Pulse Outsources system and started a conversation with Pulse Outsource who were delighted to be back in contact. The App supplier, Siobhan, and the team at Pulse Outsource worked together to integrate the App and in doing so resolved the original issue. As Siobhan explains: “the App is a great addition to our process – it has been built specifically for our sector and it allows our candidates to access full information on the job, the ability to check in and out of our clients’ workplaces ensuring that Pulse receive accurate timesheet information every time speeding up the process”.
The business is now growing with confidence and has aspirations to continue their growth. In addition to the back-office support that Pulse provides, Rock also benefits from a £250k funding facility to ensure that they have the cashflow required to continue growing and paying their candidates.
As Siobhan concludes: “As a recruiter, ensuring your payroll processes are in order is so important. You put a vital part of your business in someone else’s hands, and it was surprising how quickly it went wrong and the damage it did to our client relationships was worring. Your processes need to be robust, timely and accurate to ensure there are no issues. You must be able to trust your supplier with your candidates and ultimately your business and we were more than happy to return to Pulse Outsource”.
“Everyone goes above and beyond to make sure things are done properly and they are always at the end of the phone waiting to respond to any issues you may have. I can’t recommend Pulse Outsource enough. A big lesson for me is that you really do get what you pay for. The sense of relief at returning to a supplier who has your best interests at heart is priceless”.
With both funding support and their back office in capable hands, it leaves Siobhan and her team to focus on being productive and driving for both geographic expansion and revenue growth.
