In the Firm (The Forum for In-house Recruiters) Awards this year, eSift were delighted to be awarded the Best Supplier Partnership award for their work with Pilgrim’s Food Masters, adding to the award they had previously achieved for their Recruitment on Demand service. These awards demonstrate that companies should always appreciate the power of a boutique business to lead the way and provide a flexible and agile service to its partners.

In 2021 Kerry Foods sold its meat and ready meals division to Pilgrim’s, and part of the process involved setting up a Recruitment function to manage the new division.

Kerry’s existing Recruitment team moved across to Pilgrim’s, and a Head of Talent Acquisition was hired to oversee the function. During this transition phase, the team at Pilgrim’s identified a need to partner with a supplier who could provide additional support to the business.

eSift had successfully worked with Kerry Foods and was invited to present their agile Recruitment on Demand service as part of a tender process, which would be able to support and address several challenges the team at Pilgrim’s was facing. Namely:

• Relieving the pressure of day-to-day recruitment from internal recruiters.
• Volume hires – initially beginning with 180 operative roles and 57 salaried roles.
• Supporting the operational business throughout the change.
• Moving from the existing Applicant Tracking System and HR software and sourcing a new ATS that can remain agile for an interim period – eSift had previously worked with JobAdder and provided this to several clients. We felt this would be an ideal solution, given its flexibility.

As a proven embedded solution, eSift’s Recruitment on Demand service gave Pilgrim’s the agility to achieve transformation, volume hires and emergency resources. This agility and flexibility led to eSift being awarded the business, and they began working with Pilgrim’s Food Masters in September 2021.

eSift’s role in the partnership was the provision of day-to-day recruitment whilst offering a scalable and agile solution that could be embedded into the existing Recruitment team.

eSift started its partnership with Pilgrim’s by assigning an Account Director to oversee the transition to JobAdder and to gain a thorough understanding of the internal processes within Pilgrim’s. An additional eSift consultant supported the existing Recruitment team on advertising, creating internal comms content, including streamlining the process of internal applications with QR codes and providing further support as necessary.

Initially, eSift took on critical business areas, including operative hires across three core sites in London and one in Shillelagh, Ireland. eSift was involved in strategic meetings with temporary staffing agencies and the HR team throughout the transition to ensure the business received the same service levels as it had whilst with Kerry.

Now, more than a year since they were embedded in the Recruitment team at Pilgrim’s, eSift’s consultants have become a core part of the team, and have even been a part of nomination, shortlist and bronze achievement for other awards.

By October 2021 eSift was successfully integrated into the internal team. The immediate need was to ensure that all operative roles across three main sites in London were supported.

In January 2022, at the Attleborough site, eSift consultants recommended improvements to drive talent into the pipeline. A relationship was built with a temporary staff supplier to ensure successful conversion of temp to perm within agreed timescales. This resulted in 83 hires into the site to this day.

In August 2022, Pilgrim’s Shared Services – PSS, a new division of the organisation, was created, and by January 2023, 36 roles had been filled with £94,500 saved in direct hires.

Across the salaried hires, 141 roles were filled, and over £192,000 has been saved to date through direct sourcing. This includes senior hires with savings of £14k+ per role.

The eSift team has enabled the Pilgrim’s team to focus on their day-to-day objectives, including launching Pilgrim’s Food Master’s website and a successful early careers intake.

The way the eSift team has integrated, creating a fluid and collaborative approach, shows the outside world they are one team and one brand. eSift is delighted to have received excellent feedback and proud to be still working in partnership 17 months later.

Who are eSift?

With over 30 years of experience, the team behind eSift have become industry leaders, pioneering the next generation of recruitment solutions.

Since 2008 eSift has worked in partnership with SMEs to implement effective recruitment processes, reducing agency costs, improving time to hire, promoting the client brand and enhancing the candidate experience.

In summary, eSift supports clients who experience challenges with limited or no existing recruitment function and as part of our commitment to this, we a free Recruitment Health Check to any SME focused on improving their existing recruitment process.

We will take time to understand our client’s recruitment process and any potential challenges (that in turn will generate a report proposing any cost savings, efficiencies and recommendations to improve your time to hire). In addition, identify and highlight the positives!

The Recruitment Health Check and report covers – strategy and structure, tools and resources, hiring manager engagement, candidate experience, agility of strategy, digital footprint and more.

Why consider a FREE health check? eSift has a wealth of experience in this space and more importantly, spending money and time to hire talent goes hand in hand with growing any business, however it is important for any organisation to ensure they are benefitting from a return on their investment.