In February 2008, Paul started with Contract Scotland as a Recruitment Consultant in the freelance division. Fresh out of an Economics degree at Stirling University, it was the beginning of a career in construction recruitment.
Paul learned early on, that in order to help his clients and candidates, he would need to understand the sector he was recruiting in (at the time it was civil engineering and building contractors), he would then need to get to know and understand the freelance workers – with hundreds to get to know, this wasn’t a small task. Paul achieved this by spending a lot of time speaking with people, meeting clients in their offices and on sites as well as studying candidate CVs to get to know their backgrounds. One of his favourite parts of this job includes taking references on candidates as he feels this really helps him get to know the candidates technical capabilities better.
It was a few years in before I began to notice just how good Paul had become as a freelance Recruitment Consultant. Paul was able to place people in jobs with little notice of the jobs being registered because he had built up this ability to understand who would fit well with his clients and who would be capable to do the roles his clients asked him to fill. Clients also placed trust in Paul’s opinion (if you know Paul, you will know he is pretty opinionated) and rarely required a CV because Paul knew the candidates so well. It made their lives easier in how quickly he was able to deliver the solution.
By 2012, Paul had grown the temporary workforce in the civils and building division at Contract Scotland so much (he was managing a section of 100 freelance workers on contracts) that we had to split the section. Paul started recruiting solely for the small to medium building contractors in Scotland where he continued to develop and become an expert in this sector. Today, Paul still recruits for the small to medium building contractors but last year started recruiting on behalf of the national building contractors too.
9 years and 9 days spent working at Contract Scotland, Paul is creeping up on 1,500 placements. Along with placing freelance workers in contracts he has placed a high number of people in permanent jobs too.
Paul has progressed from Recruitment Consultant to Senior Consultant and was promoted last year to Managing Consultant with the responsibility of training and mentoring other Consultants within the business. This knowledge and experience has helped other newer Consultants develop their recruitment skills.
I’ve worked with Paul every day since he started and we have pretty much grown up together as freelance recruiters. I can honestly say there hasn’t been one day where he hasn’t thrived in working in a fast paced environment, under time pressure to deliver results for both clients and candidates.
I asked John-Paul Toner, Operations Director at Contract Scotland for his comments given he was responsible for hiring Paul all those years ago:
“As has been the case with the majority of recruitment staff we’ve hired in the last 15 years, Paul started with CS knowing little about recruitment and even less about the construction industry. That he has developed over the last 9 years to the point where he is a genuine expert in his field is a tribute to the hard work and real care Paul has invested in his career, but hopefully also stands as a testimony to Contract Scotland’s talent development and reward and recognition strategies.
From the outset, Paul has always been committed to providing the highest level of service to his clients and candidates and his near 1500 temporary placements are as outstanding for the quality of those placements even more than for the quantity of them. I look forward to continuing to work with Paul as he develops his career further with Contract Scotland.”
If you are an employer or a temporary worker within the building sector, get in touch with Paul:ﾠpaul.frith@contractscotland.co.ukﾠ or call ﾠ01786 446651.
