Temporary Recruitment
How Reed can help you
Access to a large candidate database Eligibility to work checks Candidate referencing Specialist consultant support Pre-interviews of every candidate Ongoing compliance checks Regular post-placement reviews and candidate check ups
The Reed difference
The world's largest family-run recruitment company Reed is one of the world's largest recruitment company, trusted by over 30,000 companies to help them secure the best talent in their sector. We are pioneers in specialist recruitment, having spent over 60 years hiring temporary workers across 20 specialist sectors. Reed’s purpose is improving lives through work.
We achieve this every day by living our three core values:
We are fair, open and honest
We take ownership
We work together
18% of Reed is owned by the Reed Foundation, which supports charities around the world, meaning that one day a week, we’re working for charity. By working with us, you’re also helping us to support these great causes.
Unmatched access to the best talent Reed provides the greatest choice of skilled temporary, interim and contract workers, covering everything from short-term sickness to long-term project work. We recruit across 20 specialisms worldwide, with offices located in key areas around the country, giving us a national reach and access to a wealth of pre-screened professionals who can support your team.
Each consultant has their own local talent pool within their sector. Our recruitment specialists interview, reference and assess all our temporary workers to get you the right support when you need it. We build a flexible workforce in each of our specialist sectors, so whether you need an IT contractor, a locum doctor or a receptionist for the summer, Reed has got you covered
Bespoke service Reed’s highly trained and experienced recruiters are passionate about securing the right talent to help grow your business. With decades of experience in recruitment, we’ve optimised our service to secure only the best talent to match your team. We give you multiple service options depending on the level of support you need.
We partner with companies of all sizes and focus on the individual requirements of your organisation, because we understand that you need more than a one-size-fits-all approach. We pride ourselves on building strong relationships, providing support from the beginning to the end of your search and beyond.
Industry-leading screening services Reed’s top priority is the safety and wellbeing of everyone we work with. All of our candidates are pre-screened by our dedicated in-house screening team. We perform reference checks, eligibility to work checks, and ongoing compliance checks.
Meeting all your recruitment needs Our unique end-to-end coverage means we can support you with a range of services, beyond that of a typical recruitment agency. Whether you need to hire talent, a range of workforce solutions, consultancy services, professional development support or pre-employment screening – we're here to support all of your needs.
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What's happening...
4 mins read
Seven strategies to ensure your tech recruitment process is inclusive for all
Inclusivity, and diversifying your workforce, are the best ways to organically expand your talent pool and increase the longevity of your employees.Here are some of the key dos and don'ts of inclusive recruitment:What is inclusion and diversity?“Without inclusion, diversity is doomed to fail.” Devi Virdi, Group Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Centrica. Inclusion is the act, and diversity is the result. Inclusion and diversity (I&D) is now recognised as an essential part of business. It’s not just a tick-box exercise or a ‘nice to have’. Once your company adopts an inclusive culture, the more diverse your company will become.Diversifying your workforce has many positive outcomes, such as better employee wellbeing, productivity, and longevity. Creating an environment where people can bring their full selves to work can significantly increase employee attraction and retention because people will recognise your company or team as a place where they can love Mondays.There is also a strong business case for it, which is often overlooked. In the UK, for example, according to inclusion and diversity champion INvolve and the Centre for Economics and Business Research, discriminatory pay practices cost the economy £127 billion in lost output every year. That means, there is a high return on investment in inclusion training and preventing discrimination and closing pay gaps.Seven steps to an inclusive recruitment processRethink your fundamental requirementsThere are certain roles for which neurodivergent people would be perfect, like data analytics roles, but the barriers to entry include requiring “excellent interpersonal skills” or being a “team player.”In this case, professionals with conditions like autism are far less likely to apply for those roles because they do not believe this applies to them, despite being more likely to have the focus and skills needed than a neurotypical person. Employers must rethink what the fundamental requirements for the job are and consider whether your advert reflects this.Develop grassroots talentDoes the perfect candidate really need a degree or five years’ experience, or could you find someone with the right mindset and potential and train them with the skills you need?Or, if someone has the right skills and experience, but their soft skills are lacking, they may benefit from a mentor to build their confidence.Watch your languageFor employers to receive more applications and make the process accessible to everyone, you must be conscious of the language you use in your job adverts. Using inclusive language is an easy way to indicate that everyone is welcome to apply and be considered, if they believe they are the right fit for a role.Gender neutrality is a simple way to ensure you don’t limit your talent pool and unintentionally alienate suitable candidates. One way to avoid this is to use online tools to eliminate gender-coded language from your person specifications, job descriptions and adverts which often go unnoticed.Remove barriers to entryThe placement of your job adverts is an often-overlooked consideration. Those who place their ads in tech magazines that require paid subscriptions might be excluding groups from lower economic backgrounds, for example.Employers must also ensure that their application forms are inclusive of all genders, sexualities, ethnicities etc. by including an “Other” or “I’d rather not say” option, to give them space to tell you who they are if they wish to. It must be optional, or you could end up forcing someone to come ‘out’ prematurely.Create a diverse interview panelThe first impression of your team takes place at interview and a lack of diversity could impact a professional’s decision to accept your job offer. It would benefit employers to think about how diverse their hiring panel is and do their best to represent the variety of people in their company.Conversely, you must not over-correct and cherry-pick the same few people to be the ‘face of diversity’ or to hire certain people just to fill a quota in your company – no one wants to be tokenised or seen as a ‘diversity hire’.Ask the right questionsSome employers don’t know what they legally can and can’t say, or ask, in a job interview. Training should be provided to each hiring manager to ensure they understand the dos and don’ts of interviewing. Generally, an interview question is illegal and discriminatory if you couldn’t ask everyone the same question.One example that comes to mind is asking a woman if she is pregnant or thinking of having a baby one day. You couldn’t possibly ask the same question to a cisgender male candidate, which makes it discriminatory to ask of women. Asking everyone the same core set of questions will give your interview a good basis for objectivity.Negate any biasEveryone has their biases, but these should not influence your hiring decisions. Business leaders should ensure their hiring managers receive sufficient training in unconscious bias so they can identify their own biases and make more informed hiring decisions.Working with a recruiter such as Reed, where CVs are anonymised before being sent over to you can also help here. It means you can make a decision on potential employees without being swayed by certain information available on their CV.
1 mins read
The meaning of St. Patrick’s day and celebrating it as a part of diversity and inclusion
St Patrick’s Day is a cultural holiday celebrated on March 17th, honouring the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick. It is traditionally celebrated by Irish people, but today it is celebrated around the world with parades and festivals in cities large and small. This holiday represents more than just an Irish tradition, it has come to symbolise respect for diversity and inclusion.The history of St. Patrick’s daySt Patrick's Day was first celebrated in the mid-1700s as a way to honour Saint Patrick, who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century. Over time, this celebration has evolved into an internationally recognized holiday that celebrates Irish culture, heritage, and national pride. In recent years, its significance has been expanded to include celebrating diversity and inclusion.Why we should celebrate St. Patrick’s dayCelebrating St Patrick's Day is not only about remembering our past, it is also about recognizing how far we have come as a society when it comes to embracing diversity and inclusion. By celebrating this holiday, we can show our respect for different cultures and show solidarity with those who are different from us. Additionally, this holiday gives us an opportunity to recognise the importance of diversity in our own lives, both personally and professionally.We can use this day as an opportunity to celebrate each other’s differences rather than focus on what separates us. We can also use this day as an opportunity to learn more about each other’s cultures so that we can better understand one another. Finally, we should remember that celebrating St Patrick's Day does not mean forgetting our own culture or traditions; instead, we should embrace them and use them as a way to build stronger relationships within our own communities.By embracing diversity on days like St Patrick's Day, we can create more opportunities for meaningful dialogue between people from different backgrounds—dialogue that will ultimately lead us towards greater understanding and acceptance of one another, which is very important to us as Reed. Thus, celebrating St Patrick's Day helps strengthen the bonds of unity throughout all communities within Poland while simultaneously promoting respect for diversity among all individuals here at home.
4 mins read
Top questions to ask candidates on a telephone interview
They may not be everyone's cup of tea, but telephone interviews have a lot of advantages. They are fast, easy to arrange and arm you with just the right level of information to begin whittling down your applicants.Of course phone interviews present challenges too. Mostly arising from the fact that you can't see the person you are talking to. Here's a primer on the kind of questions you should ask to get the best out of your phone interviews.Keep things simple...It's important not to get carried away with telephone interviews. Remember they are intended as a screening measure to decide who to invite for a face-face interview. You don't need your candidate's entire life story. Simple questions are the best policy.Candidates can often be nervous, which can make for an uncomfortable conversation where you fail to get the insight you need on your candidate. Put interviewees at ease by introducing yourself, explaining how long the interview will last and telling them how it will be structured.What type of questions should you ask?Remember to keep things simple. The lack of visual interaction means that phone interviews are not suited to complex questions that require lengthy answers. Of course, you want your candidates to be thorough with their answers - but don't attempt to ask anything too brow-furrowing.Questions should be geared to find out more about the applicant - expanding on the information supplied on a CV and cover letter and assessing whether their professional experience is suited to the role. Here are our tips for the best phone interview questions to ask candidates.1. What made you apply for this position?Does your candidate sound like they want the job? Look for a passionate answer. You want a candidate who really cares about getting hired by you, rather than someone who sounds indifferent and apathetic. Genuine enthusiasm shows that your candidate believes they have what it takes to succeed in the role.2. Screening questionsScreening questions allow you to gauge whether an applicant has the essential minimum experience or skills required for the role - such as expertise with a certain piece of software or a key qualification. Example screening questions might be:Are you willing to travel?Do you have a clear driving license?Do you have PRINCE2 certification?Screening questions will always be determined by the type of role you are recruiting for - and should be led by the job description. They are a simple way to make sure no unsuitable applicants make it through to an in-person interview and can be as simple as yes/no questions.3. What experience do you have that will help you succeed in this role?Look for evidence that the applicant has studied the job description. They should provide concrete examples that prove they have the experience required. Ideally their answers will also show how they have applied their knowledge/experience to provide tangible, measurable results.4. Why are you leaving your current job/Why did you leave your previous job?If your candidate launches a full scale diatribe about how much they dislike their current employer, it should probably set your alarm bells ringing. Seek out candidates who are hungry for a fresh challenge or who have been waiting for an opening in this particular field or - even better - with this organisation.5. What challenges are you looking for in a post?6. What is important to you from a job?7. How would you describe your approach to work?This set of questions is great for finding out more about the professional mindset of your applicant. How ambitious are they? Are they looking for professional development? What's their self-discipline like? Listen carefully to how they structure their answers and look for similarities with the person specification document.8. What motivates you?9. What type of work environment do you perform best in?These questions allow you to assess how well the candidate will fit with your organisation's environment. Do they need a lot of assistance or are they self-starters? Do they prefer working alone or are they great collaborators? Sometimes individuals simply aren't suited to certain working environments, no matter how talented they are.10. What are your hobbies outside of work?It can be easy to forget that your candidate is a person first and a professional second. Look for signs that the person on the end of the line will click with other members of the team.11. Do you have any questions?It's important to field any queries your candidate may have, whether about the job or the recruitment process. Once you have answered any questions, close the interview by thanking the candidate for their time and giving them your contact details - they will appreciate being able to get in touch should they think of any further questions.Getting the information you need from telephone interviews is about keeping things simple and looking for evidence that your candidates have the essentials required for the role. Come the face-to-face interviews you will have saved a lot of time by filtering out unsuitable applicants, meaning less time asking basic questions and more time deep-diving into the people behind the CVs. Just the way it should be.Looking to recruit? Contact your local Reed office.