The importance of relationships in recruitment

Since opening our additional office in Telford’s Agri-EPI Centre, we’ve really enjoyed immersing ourselves in the area’s agritech community.

As a business, Jonathan Lee Recruitment has been going for 45 years and the majority of our clients come to us through recommendation; and that’s because we understand the importance of relationships.

We invest a lot of time and effort in building relationships for the long term and this is how we’re able to deliver such successful outcomes for our clients and candidates.

We invested in Telford because we wanted to be closer to the agritech businesses we are working with, so we could spend more time learning about their challenges and concerns. We can then draw on our existing networks and long-established relationships to provide the solutions.

As well as joining the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce and becoming members of the Agri EPI-Centre, we’ve been busy attending various networking events across the region and meeting as many businesses as we can.

Solving agritech recruitment challenges

We’re currently supporting a series of networking events organised by the Agri EPI-Centre and these are taking us on a tour of interesting locations.

Last month’s agritech showcase took Director Grant Nisbet and Principal Consultant Dan Plimmer to Agri-EPI’s Crop Technology Southern Innovation Hub at Cranfield University, which is home to world-class collaborative research in state-of-the-art facilities.

Grant and Dan were able to see some of the latest technological innovations and were treated to a display of cutting edge drone technology which provided an interesting insight into the future of agriculture.

Items on display included:

• Robotriks RTU v4 autonomous platform
• Trinity F90 VTOL drone equipped with multispectral sensors
• DJI T10 spray drone
• Freefly XQ-1400S drone equipped with hyperspectral and LIDAR sensors
• A range of field-based spectrometry equipment

There was also the opportunity to meet and talk to businesses to learn more about them and discuss how Jonathan Lee Recruitment can support with agritech recruitment.

Grant said: “Having the opportunity to visit locations where agritech innovation is happening and to see some of the transformative inventions coming through is fantastic.

“But more than that, we love getting out and about to meet businesses and learn about the issues they are facing and how we can help them. For example, we spoke to a few start-ups with an idea, about how to get started. We spoke to another about how we can help model their business in terms of when and how to plan their phases of recruitment, as well as advising an established business which is looking for staff.

“Those we spoke to were interested to hear about our consultative approach and the amount of advice and support we offer upfront, right up to the point at which new candidates are successfully placed and beyond.

“We must give a special mention to Agri-EPI’s Duncan Ross and Trisha Troop who were on hand to share their knowledge of the sector and answer any questions people asked. Kudos also to Aditya Jadhav for some impressive knowledge on the equipment displayed.

“There was also lots of talk about the planned merger of three of the Agritech centres, which was a real hot topic, and something we’re looking forward to as a member.”

To find out more about how we can support you, contact our agritech recruitment specialist Matt Johnson on 01952 987033, or email matt.johnson@jonlee.co.uk.