Jodie Rafferty - Jobs Transform Lives: Best Candidate Experience Award Winner

Jodie Rafferty is the managing director of Rafferty Resourcing, and picked up the Jobs transform lives: Best Candidate Experience Award at the 2017 IRP Awards. This was Jodie's second IRP Awards win.

We got to know Jodie a little better and found out what the candidate experience means to her.

Congratulations for winning Best Candidate Experience at the 2017 IRP Awards!

I’m still pinching myself most mornings, it’s a little bit like a dream I haven’t quite woken up from yet. To be in your first year of trading and win the most important award to me was a dream come true. A big thanks to the IRP Awards judges for picking me.

Have you had any positive feedback from the win?

It’s been a steady stream of congratulations. We’ve had new people approach us who want to do business with us because of our reputation for candidate experience – that’s our biggest USP. Now that we’ve got the IRP Award to back it up, people have approached us. We’ve seen a big rise in temp recruitment on the back of the win, and that new business has come to us directly.

How did Rafferty Resourcing start?

We’re based in Hampshire and we’re a small family-owned business. There’s five of us involved, I manage all the client relationships and the rest of the team are candidate coordinators, who work exclusively with candidates, ensuring their need are met. It’s a different model from most other recruitment businesses. We’ve had a lot of clients approach us and say that we offer something different.

What does candidate experience mean to you?

I don’t want a huge database of candidates who we’re not working with and will, ultimately, be disappointed if we don’t find them a job. We work with a small number of exclusive candidates at any one time and they give us a wish list of companies they want to work for and the kind of jobs they want. Clients love it when you say you’ve got someone who has identified them as someone to work for. It’s a friendly approach from both sides, but it works, and the clients come back.

And jobs really transform lives, don’t they?

I honestly believe people come to you and trust you with their lives. Jobs are what put food on the table, pays for kids clothes, and gives them the lifestyle they want. If you put that trust in a recruiter and end up getting an email back that says “dear candidate” that’s bad. There’s a lot of responsibility on our shoulders and it’s a privilege when a candidate asks to work with you.

Could you be 2018's Jobs transform lives: Best Candidate Experience Award winner? Keep your eyes peeled - entries will open soon!

Remember to share this blog on your social channels. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.