Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
Your industry news - first
The original and best - for over 20 years!
We strongly recommend viewing Cleanzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.
Cleaning company sets shining example
The manager of a support services company responsible for keeping the new Sainsbury's store in Irvine clean and hygienic has given bright futures to 15 previously unemployed local people, having enlisted the help of Ingeus, the company responsible for finding him work back in 2010.
Paul Edgar, a site manager for contract cleaner Interserve, turned to local Work Programme provider Ingeus, having had first-hand experience of being unemployed. After a management career in IT ended, and while recovering from throat cancer, Paul, 55, was out of work for over a year. Supported by Ingeus, he began work for Interserve 18 months ago and hasn't looked back since. He is a manager at the company, which maintains 275 Sainsbury's across the UK, and was responsible for recruiting the cleaning crew for the new £20m Irvine superstore, Sainsbury's 1000th UK store.
"Having been in the situation myself, I knew Ingeus could provide motivated, experienced applicants," said Paul. "Interserve recognises the need to give real career opportunities to local, unemployed people and Ingeus provided quality candidates suited to our vacancies, all free of charge. I can certainly recommend working with Ingeus, both as a jobseeker and now as an employer."
Ingeus delivers the government's Work Programme across Scotland. It offers a free service to employers, providing unemployed applicants for vacancies. By fully understanding an employer's requirements, only appropriate clients are put forward, saving valuable time and money. Having helped recruit almost 30 staff for Interserve at other stores across Ayrshire, Ingeus was able to provide a manageable number of applicants at short notice to fill the Irvine vacancies.
Ingeus' Michelle Magee not only suggested appropriate clients to interview, but held information sessions to provide more information on the jobs, following up with briefings to all those who were successful. The entire cleaning team was recruited via Ingeus, including supervisory positions.
Two of the new recruits, David Agnew and David Watson, are following in Paul's managerial footsteps.
David Agnew from Mauchline was out of work for 18 months after the electronics company he worked for relocated. Despite having management experience, numerous applications came to nothing. Ingeus recommended him for the cleaning manager post at Irvine and he is now in charge of the day to day running of the team.
"At 52 years old, I feared I would never get another job," confides David. "The support from Ingeus was incredible though, motivating me to go for the manager role and helping with all sorts of practical and financial stumbling blocks for me along the way. I was always willing to work in a new industry and I love managing a new team, in a new store - it's given me a new lease of life!"
His colleague David Watson, 46, from Irvine, also thought his working life was over after being unemployed for six years. Now a supervisor with Interserve, he says:
"I got pretty depressed being out of work for so long but then I started working with Ingeus and the company encouraged me every step of the way. We looked at my job goals and worked on my interview technique, I really appreciate all the work they do behind the scenes. This job has given me a new confidence and I'm absolutely over the moon."
Interserve is one of the world's foremost support services and construction companies, operating in the public and private sectors in the UK and internationally. It offers advice, design, construction, equipment and facilities management services for society's infrastructure. Interserve is based in the UK, has revenue of £1.9 billion and a workforce of nearly 50,000 people worldwide.
Caption: From left: David Watson, Paul Edgar and David Agnew, all in work with Interserve thanks to Ingeus
From left: Ingeus' Michelle Magee with David Watson, David Agnew and Paul Edgar at Sainsbury's Irvine
T: Michelle Magee on 01294 668 000
W: www.ingeus.co.uk
23rd February 2012