Hello everyone and welcome to this guest interview. Today I present to you Harrison McVeigh Carroll who is Business Manager for the plastics and packaging industry at Pivot Search, which is a recruitment business that embraces flexibility, autonomy, trust & innovation.
In this guest interview, we have the chance to learn about the current recruitment industry, and in particular the plastics industry, as well as the value he brings to the plastic industry networks.
Enjoy the interview!
1. Tell us about yourself, your current role, and your company Pivot Search.
Business Manager at Pivot Search leading the industrial team and with 6 years experience recruiting in the plastics and packaging space globally. We are in our 4th year as a business and try to do things differently, our unique model hires only experienced, successful recruiters who get given complete flexibility in regard to where they work and as a company have gone from strength to strength focusing on developing relationships with our clients and are continuing to do so!
2. What trends are you currently seeing in the recruitment industry, and in particular the plastics industry?
In the Plastic industry in the past 12 months I have seen a huge change in the market to being candidates lead. What I mean by this is experienced candidates with a high technical or commercial skillset in compounding, high performance plastics and additives for example are so in demand that they have more choice than ever when seeking a new role. This is leading to companies needing to be more agile, it is not enough anymore to set guidelines for a position and expect candidates to be interested due to simply the name of the company alone. Depending on particular role, candidates are not needing to relocate, take less than a 10% pay increase or settle for less in any sense.
The companies that are realising this, who are moving quickly and not leaving candidates waiting due to this shift in the market, are the ones who are winning the talent in most cases.
I also believe that the value of the plastics industry which I know your Blog is dedicated to is solidifying the industry. A lot of people I speak with are noticing the upward market trend of using the material, which at one stage in the not-so-distant past was seemingly becoming the 'enemy' to things like global warming with its links of the obvious difficulties to reuse. However, the alternates have been proven to not be all that and this goes beyond just Packaging the obvious example. The uses in construction, Aerospace and Automotive industries to name just a few prove that plastic is vital in our everyday life and when used correctly there isn't a material that can compare – the industry is certainly not going anywhere, and the growth plans and manufacturing increases from a couple of the companies I have been working with this year alone so far are a great example of that.
3. What are the reasons and rationale behind these trends?
I think we are now feeling the market boom following COVID. Just a couple years on when the market was tough certainly from a recruitment industry, companies in most part 'shut up shop' and a lot of promoting from within and being agile with the team they had. And from a candidate side it was risky to make a move and suddenly be in probation period in a new role, if something went wrong you would be the first line of fire if something goes badly from a business aspect. But now this has settled massively, and I know myself life is more or less the same as pre covid. And the market is reflecting this, but different to before it seems a much larger % of the market are looking to hire all at once and this has lead to candidates having that choice which means it is companies who are having to change their methods, or face being left behind and missing out on the best talent.
4. Based on the aforementioned information, what value can you bring to the plastic industry networks to improve the situation?
As always throughout my career I have tried to add more than just being a recruiter to my network. Whilst I will never claim to be a chemist or engineer, I try and learn the industry going the extra mile examples being the articles I have carried out and talks with people like yourself, and other KOL in the industry. In addition to this, it is important I don't lose sight of my role and what companies employ me and the team at Pivot to do. To bring top talent in the industry to them and the best way we can break this down is for starter learning the need of the company, where, who and what product experience is a nonnegotiable. Once this step is done, now we face the above-mentioned challenge of seeking the candidates. Using my network which I have built up recommendations is a big way I am able to either source candidates or be pointed in the right direction.
Screening the candidates specifically to companies need is then the leg work required, a linkedin search is no longer enough in this very competitive recruitment space. And results speak for themselves, we are working across Central Europe and North America with some of the best compounding, packaging and high-performance polymer businesses there are and building relationships that mean we are their first port of call when they face a challenge to source candidates.
5. Where can the readers find out more about you and your offers for the plastic industry?
Reaching out on LinkedIn is always the best place to start. Whether it's a candidates seeking a new role or a company looking to bring great talent, its always great to connect whether it be for now or in the future.
That was the guest interview with Harrison form Pivot Search – many thanks Harrison for our exchange on topics such as recruiting trends in the plastics industry and ideas on how to improve current challenges in the staffing of companies.
Thanks for reading!
Greetings and #findoutaboutplastics
Herwig Juster
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