The long game: helping to grow a business with people at its core
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Specialisms covered with PCI Pal:
“I don’t want 20 CVs to come in. I want just three to five quality profiles we can work with and know we can trust to be good people. Bristow Holland deliver every time.“
Rachael Drouet, Head of People & Development
When you need specialists, you can’t hire through the usual channels
PCI Pal’s relationship with Bristow Holland goes back to 2018, when they began a period of intense growth that still continues as we speak. Initially a team of just eight people in 2016, in 2023 the company stands at 125 employees, with 23 of those supplied by Bristow Holland. As such, this is a tale of an ongoing, fruitful, collaborative relationship.
PCI Pal relies on having the right people in the right jobs at the right time in order to grow. With us filling roles for them from DevOps to software developers, product designers, voice engineers, testers, test managers, development team leads, support engineers and everything in between, they’ve had a lot of experience of dealing with us professionally and as people.
What’s been vital throughout this time is the strength and breadth of Bristow Holland’s network. PCI Pal realised that in order to get the talent they needed, they could no longer rely on sourcing locally. Bristow Holland has also widened its approach in recent years to include specialists from all over the country, allowing clients to think nationally when recruiting. This created a win-win scenario for both PCI Pal and candidates alike.
But it’s not just about finding people. PCI Pal have benefited from Bristow Holland’s insights into benchmarking (not only on salaries, but on other benefits that will make them an attractive place to work) as well as advice on exact job roles, initiatives around diversity and inclusivity, and ideas around the recruitment process. The consultancy angle has been the real value of this partnership for PCI Pal.
Knowledge and reliability
PCI Pal understood that you can’t grow an expert IT/tech team effectively by recruiting through traditional means, and so have always placed value in specialist recruitment.
Bristow Holland’s reputation for being reliable and knowledgeable was key to their decision. They knew our knowledge of the market and of the roles that specialists with certain skills can fill. They also knew they could rely on us for feedback and insights, as well as high-quality candidate profiles.
As PCI Pal’s Rachael Drouet says: “With Bristow Holland, everything is joined up, which is critical for us as employers in the software industry. They’ll ask, ‘What do you want to achieve? What problem are you trying to fix?’ And everything will go from there, rather than simply asking for a job description.”
We took time to understand not only PCI Pal’s business and skill sets they need, but also their company culture, and this understanding has only grown deeper over the years. This means all candidates arrive for interview fully briefed, excited about what PCI Pal do and the ethos behind their work – all they need to do is sustain that excitement throughout the interview process.
Honesty, consistency and support
PCI Pal understood that you can’t grow an expert IT/tech team effectively by recruiting through traditional means, and so have always placed value in specialist recruitment.
Bristow Holland’s reputation for being reliable and knowledgeable was key to their decision. They knew our knowledge of the market and of the roles that specialists with certain skills can fill. They also knew they could rely on us for feedback and insights, as well as high-quality candidate profiles.
As PCI Pal’s Rachael Drouet says: “With Bristow Holland, everything is joined up, which is critical for us as employers in the software industry. They’ll ask, ‘What do you want to achieve? What problem are you trying to fix?’ And everything will go from there, rather than simply asking for a job description.”
We took time to understand not only PCI Pal’s business and skill sets they need, but also their company culture, and this understanding has only grown deeper over the years. This means all candidates arrive for interview fully briefed, excited about what PCI Pal do and the ethos behind their work – all they need to do is sustain that excitement throughout the interview process.
Growing and protecting the brand
As a software company, people are the absolute core of what PCI Pal does. With every new specialist Bristow Holland has provided over the years, PCI Pal has helped them grow – those that joined in junior positions have progressed to become key people within the company. They wouldn’t have done that without being exactly the right people in the first place.
The key to our strong relationship with PCI Pal is mutual respect. Through times when the market has shifted from one extreme to the other when it comes to employers and candidates, they’ve appreciated how we remained consistent. The emphasis has always been on how we can work together, not how much money we can get out of them.
Looking to the future, PCI Pal’s international focus is likely to increase. People are critical to their business plans and growth strategy, and we’ll continue to get them the right people. ‘Enjoying the journey’ is one of PCI Pal’s values – they feel we have helped them to do that, and they’ll be pleased to know we feel the same way too.
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