Ghost Enterprises help business and public clients to run a problem free IT environment. The company is based just outside Maldon, Essex and was founded by husband-and-wife team Grant and Robyn Hulley. They’ve been established since 2013, providing outsourced strategic IT services, offering a great solution, excellent value, with a transparent, fair approach to business and customer service.
Client challenge
Robyn and Grant had never worked with a recruitment agency before, primarily because recruitment had been through their own networks, hiring people they already knew.
Using an agency was new territory for them. Understandably, they had some concerns to ensure that their recruitment activities were expertly handled, because they were at a point where they wanted to focus on their core business to ensure the business continued to grow.
They were time poor, looking for great value for money, and looking to scale with quality candidates who were sympathetic to their values, who could help them to achieve their next step. It meant there was a lot riding on working with Lighthouse Personnel, because if we didn’t deliver, they’d be back to square one.
They approached Lighthouse Personnel after hearing about us through a local online networking group in March 2022.
Our approach
Robyn got in touch, and we started the process with a Teams conversation to give her a sense of our general approach, how we do things, and to give her a chance to get to know us and for us to get to know them.
Our first piece of work with them was to recruit an IT Manager. This was a pivotal role as they wanted someone who could take ownership of the technical and operational part of the business, and then build a team under them. They were impressed at how we were able to successfully fill the job, because it was so specific with a niche skill set.
Generally, the recruitment industry is focused on numbers and KPIs, rather than on building rapport and a thorough understanding of client need and candidate suitability. Our approach is genuinely differently. We do a quick screening call with a candidate, to make sure there’s enough about them for a fuller Teams call, to avoid wasting time, and to give them an opportunity to demonstrate why they’re right for the role. We then conduct a longer video call for a thorough screening of about an hour. After that we send candidates a set of documents, including a profile document. We believe CVs only tell half the story: their career history; it could be a great CV – or a poor one – and still not fairly represent who the person actually is.
Client outcomes
Fast forward to 2023 and Ghost Enterprises is now a team of 15, of which Lighthouse Personnel has placed twelve people into the business. Responding to their need for a strategic recruitment partner, rather than just a recruitment agency, they have been free to focus on their business, while we’ve built the team for them. Industry placement standards tend to be 7/1. We’re usually 2-3/1 because we align with client values when we recruit for them, providing a bespoke service each time.
We’ve worked with Ghost Enterprises to create a proactive recruitment strategy, updated job specs, and considered skill sets in new hires. We’ve also met their need for flexibility in how we’ve searched for each role. It’s been a real success for them in terms of how we’ve progressed, with almost a role a month being filled!
