Yourfoodjob.com: Insights from HR & Resourcing specialists concerning Brexit and its effects on the UK food & drink recruitment landscape

Insights from HR &
Resourcing specialists
concerning Brexit and its
effects on the UK food and
drink recruitment landscape.

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Welcome to The Food &
Drink HR, Resourcing &
Engagement Conference
- Brexit Impact!
Yourfoodjob.com is proud to support an event providing
leadership and direction at a crucial time for food & drink
businesses in this transition period leading up to ‘Brexit’.
Irrespective of hard or soft-Brexit, the general consensus
across all sectors of the industry seems to be that Britain is
lacking clear governmental direction & leadership. As soon
as the UK public made their decision the transition process
was never going to be perfect and was never going to
keep everyone happy. Despite that, it does feel that better
leadership could have been provided, particularly when it
comes to manufacturing & industry.
Do a Google image search for ‘Brexit’ and one of the top
results is a beach crowded with individuals, literally burying
their heads in the sand. Well, if this is an apt metaphor for
government policy, then the same cannot be said of those
working ‘at the coalface’ of food & drink HR & Recruitment, at
least not judging by the contributors to our survey!
After all, if central Government isn’t going to provide clear
leadership (or perhaps isn’t able to), then it falls to us, as
an industry, to do the best we can. After all, who knows the
sector better than those who live & breathe it every day?
That’s why we felt it was important for Yourfoodjob.com
to support this conference. This conference represents
an opportunity for peer-to-peer support, cooperation &
collaboration. Hopefully this can be a starting point for us to
come together and ensure we navigate the murky waters
ahead, as smoothly as possible.

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As a small contribution to this event, Yourfoodjob.com has
conducted a brief survey of leading food & drink recruitment
functions across the country.
Every company in all sectors are facing different challenges
and unique circumstances. However, the responses would
seem to suggest an apparent air of optimism. The majority
of respondents reported no major problems in attracting or
retaining EU labour in the current market, however almost all
were concerned that this might change post-implementation.
One positive implication of this concern is companies looking
at new ways they can maximise the talent pool available to
them- apprenticeships, accessing marginalised labour pools
and also ensuring existing employees are retained
and developed.
The most reassuring answers regarded the state of the food
& drink sector in ten years from now. It’s a hard question
to answer but we wanted to get a feel for the mood of
the industry and the good news is we didn’t receive one
‘pessimistic’ answer! Certainly, there are challenges ahead but
despite preparing for the worst it seems we anticipate good
times ahead.
We have featured several of the survey responses within this
booklet. It is our hope that by featuring the insights and plans
of leading figures within HR, Resourcing and Engagement,
we can contribute to the debate and assist other food & drink
professionals facing similar challenges ahead.
James Tyrrell
Commercial Manager, Yourfoodjob.com

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Matt Stanbury
TA Business Partner, Central Talent Acquisition Team, Greencore Group
Matt graduated from Lancaster University with a 1st in Psychology and joined Hays on a HR Graduate
scheme, or so he thought…it ended up being a consultant role on the IT desk in Manchester, earned his
stripes in three tough years, but ended up being its highest biller.
In 2012, he then moved on to RB where he managed its global graduate scheme, year in industry
programme as well as getting approval for its first R&D Apprenticeship. As well as this, Matt looked after
R&D and Supply Chain for the UK.
At the end of 2015, Matt joined Arco to set up its TA function from implementing an ATS, upskilling hiring
manager building the competency framework and reward projects.
Since moving to Greencore in May 2017, Matt and his team has centralised the recruitment function,
taken on weekly recruitment (an additional 4,000 roles) managing all vacancies at all levels, introducing a
referral scheme, currently recruiting our first ever Trainee Manager Programme using video interviewing
(also a first for Greencore) as well as building two recruitment workshops to upskill hiring managers and
upgrading its ATS.

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How has the announcement of Brexit
affected your company’s recruitment
function so far?
So far recruitment hasn’t been too impacted, we have noticed
a few leavers in the Brexit community but not the churn we
were expecting (so far anyway).
What problems or issues do you
foresee affecting your recruitment
function over the coming years?
Line Manager mentality- our labour sustainability project will
highlight our other routes to market but our hiring managers
will have to adopt a much more open mindset than they
currently have in order to keep supporting the demand on the
weekly/hourly paid populations.
What plans do you have over the
coming months to help prepare
for Brexit and its impact on your
recruitment?
Labour sustainability project currently under way- exploring the
demographic of each site and the surrounding areas to create
wider pools of candidates than we currently utilize due to our
reliance on colleagues that would fall under the Brexit banner.
Look into your crystal ball…. are you
optimistic or pessimistic regarding the
state of the UK food & drink industry
ten years from now?
Optimistic- I think this will provide people we currently overlook
or don’t focus on enough i.e. ex-military, ex-offenders, school
leavers, university drop outs, part timers to fill shift patterns
etc.

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Kim Gieske
HR Director, Planet Organic
Kim has a Masters in Strategic Human Resource Management, is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of
Personnel and Development, is a qualified Executive Coach and has just completed an Executive MBA
from Cass Business School.
Kim is HR Director of Planet Organic Ltd, a £30m turnover niche, health retailer that has seven stores in
London, a private label and an ecommerce division. She joined eight years ago and is proud to be part of
the management team that instigated a culture change and as a result turned around the business.
Previously she was HR Director at Soho House Group and before that was at Harvey Nichols for many
years.
Her early career was spent in recruitment consultancy. She worked in London, Hong Kong and Tokyo
where she sourced Finance staff for investment banks. Her main client was Goldman Sachs and she was
seconded to them for 6 months in their Tokyo office.

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function so far?
There has been no discernible impact on our ability to recruit
so far, despite a significant percentage of our overall workforce
being EU citizens. We have experienced one or two instances
of ‘returnees’ following the vote, but nothing that would
constitute a discernible trend.
We are slightly concerned about our ability to continue to
recruit EU citizens post-Brexit however we are waiting to see
what type of visas might be available to them in the future. As
previously stated, a large proportion of our workforce is from
the EU.
recruitment?
We are planning ahead to ensure any potential skill-gaps
are covered. We are looking at introducing school-leaver
apprenticeships and have also used our levy to create a
‘Management & Leadership’ apprenticeship with Corndel,
aimed at upskilling existing employees (an area we are already
good at). We are also looking at other underdeveloped talent
sources such as mature workers, rehabilitated ex-offenders,
etc.
ten years from now?
I’m optimistic, provided companies continue to innovate
and differentiate themselves and ensure they ‘nail’ the
e-commerce piece.

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Richard Jenkin
Recruitment Lead, Refresco Beverages UK
Richard has over 20 years’ experience in Talent Acquisition, in multi-national organisations within Retail,
FMCG and Professional Services industry sectors.
Richard posessess both in house and agency experience and has worked in the UK and also Overseas.
He considers himself fortunate to work in organisations undergoing major transformation and growth
programmes and to work with many fantastic professionals.

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function so far?
Refresco has 6 sites across the UK. We have yet to experience
any Brexit related impact on our ability to attract and retain
talent. We attribute this to factors such as competitive salary
& benefits, recent transformation of organisational culture and
organisational growth providing career progression.
When the UK enters the transition period after March
2019, followed by final exit, we envisage that attraction of
talent, in particular for our Factory & Warehouse Operative,
Administrative and Clerical roles will gradually become
increasingly competitive as EU citizens become more cautious
about seeking work in the UK and staying longer term in
the UK. We will need to work hard on our Employer Value
Proposition and Career Development Programmes to place
ourselves in a good position as an ‘Employer of Choice’.
recruitment?
We have no plans specifically related to Brexit. Refresco will
continue to work hard on implementing the initiatives already
mentioned above – competitive remuneration & benefits,
career development programmes, succession planning,
employment value proposition and employee engagement
programmes so that we are competing as a national employer
regardless of Brexit. We are confident we have a great story to
tell and this will help us to attract the right talent regardless of
Brexit.
ten years from now?
Very optimistic. The organisations which have good
governance in place and the right growth mindset will succeed
and grow. Those that have not will fail.

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Johanna Dickinson
HR Director, KP Snacks
Johanna joined KP Snacks in October 2014 and has been a key part of the leadership team who have
helped established a new and exciting culture after the business was sold from United Biscuits in 2013.
Johanna started her career in management positions with Pizza Hut working her way up the organisation
from crew member to restaurant manager by the age of 20.
She went on to join clothes retailer Gap who helped her develop her career into HR; when appointed as
part of the store management team who opened the Oxford Street Flagship Gap in 2001.
Johanna moved to Air France to broaden her HR experience in a different industry, before returning to
food and drink when she joined Coca-Cola Enterprises (now Coca-Cola European Partners) in 2005.
Johanna progressed within HR over the next nine years in a variety of HR business partner roles as well as
a spell as Compensation & Benefits Controller for the UK.
Johanna is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and is a CIPD mentor.
Johanna lives in Chalfont St Peter with her husband James and has two young sons.

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function so far?
We don’t feel the announcement has had an impact so far on
our ability to recruit.
It’s hard to say what affect it will have. Our employees are
predominantly UK nationals and we don’t rely hugely on a
temporary workforce which is often more diverse. However
should the temporary agencies struggle to attract enough
people then this may cause us some issues to do with
flexibility in sites and peak production periods.
recruitment?
Our Brexit preparations are more holistic and as members of
the Food & Drink Federation (FDF) we are working with other
manufacturers to explore potential impacts and potential solutions
as well as areas where we need to lobby Government on.
ten years from now?
I am not one to use a crystal ball….however I am feeling more
optimistic as food and drink is an enjoyable necessity in all our
lives. I am confident that with change comes possibilities as
well as challenges.

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Laura King
Resourcing Business Partner, Whitworths
Laura is an established in-house recruiter, with a passion for employee engagement, candidate experience
and employer brand. Laura joined Whitworths with the task of implementing an internal recruitment
function and developing the employer value proposition.
In the short time Laura has been in position she has achieved a six-figure saving in recruitment costs
through direct hiring and significant reduction in agency usage. Whitworths, under Laura’s supervision,
are in the process of implementing an ATS and new careers site and she has also conducted a complete
overhaul of the onboarding process. Other achievements include the development of an employee
engagement programme from scratch, regular employee engagement events, and the introduction of an
online candidate application process, which is integrated with a brand new careers site that is in constant
development.
Laura’s initiatives have been embraced by the Whitworths family as is reflected in the excellent 4.2 rating
currently achieved on Glassdoor.

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function so far?
It hasn’t at the moment, but it’s something we’re watching very
closely as we value our employees – and feedback from our
employee engagement survey suggests our employees are
very happy here as our engagement score came back at 80%!
It’s too early to say, until we understand the movement of
workers. We do have a diverse workforce, from over 20
different countries – many across Europe, but others further
afield. The government has promised to grant EU nationals
currently living in the UK “settled status”, which will secure the
futures of our EU workers and their families.
recruitment?
At the moment, none – the position isn’t clear enough at this
time. My hope is that the government will honour its promise
to grant EU workers settled status, securing the future of not
only Whitworths EU employees, but many others who are vital
to the UK economy. At Whitworths, we don’t actively look for
candidates from any particular background when hiring – we
just hire the best available person for the job.
ten years from now?
It’s pretty difficult to say – 10 years ago, we were in the
middle of a recession and jobs were scarce. Now we’re in a
candidates market - UK unemployment (on the face of it) is at
a 4 decade low. There’s so much change currently, and I’m not
an economist so wouldn’t like to predict that far ahead.
However, the one trend I do anticipate continuing to grow is an
increased move towards healthier eating, which is great news
for not only the health of the nation, but also for Whitworths
as we continue to grow our status as the UK’s leading healthy
snacking company. And of course growth
secures long term careers for our employees!

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Richard Collinge
HR Director, CSM Bakery Solutions
Richard is an experienced HR Director, currently working for CSM (United Kingdom) who are the largest
B2B Bakery manufacturer in the UK, dealing with major retailers and OHH food organisations. Richard is a
HR generalist whose duties cover multiple sites across the UK.
Richard has particular expertise in regard to the role of HR following small business acquisition and their
subsequent integration into larger businesses. Specialisms include change management, culture change,
industrial relations and business transformation.

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function so far?
We have over 50% of our workforce employed in CSM who
are not UK Citizens and the Brexit announcement caused
a great deal of uncertainty. We wrote to everyone to clarify
our huge commitment to our workforce. We also ran some
communications sessions. This had a positive impact.
We are already facing severe challenges in specific locations
in respect to hiring. Labour & skill shortages will affect wages
with respect to hiring. It will be critical to retain our key skills &
we will need to encourage more UK people to join our industry.
recruitment?
1) Develop CSM as being an employer of choice & attract
British people. 2) Develop links with schools & colleges to
promote Bakery as an interesting and rewarding career. 3)
Where possible we will look at automating processes so that
we are not as reliant on labour.
ten years from now?
Optimistic because the UK Food & Drink Industry is so critical
to the economy and as long as we make the work attractive
and pay appropriately we will attract the right calibre of British
people.

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More than just an advertising platform, we are specialists in online food & beverage recruitment, combining
effective niche-advertising with pro-active candidate targeting, employer-brand marketing and bespoke
recruitment communications.
FOOD JOBS
FOR FOOD PEOPLE
01625 502947
www.yourfoodjob.com
info@yourfoodjob.com

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