Another success story? Can one company really be this successful? Yes – and wouldn’t you know, a lot of it is owed to our Saviour the Kickstart scheme. Our last success story was on fabulous Matthew, so who is this one about? Don’t fret, I suppose I’ll tell you. This success story is about our Owen Caldecott.
Like most other stories, we’re going to start at the beginning – what Owen was doing before he cemented a position here at Think Employment.
Straight after finishing college Owen went into welding, which he did for about five or six months until he realised that it wasn’t fulfilling him. He quickly moved from welding into bartending on and off for a couple of years, but just like the welding, it wasn’t making him happy, it was just a means to be able to afford to live. After bartending he spent some time being a personal trainer and offering life advice but again, it wasn’t giving him a sense of purpose outside of being able to pay rent. However, this soon changed when he found out about this Kickstart position from his work coach at the job centre. Before his interview he’d never really even thought about taking a position in an office based setting – I have no idea why, because he fits in perfectly. Not only is he now earning money to afford to live, he’s now in a position where he knows his work is valued and he’s making a difference – finally, a sense of purpose.
After bartending he spent some time being a personal trainer and offering life advice but again, it wasn’t giving him a sense of purpose outside of being able to pay rent. However, this soon changed when he found out about this Kickstart position from his work coach at the job centre. Before his interview he’d never really even thought about taking a position in an office based setting – I have no idea why, because he fits in perfectly. Not only is he now earning money to afford to live, he’s now in a position where he knows his work is valued and he’s making a difference – finally, a sense of purpose.
Now that you’re aware of what Owen was doing before he graced us with his presence, it’s time to tell you what exactly he’s been doing here. His formal job title is Customer Engagement Assistant, but in reality he actually does a little bit of everything. As my Nanna would say, he’s got his fingers in a lot of pies.
One of Owen’s many responsibilities is making sure that all of the screening calls are carried out efficiently. Screening calls are essentially a mini interview, however they are vital to a candidate’s success in getting their applied for job role. During these calls, a set of relatively standard questions are asked to determine if the candidate would be a good fit for the position. Not only does he take care of his own screening calls, he also ensures everybody else is keeping up to date with theirs, and he helps Louise, our recruitment manager, with her calls too. (I don’t know how he’s not constantly running around like a headless chicken, to be honest!)
Another one of Owen’s responsibilities is to keep in regular contact with job centres so that all of our job referral codes stay up to date. (These are individual codes that correspond to certain employment vacancies on our website, https://jobs.thinkemployment.com/jobs/Careers). He also maintains correspondence with the candidates to ensure they have the correct referral code, and he puts these codes into our system. So essentially, Owen is kind of a beast when it comes to his workload.
As you can probably imagine, having to effectively liaise with both candidates and job centres has given Owen excellent telephone etiquette and boosted his confidence quite significantly. Having to input the referral codes into the system has also improved his technical skills and his confidence in that regard, as well.
Last but not least, Owen also had the task of training up a new Kickstart employee on how to use the phones and take the calls, all the while passing on the tips he’d learned for having great telephone etiquette. At this point, is there anything he doesn’t do? Having all of these responsibilities has allowed Owen to improve both his professionalism and his ability to work efficiently under pressure.
“Surely, that’s all. There couldn’t possibly be more.” That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it? But there is more! I know you’re probably wondering what Owen’s doing now, so it’s a good thing I’m about to tell you, isn’t it?
Do you remember in our last post when I told you that Think Employment has moved several Kickstart employees into positions within the company? Lucky for us, Owen is one of those people! He’s had his contract extended here, because he’s just that much of an asset to our team.
If you’re interested in trying to broaden your horizons like Owen has, why not head over to our Careers page to get you started? I’ll even give you the link so you don’t have to rely on that pesky Google. Now you really have no excuse for not finding your own perfect Kickstart position!
You can find all the information you need at https://jobs.thinkemployment.com/jobs/Careers. I guarantee you’ll find something to make you flourish.
