My day generally starts at 7am and the first thing I always do is check my emails for any candidates or clients needing to cancel early morning interviews, as this needs urgent attention. I then leave the house and head to the office by 8pm ready to see my first candidate at 8.45am. Each consultant meets around two to three candidates per day on top of meeting candidates brought in by other consultants, which is so valuable for us to gauge fit and understand each candidate's experience level and expectations.
Every meeting generates a certain amount of admin; updating the database, writing a candidate report, ensuring we have the right documentation, following up on roles etc. This is my favourite part of my day; I love meeting people, understanding their motivations and background and discussing their career goals and aspirations. We are so fortunate to be in a position where we can impact peoples future, and can guide and support during the job search which can often be an uncertain and stressful time. We have created a relaxed and positive environment in our office to ensure people coming in feel comfortable and spend time getting to know each candidate in an informal manner.
Most candidates tend to either come and see us first thing, at lunch time or at the end of the day so in between these times, a lot of my work will be focused around meeting and speaking to clients, filtering the hundreds of applications we receive via relevant job boards and having operational meetings regarding the running of the business. This can be when I get to use my more creative skills and we use great suppliers to help us in ensuring the infrastructure of the business runs as smoothly and as successfully as possible.
When setting up the business in 2018, we made sure we met everyone we worked with to allow them to have a full understanding of what we were setting out to achieve and how we differentiate ourselves from other recruitment services. This means we now have a great relationship with everyone we work with and can grow in partnership with them.
As well as the day to day operations of the business, we also work on other projects, such as the PA Podcast which launched last year. It is always fun to think of new and creative ways to reach out to our community of PAs and most importantly, to understand what information is useful to them. We do tend to get asked the same questions and so the podcast was a channel to answer these and explore different roles and sectors in an informative way… knowledge is power as we always say!
We are very lucky at Oriel Partners to be based in fabulous ‘Central Working’ offices in Victoria which are located above Barry’s Bootcamp and a yoga studio. Not to mention lots of delicious restaurants! I have subsequently become a Barry’s convert and try to go at least two times a week around the working day. There is so much information on the benefits of exercise both physically and mentally and we encourage the whole team to get involved and stay strong.
I tend to leave the office around 6.30pm and head back home to see my husband or meet friends for dinner. This is a typical Monday to Thursday and I try to work from home on Fridays, which allows a day to catch up on admin and creates a great work / life balance. We are seeing that this is becoming a top trend in what candidates are prioritising as the most important thing when looking for a new role. A generous benefits package is almost seen as a given now, but flexible working is something candidates are asking for more and more.
My day generally ends around 10.30pm, I like lots of sleep to allow me to be fully energised the following day and performing at my best!
