Recruitment Challenges and Solutions – IAAF Commercial Vehicle Council Meeting

On Wednesday 27^th September, Kayleigh Bradley – Senior Recruitment Consultant of Glen Callum Associates, was invited to present to the IAAF’s Commercial Vehicle Council on the current recruitment landscape and how GCA is supporting businesses within the Commercial Vehicle sector.

The IAAF

The Independent Automotive Aftermarket Federation (IAAF) is the only trade association that lobbies on behalf of the independent automotive sector specifically on parts.

Glen Callum Associates joined the IAAF in 2019 however has assisted the federation (previously known as the ADF) for almost 25 years, and is the chosen recruitment partner for many of the federation members.

Exclusive Partnership

Back in April 2023, Glen Callum Associates were selected, as exclusive industry specialist recruiters, to help HGV Direct.  The company, a successful supplier of parts to the commercial vehicle sector, was looking for assistance in recruiting and retaining the best talent for their growing business.

Following in-depth discussions between Kayleigh Bradley (Senior Recruitment Consultant at GCA) and Dale Terry (Sales Director at HGV Direct) to understand the challenges the business faced with recruitment, GCA were able to design a recruitment package tailored specifically for the forward thinking business.

Following the successful partnership between GCA and HGV Direct the Commercial Vehicle Council were keen to understand how the recruitment partnership was working differently and hence invited representatives of both companies to the meeting for an open discussion and to share ideas.

Dale kicked off the discussions by sharing the challenges that HGV Direct had faced in the past and how the company had embraced the advice from Kayleigh to showcase the companies brand and offering.

Kayleigh then took the council through an in-depth presentation providing an insight on the recruitment marketplace through statistics, ideas on adverts, company branding and attracting and retaining talent.  The presentation was then further followed by a Q&A session.

Senior Recruitment Consultant, Kayleigh Bradley and HGV Direct’s, Sales Director, Dale Terry work closely to ensure a successful recruiting partnership.

The meeting which was held at GTG Wolverhampton and was hosted by Mark Field of the IAAF, was also attended by a number of leading industry figures including  Sue Mckay – TMD Friction,  Neil Hearn – Bosch,  Bryan Knott – Hella,  Martin Willis – Capus,  James O’Gara – ZF,  Mark Rose – Exol Lubricants,  Mark Todd – Diesel Technic,  Jeremy Tollman – Clarios.

Following the meeting Kayleigh commented “It was a real pleasure to join the commercial vehicle council to share ideas and insights.  It was fantastic to have such an open conversation around the topics of talent attraction and recruitment, and how as an industry we can attract more talent to this sector.  I very much look forward to continuing this topic of conversation with members and the industry as a whole.”

The meeting was an excellent opportunity for a member of the Glen Callum Associates team to share recruitment insights face to face with businesses in the sector, whilst also gaining an understanding of their growth plans and having involvements in discussions surrounding the collective difficulties the industry is currently facing.