Food Job Blog: The inside track on Food Recruitment and Careers

Food production company Branston has invested both time and money into nurturing talent within the company, as the company's need for employees with specialist skills was not being met.

The company, which supplies potatoes to Tesco, currently employs 600 workers in food jobs. However, Branston's HR Director Simon Telfer revealed that the firm was having trouble recruiting new employees with the right specialist skills. He said:

"The challenge is not necessarily finding people but the right people with the right skills and experience. We find when we place an advert for a job, there is a huge response, but a lot of them don't meet the criteria,"

Telfer identifies particular problem areas for recruitment, saying that Branston has trouble finding the right development engineers, process and IT network specialists and product development staff.

Telfer believes that the reason behind the skills shortage is an unprecedented demand for specialist skills within the food production industry, especially as there is now an increasing focus on food hygiene and safety within the sector.

To address the problem, Branston has taken the 'grow your own' approach to bridging the skills gap. Telfer says that the firm has been successful in its efforts to identify and develop talented staff at lower levels within the business, and that five out of sixteen 'apprentices' had now been promoted.