Q&A: Perrys’ Nicky Holdcroft

In this article: Perrys’ Director of Human Resources Nicky Holdcroft, discusses how the company attracts, trains and keeps hold of its workforce

How do you source the best talent to work at your organisation?

We have a recruitment team which sits within our HR department to provide us with the expertise to source new recruits in the most effective and efficient way for a particular role. For internal talent, our HR team hold talent meetings with their business partners so that we have visibility of our talent pool and their progression.

For external appointments we have a multi facet strategy to sourcing our talent. For our sales executives we are particularly keen in recruiting talent from outside the motor industry as we find this means we can train them in the Perrys culture and ethos. We are always open to exploring new ways of attracting talent and use a wide variety of platforms to reach out to potential candidates.  

What are the key education and training requirements for people entering the company?

Across all our roles we are looking for individuals who are comfortable with adapting to the constantly changing demands of our industry, people who are able to grow and develop with us. Our ‘People First’ philosophy puts people at the heart of our business and we want employees who share that ideal, are able to engage and actively listen to the needs of our customers and their colleagues.  
Additionally, for our sales executives we have extensive development training to ensure our sales teams are properly trained to ensure they not only meet the requirements of the FCA but are able to actively engage with our customers to make their car purchasing journey as easy and pleasurable as possible.

How are your apprenticeships schemes developing?

Until recently our apprenticeship programmes were the more traditional schemes training our future technicians. Recently, and in addition to these traditional apprenticeships, we have implemented a Level 4 Marketing Executive apprenticeship scheme, and a level 5 HR apprenticeship scheme and we are in the process of implementing a level 6 business degree apprenticeship scheme to upskill our existing employees in management roles.

What impact did the apprenticeship levy have on your business?

I joined the company after the levy had been implemented but I think it fair to say the business initially found it a daunting prospect adding significant cost to the business. We are now working hard to maximise the usage of the levy funds to add value to the business and develop our people.  

How are you managing the new skill-set required for the switch to plug-in vehicles?

Our head of sales training is hard at work developing training to ensure that our people have the skills and expertise to support our customers on their EV journey.  

What leadership development programmes do you run?

We are currently looking at our leadership development and are completing personal development workshops for all our general management population to understand their individual skills gaps and develop individual training plans.

What is your key focus for the next six months?

The development of our general management population. We are about to launch a new GM-role profile, which will provide us with bench mark of the skills that we need to develop and nurture.