Emma Marriott – Contract Scotland Ltd
Emma is the Managing Director of Contract Scotland, which provides a high quality recruitment service at a value for money rate for the Scottish Construction and Engineering Industry. Now Scotland’s largest independent Technical and Professional recruiter, Contract Scotland have branched out internationally covering Australia, Canada, New Zealand and more. The turnover of the business was £16.1 million at the outset of the course.
Emma signed up for the course on the recommendation of the outgoing MD and because other recruitment businesses generally don’t tend to share their learnings. While her expectations were not high she felt she had to improve her confidence and was keen to receive formal training around how to grow a business.
Emma wanted to improve the brand and marketing in the construction sector and had ideas but not the skills and confidence to put them in place.
The Impact
Emma cited a number of impacts on the business from her participation on the course:
- Improved the processes in the business ensuring they were not restrictive but are empowering
- Communicated the benefit of stronger structures and processes to staff
- Implemented a marketing team to increase reach to customers and improve the support to the Recruitment Consultants responsible for sales
- Reorganised teams to ensure people worked together more closely and with increased flexibility
- Cut costs by approaching tasks with a view to minimising costs
- Greater understanding of how to set budgets
- Improved Emma’s ability to sell the company vision to staff, understanding the Value Proposition and vastly increased her personal confidence
A specific outcome was the confidence to introduce guidance papers as Emma recognised the expertise the business has in its niche. This has led directly to increased sales and providing added value to customers.
Following the session on creating value Emma took the decision to put the prices up. This led to a loss of some customers initially but improved revenue and relationships to those who work with us best.
A rebranding is also underway with a new website to follow in June 2016.
These initiatives have led to an increase in revenue of 22% - much of which Emma attributes directly to the course.
The Team
As a direct result of the course Emma released two of her staff who were not contributing to the strategy and has taken on six new staff. The increased prices and rebranding has increased the perception internally of the business and staff engagement is at an all-time high.
The Network
Emma cited learning from the network as a major outcome. She could use the cohort’s experiences as an example before introducing certain changes giving her and the team confidence in implementation. The exposure to the guest speakers was very helpful in hearing how others had tackled business challenges especially in giving her ideas to raise the profile of the business. Emma felt she heard messages she wouldn’t normally hear within her industry or spoken about in such a frank and understandable manner. Real life experiences without the fluff!
Personal Development
Emma admits to being overwhelmed on the programme at first but quickly realised she didn’t need to be all things to all people and not to be too hard on herself. The programme gave her confidence in her abilities.
In Emma’s words, "The course was life-changing. The quality of the lecturers and the cohort was excellent due to such a vast arrangement of skills and intelligence. I also really valued the opportunity to speak to other women in business and have found some great role models. Another impact to me personally was that GAP provided me with the confidence and understanding to support my husband in starting up his own new venture, further contributing to the entrepreneurial spirit and the Scottish economy".
- This case study was prepared by Evelyn McDonald, Chief Executive of Scottish EDGE and Small Business Charter assessor.
