new opportunities. It’s rare that we bring talent into the industry from other areas, but we should. There are so many transferrable skills. This is an education piece. About youth though, I’d love to run, in partnership with anybody looking at bringing youth into the industry, maybe an open day which includes assessment-type activities. I haven’t done one yet but it’s on the horizon. With print being a skilled, manufacturing industry, are there any challenges with recruiting for a ‘niche’ industry? The challenges are the lack of skilled people at any one time. Be that production, studio, client services, or salespeople, there’s just not enough of them! For anyone wanting to chat to you to find out more about what MTWO can offer, how can people get in touch? I love a chat, so the best and easiest way is 0161 399 0804. If you would rather get an email across to me, that’s cool too matt@m-two. uk. In the event that you didn’t want a chat yet but prefer a mooch around the website, you can visit that here – www.m-two.uk. Project Manager in Surrey for a large-format and vehicle branding business. Outside of these two, we’ve placed everything and anything, as long as the business is in the industry, we will recruit the role you need. Do you find there are any specific roles that are in demand more than others? No, it’s a skilled industry and there’s always been (and will always be in my opinion) more opportunities than there are good skilled industry people. For a recruiter, this is tough as it takes time and patience to unearth the talent. That said, we’re 12 years in so we must be doing something right. The biggest thing for me is that people know I’m only a call away or am here when they are ready to look at the market. What are three tips you’d give to a company looking to hire new talent? Good people are hard to find so make sure you have a plan in place for the process. If you don’t have one, we will talk you through the best ones. The period between offering the job and the person starting with your business is vitally important, don’t forget that. If you are using a recruiter, don’t work with more than two as the benefits you think it will have working with loads of recruiters will actually be the opposite. What are three tips you’d give to a candidate looking for a new role in the industry? Clarity is huge. Be clear on your reasons for looking, clear on the reasons you want the new job, clear on your decision to leave, and not be persuaded to stay. Be flexible. Interviewing is tough, people are busy. Show willingness and commitment to the process to be flexible to requests. Make sure your CV is the best it can be. This opens the door, so make it punchy and leave enough questions for the hiring manager to want to chat with you. We’ve written a blog on this to help, just shout if you want a link for it. We hear a lot that there is an ageing workforce and a lack of young people in the industry. As a recruiter, what is your opinion on this and can we do more to bridge this gap? This is a fact. There’s so much good activity around this at the minute. You don’t have to look far to see the Next Generation with FESPA UK, or the Rising Star Awards with The Printing Charity, or any event now having Rising Star/Talent categories. We need to see more of it. For organisations hiring youth, MacroArt is a great example of how to do it directly with local schools and colleges. As a recruiter, my value is obviously finding experienced talent within the industry 28 email: news@printmonthly.co.uk September / October 2023 - Issue 344 Q & A / MATT HANLEY, MTWO ▲ MTWO finds roles for those in the print, graphics, and signage industries ► Hanley’s wife Lyndsey also works in MTWO
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