Richard Bourne 28th August 2026

Think about the strongest person in your business. Your top employee, the person who get’s stuff done.

It might be the production operative who knows every product variation, the welder everyone turns to when a drawing is unclear, or the supervisor who can keep a shift moving when machinery breaks down and an urgent order lands at the same time.

Now imagine that person applying for their own job today. Would their CV get through the first stage?

Would they have every qualification listed in the advert? Would they already know your particular machinery, products and systems? Would they have the required number of years in an almost identical role?

Or would they be rejected because, on paper, they do not look like the employee they eventually became?

It is an uncomfortable question, but a useful one.

Many excellent employees were not the finished article when they joined. They became valuable through experience, support, opportunity and time. Yet when employers recruit their replacements, they often look for someone who already possesses every skill that the existing employee developed over several years.

That can make a vacancy unnecessarily difficult to fill. Over complicated job descriptions and looking to find a candidate that does not exist

How did your best employees actually start?

The best person in a department is not always the person who arrived with the strongest CV.

A reliable machine setter may have started as a production operative. A skilled fabricator may initially have joined as a MIG welder. A warehouse supervisor may have begun as a forklift driver and gradually taken responsibility for stock, paperwork and other employees.

The business saw something in them. Perhaps it was their attitude, practical ability, consistency or willingness to learn. They were given an opportunity and developed from there.

When the same business recruits today, the vacancy might ask for three years of setting experience, knowledge of several machines, supervisory ability, quality inspection experience and a forklift licence.

The person currently succeeding in the role might never have been interviewed against those requirements.

This does not mean employers should lower essential standards. A maintenance engineer still needs the competence to work safely. A welder still needs to produce work of the required quality. A forklift driver still needs the correct training and authorisation.

It does mean that employers should look carefully at which abilities are genuinely required on the first day, and which ones their existing employees learned after joining.

Start with the work, not the person specification

Job descriptions can become detached from the actual working day.

A vacancy may be advertised as a Production Technician, but most of the shift is spent assembling products with hand tools. Another employer may advertise for a Warehouse Operative when the job is mainly loading vehicles with a counterbalance forklift.

Candidates want to understand what the work is really like.

Will they be standing at the same workstation for most of the day? Will they move between departments? Is the work physically demanding? Is the environment noisy, dusty, hot or cold? How much of the role is skilled work, and how much is repetitive production?

None of those things automatically makes a job unattractive. Different people enjoy different types of work.

One candidate might value a steady, predictable production role. Another might want variety and practical problem-solving. An experienced welder may be happy completing repetitive welds if the rate, hours and conditions suit them. Someone else may want complex fabrication work that develops their skills.

Problems begin when the advert sells one type of job and the candidate discovers another.

A role described as varied engineering work will disappoint someone if they spend every day completing the same assembly. A candidate expecting straightforward machine operating may leave quickly if they are suddenly responsible for setting, fault-finding and quality.

An honest advert may attract fewer people, but the people it attracts are more likely to understand the opportunity and remain in the job.

Your competitors are not only businesses like yours

Employers often compare a vacancy with similar positions at direct competitors.

A manufacturer advertising for a welder might look at other welding vacancies. A warehouse might compare its forklift rate with other forklift jobs.

Candidates take a wider view.

A production operative may also consider warehousing, construction, retail distribution, driving or facilities work. A mechanically minded candidate might compare an assembly position with vehicle repair, maintenance, utilities or field-based work.

The competition is not always offering the same job. It may simply be offering a better overall working life.

A competitor could be offering:

• A slightly higher hourly rate
• Permanent employment from the first day
• A four-day working week
• Predictable day shifts
• Earlier Friday finishes
• Regular overtime
• Better holiday entitlement
• A cleaner or more modern environment
• Free parking or an easier journey
• A recognised training programme
• A clear route into a skilled position
• Faster decisions after the interview

An extra 50 pence per hour may influence someone, but it is rarely the only consideration.

A candidate might accept slightly less money for stable day shifts. A parent may value predictable finishing times. Someone travelling by public transport may choose the job they can reliably reach. An ambitious operative may accept an entry-level rate if there is credible training and progression attached to it.

This is why simply saying that a rate is “competitive” is not enough. Competitive with what?

Employers need to understand the complete local offer, including rates, shifts, contracts, working conditions and opportunities.

The recruitment process can lose the right person

A careful recruitment process is sensible. A slow one is not always careful.

We regularly see businesses receive a suitable CV, wait several days to review it, arrange an interview for the following week, then take more time to make a decision.

During that period, the candidate continues applying elsewhere.

They may attend two other interviews, complete a weld test or receive an offer from a company that moved more quickly.

The first employer may eventually decide that the candidate is ideal, only to discover that they have already accepted another job.

This is not necessarily a sign that the candidate was unreliable. Most people cannot stop their job search while one employer considers its options. They have bills to pay and no guarantee that an interview will lead to an offer.

The length of the process should match the complexity of the role.

A production operative may only need one structured interview and a site walkaround. A welder could complete an interview and weld test during the same visit. A senior maintenance or management appointment may reasonably need a more detailed process.

Every stage should have a clear purpose.

If three managers are interviewing the candidate separately but asking similar questions, the process may be longer without producing a better decision. If an assessment does not test anything relevant to the actual job, it may create another delay rather than improving the hire.

Communication matters too.

Candidates should know what the process involves, when a decision is likely and whether there are any further stages. Silence creates uncertainty. Uncertainty encourages people to pursue other opportunities.

Research from the CIPD found that 27% of employers attempting to fill vacancies had experienced a new starter failing to arrive on their first day. It also found that 41% of recruiting employers had experienced new employees leaving within their first 12 weeks. Source: CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning research

There will never be a process that prevents every withdrawal or early departure. However, speed, clarity and regular contact can reduce avoidable losses.

Candidates research employers too

Recruitment used to be heavily weighted towards the employer.

The company had the vacancy, the candidate applied and the interview concentrated almost entirely on whether the applicant was suitable.

That relationship is now more balanced.

Candidates search for the business online. They read reviews, look at social media and speak to people who have worked there. In close manufacturing and industrial communities, reputations travel quickly.

People talk about which companies provide stable work, which supervisors treat employees fairly and which businesses regularly let temporary workers go with little warning.

They also talk about poor inductions, cancelled shifts, unsafe practices, unrealistic targets and promises of permanent work that never materialise.

A company does not need expensive branding to build a good reputation. It needs the reality of the job to match what candidates are told.

The CIPD describes employer brand as the way a business is perceived as a place to work. Its 2024 research found that 81% of surveyed organisations had taken action to improve their employer brand during the previous year. Source: CIPD employer brand factsheet

A glossy careers page will not repair a poor employee experience. Equally, a good employer can struggle to recruit if it never explains what makes the business worth joining.

If employees receive proper training, work in a supportive team and have remained with the company for years, say so. If overtime is available, explain how regularly. If people have progressed from the shop floor into skilled or supervisory jobs, use genuine examples.

The strongest employer brand is evidence.

What would your employees say about the business?

A useful recruitment exercise is to ask several existing employees a few direct questions:

• Why did you originally accept the job?
• What has made you stay?
• What do you enjoy about the work?
• What was different from what you expected?
• What would make the job better?
• Would you recommend the business to someone you know?

The answers may not be the ones management expects.

A company may believe that its biggest advantage is the pay rate, while employees value the Monday to Thursday working week. Managers might focus on the size of the business, while employees appreciate that the production manager knows everyone by name.

The opposite can also be true. Management may believe progression is available, but employees may not know what they need to do to progress.

Recruitment becomes stronger when the employer understands the job from the employee’s side of the table.

Progression does not always mean management

Many adverts promise progression but never explain what it means.

Candidates have seen the phrase so often that it can sound empty.

Progression does not have to mean becoming a manager. In manufacturing, engineering and logistics, it could mean:

• Learning to set machinery
• Moving from basic welding into fabrication
• Learning to read more complex drawings
• Gaining a forklift or crane qualification
• Developing quality inspection skills
• Learning basic maintenance and fault-finding
• Becoming a trainer or mentor
• Taking responsibility for stock, despatch or planning
• Moving onto more complex products
• Progressing into team leadership

A credible progression opportunity needs a route.

What can the person learn? Who will train them? How long might it take? What additional responsibility will they receive? Will their pay increase when they become competent?

If those questions cannot be answered, the opportunity is not yet a progression plan. It is only a possibility.

The Department for Education’s Employer Skills Survey found that 51% of manufacturing employers had provided training during 2024, down from 54% in 2022. Manufacturing was also among the sectors least likely to have provided training. Source: Employer Skills Survey 2024

That creates an opportunity for employers willing to be different.

A business that can show candidates how they will develop has something valuable to offer, particularly when competing against companies advertising similar rates.

Look at the evidence inside your own business

Before finalising a vacancy, look at the people already succeeding in similar work.

Write down what they could do when they started and what they learned later.

You may discover that your best assembler had never worked with your product before. Your most reliable machine operator may have come from a different industry. Your supervisor might have had no previous management title but showed leadership once given responsibility.

This gives the business a more realistic picture of potential.

It also helps separate the recruitment brief into three areas.

Essential from the first day

These are the abilities needed to perform the work safely and reach an acceptable starting standard.

For a welder, this might be the ability to produce a sound MIG weld. For a forklift position, it may include relevant training and practical competence. For an engineer, it could include the technical knowledge needed to work safely without constant supervision.

Transferable experience

These are abilities gained elsewhere that could apply to the position.

Someone who has assembled furniture, vehicles, windows or mechanical products may adapt well to another assembly environment. A machine operator from food production may understand quality, targets and safe working, even if the machinery is different.

Skills that can be developed

These are company-specific processes, products, systems or additional duties that a suitable person can learn after joining.

The more clearly these groups are defined, the easier it becomes to judge candidates fairly.

Would your best employee pass the interview?

This question goes beyond the CV.

Some experienced employees are excellent at their jobs but not particularly confident in interviews. They demonstrate their ability through what they do, not through polished answers.

Would your strongest shop-floor employee succeed in a highly formal panel interview?

Would they confidently describe their achievements using management language? Would they perform well in a generic online assessment? Would they remember every date and detail from jobs they held ten years ago?

Perhaps not.

That does not mean interviews should be abandoned. It means the assessment should reflect the work.

A practical test may tell you more about a welder than a long interview. A site walkaround can encourage a production candidate to ask useful questions. Discussing a real machinery fault may reveal more about an engineer than asking them to describe their “greatest weakness.”

Good recruitment is not about making the process easy. It is about making it relevant.

The perfect CV and the right employee are not always the same person

Employers naturally want to reduce risk.

When recruitment is expensive, it feels safer to choose the person whose CV matches every requirement. However, a close match on paper does not guarantee reliability, attitude, adaptability or long-term commitment.

The candidate with slightly less direct experience may have a better reason for wanting the job. They may live closer, prefer the shift, want to learn the product and see the opportunity as a long-term move.

The more experienced candidate may also be excellent. The point is not to favour potential over experience in every situation.

The point is to assess what will make someone successful in this particular business.

Your best employee may never have looked perfect on paper. They became the right person because their ability met an opportunity.

How Bespoke Career Solutions can help

Bespoke Career Solutions takes a consultative approach to manufacturing, engineering and logistics recruitment.

We discuss the actual work, not only the job title.

That includes the day-to-day duties, essential skills, shift pattern, working environment, team structure, recruitment stages and the reason the vacancy exists.

We can help employers consider:

• Whether the person specification reflects the employees already succeeding in the business
• Which skills must be present from the first day
• Which requirements could be learned
• Whether transferable experience is being overlooked
• How competitors are presenting similar opportunities
• Whether the pay, shifts and contract are attractive within the local market
• Whether the recruitment process is taking too long
• What makes the company a good place to work
• Whether promised progression is clear and realistic

Because Bespoke Career Solutions speaks with employers and candidates every day, we hear both sides of the recruitment process.

We know what employers need, but we also hear why candidates accept, reject or leave jobs. That feedback can help a business adjust the rate, simplify the process, improve the advert or reconsider a requirement that is unnecessarily restricting the candidate pool.

Sometimes the right answer is to pay more for the complete skillset.

Sometimes it is to remove a non-essential requirement and recruit someone who can grow into the role.

A final question for employers

Think again about your best employee.

Remember what they were like on their first day, not what they can do now.

If they applied for the current vacancy with the experience they had back then, would you interview them?

If the answer is no, the recruitment process may be screening out the next person who could become just as valuable.

The aim is not to lower standards. It is to recognise how good employees are actually made.

Some arrive with years of experience. Others arrive with strong foundations, the right attitude and the ability to learn. A sensible recruitment process leaves room for both.

To discuss a manufacturing, engineering or logistics vacancy, contact Bespoke Career Solutions:

Telephone: 0121 818 5188
Email: jobs@bespokecareersolutions.com
Website: www.bespokecareersolutions.com

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