Despite the recession, shrinking level of work for companies and reduced employment opportunities for all (especially the young) the amount of work we have been involved in has been on the increase over the last couple of years. However whilst the level of work has increased the value (owing to size of events, sponsorship levels) has tended to go the other way. So we're working harder for less - not complaining, just great to have the clients in the current tough market.
What it also means is that ensuring you have enough staff for the peak periods is becoming harder and harder budget wise. When big contracts were a common occurance companies could afford to employ people on large short to medium term contracts - this is not the case in todays market, especially for small companies. So what are the options...from our experiences placements are a fantastic choice.
Over the last couple of years we have employed a couple of placement students and to be honest we could not have operated or performed to our usual high level without them. Without being too blunt one of the major positives of placement students is the low cost and until we started working with placements I felt that may be the only one. I could not have been more wrong.
Their motivation to work hard and keeness to learn sets them aside from a lot of the more expensive options. Being placement students rather than just students in between study years ensures they have a genuine interest in the industry and market sector they are placed into, which makes a huge difference.
We have already set in motion plans to bring in a new placement student from September after the success of our current student, who thankfully has agreed to extend her stay through the summer. I'd strongly recommend smaller companies take similar advantage of this system - genuinely priceless to the success of our company.
