Servicing the ‘People’ Side of Inkjet.

I recently caught up with Dorinda Gibbons who is Director and Owner of Profile Recruitment Ltd, a specialist recruitment company that has been operating in the field of Digital Inkjet Technology for over 20 years. We find out more about her experience and view of the trends in the industry.

Tell us a bit about your business and your experience in the Print industry?

My name is Dorinda Gibbons and since graduating from University I have worked in the world of recruitment. My ultimate purpose is to help people, be it get the job of their dreams or for a company to recruit the best person they can. After spending 15 years in print and packaging recruitment I wanted to set up my own specialist recruitment company in the expanding market of Digital Inkjet printing.

I wanted to work to provide the highest quality services to both clients and candidates. Building long term relationships with companies where I understand their business, product offering and future goals in order to help them find the right people to achieve this. I do not work with high volume recruitment supplying 100s of CVs, but instead, work on a bespoke basis with my clients where the CVs they receive are at the right level and with the right experience they need. I also work to advise clients and sometimes bring in new skills from outside the sector that can bolt onto the existing skills base. Equally, I am keen to develop the future of the business and have placed many graduates into the industry as chemists and engineers.

Profile Recruitment Ltd operates across both technical and commercial recruitment with roles ranging from chemists, engineers and product managers up to and including Director level.

I have worked with clients for many years placing candidates that have made a fundamental impact on the companies they joined and have since been promoted and climbed the ranks.

What trends are you seeing in recruitment? at the moment. Do these reflect changes in the industry?

Some companies are now trying to cost save and bring recruitment in house and consolidate, and there is certainly a lot of consolidation and merging across the industry as a whole. Companies are continually looking to reduce costs but this should not be on recruitment, it is no use having the best technology without the people to make it, operate it, service it or sell it.

I feel that it should not be a case of either recruiting in house or with a recruiter but instead should be a collaboration to do what is best for the business to recruit the right people. To meet the current and long term recruitment needs of a business you always need new people, and new ways of working and this can best be achieved by using as many recruitment avenues as possible. I work with companies in conjunction with their own efforts. If possible companies should recruit internally wherever they can but this is not always possible.
Profile work on difficult to fill assignments where a company cannot fill internally and have exhausted their existing network. Some roles may take a little longer to fill but it is always worth waiting for the best possible person rather than recruit the wrong person as this can be costly and have a negative impact on the company and team.

What challenges do you think the industry has at the moment?

There is a shortage of talent across the industry which makes recruitment a difficult task. The market has historically been a mature market and many people are going to be looking to retire. The industry is also not the first choice for graduates and in this way we are looking at educating graduates and indeed companies to show what a fantastic and diverse industry this is.

Profile work with companies to look at the overall recruitment strategy and how they could look at working more collaboratively with the universities and reach out to students at a younger age. We also work in partnership with other companies that can help you with training for the managers in the business, stress management tools and also HR support to help you with talent mapping and succession planning. As well as recruiting the best people it is essential to have a good plan and methodology on retention and keeping the best people in a business.

Why do you like working in the print industry?

I love working in the print industry for many reasons. Firstly the people across the industry are fantastic and a great mix of passion, intelligence and hardworking ethos. The market is so diverse there really is a job for any type of person from creative, to sales to marketing and analytical. There are also companies of varying sizes and opportunities for people to work for themselves or a large corporate. It really is a diverse industry where anything is possible!

Dorinda at Printing United

With Drupa coming in a couple of months - what is next?

I always enjoy visiting Drupa and this will be my third. This is a great opportunity to meet everyone under one roof. From existing clients and new clients to candidates. This is a real networking event and also a great opportunity to see the technology firsthand and speak to people about the future of the industry.
I really hope with recent events and cancellations that Drupa 2020 will go ahead, the amount of planning behind the scenes has been phenomenal and feel it would be a great shame should it not go ahead.

Let’s all send positive thoughts that this event will go ahead as planned and be a real success

Thanks, Dorinda for talking to us!

Dorinda Gibbons is the Director and Owner of Profile Recruitment Ltd, established in January 2018, operating as a specialist recruitment company in the field of Digital Inkjet Technology with over 20 years in recruitment.

Profile operates across the UK, Europe and America, and has attending recent events including Packaging Innovation 2020 and last year Fespa, The Inkjet Conference in Chicago and Dusseldorf and Printing United in Texas and has presented at the Inkjet Conference on “How to attract and retain the best talent”, and was on the panel at Fespa on “Working for a living in print” She has also written an e guide to recruiting in the Inkjet industry.

For more information check out Profile Recruitment

If you are interested in contacting Dorinda, email her here.