Severn Trent, one of Britain’s largest water companies, has appointed recruitment specialist Morson Talent to place contractors and temporary workers across key areas of its business, from engineering and technology to data analysis and customer service.
Having identified a requirement to expand its contingent workforce across key areas such as engineering and technology, Severn Trent was keen to find a supplier that could not only deliver across niche markets and technical skillsets, but also contribute to its ED&I strategy.
Following a rigorous, multi-stage tender process, it appointed Morson Talent, the UK recruitment arm of global talent solutions specialist, Morson Group, as its Managed Service Provider (MSP) for a minimum three-year period. It will oversee a period of change for Severn Trent, including a recruitment push to fill a wide variety of specialised roles.
Steve Birnie, Resourcing Manager at Severn Trent, commented: “There are areas where we’re really focusing on strategic workforce planning within the business as we are gearing up for the next AMP and looking at how we’re going to deliver projects in a way that continues to consider things like nature-based solutions. This requires us to keep evolving and thinking broader in terms of the skillsets we will be recruiting, and it is imperative we have our contingent workforce delivery model aligned to this.
Severn Trent was keen to find a supplier that could not only deliver across niche markets and technical skillsets, but also contribute to its ED&I strategy
“We also need to fill niche roles in the engineering design space, such as hydraulic modellers, along with a huge drive in our Group Technology space to name just a couple. These are technical skillsets that can be extremely difficult to recruit for, but Morson is known for its ability to work niche markets and verticals, so they’ll have a big part to play over the coming years.”
Severn Trent will benefit from a dedicated on and offsite account team at Morson, as well as access to its award-winning ED&I experts who will help to put inclusion at the core of the contractor worker recruitment process. Morson has already begun to implement diversity questionnaire for new starters, which will help them shape candidate attraction schemes moving forward.
Juliet Rice, Head of Client Services at Morson, said: “What we noticed immediately on meeting the team at Severn Trent was a cultural synergy, so much so that three of our core values are actually identical! They have a really friendly, all-hands-on-deck organisation and we left our initial meetings with them feeling like we were already part of their team.”
The partnership between the two businesses will also give Severn Trent access to a range of solutions from across the Morson Group, including Morson Digital Studios and Morson Forces, which will help the water company elevate opportunities for ex-services personnel, following its recent achievement of gold status with the Armed Forces Covenant.
Severn Trent will also benefit from Morson’s technology solution, Vencuro, which provides access to pay rate analysis utilising data from over 16,000 live contractors with the view to ensure market rates and cost effectiveness.
“What impresses us about the Morson delivery model is its focus on adding value,” said Birnie. “Their reporting and dashboard solutions are a particular strength, giving us access to real-time data we need to make business-critical decisions. As a data-driven organisation, that’s a massive benefit.
“When you combine all of these value-adding solutions with their strength in filling niche roles and their cultural alignment with us as a business, Morson clearly comes out on top as the natural partner for Severn Trent. I look forward to seeing what we achieve together over the next few years.”
