Eccles-based Morson International, part of the Morson Group, has been crowned the number one rail industry recruiter for the 30th year running after supplying personnel equivalent to almost 4.5m man hours over the past 12 months. Twenty-five per cent (1.2m) of these hours have been spent on projects in the North West.
The accolade follows publication of annual survey results across all employment sectors in the Recruitment International Staffing Guide, with Morson International’s sales figures for the rail sector reaching £141m over the past year; nearly three times that of its closest competitor.
Morson International has more than 1,000 safety critical-sponsored rail professionals on its books and offers recruitment services for both overground and underground contracts.
The company is involved in providing technical staff for several North West rail infrastructure schemes, including the Northern Hub and the Manchester Metrolink. It is also driving skills development for the regional rail sector, with its in-house training company, Morson Vital Training (MVT) recently recruiting 12 apprentices at its Salford training centre, building on the success of its first Apprenticeship cohort.
Gary Smithson, associate director at Morson International, said: “Our success as a specialist recruiter for the rail sector is based on knowing the market from both a client and candidate perspective and being able to match skilled and experienced staff to roles within the required time frame on a national and international basis.
“Over the past 30 years we’ve also invested significantly across our systems and health and safety processes to ensure we remain ahead of the competition and continue to offer the best possible service to our clients, which is helping to ensure implementation of ambitious infrastructure improvements in the North West.”
Morson invests upwards of £250,000 each year in health and safety initiatives and training alongside specific programmes such as on-site drug and alcohol testing equipment and driver behaviour tracking software. The company has worked closely with both Network Rail and MVT to deliver close call training and develop an open culture where personnel are encouraged to report behaviours to pre-empt risk.
Gary added: “Continuous investment in health and safety is a critical way of supporting candidates and ensures that our clients have complete peace of mind that the personnel we provide will implement excellent safety behaviours on site and understand the importance of site-specific procedures.”
Morson also credits investment in IT for its continuing position at the forefront of the rail recruitment industry. The company was the first specialist rail recruiter to implement online timesheet systems for candidates, increasing billing and payment speed and accuracy. It also has a joined-up vendor management system to enhance role-matching efficiency.
Gary concluded: “We’re delighted to have been named the number one rail recruiter again this year. We now work direct with 248 agencies across the UK, Europe, USA and Canada and will continue to build on our best practice approach to recruitment to benefit both clients and candidates.”
