Women in recruitment – Jackie Mair
As part of our women in recruitment series, Jackie offers us insights into life at Ten Live, and what advice she would offer to females in our industry.
For 10 years, Jackie has been responsible for the finance division at Ten Live. Having worked with the co-founders Joanne and Gary Telfer previously, Jackie transitioned to Ten Live a decade ago and hasn’t looked back since.
We asked Jackie 7 questions. Here’s what she had to say.
Why do you love your job?
For the past decade, I have been the Finance Manager for Ten Live – overseeing payroll, administration, inductions for new employee’s and the business accounts. I have worked across multiple sectors during my career from insurance to manufacturing. I made the move to recruitment 2 decades ago and haven’t looked back. Having worked with Joanne and Gary previously, the transition was an easy one.
I have always loved working with numbers but now, at Ten Live, I get to work with not only an incredible team but valued clients and candidates, giving me far more exposure to varying audiences as we help them to make their working lives great. The work is also varied and challenging and my knowledge from the past 20 years in recruitment comes in useful to new employees.
What are you most proud of in your career so far?
I am proud of our system and process integration. Firstly, introducing the payroll system in Ten Live. I then went on to implement further payroll checks to create an effective system leaving clients and candidates happy. That, coupled with HMRC amendments has led to a smooth finance department that our customers can rely on.
More recently, we passed Ten Lives first VAT audit with flying colours. No errors to speak of. #humblebrag
Outside of systems, my proudest achievement is managing and mentoring the team within my department and see them grow in confidence.
What have you seen change in recruitment?
From a finance perspective, there has been many changes over the years which have been imposed by HMRC. For example, IR35. This has had a major impact on self-employment and was a mammoth task for my team to transfer how these professionals were going to bet paid.
Going from old tacho graphs to Digi to make their working times easier to record from a payroll point of view as well as the implementation of the CPC card. For the latter, my team sourced the best prices per training modules which the contractors appreciated and received excellent feedback.
What advice would you give to females about a career in recruitment?
There are fantastic opportunities with the recruitment industry for females. There’s no getting away from the fact that it’s a high-pressure environment. But, as a recruitment consultant but the rewards out-weigh the challenges.
There are also other opportunities, such as resourcing and central services such as finance, marketing, HR and IT. For example, you can start off as a payroll administrator and work up to being a manager of a team. Just saying…
Why are female role models important to women in recruitment and their career?
As our co-founder Joanne Telfer recently said in a blog on increasing gender representation at leadership level in recruitment: “Females are more inspired by the success of female leaders in business. Greater female representation will result in more promotions. Therefore, increasing the exposure and access to female mentors for women who are building a rewarding career.”
I couldn’t agree more. Seeing a female in a position that you aspire to, is incredibly powerful.
It offers clarity on growth potential and what you can achieve.
- When you’re not being awesome in recruitment, what do you do?
I am proudly a working mum. It does feel like another full-time job as a single mum, as I am sure women can relate. I have brought up two children. My son graduated in Pure and Applied Chemistry and my daughter has just recently graduated in Film and Television.
I am so fortunate to have a fantastic network of supportive friends. Time spent with them is about catching up, keeping fit and girly weekends.
3 facts about you.
- Only drink diet juice – even with alcohol
- Loyal
- Keep fit (Dancing class) with everyone my age – so just a laugh basically.
Join a culture with diverse perspectives and opportunities.
We’re hiring at Ten Live.
A wise person once said, what’s for you won’t go by you.
Give Joanne Telfer a ring to open a dialogue on +44(0) 7547 761779. No hard sell or commitments, just a conversation.
And then you decide if Ten Live is for you.
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