recruiter

millwright

staffing consultant

forklift operator

comptable

Randstad

I've been a client with Randstad for the past several months and it is now approaching mid September. I have had only two job placements, first with the AB Government downtown that my recruiter didn't 'do his homework' enough on that ended very uncomfortably when on my fifth day working as an Administrative Assistant, my immediate Supervisor told me that an office manager, and a Director, had given her negative and I still strongly feel unfair negative gossip or feedback about me, saying that I was not 'bubbly' like the girl whose place I had temporarily taken while she was transferred to another department within the building. And while I got on well with my immediate Supervisor, she had told me that she had wanted to go with another temp agency, but my recruiter had 'talked her into it' (about me) to her, so she relented. Being told this was awkward and uncomfortable, and I told her I felt like I had let her down. After thinking about it on the weekend, I still chose to leave the position the following Monday, having told my recruiter on the Friday that things weren't working out for me there. 

Fast forward to September when this time I was placed with a northside city of Edmonton location not far from the Yellowhead that was supposed to be on a 'good bus route' but really wasn't, so I chose to take a cab there in the mornings to get to work, and getting home with a male friend. After only two days, I came home, feeling like I was still struggling to fit in with the office environment, as well as trying to learn a new type of software I hadn't either heard of or used before that didn't find user friendly with a poorly outlined online training session that didn't tell you or showed you why the cursor was moving around the screen in the various steps to do what it was showing you to do, but not explaining what things like 'object part field' or 'cause code field', 'malf end field', etc even WERE or why clicking on them was the next step in the process! And because I was told some things by two different women, but I was encountering issues with the software that they hadn't told me so I was coming to one of them especially with questions, I believe it led to me being let go. They also wanted me to learn how to do the job of dispatch on just the first day as well, which I declined, as I had never had experience doing that before and the girl showing me was just whizzing through it! And the other girl was showing me her 'Receiving' job, which I preferred how to do first, where I wouldn't feel overwhelmed. I was sleep deprived from the anxiety of being a newbie wanting to do my best to learn everything like this software, but I was in a typical office cubicle, overhearing the other women laugh and natter with each other so much that I put my ipod Nano on to concentrate on learning this stupid software and drown out their voices, only to get an e-mail on just my 2nd day saying that 'the client' felt that things didn't seem to be working out and asking me not come into work the next day, despite her not saying a word about this to me all day, and telling me to come in promptly for a safety meeting tomorrow morning that we were being taken to by city transit! So she lacked the balls to say anything to me directly. 

In between these two temporary positions that ended rather abruptly earlier than I would have liked, my recruiter I had noticed since my first position was not responding back to my e-mails telling him of my availability like he used to. It had gotten to the point that I obtained the number from head office in Toronto to talk to his assistant branch manager, only HE had answered the phone, and I emphasized that I have to get working! 

Until Randstad can work at communicating more regularly with me and finding a good office placement for me that works out, where there is no b.s. 'office politics' or women only quickly showing me the ropes to learn computer software then cheerfully leaving me alone while they do their own jobs and talk amongst themselves, this has been my less than positive experience with working in these two sectors. I'm still struggling to build further office environment experience under my belt and it's not happening fast enough.

Great to stay for a few years to learn the ins and outs of the staffing industry, if your long term career goals sit within the business development or recruitment sectors, but not where you’d wanna land for your entire career.
VERY stressful sales expectations, and like every other company that depends on outside sales people, no matter how well you do, it’s never enough. Targets will get jacked up more and more the more successful you are, until they’re no longer attainable within a 40 hour work week. 
Recruitment side is fine when filling permanent roles, but managing a contingent workforce is a nightmare. Constant no-shows, zero reliability, candidates will say whatever they need to for you to trust they will be reliable for you, and for you to put them up for a job, and then are nowhere to be found on their first day. Those who do show up for day one will walk out at lunch and not tell anyone, or will start out reliably, but that changes quickly. You’re lucky if you have one candidate in 100 that you can actually trust will show up for their contracts. 
This leads to constant stress, always scrambling to replace no-shows while you are trying to manage a super angry client at the same time, hoping they don’t drop you as their agency of choice while you’re desperately trying to find someone who maybe might show up as a replacement. 
Meanwhile none of that effort and time counts towards your targets, as the client you’re scrambling for has already been counted as a conversion, and management wants you onto the next bigger and better thing while you’re not even staffing the last one with any measurable success. 
Very, VERY hectic environment, and it wears you out after a few years of always managing the same BS. 
New graduates are great for that job because they have the energy, no family obligations so no huge need for work/life balance, and it does give lots of experience and is a decent addition to a resume. 
But there’s hardly anyone there anymore with any notable tenure, because there are tons of agency organizations who pay better, and once you have a family, you’ll find that you’re missing out on a lot while trying to succeed in a way that is deemed acceptable by Randstad upper management. 

Manage the external recruitment process for a designated region and/or assigned client groups, mainly for professional and high volume areas, in order to secure qualified personnel for the required client/organization. Bring rigor and critical oversight to the recruitment function, supporting hiring managers and HR business partners in candidate attraction and assessment. Identify and implement strategic recruiting channels and methods.

Develop cost effective, efficient and innovative solutions to meet staffing needs. Maximize the efficiency and timeliness of recruitment processes while demonstrating the highest level of quality and integrity to potential hires. Develop a thorough understanding of the market sector and ensure Trader's competitiveness in recruiting.

Partnering with hiring managers on recruitment best practices including sourcing, pipelining candidates for key roles, interview techniques, proper documentation, and other assessment tools as required. Manage interactions with external vendor partnering with Trader in recruitment efforts.

Implement and maintain the applicant tracking system, (Taleo) including the development and maintenance of recruitment statistics, analysis, and other reporting as required with a proven ability perform data analysis, identify trends and make appropriate recommendation to correct/improve performance.

Working as part of a Human Resources team, participate in a wide variety of projects, programs and initiatives as assigned by the Manager - Talent Acquisition.
Specialties
• Recruitment
• Selection
• Sourcing
• Relationship Building
• Job Analysis
• Interviewing
• Business Development
• Networking
• Negotiation Skills
Excellent Communication skills and grammar accuracy, hard worker and fast learner, Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and other basic computer skills, customer service, WHIMS safety procedures, presentations and seminars, managing people, organizing tasks

At Dana, everyone would arrive approximately 5-15 minutes early, listen to an overview of what was going to be happening for the day, then go to the floor. Every hour we would rotate stations to prevent us from doing task with too much repetition and have three breaks (one every two hours).

I learned how to build and inspect their parts on multiple lines, as well as how to trouble shoot and solve mechanical issues when machinery was malfunctioning and the machine setters were busy elsewhere. Over my first two months, I also learned how to work my line as quickly and efficiently as some whom had been there for a year or two longer than I had.

My supervisor always seemed like he was great, very approachable and nice, until I realized that the issues that I would present to him wouldn't be resolved and he would pick favourites with employees.

Most of the co-workers at Dana were miserable people and some went out of their way to make their peer's work-life miserable as well. There were a select few that were either great to work with or neutral. There's an over-all lack of morale and the QC expert would pick and choose which quality she controlled based on who did her favours.

I didn't find working at Dana very hard, the tasks were simple enough, although it was difficult to keep up on some lines that I was unfamiliar with; nothing that I would not be confident that I could adjust to over time.

The sense of accomplishment I got was the most enjoyable part. Meeting quotas for the night and beating self-set goals over time made me feel like I was doing really well, which obviously feels great.

My typical day at work consisted of 
- Making 60 cold calls in the morning through Excel spread sheets
- Linkedin searches for potential candidates
- Conducting two candidate or energy professional (referrals) meetings/interviews per day
- Two candidate presentations to Account Managers per day
- Reviewing/making adjustments to resumes
- 2-3 reference checks per candidate
- Entering all e-mails, phone call conversations, resumes, personal information and voice mail messages into ProConnect database
- Mapping out potential clients departments or divisions using Visio
- Organizing my Lead Account Manager's meetings with my own meetings and ensuring that they were compatible with each others schedules.
- Researching Oil&Gas companies to keep up with market trends and news

I learned a great deal about the oil and gas industry, different engineering/energy professionals and what their jobs consist of. I also learned different tactics on how to approach different personalities. 

The challenge I faced in my job was to ensure that both the recruiter and the account manager communicated sufficiently so that they could relay the correct information back to either the candidate or the client.

What I enjoyed most was meeting new people and hearing each individuals career story and their accomplishments. After every meeting I always learned something new. 

Management was very supportive and everyone was made clear of their three expectations.
1. Positive Attitude
2. Strong work ethic
3. Doing all of your activities on a daily basis

My dealings with Randstad were brief and thoroughly enjoyable. They delivered on their promise of employment to me, and best of all they guaranteed a wage of at least $15 an hour at a time when the minimum wage in Alberta was much less. I was impressed, and the time it took from interview to employment was speedy and painless.


While my experience was great, I do have second hand knowledge of an experiences that was less so. When I was in the Ranstad office (formerly on Roper Road), a middle aged man in an interview was having a less successful time. He was basically berated by the interviewer over successive gaps in his resume and her doubting his credibility. Instead of just saying she couldn't help him, she went a step further and tried to hammer home the point that none of the companies she worked with would want him for any position. This man was incredibly mild mannered and didn't even go so far as to talk back to her, but rather he maintained his composition and remained mannerly. When she noticed how polite he was, the Ranstad agent reverted to a pseudo polite composure, and "rewarded" him by referring him to a government job search website that literally anyone can access.  Watching this interaction transpire was unpleasant, not only because of the way this very young and privilged  woman was speaking to an obviously road weary and unemployed middle aged man. But also because it confirmed a long held suspicion; Ranstad works on behalf of the companies seeking employees, and as such puts their interests ahead of the desperate job seekers who flock to their office.

This review comes from someone who worked on the ground level and experienced firsthand how dysfunctional the environment can be. While others may have had different experiences, this reflects what I personally went through.

Unfortunately, the culture is dominated by toxic lower management that’s often rewarded rather than corrected. The level of micromanagement, pressure, and inconsistency is unlike anything I’ve seen in my career. It can deeply affect your confidence and motivation over time.

Targets and expectations seem to change based on leadership’s mood rather than clear strategy or data. Professionalism often takes a back seat — candidates are treated like numbers, and you’re pushed to submit them anywhere possible, regardless of fit. This completely contradicts the “partner for talent” slogan the company promotes.

Leadership skills among managers vary widely, and tenure often seems more valued than actual capability. The focus is on short-term metrics, not people or long-term success.

There is little to no training, coaching, or structured onboarding. 

The broader Canadian job market is also challenging right now, but instead of adapting strategically, the company continues to push unrealistic expectations on employees.

In short, if you value a healthy work culture, genuine leadership, and professional growth, this may not be the right place for you.

Be aware. They deliberately try to obtain illegal personal info for hiring. 

1. When you visit this branch for interview/appointment, you have to "sign in" on their iPad and take a picture of yourself. This image is to be added on your profile and remain in the database. This is not a model agency! Why do they include applicant's picture on the profile? Race&looking are definitely some of the criteria they use to filter their candidates.

2. Recruiters send you an electronic payroll document, asking your FULL date of birth and Social Insurance Number WITHOUT presenting you a single position. And again, all this information will be stored on their database and will be used for filtering candidates illegally. Since they already knows that asking these info is illegal, they rather pretend like just getting you ready for payroll. Afterwards, they'll simply ghost you :)

So basically on their database, your photo and age are attached to the profile and to be used for hiring.

It's literally Randstad drive you to submit your resume with photo and age while you're not realizing it.

Mind you, their work ethic and mentality is just like USED CAR DEALERS.
They're essentially sales people with no actual knowledge of your working field. When you do "interview" with them, you'll notice how they have NO IDEA what your job is about. But are amazing at sweet talk and backstabbing :D

DO NOT TRUST THEM!!!

It’s a great place to learn as a first job but unfortunately the experience will depend on who is in management that week.  The turnover is extremely high (over 60%) which is ironic for a company giving advice to clients on how to reduce turnover.  Staff are promoted based on sales and not ability to lead or manage people which is an entirely different skill set.  So although there are some fantastic leaders the majority are ill equipped to set new consultants up for success.  With lack of strong leadership it can be at times a toxic environment, that rewards doing anything for the sale, including taking it from a coworker.   Everything is based on volume, not quality.  If you attempt to offer both it is challenging not to burn out or have sales lag. They will give you 12 months to ramp up at a low pay.  They offer shares but remove most employees prior to the program kicking in  at two years.  The starting salary for most has been 55k for the past decade with no raise to base. Achieving targets will be largely affected by management and how tenacious your coworkers are about saying a lead or candidate is their percentage, it’s pretty disheartening if you care about the clients or candidates.
Again, if you are new to the industry it’s a great place to learn but be prepared for a roller coaster.  It’s a challenging environment.

Randstad is a really good company to work for, the department I worked for however was not. The company has lots of weekly and monthly events that make working for them fun. Other departments were very happy and the employees looked forward to coming to work everyday. The people in other departments had lunches together and liked their co workers. The department I worked for was an awful experience. There was little to no guidance and the managers did not have the skills necessary or the ability to be good managers. The company has a great atmosphere but our departments was very oppressive. Everyone had their headphones in and could not care less about who was sitting next to them. Any events the company was having were usually not attended by my department or were attended briefly. Most were looking for a way out of the department. We had a legit morale problem and the managers were unable to solve it by their halfhearted attempts. You will know within an hour which department this is if you get hired because there will be no attempt to integrate the new coworker within the department. You will be left to your own devices very quickly and most likely will not have an on boarding.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Recruiter 13 salaries reported	$63,846 per year
Millwright 60 salaries reported	$32.73 per hour
Staffing consultant 28 salaries reported	$74,268 per year
Forklift operator 12 salaries reported	$18.25 per hour
Comptable 26 salaries reported	$64,000 per year

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