A bronzed Britain has basked in hot weather for weeks – but summer days like these can leave many businesses feeling frazzled.
The glorious weather means more people are spending time in beer gardens and towns and cities, especially with the World Cup in full swing, as well as flocking to gigs and festivals.
This can cause a security headache for pubs and music events around the country – which is where Broadstone comes in.
The Manchester-based business is a flexible staffing platform which was founded by former footballer Tom Pickersgill 18 months ago and can provide hundreds of qualified security personnel at extremely short notice – something a traditional recruitment agency would be unable to cover.
Pickersgill was named as one of BusinessCloud’s ’35 Under 35′ tech entrepreneurs recently.
“Retail and city security has been ramped up while the hot weather and World Cup means there are staff shortages due to no-shows, people dropping out of shifts or taking days off,” he told BusinessCloud.
“Staff also have holidays booked as we are nearing school holiday season, so over the summer months, there is always a requirement for temporary holiday cover.
“This has led to ad hoc requirements at short notice which we can fulfil and turn around quickly to find replacement personnel.”
Broadstone’s platform uses the analytics tech of Big Data business Hello Soda to match security workers with employers and recruiters around the UK while Experian’s database is automatically consulted to provide background checks on candidates.
The aim is to branch out into other sectors such as warehousing and retail.
“Someone like Sainsbury’s might need 300 people to come in tomorrow and pack burgers simply because it’s hot – and we would be able to cover that,” he explained.
“The warehousing requirements from the likes of Amazon fluctuate up and down throughout the year, which could be a huge area of growth for us.”
One company that turned to Broadstone was Southern Rail after rail strikes left the company needing more than a hundred security staff. By sending out push notifications to suitable candidates, it covered 46 platforms across the South of England at short notice.
Pickersgill has already headhunted talent from Silicon Valley and LADBible as he seeks to scale up the business, which was one of the first to receive Northern Powerhouse Investment Funding of £200,000 last year and recently came through the PwC Scale programme.
He describes the recruitment industry as “antiquated” with many high street agencies still requiring clients to fax over handwritten timesheets and vows to drag the industry into the future, with staff even being paid through Broadstone.
“We use the same technology as Revolut,” he said. “Each company has a bank account on our platform that they pay into and then each worker has their own account so we can process payment without anybody touching it.
“Payroll is the biggest cost in this area [of temporary staffing].”
Pickersgill is eyeing a potential Series A round of funding in December and says the US market could be huge for Broadstone down the line.