David Morrison

Can you tell us about your current role as a Recruitment Coordinator?

I am currently one of the Recruitment Coordinator’s at The Ultimate Activity Company, and part of a small but incredibly efficient Recruitment Team. Our Ultimate belief is that the quality of our staff determines the quality of camp, and we pride ourselves on recruiting the very best. We need our staff to not only be passionate about childcare, but also making camp an exciting and fun place to be for children and staff!

What are your main responsibilities?

In short, the main responsibility within my Recruitment Coordinator role is to oversee the end to end recruitment for a large number of temporary staff who help us deliver the exceptionally high standards we have promised parents, children and schools. This is achieved through the development and management of recruitment initiatives and creating a larger brand presence.

A large proportion of my time is taken up by selecting and appointing suitable staff. This involves sourcing suitable candidates, conducting interviews, completing necessary background checks as well as overseeing new starter inductions such as dealing with their paperwork, ensuring they are fully trained, and the provision of accurate records for payroll purposes. On top of this it is key to act as a point of contact for all staff and potential candidates.

We are certainly kept busy in the office, as well as our other tasks and projects that we have ongoing!

What skills and knowledge do you need in your role?

It’s extremely important to be well organised and to have excellent attention to detail. Due to the nature of the company and working with children, it is important that we are extremely thorough and vigilant in what we do as the repercussions in this industry can be extremely costly.

As the role involves liaising with a lot of people on a day to day basis, its key to be a confident communicator, both written and verbally.

The ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines is also crucial!

What are you looking for when it comes to recruiting? What makes people stand out?

Some form of knowledge or experience working with children is typically one of the first things we look out for when we assess potential candidates. Something that is relatable to us, whether it is previously working on another summer camp, some form of experience within the childcare industry, or simply studying a relatable degree at university and wanting to gain further experience in sport and with children. Experience is always going to be desirable, however it isn’t essential and does not necessarily mean that someone will be the right fit for us. Another major factor that we consider in our candidates is possessing the correct interpersonal skills suited to the role and being able to relate to our core mission in “inspiring children every day”.

Tell us a bit about your career path to this point…

I started down the usual path by going to university where I studied Sport Development & PE up in Leeds. I had gone to university with the view of becoming a PE Teacher, however coming out of university I was still uncertain on what path I wanted to pursue. I had gained some experience at the time working on summer camps in the UK, and so this eventually led me to working on a ski season during the winter and Camp America during the Summer. I then headed back to Leeds to study MSc Sports Event Management. Again, coming out of university led me back overseas to the beautiful French Alps and eventually a couple of years with Thomas Cook both overseas and within the UK. Once my journey came to an end with them, I settled down into the South of England in my current role. Safe to say working within the Childcare Industry has never really left me and I grateful for that. I have the opportunity to be a part of creating amazing experiences for children which will hopefully stay with them for a lifetime.

What advice would you give to others?

A quote I relate to a lot is ‘happiness is the thief of joy’. Just live your own life and do what feels best for you. Ensure that the decisions you make are an informed and conscious one and don’t let outsiders influence what you should and should not do. There is no one right way to do things, with all things in life it will always be context dependent. Just do what feels right to you and makes you most happy.

For more information on Ultimate Activity Camps visit their directory page on Careers in Sport or their ‘Work with Us’ page on their website.

Ultimate Activity Camps