Hooray Works

Located in the heart of Cheltenham and covering Gloucestershire, Hooray Works is an independent award-winning, ethical recruitment agency.

They are passionate about making a positive impact on people and believe strongly that businesses can be a force for good for the community.

Richard Arthur, Managing Director, explains why they support local charities through employer supported volunteering:

“We enjoy seeing the positive impact of matching the right people with the right organisations; benefiting individuals and communities, as well as businesses and the local economy.

This extends further as we offer our team opportunities to support local charitable organisations which positively contributes to our local community and economy.

We encourage all staff to get involved with the local community and charitable causes. Any staff who wants to get involved in these types of activities can book up to 4 volunteering days in each calendar year. That’s a total of 80 days of volunteering for the team!

So far, we have supported many different charities from helping transform the sensory garden for James Hopkins Trust to raising £3,500 for the Pied Piper Appeal. 

We are aware that the running of our business will, in many ways, affect our place of work, the community and the wider environment in which we operate. We believe that the way we run our business can and should make a positive difference in these areas and we aim to ensure that continued efforts are made to achieve that.

Giving back has always been important to me and I always set out to run a purpose led business. To me, considered volunteering not only helps the charity, but also with employee engagement so it’s a no brainer! 

As Hooray grows, we will naturally provide more volunteering hours, and as our presence and brand develop, we hope this gives the charities we support a higher platform and therefore enable them to raise more funds.”

One of the Hooray Works team, Alice Duffy, Recruitment Consultant used some of her volunteering days to support the Spear Programme in Cheltenham.

This is a free national programme set up by a the Resurgo Trust and run in Cheltenham by Trinity which helps unemployed young people facing barriers to employment into work or education. 

Alice explains how she became involved and what is meant to her:

‘I participated in the Spear program conducting mock interviews with people aged 16-24 that were looking to get into their first full time role following a difficult situation.

The group was a real mixture of individuals, including people that had severe anxiety, autism or other neurodivergent conditions, individuals that had gone through the loss of a parent or both parents, young carers and more.

The Spear program is fantastic and you could really tell that the individuals in the team had helped to build the individuals’ confidence over the short period they’d spent together, so it was great to hear from the group leaders about how much they had grown into themselves.

We conducted mock job interviews, asking them questions like “why do you want to work in this industry”, “what questions do you have for an employer”, “what would you describe as your strengths and weaknesses”.

It was really heart-warming to see how passionate the individuals became once we started to ask them about their background and what made them want to get into a full-time job and how they are keen to transform their lives.

We gave guidance on how to improve their answers, but a lot of the time the individuals were well prepared and went well beyond our expectations!

The Spear program was very rewarding in the sense that I felt like I’d made a real difference to these individuals’ lives.

It gave me a better insight into how people can be impacted by life events or conditions that they’ve had no control over, and made me realise that it’s important to be compassionate towards candidates that I deal with daily. It was a fantastic experience, and I would recommend everyone at Hooray gives it a go at least once”.

Chris Wagstaff from Trinity helps to lead the Spear programme in Cheltenham.

'The help from members of the Hooray team during our Mock Interviews has been invaluable.

Being a pre-employment programme, having professionals within the recruitment industry means our young people receive a real insight into employment, top tips and general encouragement meaning they always walk away feeling inspired and equipped for the working world.' 

www.hoorayworks.co.uk

www.resurgo.org.uk