SUCCESSFUL homebuilder Persimmon Homes is looking to recruit ex-service personnel to fill positions in South Yorkshire.
A dedicated armed forces recruitment professional is set to support the region's leading housebuilder in a push to bring service leavers into the housing industry.
Tommy Watson has joined Persimmon Homes after spending 26 years in the Army, with the sole purpose of recruiting service leavers into positions across South and West Yorkshire.
He said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for both me and the thousands of people who leave the armed forces every year.
"In my new role I will work with Persimmon West Yorkshire to seek out people who are about to leave the services and who have immediate transferable skills."
After 22 years in Infantry roles, Tommy worked for a further five years helping service leavers settle back into civilian life. As part of this he helped find jobs for early leavers who had spent up to four years in the services.
Prior to joining Persimmon, he worked with wounded, injured and sick personnel as a specialist employment consultant with the Recovery Career Services.
Wayne Gradwell, managing director at Persimmon West Yorkshire says the new role is part of the company's growth strategy.
"2014 has so far been an excellent year for the business with visitor levels to our sites up 10 per cent and our weekly private sales rate per site for the first 15 weeks of 2014 - 25 per cent ahead of 2013," said Wayne.
"To meet customer demand we need a robust recruitment programme to bring qualified people into the business. There is a diverse range of opportunities currently available including bricklayers, carpenters and ground workers as well as site management roles and sales positions. "We recognise that a lot of people leaving the armed forces have transferable skills and Tommy's job will be to introduce Persimmon to them and fill some of the vacancies we have each year."
