“Mike and Andy were closely involved in the recruitment, on-boarding and team development of operators, team leaders, managers and engineers for a new UK-based manufacturing facility, using robust psychometric data in order to help make informed and objective decisions. Carpathia’s experience in these scenarios in taking a project into a fully functioning operation, meant that Teams could be selected but also balanced to get the best start possible. Skills are important but so are team dynamics and chemistry!

Working with Informed Assessment Ltd, Carpathia’s assessment partner, psychometric aptitude tests were carefully selected, based on job and person specification criteria. Testing was carried out in controlled settings and in conjunction with structured competency-based interviews to help to make the recruitment processes as fair and as objective as possible, and also to allow for objective comparison as well between internal and external candidates.

Different tests were selected to provide tailored assessment solutions for different levels and types of role – for team leader roles, for example, an online situational judgment exercise benchmarked against UK team leaders was used, as well as tests. This also provided practical insights into on-boarding and development activities for newly-appointed team leaders, and particularly for those who were new to team-leading roles.

All candidates were offered feedback on their assessment results, regardless of the outcome of their applications, so that personal learning and development opportunities could be optimized.

As well as using the assessment results at the recruitment stage, the results were used to help to identify the best fits and matches for different shift teams. Looking at candidates tendencies on subjects such as compliance, Personal Safety, Team safety & safety Leadership etc.

As part of the induction process, a practical, indoor group exercise was used to help new recruits to work together and to get to know each other as new colleagues. This provided relevant and insightful experiential learning opportunities for the new team, but in a fun and an enjoyable way, through the provisions of informal, facilitated feedback supplied by Mike and Andy. This was a particularly successful Team bonding exercise with a complete brand new Team, already building camaraderie for the challenge ahead and also giving the Leadership team an insight on how to blend such a diverse group.”

"We have had the pleasure of working with Mike on a number of occasions, as a young company with a young management team, Mikes experience and expertise has greatly shaped the way we run our business. Mike places a lot of emphasis on company culture, employee wellbeing and sustainability, in contrast to the out-dated and often harmful philosophies of many businesses.

From our first meeting, Mikes passion for people and creating happier and healthier work environments was evident, he took the time to understand our business, operations and the team to then identify areas of improvement. This saw us introduce many new practices such as a health, safety and wellbeing committee which has been greatly received by the whole team and has given them the space to raise concerns and suggestions to improve their work space.

Mike has also helped me, as the general manager, take a deeper look at the company to identify opportunities for long-term growth and sustainability, many of which I hadn’t thought of before and are now key factors of our strategy moving forward. Mike has helped us adapt our management style to one of responsibility, safety and quality. We have seen a clear improvement of staff retention and overall happiness which, in turn has increased production and quality along with reduced employee retention costs.

As a young SME we face many challenges, one being a lack of experience which is why working with Mike has been instrumental to our success. Every Issue we were facing, Mike had experienced several times in his own career and was able to provide us with invaluable guidance every time.

I couldn’t recommend Carpathia consultants highly enough, they have always delivered above and beyond my expectations.

I’m very excited to be working with them again soon, this time for a team-building exercise!"

"As a family business who hadn’t been externally audited before, Michael was the perfect person to turn to. He started the day with an opening meeting for staff involved to listen to our thoughts and expectations, then managed them throughout the day to ensure we got the most from our time together.

We had just moved into a larger warehouse and Michael came in to perform an operational health and safety gap analysis. Throughout the day his knowledge and expertise in this area was clear to see, and he helped us identify numerous hazards and offered useful advice based on his previous experiences in industry. The combination of his knowledge and enthusiasm made the whole group involved not feel so daunted when certain issues were raised, and we were able to come up with solutions to fill the gaps as a team.

What impressed me most was the way Michael delivered the content, with his continuous underlying message to create a positive H&S culture within our company rather than just pointing out hazards and instructing us to fix them. This is something we have taken from our day with Michael. We have now implemented multiple changes across our business which has improved staff morale as well as creating opportunities for members of staff to take on new responsibilities. New staff who have started since have commented how impressed they are by our commitment to H&S and how great the general culture is within the business, and I believe much of this stems from our conversations with Michael that were centred around culture of health, safety and staff wellbeing rather than just telling staff to avoid hazards and accidents.

We look forward to working with Michael in the future in other areas such as auditing our QMS and identify ways to improve our internal processes and would definitely recommend Michael to other businesses."

“As a small business, I didn’t think there would be any value in investing in a consultant, nor did I think I would be able to justify any cost. However I can truly say how wrong I was. I worked with Mike and unlocked so much more time and revenue for the business. He started simple with a ‘5 S’ and Red tagging approach with the contents of my studio. I am a self confessed hoarder and organisation is not a strong point. With Mike’s help I identified so much equipment that had no value to my business and from the revenue I gained from selling it on, I was able to invest back into my business and purchase things that would help save time, such as a wall mounted backdrop system. For two years prior I had been struggling to lift and manually roll and unroll the heavy paper rolls. Mike highlighted the health and safety risks involved in the lifting and twisting a 2m roll of heavy paper. He also highlighted how much paper waste there was in this process. Now it’s a simple pulley system that takes a fraction of the time and creates no waste. Just this one change will save me 1.5% of my turnover per year. This alongside an organised studio, has meant that I have been able to increase my bookings and in turn, my revenue. One of the best things about Mike’s approach was that he didn’t just do what needed to be done, he helped me to see what needed to be done and gave me tools to make the changes sustainable and has provided a scaffold to build from.”

“Having worked with Mike since 2016, I would have no hesitation in recommending Carpathia Operational Consultants Ltd. I have been fortunate to collaborate with Mike on a number of projects over the years, including new factory builds, and turnaround/transformation factory restructures. Mike is an inspirational leader who has the genuine ability to drive change and improvement to achieve company goals. He is both passionate and professional in his approach, and I would highly recommend his input to any prospective client.”