Founder & Director, Nik Ellis understands that a company is defined by its people, so has created a team with a diverse ranges of skills & talents. Their expertise and individual characters have led to multiple awards for the team. Laird are passionate about personal development so ensure that training internally & with external specialist are mixed with team building days and plenty of events including an annual ski trip.
Nik Ellis
Managing Director
Lee Baty
Head of Automotive
Richard Green
Engineering Manager
Careers & Recruitment
As our people are the most important part of our company, we take a different approach to recruitment. Most companies wait until someone leaves and automatically start the recruitment process and hope that an ideal match will be searching for a job at exactly the same time.
This has led us to opening a conversation with someone who wants to work with us, whether we’re currently hiring or not. If they’re a good fit, have great potential and attitude, then we’ll find a position with us and employ them anyway. This produces a mutually beneficial relationship, which often leads to some of our star people.
Culture
One of the pioneers of flexible working, MD Nik’s philosophy is that we want to produce the best reports or data possible, well within service level agreements. When we do it, what we’re wearing, how big a break we take, where we are and other out-dated HR nightmares are irrelevant to Laird. Our people work when they want, wear what they want, take holidays when they want, bring their dogs in, etc, etc (*within reason!)
There’s no board or twenty middle-managers to endlessly debate decisions. We implement over 80% of suggestions from staff to improve anything, from how our tech works to what beer we stock in our fridges. We’re an agile company reacting quickly to the market, and with our sister technology company Swiftcase, we have embraced AI and automation to reduce the mundane and increase job satisfaction.
Current Aims
We’re steadily growing our engineering departments so will speak to people of all levels:
Rookies Novices who are looking to get a foot in the door, often with an interest in cars and a keenest to learn and develop. Via our training academy we can teach and develop from beginner to fully qualified engineer / vehicle damage assessor (VDA)
Intermediate People who may have had some experience in the world of crashed cars, perhaps within a bodyshop, fleet / accident management company or insurer. We will complete their training and encourage progression via various route depending on their interests and skill levels.
Experienced Engineers who have qualified, or are working towards qualification, but certainly know their way round an estimating system, typically experienced in a VDA, assessor or engineering role. Newly available tech, predominantly AI and automation has changed the role, removing admin allowing VDAs to concentrate on their core engineering skills.
At any level, we will ensure that our people receive not just training but comprehensive support to develop their career and represent us as the absolute leaders in our field. Our tech is brilliant but it’s our people who make us outstanding.
If you’re interested in joining us, or simply would like to open an initial discussion please fill in this form: