Recruitment guru taught elderly neighbour how to facetime in professional services pr story
A TECH-savvy recruitment specialist put her skills to use during lockdown – teaching her elderly neighbour how to use video technology to keep in touch.
Recruiter Rachael O’Neill, who is 42, first met Joan, 77, in 2018 when she suffered a leak through her ceiling and had to call into her older neighbours upstairs flat.
A few months later Edinburgh ground to a halt during the “Beast from the East” and while she was unable to get to her work at Edinburgh-based Core-Asset Consulting, considerate Rachael offered to help isolated Joan while she was snowed in.
The pair struck up an unlikely friendship so when COVID 19 struck and retired Joan was forced to shield, Rachael was determined not to let the pandemic scupper their blossoming friendship and dedicated herself to remotely teaching Joan how to use Facetime.
She said: “My own mum refuses to even learn how to send text messages from her phone, so I know this kind of thing can be really intimidating for older people. I used technology regularly at work and during lockdown that increased.
“But while it may be second nature to me, I knew it would be a bit more difficult explaining it to Joan – especially when I had to do that over the phone.
“However, we persevered and after overcoming her worries and concerns about which buttons to press, we were able to get everything up and running. The first time we were able to see and speak to each other was brilliant. I could really see how much it meant to Joan and that made it entirely worthwhile.”
Delighted Joan – who lives on her own, feels that being taught how to use the technology by Rachael had been transformative – giving her a huge confidence boost and enabling her to keep in touch with relatives and friends in other parts of the country.
Rachael’s boss praised her for putting time to such positive use during lockdown.
Betsy Williamson, founder of Core-Asset, a £14.7m a year business, said: “Rachael is such a success in recruitment because she has great emotional intelligence.
“That has shone through in this case. We are all really proud of this. It is these small things which really bring people together. As a business we are all about investing more in social responsibility, so seeing Rachael living that is really impressive.”
Formed in 2005, Core-Asset was born out of Betsy’s desire to take the best of her experience of large corporate recruiters, applying the focus on infrastructure and training to a more sector-specialised business.
It proved both an instant and enduring success, with the business securing market dominance north of the border.
Core-Asset Consulting is a leading independent recruitment company dedicated to financial and professional services in Scotland. A specialist recruiter based in Edinburgh, it offers its clients tailored solutions for permanent, temporary, contract and interim positions.
For more information on Core-Asset Consulting, please visit: http://www.core-asset.co.uk/
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