Lifetime President of Pertemps, Tim Watts, explains why the Midland-based recruitment giant is backing the Birmingham bid

Since 1961, the year our business was founded, Pertemps has had people and community at its heart.

That is why we are backing the bid to bring the Commonwealth Games to Birmingham in 2022.

We share the bid team’s legacy goals of creating better prospects, improving communities and creating better lives.

Like us; the bid team is working tirelessly to open up a world of opportunities to Birmingham and the surrounding region.

The approach of Pertemps to social responsibility stretches far and wide: supporting community groups and charities, improving skills and identifying training and employment opportunities for people from all walks of life.

Many of Pertemps employees participate in sporting events such as Stewart Marshall who is a double GB World Champion runner

A key part of our corporate strategy now focuses on supporting and improving local communities. Pertemps works with businesses to identify requirements for training, skills and employment and devises and implements social inclusion initiatives for its clients to put the necessary deliverables in place.

Branches engage with people in the community who may be facing barriers in finding work, for example, the disabled or those with learning difficulties.

In 1961, founder Constance Watts had a dream of providing greater opportunities for local people through work.

Her approach of appointing people to assist her who were from the local community paid dividends and remains at the core of our business: Local people are hired to run local branches and given autonomy to bring in consultants to work with them who understand communities.

Strong relationships are forged with local groups and charities.

Her original vision and objectives are still pursued by the business today: to recruit fairly, promote a socially responsible culture and support local communities. Today, our board comprises an equal split of men and women.

Pertemps sponsors a host of Midland junior athletes, including Elise Gyn, who is the European Junior Boxing Champion and gold medalist for England

Our senior leaders promote the message that diversity and social responsibility should be encouraged at every opportunity.

We have a successful track record of promoting diversity with the head of our organisation (a woman) directly involved in leading diversity via our ‘Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Working Party Reviews’ and linking these to our overall vision statement.

Since 1991, our employees have raised money weekly as part of the ‘Gives as You Earn’ scheme.

Pertemps people regularly participate in sporting activities for charity, with our team raising money for West Midlands Air Ambulance at a recent match

This scheme encourages staff to make donations from their wages for the privilege of ‘dressing down’ on Fridays.

Teams are free to use the money to benefit charities of their choosing.

Over the years, not only have our nationwide branches and offices pledged money raised to local sporting teams and groups, but our own employees have enjoyed their own sporting success on the track and field.

From marathon runners to athletes who represent their country, Pertemps has a long and proud tradition of helping our own people excel.