Diversity Plus Award

Max Schreck
Nominated by Pertemps, Leeds

Yorkshire share dealing services assistant Max Schreck is in the running to be crowned One in a Million, the title given to the UK’s top temporary, contract or interim worker.

Max has won the Diversity Plus category of the One in a Million Award.

Nominated by the Leeds office of Pertemps, Max has had a very colourful and varied life before joining the agency five months ago.

Portuguese by nationality, Max’s former career was in the textile and cotton weaving industry. Having married a Yorkshire woman, his business life was split between Portugal and the UK, but has worked throughout Europe.

Later, he opened a bar and ran a restaurant at a Portuguese golf club. Having returned to Yorkshire, he tried a variety of jobs before Pertemps placed him in a temporary job with Halifax Share Dealing Ltd in January 2007.

Being in his late 50s, Max was concerned about being faced with prejudice about his age and background fearing that some companies would see him as being overqualified or over the usual age group they employed.

Though HBOS actively support the Age Discrimination Act, because of the nature of the work, shift patterns and environment of their call centres, the average age of their workforce is 22.

But he very quickly settled into his new job and became a regular winner of the Top Performer in Customer Satisfaction.  As a result, he was offered a permanent job five months after he started.

Annabelle Pounder of Pertemps said: “Max has effectively challenged the stereotypes of “teens to twenties” being the only people considered for call centre work and the effect he has had on the company and the people with whom he has worked has been nothing but refreshing and positive.”

Helen Reynolds, the REC’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, said: “Max has demonstrated that you are never too old to take on new job challenges and he has clearly made a positive impact on both his employer, Halifax Share
Dealing and his much younger colleagues. We wish him well in his new permanent role at the company.”