The Recruitment Awards 2015

Recruitment Awards 2015 presented by

Reinvigorated Winning ‘Recruitment Search Platform of the Year – USA’ is CatalystFive. Founder and CEO, Mike O’Brien, spoke to us about how he tripled his business.

Running the Show Winning ‘Best Niche Job Board 2015 – UK’ is The Media Directory, a free job board supporting the careers of those within the creative arts and media industries in the UK. The site’s Founder, Rob Hirst, told us about how the company attracts 25,000 users per month and over 140,000 social media followers.

Carving a Niche Winning ‘Sustained Excellence in Audit Recruitment UK’ are GA Global Consulting. They spoke to us about how they have uniquely positioned themselves in the highly competitive audit recruitment market through establishing lasting relationships and building a strong reputation.

Going the Extra Mile After being awarded ‘The Partnership Award for Client Workshops – UK’, Macildowie told us more about going above and beyond for their clients.

On a Pay Roll Awarded ‘Best for Recruitment Software Solutions – UK’ are Merit Software, who are providers of payroll, invoicing and umbrella software solutions for temporary recruitment agencies and umbrella companies.

Thinking Big Winning ‘Best for Bespoke RPO Solutions 2015 – UK’ are Stroud Resourcing Ltd. We spoke to them about how their innovative approach allows them to deliver the results of a company three times their size.

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Editor’s Note Welcome to the 2015 Recruitment Awards.

With businesses continuing to grow and diversify their services and the need for fresh and innovative new talent becoming ever more prevalent, one of the most common themes taking hold across the corporate landscape is to look towards professional agencies who are best placed, with the expertise, experience and contacts, to help firms build on their existing teams with suitable and truly high-calibre professionals.

The 2015 Recruitment Awards pay tribute to the outstanding firms and individuals who have excelled in this industry. We want to shine a spotlight on those who have, time and time again, identified the right people and made the right match, while continuing to go above and beyond for both candidates and clients.

From the industry’s top players, to smaller niche practices, these awards celebrate those who have truly made their mark in the recruitment industry. The awards are based 100% on merit, and all winners can truly take great pride in being recognised for their outstanding achievements.

So, to learn more about the leading lights in this exciting industry, read on‌

Contents 4. CatalystFive 6. GA Global Consulting Ltd 8. Macildowie Associates Limited 10. The Media Directory 12. Merit Software 14. Stroud Resourcing Ltd 16. 4 Exmilitary Jobs Ltd 17. 4 Social Work 18. AJ Chambers 19. Alexander Ash Consulting Ltd 20. Athena Recruiting Services Ltd 21. BBB Recruitment 22. Capability Jane Ltd 23. Citirecruit 24. Company Fusion Ltd 25. CRS Professionals 26. CV International 28. DCS Recruitment Ltd 29. Euro-Projects Recruitment Ltd 30. Exact Sourcing 31. Expion Ltd 32. FuturePeople Recruitment 34. Harbourne Associates 36. Hindesite Ltd 37. JVP Group 38. Liz Thompson Human Resources 39. Oakwood Staff Solutions 40. Opilio Recruitment 42. Prospectus IT Recruitment 43. Remit Resources 44. Renaix Ltd 45. Rhino Recruitment Limited 46. Team24 Ltd 47. The Recruitment & Employment Bureau 48. TurningPoint Executive Search Inc

Recruitment Awards 2015 Corporate Vision 3

Company: CatalysFive Name: Mike O’Brien Email: mcob@catalyst5.com Web Address: www.catalystfive.com Address: 701 b Street Suite 1255, San Diego CA 92037 Telephone: 01 619 618 4201

Recruitment Search Platform of the Year - USA

CatalystFive is a recruitment platform for small to mid-sized enterprises, which seamlessly integrates job posting distribution, candidate management, and candidate communication including texting and social media, video interviewing and in-depth reporting. We were in touch with Mike O’Brien, Founder and CEO of CatalystFive, who spoke to us about reinvigorating his company in 2014, and subsequently tripling his business.

With our technology, users can add apps for background checks, I9 management or on-boarding by simply clicking a button. CatalystFive supplies all customers with award winning customizable career sites that improve the candidate experience and increase the likelihood of top tier candidates applying.

Although it was initially created in 2008, the technology has been completely re-written in 2014 to offer more services to small and mid-market businesses.

Up until this time, we had been exclusively focused on single recruiters using our service. We realized that we could provide a lot more value to the overall organization and shifting to help all functions within human resources enabled us to expand our market.

What drives us is simply that we love our customers and they help us build solutions for their changing problems. We listen to them and make changes at lightning speed. We discovered that through listening and providing what they need, we have tripled our business this year.

At as company specializing in technology, we are always at the cutting edge. When we researched studies that showed candidates wanted to be texted rather than phone called, we integrated a texting platform.

Furthermore, social media has changed the way that people evaluate companies they want to work for. We recognized this and now provide our customers beautiful career sites that match the look and feel of their corporate site at no extra cost. Having a beautiful site encourages top talent to apply.

We go through great lengths of research because we are data nuts. We evaluate every signal we get and deploy an algorithm that automatically adjusts job distribution to where we see the best results. We get our signals from resume uploads, and the percentage of uploads that make it to an interview and ultimately get hired. These three metrics enable us to save customers thousands of dollars a month by removing wasted job posting ad spend and countless hours reviewing bad resumes.

As well as researching, we simply love to talk to people, and we are on the phone with our customers a lot. We want to get their feedback and since we are always improving our software we need to know from the front line how we are doing. If we make a change people don’t like we need to know why.

This constant desire to upgrade and improve our services is what keeps us on the edge of our seats.

We deliver the best and require the very best that our employees can give. Moreover, we have fun and celebrate each of our victories as a team. From our experience, it’s the small things that make a difference on a long journey.

We believe that a diverse workplace increases the idea flow. Our ideas come from so many areas, we need unique perspectives to bring them to life such that all of our diverse clients will understand and utilize them.

I think recruitment should influence the inclusion of more diverse employees, understanding that it is in the best interest of the company and people.

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Perhaps what separates us from our competitors the most is the standard of our software, as it does cover a lot of bases. Typically, when we have a new client they play with the software and we often hear, “Oh wow I didn’t know it did that.” When we add a new feature we don’t have a race to increase pricing. Therefore, a customer today will get more value from us tomorrow.

In the recruitment industry, we have seen a shift towards a candidate centric model. The candidate experience is becoming more important as the job market tightens. Companies that do not recognize this will have a tough time competing for candidates in the future.

Personally, I think the biggest opportunities come from the shifting focus toward a more structured recruitment process in social media. Social media opens up so many risk issues for large firms. The opportunity is to provide a solution that manages the risk to an acceptable level, while, still receiving the value. The biggest challenges lie in working with companies that don’t understand the world has shifted.

Recruitment Awards 2015 Corporate Vision 5

Company: GA Global Consulting Name: Matt Goodman (Director) and Gerry Ashison (Director) Email: matt.goodman@gaglobal.eu Web Address: www.gaglobalconsulting.com Address: Suite 102 Rosden House, 372 Old Street, London EC1V 9AU Telephone: 08453 313 485

Sustained Excellence in Audit Recruitment – UK

GA Global Consulting provide recruitment solutions, partnering with the world’s leading organisations throughout C&I and Financial Services in the UK, EMEA and beyond –their core vertical market specialisms being Audit, Risk, Compliance and SAP. The firm establishes and builds lasting recruitment relationships with professionals seeking executive, permanent or temporary employment.

They have built a foundation of success and an outstanding reputation for quality and delivery through their in-depth specialist knowledge of their market sectors. This has been coupled with a genuine dedication towards ensuring integrity in the maintenance of long term candidate and client relationships, through consistently delivering an honest, fluid and timely service which both recruiters and employees are more than happy to return to.

Matt Goodman, one of the firm’s Directors, explained how GA Global Consulting’s focus on quality service has led them to win this prestigious award.

“We are delighted to receive this award in recognition of our continuous drive for delivering the highest standard of recruitment service and expertise to our clients and candidates alike within our niche Audit, Risk and Compliance vertical markets. We strive to improve and tailor our processes in order to provide a seamless and time efficient service which is crucial in the current business environment.

“In order to achieve sustained excellence, we ensure to provide a completely 360 degree consultancy based service, which is due to our Consultants’ extensive experience in our chosen markets (minimum 10 years).

In doing so, we are able to offer guidance to both our clients and candidates throughout their recruitment experience, delivering value added services to aid their processes. This includes conducting preliminary candidate interviews, assessments, proofs of qualification and referencing, as well as delivering bespoke recruitment solutions to enable our clients to achieve their business goals. This may involve changing a role profile, altering contract details or even hiring interim

professionals to provide our client with the flexibility to achieve their targets in the most cost and time efficient manner.”

Working within the competitive recruitment market, has also meant that GA Global Consulting have had to constantly innovate in order to stay ahead and maintain their competitive advantage.

Because technology and social media is such an important part of today’s society, the firm have placed a far greater emphasis on social networking tools and looked at developing new and innovative ways of generating candidates, delivering bespoke recruitment services, resources and building longstanding relationships. GA Global Consulting’s IT systems and software are fully integrated with all major professional social media channels (LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Facebook) for improved interaction. Social media channels have also been integrated into their recruitment process to keep candidates and clients constantly updated on a familiar interface with progress reports, feedback, market information, interview preparation/guidance, additional recruitment services and bespoke client / candidate resources.

In addition to this, the firm utilise remote video interviewing via Skype and FaceTime, especially for international candidates. They also offer candidates and clients SHL personality profiling and psychometric testing, as well as incorporating Bond Adapt software and utilise a number of integrated recruitment software tools.

Matt firmly believes that this plays a key part in the firm’s success, as they have successfully adapted to a

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number of technological trends and have used them to their advantage.

“Our ability to adapt to new and emerging trends that offer more effective ways of working and communicating, remains at the core of our business ethos.”

Gerry Ashison, also a Director at the firm, goes on to elaborate on the importance that GA Global Consulting places on its candidates and the way in which it interacts with them.

“The candidate experience is of paramount importance to the pillars on which our business has been built and we have only been able to achieve our sustained growth in this area through nurturing and developing long term relationships. We are proud that 86% of our placements in the past year have been directly through referrals or existing relationships, which have been proliferated through our extensive network across the Audit, Risk and Compliance areas.

“We deliver a wide range of candidate resources from CV writing advice to interview preparation and professional qualification guidance. We also embrace innovation and the use of social media as an efficient mode for keeping candidates informed with updates, market information and recruitment advice straight to their mobile. We continuously seek to evolve and undergo regular and rigorous critical evaluation of our current processes.

“Networking, referrals and extensive exposure within our chosen vertical markets are the single most important factors in our strategy for identifying the most relevant candidates in the market for any given job.

When coupled with extensive academic and professional qualification background checks, referencing, criminal and other security background checks, telephone and face to face vetting, mapping of motivators and identifiers and a clear resourcing plan, these practices give both us, the agency and equally our candidates, the assurance that there is a clear plan for meeting expectations for the next step in their career, in addition to ensuring that our clients are hiring the best available talent in the marketplace.”

Market conditions over the past eight years dictate that the firm’s clients have wanted increased value at the lowest possible price and it has therefore never been more important to demonstrate delivery over and above expectation. This is about more than just delivering the best candidates in the marketplace, it is about successfully managing expectations at every step of the recruitment process, and continually communicating with clients and providing value added services. These include salary benchmarking, competitor analysis, evaluation and advice on how to improve their relevant recruitment processes (in order to best meet their business objec¬tives) and alternative approaches to save clients time and money throughout the recruitment process.

By adopting this consultative and flexible approach to their work, the firm has ensured that both their clients and candidates are satisfied, and this forms the cornerstone of the company’s success. By adapting to meet individual needs, the firm has provided a tailored service which meets the needs of everyone involved - this can often be a major challenge for recruitment firms.

In addition to their clients and candidates, the firm also has to adapt around its own staff. GA Global Consulting has grown on the basis of a collaborative, honest and open environment, which has led to their consultants taking ownership of processes, setting high standards and striving to overcome challenges.

This culture of trust and effective critical evaluation contribute to feedback on areas of perceived weakness and potential for further improvement. Solutions are created and new ideas are formed utilising the team’s shared experiences. The firm’s open culture enables them to share their knowledge and share in their successes.

Each of the firm’s consultants have a minimum of 10 years’ experience, which means that they have developed an in-depth niche industry knowledge – another factor that sets the firm apart from its competitors, alongside their complete flexibility in delivering a tailored service to suit individual needs. Gerry expanded on this, explaining how the firm endeavours to ensure that everyone working with the firm has a positive experience on each occasion.

“We operate to deliver more than just an effective recruitment service that enables businesses and individuals to meet their desired goals, but a service that develops into a long-term relationship and one in which retention of staff and value added services play a crucial role.

“Once a client mandate has been successfully placed or a candidate has been moved into a new organisation, our process does not cease - ongoing communication is where our differentiation really begins. We gain our in-depth knowledge through acquiring a very detailed understanding of the business environment, culture and individual team members’ characteristics, which can only be fully comprehended over time, as opposed to the snap shot of a recruitment process.

“This provides us with the necessary insight and knowledge to confidently advise and develop be-

Recruitment Awards 2015 Corporate Vision 7

spoke recruitment advice to clients and candidates, ensuring an extremely high level of overall staff retention and a time efficient recruitment process that will deliver the best tailored result to the organisation and the candidate.”

Looking to the future, the recruitment industry as a whole faces great challenges from a combination of new legislative changes, the impact of the Global economic recovery and potential future changes to the structure of the EU. Within GA Global’s specialist sectors, the introduction of new compliance requirements (Mifid III) will impact Asset Management organisations and the ongoing FCPA, bribery act and code of conduct requirements will lead to an increase in the recruitment of Auditors and Compliance Assurance professionals, ensuring that organisations remain compliant. Continued confidence in the UK economic recovery will result in organisations expanding teams, commencing new projects and growing through acquisition at a faster rate than we have experienced over the past five years.

Matt explained what these industry changes will mean for GA Global Consulting.

“This ongoing growth will result in a talent pool shortage within the next 12 – 18 months and a candidate driven market within niche skill set areas. The overall challenge to our peers will be candidate generation and knowledge. This presents GA Global Consulting with the greatest opportunity to leverage our powerful network, long standing relationships and market knowledge to continue to effectively source the best passive talent, ensuring that our clients meet their business goals.”

Company: Macildowie Name: James Taylor Email: jamest@macildowie.com Web Address: www.macildowie.com Address: Archer House, Castle Gate, Nottingham, NG1 7AW Telephone: 0115 947 0200

The Partnership Award for Client Workshops - UK

Macildowie is a Midlands based recruitment company, specialising in the recruitment of HR, accountancy, sales and marketing as well as procurement and supply chain professionals. We spoke to James Taylor, Director at Macildowie, about how they go the extra mile for their clients and more.

The mission statement of Macildowie is ‘recruiting from a different angle’ and the company prides itself on taking a unique, dynamic approach to recruitment.

It is determined to stand head and shoulders above its competitors and change perceptions of recruitment companies, and it succeeds in doing so by offering additional services at no extra cost. These include ‘Linkedin Recruit for Free’ workshops for clients, as well as ‘Linkedin Personal Branding’ workshops for candidates, HR and finance academies for local business leaders.

The reason behind our success is quite simple: we listened to our customer needs and then came up with a counter-intuitive solution to their problem. We really do wonder how many recruiters are prepared to show their clients how they can use LinkedIn more efficiently in order to not use an agency.

We are really proud of the award as it is well deserved recognition for the workshops we have been running since 2009. “Partnership” has become a little cliché over the years, but we believe that in teaching our clients to use LinkedIn to the same level as we do ourselves, we have proven our goal of helping our customers to find the best talent for their business, and not just about us making a fee.

Over the past few years, we have developed our management and leadership capabilities, and we’ve taken on a higher percentage of trainee recruitment consultants to deliver on the growing demand from our clients. Moreover, we have embraced all things digital, and we were one of the very first to allow candidates to apply for jobs on our website by using their LinkedIn profile. Additionally, we have implemented

new technologies to ensure our consultants are able to contact candidates before other agencies do.

In terms of finding active candidates who are on the market, we do everything that every other recruiter does, but we have our own system set up called DRS (daily resourcing searches) which is a ‘real time’ flag for consultants for any candidate who has registered through any channel and matches any of their jobs.

As a result, we’re able to speak to these candidates before our competitors do. We also proactively a ‘talent pipeline’ for our customers who demand a certain type of candidate.

Furthermore, in 2012 we launched the DREAM JOB section of our website which, via digital and social marketing, we direct passive jobs seekers to find out what sort of jobs they would be keen to hear about even if they are not looking.

In addition, we look to match the soft skills of our candidates with the culture of the business within our clients. In order to achieve this we have recently provided a bespoke service for the reporting on a BPS psychometric tool that we have exclusive rights to in our geographical market place.

We are confident that we provide the absolute best value for money in the market place. Of course, this means having the very best candidates, and being able to do it quickly and efficiently. We believe that we exist to find candidates for our clients that they can’t either find or onboard themselves, and ultimately our goal is to be an extension of their own employer brand.

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Importantly, we are a business who believes in its values. We believe that our values drive our performance and our enjoyment at work. For example, we developed our values by including every single member of staff to take part in our “What Macs Means to me” selfie-video campaign.

Our culture is all about supporting and encouraging gold medal performance, individually and collectively.

However, this is very much a team effort, and this means both demanding the best from ourselves as individuals and supporting one another to achieve gold medal performance collectively. Working in an environment where you are constructively challenged will inevitably mean that your own performance is enhanced. We believe this drives our employee engagement, which has a direct impact on the calibre of service that we provide to our candidates and clients.

A testament to the vibrant culture at our company is that The Sunday Times named us as the 5th best small company to work for in 2014, and we also came first in the “My Manager” category. We often get candidates when we meet them to rate out of ten how they feel about their current job, current company and current boss etc. The lowest score, nearly every time, is their boss. The saying goes that people join a company but leave a boss – so we’ve invested heavily in our management population to ensure that every single member of staff is being supported and challenged in equal measures.

I also believe that our reward and remuneration structure is fantastic. We reward high performance very handsomely and that drives the elite team culture that people crave to be a part of. In addition, we innovate

and because of that, our staff realise that we’re always trying to be one step (at least) ahead of the competition. It’s also fun to be a part of something special, and a part of something where the core focus is on the delivery for the customer.

In achieving both individual and team success, the business inevitably makes more profits as we have done year after year. And of course, this means more money to re-invest back into the business, allowing us to make Macs an even better place to come and work.

June 2015 was a record breaking month for our company, where we filled 800 positions more in June 2015 than the previous year and also boosted revenues by 22 per cent. We smashed this record again in July, and in May we announced that we were embarking upon an exciting three year chapter – we called it (and still call it obviously) “Building Great Futures”. We are investing more money than ever in IT, marketing, training and development, comp and bens, incentives and looking to hire more new staff than at any time in history.

Creating an open dialogue is also important and our staff have the opportunity to voice their thoughts, feelings and opinions on a daily basis. We listen and act decisively where appropriate and to facilitate new ideas we will be launching our brand new “Your Voice” team. We want to know what’s working and what’s not as soon as possible so we can ensure the best service to all of our customers.

We’re building Macs into a business where our staff can see how they are able to grow their career, where they can build their own great future and realise their ambitions. It’s also a place where people can make friends, have fun and earn a great package with incredible incentives in the process.

What further separates us from our clients, and we know that this may sound very cliché, but we really do walk the walk. One of our values is “Ex Ex” which stands for executional excellence. This involves doing things well, implementing ideas thoroughly and building systems and processes to make our ideas an operational reality that add commercial value. All of this means we’re building a business that attracts other recruitment professionals to want to work for us, because we firmly believe that it’s easier to be a success with Macildowie than anywhere else.

Recruitment Awards 2015 Corporate Vision 9

We are regional specialists in our home of The Midlands in the UK, and this means we can gain a lot of traction, build long-lasting relationships and establish a level of trust with our customers.

With a much brighter economic outlook on the horizon, we are undoubtedly in a period of growth for the recruitment sector. Those who thrive will be the agencies who are best able to engage with the passive job seekers. I am convinced that the industry will have to move from BD/jobs focussed to talent focused.

In terms of our future, we’re just going through a full, strategic re-brand which is focusing on the reasons why customers want to work with us and that also includes our employer brand and why people would want to come and work for us. We have developed our Employee Value Proposition and will continue to innovate with our customer value propositions. We’ll also be launching a brand new website in January.

Company: The Media Directory Web: www.themediadirectory.com

Best Niche Job Board 2015 - UK

The Media Directory is a free job board dedicated to supporting the careers of those within the creative arts and media industries in the UK. As the name suggests, The Media Directory initially began as a directory and after launch became an instant hit with its users. We spoke to Rob Hirst, Founder of The Media Directory, to learn about this rise of his website and more.

The initial idea for the website came about when I studied media and production and was making a documentary film for a new B&Q store in Sheffield. The internet was not like it is today, so when we needed equipment it was a case of using the old Yellow Pages, which was a long process of searching and calling for companies where you may be able to borrow equipment from.

After graduating, I didn’t end up getting a job in media and instead decided to pursue being a musician.

In 2010, I was working as a freelance musician and mainly writing sample music for music libraries. However, work dried up and I found myself paying around £100 a month in subscription fees trying to find work in the music industry. Most of my friends are creative, and work as musicians, artists, actors, photographers who had the same problem of using use various platforms to help them gain employment. It was in September 2012 that I decided to research the market and see if there was a need for a website such as The Media Directory. It started as a personal Twitter account and I just retweeted jobs from all different sectors and after a month I was pleasantly surprised.

From then on, I just kept pushing and it just kept on growing and growing into what it is now.

The success of this site goes to show the value of social media in the recruitment industry. If it wasn’t for social media, then we wouldn’t have had any way of connecting with jobs seekers. We have never spent a penny on advertising, and every penny has always been spent on investing in the new website and building new sector specific websites to cater for that industry. Last month we launched We Have Music Jobs, which is the first in a series of eight new niche

jobs boards that we are launching. Social media has been our holy grail and without that no one would never have even heard of us.

Without spending a single penny on advertising, The Media Directory now has over 25,000 users per month and over 140,000 social media followers. We offer various advertising solutions to recruiters and organisations including free and featured job listings, banner advertising spaces, sponsored social media campaigns, email marketing and more.

ship with two of the largest job boards on the planet: Indeed and CV Library. We work closely with them as a publisher /affiliate to generate revenue but also use their services to generate applications for our clients. Every job is advertised daily to over 140,000 followers with over 2,500 new followers every week which ensures we continue to further our reach. On Twitter alone our jobs/tweets have over four million views across two Twitter accounts and once we have launched all of our new niche job boards this will increase that reach substantially.

Financially, we are very limited. Every penny of profit generated has always been used to improve the website and communications with our users. The first two years was always about consolidating our future financially and building a solid foundation. In building our users/followers, this enabled us to either sell that audience to potential advertisers or to generate revenue through affiliate or ad networks.

In terms of our philosophy, we focus mainly on the jobseeker. We believe that if we offer an extensive range of jobs covering all the major cities in the UK then they will use our website again, therefore generating more applications for our clients and partners.

When we have the budget in the future, we will use our connections with large job boards to enable or guarantee applicants for our clients.

In spite of our success, we need to improve our site vastly within the next year if we want to continue our progression. The way you communicate with job seekers via social media and the developments within that industry is vital for any job board and recruiter, and this has been our lifeline. Our company name is a big issue and the fact that we cover seven to eight sectors within the arts and media industries has a detrimental effect on been able to target new audiences based on our brand. We are independent but over the next two years we will be launching eight new niche jobs boards each specific to one industry and have already launched a new music job board this month.

We will always maintain our support in terms of pricing for our users/jobseekers. I think it’s incredibly important that we don’t charge a subscription fee while many of our competitors do. Financially we would be in a much better place if we did, but the fact is that the whole reason The Media Directory started was because we felt that high priced subscriptions on various platforms/job boards was unfair on the unemployed, graduates or anyone seeking employment. Nonetheless, we need to improve our website as well and building a mobile friendly app or website is a priority.

What makes us unique is that we are the only website/job board in the UK’s arts and media Industry that covers a variety of industries all in the one place and a job board that has a directory of con-

We are lucky in the fact that we have built a relation-

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tacts as well. We also plan to add a social network element to enable our user s to build contacts via our website and generate employment opportunities or business relationships.

We often get great feedback from our users. Recently, we got interviewed by a local arts organisation where our (my) offices are based. The girl interviewing was on an internship who actually got the job through our website. When she was given the task to interview residents and saw that we were working there, she came knocking on our door with a dictaphone and had to stop the interview half way through when she realised that it was only me. She thought we were a big company that would have a least 30 staff, and most people are surprised that is only myself running the website. As such, I must be giving a very professional approach to the way we promote our jobs and our branding. Our Google Analytics make me feel confident going forward when I see that over 65% are returning visitors each month.

Achieving this success is particularly rewarding given the obstacles we have had to overcome to reach this point. In the UK, everything is so expensive for small start-ups in the UK. I remember going to to Sheffield’s Business Enterprise to see if there was any funding and the gentleman said that the only funding I would get at present would be a bank loan.

I have been turned down for funding on every level except a bank loan.

Even the UK Arts Council turned down my grant application even though my website has supported 300,000 individuals searching for work within the sectors they champion. I honestly thought this would be an instant green light and they would be our main supporter for years to come. At the time, I was funding the website with my own money as it was making a loss and was struggling to keep it online. Yet, I couldn’t stop as so many people were starting to use the website and I didn’t want to let them down or let all my hard work go to waste. In

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fact, not getting any funding was the best thing that happened to us. Our charity website similar to ours called Ideastap had to close due to funding, which had been removed due to cuts from the government which I thought was a real shame.

To be named ‘Best Niche Job Boards 2015’ is simply a dream come true. It came as a complete shock and to be nominated in the first instance was incredible.

As I mentioned earlier, we are a very small team with myself being the only actual employee as most of our work is outsourced to other companies. We owe our success to our users, mainly our social media followers who are completely dedicated to supporting us, sharing our content and appreciating the efforts we go to ensure that the service we provide is 100% free.

Without the support of our social media followers we would not have grown in popularity to where we are now and to where we will be in five, ten and twenty years from now.

Company: Merit Software Name: Sam Radion Email: sales@meritsoftware.co.uk Web Address: www.meritsoftware.co.uk Address: Unit4-10, Dolphin Court, Brunel Quay, Neyland, SA73 1PY Telephone: 0845 8386 111

Best for Recruitment Software Solutions - UK

Merit Software are providers of payroll, invoicing and umbrella software solutions for temporary recruitment agencies and umbrella companies since 1997. We got in touch with Sam Radion, Sales Director at Merit Software Ltd, who took the time out to tell us about their unique recruitment process and more.

Merit specialises in payroll and invoicing solutions for the recruitment marketplace. Our AWR, RTI compliant and pensions auto-enrolment ready software and services are specifically designed to save our customers time and money, reduce their carbon footprints and improve operational efficiency.

Merit services around 300 clients in all areas of temporary recruitment and umbrella and have gone from a small team of staff to a large multi-departmental organisation capable of serving the needs of some of the UK’s largest agencies. To date, several million workers and counting are paid using our solutions every week.

Merit Software’s solutions have been designed, developed and supported by Merit Software since day one. Our talented team of dedicated designers and developers are continuously improving the software to meet new requirements which are either customer requested or mandated by changes in legislation.

The design and development teams have a knowledge and understanding of the payroll and invoicing requirements of recruitment agencies and umbrella companies that is second to none. Furthermore, a separate team is also available for telephone assistance and support. This team is based in the same location as the designers and developers ensuring that any queries are resolved quickly and efficiently.

Suitable for any sized company, from large corporate organisations to small start-up agencies, the beauty of Merit Software’s solution is that it will continue to meet our clients’ needs as their business grows and prospers. It is straight-forward to add offices or branches,

set up new divisions and even to add more companies to your group.

improvements as well as reviewing changes on a regular basis.

Merit Software’s solutions are designed to be flexible.

We understand that each of our customers are different and works in their own way. Therefore, smooth integration is key to the success of an implementation.

This means interfacing with a wide variety of front and back office systems, removing the need for re-keying data and reducing the risk of errors or incomplete information being entered.

It is this ability to listen to our clients and engage with their needs that makes us unique. We often have customers moving to us from other solutions who have told them to ‘take it or leave it’ and our approach means that our clients are getting something that will work according to their needs.

Furthermore, our software and services are sensibly priced and offer excellent value for money. The investment required is based on the number of concurrent users and the complexity of your particular installation; for example, the number of interfaces to other systems that are required.

From our experience, recruitment is always challenging but as we have expanded to nearly fifty staff we have introduced pre-screening tests as well as a comprehensive rapid training process to bring new hires up to speed quickly. A good reputation helps and often means that the best people in fact seek us out and we are always keen to hear from great people looking to take the next step.

In terms of our approach towards client service, we find that listening to our clients’ feedback and taking to heart what they say is hugely important. Feedback is a gift and every time we engage with our clients we are looking for ways to improve things for them. While listening is important, action is just as important and we constantly look at ways of implementing those

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Good people are our greatest strength, and we ensure that our staff are valued and want to wake up each morning and look forward to going to work. A motivated workforce will go the extra mile for our clients and we see this happening again and again with our staff.

Over the years, we found that we have had to adapt with the market and bring in skills such as app development expertise as well as watching the marketplace to be planned and ready for any future changes. However, thanks to listening to our customers and getting feedback, we can predict market trends and we have a number of exciting new developments planned for next year which our team are simply itching to shout about. Watch this space!

During the last 12 months, we have seen a big shift towards our online products and apps. As a result, we have provided free apps via Google and Apple for our customers’ workers to use as well as custom apps available tailored to them.

Another major issue in the recruitment industry is diversity, and we feel that good people come in all shapes and sizes, which is why we have a very diverse workforce. Unlike many software companies we have

maintained a good balance between the genders as well as receiving local recognition for our hiring and supporting staff with different needs. Ensuring the person fits the role is important and if a few accommodations need to be made, we see that as a minor hurdle to getting a great individual.

As for the world of payroll, changing legislation is always going to be something that needs a fast response with an unknown level of complexity. Over the last few years we have changes such as the Agency Workers Regulations, Real Time information, auto enrolment for pensions and intermediaries reporting. Many of these have been huge changes to the way that payroll is processed and have often been introduced with very short notice.

While these changes look set to continue, we know that our team can get to grips with and respond to them quickly and provide a tested, stable solution for our customers often months ahead of our competitors.

As for the award, we are overjoyed to have won as we know we were up against some very large competitors.

We do understand that with any award, wanting to win is as important as actually winning and we always try and work hard to be the best we can for our customers.

Our growth over the last few years has made us a solution of choice for some of the biggest agencies in the UK and we recognise that having a motivated, dedicated and hard-working team of support staff, developers and personnel are the key to our success.

Recruitment Awards 2015 Corporate Vision 13

Company: Stroud Resourcing Ltd Name: Joanna Stroud, Director Email: Joanna.stroud@stroudresourcing.co.uk Web Address: www.stroudresourcing.co.uk Address: Richmond House, 4 St Marys Court, York, YO24 1AH Telephone: 08456 434 045

Best for Bespoke RPO Solutions 2015 – UK

Stroud Resourcing Ltd is a recruitment company that goes beyond just filling vacancies. Through the truly innovative processes it employs, the company provides a uniquely specialised service to deliver the right fit for the job, whatever the client and whatever the role. We spoke to the firm’s Director, Joanna Stroud, to find out more about her company’s approach and how it helped the Kent Institute of Medicine & Surgery (KIMS) to identify and recruit more than 400 healthcare professionals in the space of just two years.

As a small company with big ambitions, Stroud Resourcing’s work with this client is a prime example of its enthusiasm and attitude in action. As Joanna explains, this success comes from the firm’s innovative recruitment process. “We won this contract because, as a head hunter, we have a finely tuned knowledge of ‘top talent’. We have developed our methods in a number of ways, from extensive industry networking and exposure, to speaking with candidates directly, rather than contacting them through a database and we have years of experience in assessing and speaking with the most influential healthcare professionals across a multitude of employers. This is vital as, in our experience, employers often only have sight of their own ‘top talent’, whereas a head hunter can show you the industry’s ‘top talent’.”

Meeting the highly demanding needs of the healthcare industry, combined with the challenges presented by KIMS being a start-up was, unsurprisingly enough, no easy task. As a result, a meticulous level of planning and preparation was required from the outset in order to prevent any potential pitfalls. As Joanna explains: “Our strategy is about getting the process right at the beginning to prevent it falling down at the end. Consistency is key and we implement a rigorous recruitment process that is mapped out internally through workflows, allowing our team to work collaboratively in order to achieve results.”

Playing an equally pivotal part in the firm’s success has been a commitment to transparency and communication when it comes to its clients; something which is a cornerstone of Stroud Resourcing’s philosophy.

“We operate in such a way that it is easy for the people we work with to understand what we do,” says

Joanna. “We provide both clients and candidates with the confidence that, through our expertise and industry knowledge, we are able to match the very best talent to the very best employer.”

Perhaps the biggest testament to the company’s success is the fact that 93% of its clients are repeat business. While the firm may not be able to compete with some of the more global recruitment companies in certain aspects, Joanna maintains that it is her business’s highly driven mentality that gets results, rather than its financial resources. “The size of our budget does not impact our level of service, but it is the culture of our business that delivers this,” she says. “Our employees are key to our success, and each of our team members is hired with the expectation that they will always work in the best interests of our customers.”

Delivering for their customers time and time again is also down to their ongoing dedication to both developing and innovating their services. In the past 12 months alone, Stroud Resourcing has rebranded, launched a new website and moved offices. Also in the pipeline is the launch of a contract business and the company plans to continue to recruit into new markets, namely in terms of healthcare and medical devices.

As we head into 2016, Joanna firmly believes that the growing frequency of UK workers changing roles presents an exciting opportunity for the recruitment industry. Furthermore, LinkedIn recently reported that 72% of UK hiring leaders credited their strong employer brands with enabling them to hire the best candidates. “This presents a great opportu-

14 Corporate Vision Recruitment Awards 2015

nity for employers large or small that understand the benefits of promoting their employer brand to attract top talent,” she says. “From our perspective, the challenge is to ensure that we represent these organisations, particularly the emerging small healthcare providers that need a recruiter to reinforce their brand in the marketplace.”

With all of these and more exciting prospects ahead, Stroud Resourcing are honoured to be recognised for their success.

“

We feel incredibly proud to accept this award,” says Joanna. “We owe the success of this contract to our ability to create a robust recruitment process that is geared towards supporting volume recruitment for time-critical, difficult to fill roles. We are thrilled to be recognised for excellence in recruitment and selection .

”

Case in Point:

Stroud Resourcing Recruiting for the Kent Institute of Medicine & Surgery (KIMS) The fruits of Stroud Resourcing’s efforts can be seen at the Kent Institute of Medicine & Surgery (KIMS).

Within the short space of two years, Stroud Resourcing was faced with the challenge of recruiting over 400 professionals in the areas of cardiology, cardiac surgery, neurology, neurosurgery, complex orthopaedics and surgical oncology. The contract also included recruiting a temporary workforce of BANK clinical and non-clinical professionals, who are basically staff used to fill any temporarily vacant positions or deal with potential shortages. Today, KIMS Hospital is the largest independent hospital in Kent, and continues to provide firstclass healthcare for the Kent community.

Commencing in November 2013, Stroud Resourcing had to cast its net wide in order to find the right professionals for the highly diverse and complex set of skills that was needed. Alongside this dilemma, the hospital’s tight timeframe of opening in April 2014, coupled with the fact that many clinical professionals have a three-month notice period, provided myriad obstacles that needed to be overcome.

In order to ensure that the contract performed, Stroud Resourcing, implemented a rigorous and robust recruitment process to ensure that the right staff were chosen from the very beginning. “We strive to strike a balance in selecting candidates, looking for those with both a high cultural fit and high competence” says Joanna Stroud, Director of Stroud Resourcing. “To reflect the enthusiasm and

commitment required in a start-up such as this, we focused on candidates that closely share the vision, values and passion of the Kent Institute of Medicine & Surgery (KIMS). To open this hospital on time, for the first six months of the project, we had to trade seven days per week, working from 08.00 to 20.00, and with the Hiring Manager’s demonstrating equal commitment.”

The result was a resounding success, with not only wider clinical and non-clinical staff successfully recruited, but also more senior roles, right up to the CEO, Finance Director and many more. In year one over 10,000 applications were handled delivering savings to their client of over £700,000. Across the term of the contract 278 permanent offers were managed with an outstanding interview to offer ratio of 68%, whereas the industry standard is only 33%.

150 BANK offers have been processed.

Recruitment Awards 2015 Corporate Vision 15

Speaking about Stroud Resourcing’s success, the Director of Clinical Services of KIMS commented: “KIMS has a set of very clear organisational values which has driven our selection and recruitment of staff; Stroud have worked intuitively to interpret these and put forward candidates that not only have the correct skill set, but are a close job fit with these values. Our staff are our greatest asset, and are one of our brand differentiators – Stroud have added value to this which can be measured by the fantastic feedback from both patients and consultant users about our people. In this unique new hospital start-up environment the partnership with Stroud has been a successful and rewarding experience which has matured into a mutually beneficial business relationship.”

Company: 4exMilitary Jobs Ltd Name: David Beck Email: david@4exmilitary.com Web Address: www.4exmilitary.com Address: Suite 5 Bitterne Business Centre, 110-120 Bitterne Road West, Southampton SO18 1AQ Telephone: 023 8023 5396

Best for Ex-Military Employment Placements - UK

4exMilitary Jobs Ltd 4exMilitary was established in 2001 and is a niche recruitment consultancy and internet job board aimed at assisting military leavers and ex-military personnel in finding a “second career” and remaining in employment throughout their working lives. We match and offer our members as candidates for vacancies nationally and inter- nationally.

Primarily, we work directly with clients who seek to employ ex-military personnel by offering them a range of recruitment services. In addition, the jobs section of our website has been turned into an internet job board and we allow recruitment agencies and direct employers to advertise on this board. At any one time there is around 1000 vacancies available.

In terms of the challenges we have overcome to win this award; the volume of candidates that have contacted us as a result of all the government cuts over the past four years or so has arguably been our biggest. Unfortunately we can never place every candidate into a job who makes contact with us, but we certainly try and help every one of them to get back into employment.

From our experience, the recruitment industry has changed dramatically from faxing CVs to clients, emailing them and now the various social media platforms by which candidates communicate and offer advertising forums for both us and employers.

As a result of government cuts, there are now more recruitment agencies operating in the ex-military arena having entered the sector to make a fast buck. As one of the oldest recruitment consultancies specialising in the ex-military sector our business has still grown because of our relationships and the services we provide.

Recruitment isn’t rocket science and in some ways it hasn’t changed. We predominantly use the same basic processes as our competitors but what makes a difference is our staff and how we train them. The process has mainly stayed the same in terms of interviewing candidates, compliance, legislation and acting professionally and the way they we interact with clients and candidates.

Furthermore, our database and the size of it and how we can interrogate it to find the right candidates quickly is also key.

Our philosophy here at 4exMilitary is all about finding the candidate(s) that is the closest match to the client specification both in terms of the knowledge, hard skills and general experience that the client seeks. However, we also take into account a candidate’s soft skills and the cultural fit. On top of that we provide the client with regular communication so they know what’s happening and are always up to speed as to how the recruitment assignment is going.

Like most companies we have a Mission Statement and a Vision Statement which is at the heart of what we do.

Our overall culture is focused on 4 key values: Trust, Respect and Integrity, Customer Focus, Empowerment and Accountability and Employee Fulfilment.

Whilst our staff do have certain performance targets to achieve, we do not see ourselves as operating anywhere near a target driven environment as the large national recruitment companies. As you can see from the 4 key values, the customer is at the centre of what we do and the way we do it (trust, respect and integrity) together with our care for our staff. We believe in having fun in the workplace and to give you examples we always play a piece of music when a consultant gets an offer. We also run competitions like “First Offer of the Month” etc.

Over the last twelve months the most noticeable change; it is now very much a candidate driven market where job vacancies exceed those unemployed. Candidates have also become more discerning and it’s harder to tempt them to look at another opportunity. Another noticeable trend has been the growth of jobs particularly

16 Corporate Vision Recruitment Awards 2015

in the engineering sector which means exports and manufacturing is back on the increase.

Diversity has also become a major issue for businesses across the globe and recruitment agencies can have a major part to play by educating and influencing employers. This is particularly true in the SME sector where the client may have no HR Manager or clear HR policies and procedures and sometimes not even be fully aware of legislation covering discrimination and the advantages of employing a diverse workforce.

Going forward its our belief that the economy will continue to grow and therefore the impact of low unemployment means it will continue to be a candidate driven market and will probably mean we will have to work much harder and smarter to find the right candidates and tempt them to move.

The Government is going to issue amendments to the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 in the next few months so it will be interesting to see what new requirements there will be for us to meet.

In relation to this award we are delighted to have been awarded “Best for Ex-Military Employment Placements – UK’. Whilst we promote ourselves via the internet and social media, we do this in a selected manner and therefore we are not necessarily as well-known as some of our competitors who have packed their boards with former high ranking military personnel.

We owe our success to good old fashioned hard work.

We just get our heads down and work away finding the best candidates for our client’s roles and along the way giving practical guidance and advice to the candidates we are working with or who contact us for advice.

Company: 4 Social Work Web: www.4socialwork.com Address: Clements Court, Clements Ln, Ilford, Essex IG1 2QY Phone: 0845 604 4445

Sustained Excellence in Health & Social Care Recruitment - London

4Social Work are a specialist recruitment agency dedicated to placing social workers, nurses and care workers in jobs across the UK. Established in 2005, we focus on providing temporary and permanent workers to local authorities, NHS trusts and private organisations.

We believe in putting our candidates and clients’ needs first, and our ethos and approach means we develop strong and lasting relationships with both parties through integrity, reliability and best practice recruitment.

Our specialist team consisting of resourcers, consultants and compliance officers ensure a dedicated and personal service through every step of the candidate’s journey, alongside career advice and support.

For our flagship recruitment industry, we fill a range of social work jobs to over 250 local authorities, private organisations, charities and NHS trusts across the UK. All candidates are rigorously vetted and fully compliant according to industry standards prior to being placed.

For candidates, whether they’re a newly qualified social worker, qualified nurse or head of service, 4Social Work is the best place to help them make their next career move. Our team of dedicated specialists helps them through every step of the journey, ensuring they are well matched to the right role.

At 4Social Work we work a little different than other agencies. All consultants are area and sector specialists. That means a dedicated and personal service is provided through in-depth knowledge of the industry and area specific opportunities. All candidates receive a one-on-one consultation guiding them through the registration and recruitment process, through to ongoing career advice and support once out working.

ence, we have been supplying social workers, nurser and care workers for 10 years and are continuously adding clientele to our supply chain.

Our consultants are industry specialists and area specific to ensure all clients receive a personal service established through a detailed understanding of your requirements and local knowledge. They will provide a detailed and thorough service from initial booking through to placement and are on hand 24/7 to provide quality bespoke recruitment solutions to your staffing needs. All consultants have built up strong relationships with teams and candidates nationwide to ensure we have the best network to source the most suited candidate to a vacancy. This also includes headhunting the most elusive candidates where necessary.

In terms of our industry recognition and accreditations, we are a member of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). Furthermore, all of our employees adhere to the REC ‘Code of Good Recruitment Practice’ which is installed to ensure all candidates and clients receive a service of the highest quality.

For more information please contact Suzanne Dakers, Recruitment Director.

4Social Work are currently on contract with over 250 local authorities, NHS foundation trusts and private organisations across the UK. With a wealth of experi-

Recruitment Awards 2015 Corporate Vision 17

“

We believe in putting our candidates and clients’ needs first, and our ethos and approach means we develop strong and lasting relationships with both parties through integrity, reliability and best practice recruitment.

”

Company: AJ Chambers Recruitment Limited.

Email: bill.brace@aj-chambers.com Web Address: www.aj-chambers.com Address: 6 Nelson Street, Southend on Sea, SS1 1EF Telephone: 01702 410415

Specialist Recruitment Agency of the Year – Essex

AJ Chambers was formed in 2010 by current Director Andrew Hilliard. Working his way through the recession, Andrew built his business on his own, developing the Southend Accountancy Practice market. In a classic tale of endeavour and commitment, he then recruited his first members of staff in 2010 and moved into offices in Weston Chambers. Ever since that move, the company has grown exponentially and marked a significant milestone in December 2014, when, due to continued growth, the company moved out of its offices in Weston Road, to the prestigious Nelson Street.

In order to take advantage of this growth, a second company, AJ Chambers Specialist Recruitment Ltd was formed to coincide with the move to Nelson Street. A new Director, Bill Brace joined the company and several new recruits have since joined to form eleven members of staff with further recruitment planned. From our beginnings as a provider solely to the Accountancy Practice sector, we now supply to the Property, Insurance and the Commercial sectors.

We are proud to work with a wide ranging client base including a number of footsie companies and most of the businesses local to the South Essex area. It is simplistic to say that the growth has been achieved by supplying an excellent service to our clients. Our business does not earn a penny unless the candidates we supply have finished their probation. Our competition, as a newly formed independent is quite daunting. The market leaders in our sectors are recruitment specialists. Our major budgeted spend is on social media and online advertising. The benefit of understanding our niche areas is that allied to the size of our business, we can adopt new methodologies quickly and turn our team into a smart and well coached workforce.

We have had to develop our own staff, marketing, sales, leads and recruitment practices in order to compete and gain market share. We have been successful by offering a local partnership approach and developing a real understanding of what is needed to be successful and offering an honest and high quality service.

We have made a strategic decision to focus on professional services and permanent business. We do not run a temporary workforce and look to specialise

in the art of permanent recruitment. The sectors we work in are chosen by our knowledge of the sector, its potential growth and ease of access.

to changing circumstances, act more flexibly around credit management and more importantly, run at a lower cost base.

We pride ourselves on taking our candidates to market and not recruiting solely to fill vacancies. All of the consultants are targeted to recruit quality candidates.

The resourced candidates are audited on a regular basis. At these audits we check on why they were recruited, how they were found, what we have done for them and the plan going forward. This ongoing scrutiny ensures that all the candidates get maximum attention and the best practice is always followed.

We have seen a number of changes in our industry but the choice available for good candidates is probably the most significant. All of the best candidates have more than one opportunity and they are using that strength to strike a better deal for themselves.

Clients have to work harder at selling themselves in order to capture the top talent.

In terms of our philosophy it is a cliché to say honesty, integrity and doing what we say we will do. Our strapline ‘Built on Trust’ emphasises this further. As a small business we enjoy helping businesses grow and advising them on how to tackle what is a changing recruitment market.

In terms of the culture adopted here at AJ Chambers we are fairly strict on following the best practice in every aspect of the role of a recruitment consultant. At a weekly meeting the whole company comes together in our boardroom to discuss last week’s performance and how that impacts on targets and future plans.

Both Andy and Bill have spent a considerable amount of time operating within large corporations (Hays, Reed, Impellam and Cordant Group) and understand how we can differentiate and compete with them. Our size allows us to be very flexible with clients, get to know them better and more importantly, select which clients we want to work with and those we choose to walk away from. We can train our staff quicker, adapt

18 Corporate Vision Recruitment Awards 2015

‘Diversity is a major issue for businesses across the globe and in recruitment we believe that being completely honest from the outset of an instruction will deliver the BEST candidate to companies from the widest most diverse pool of talent as opposed to the best from a small less diverse pool. Having strong enough relationships with our client allows us to have sensitive and honest conversations about the strengths and abilities of the candidate’s we are working with.

Receiving the ‘Specialist Recruitment Agency of the Year’ award feels really rewarding. Developing a recruitment business in the teeth of the world’s biggest recession is not easy. The major reasons why the business has flourished is that the company has focused on doing the basics well.

In terms of obstacles at a macro level there are global challenges that absolutely affect our client base and therefore their ability to grow and recruit. The Euro zone, Chinese economy and cut backs in the Public Sector all affect recruitment in our local area.

Company: Alexander Ash Consulting Name: Maria Vavoulas Email: maria.vavoulas@alexanderash.com Web Address: www.alexanderash.com Address: The Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, London, N1 0QH Telephone: 02077045819

Best for Wealth Management Recruitment - UK

Alexander Ash Consulting specialises in placing change and transformation talent within the financial services, technology and consulting sectors. Our FS Practice covers wealth, Investment, asset management, Investment banking, private banking, commercial, corporate and retail banking.

Whilst our technology practice delivers into various areas including digital, analytics, big data, BI, cloud, datacenter services, workforce management, HCM and collaboration technologies across a range of verticals. Our client list includes global banks, tier 1 consultancies and major players in the communications, media, technology and legal sectors.

Our range of services includes contingent and search based recruitment as well as consultancy services.

Through this consultancy practice we offer a cost effective alternative to the widely used management consultancies. Within this business model, once a specific programme of work has been scoped out by our client, we will provide either a full team of delivery consultants or ‘parachute in’ specialist individuals to spearhead change initiatives. In addition, we offer an executive search service where we define target clients and fully map the specified market to create an initial target list before discreetly approaching and qualifying individuals.

This success comes from offering a consultative approach to providing resource for our clients and the guarantee of one point of contact throughout the process. Across our FS Practice for instance we are a niche provider of cross functional (finance, risk, front office, operations, IT, compliance, HR etc), cross business change resource and because we don’t deviate away from what we know, we understand all aspects of the change and transformation space in great detail.

Additionally, our consultants are trained to a very high level while our core team have been with the organisation for many years – we are therefore able

to talk with clients throughout the functional domains about the subjects that are relevant to their area of focus. We focus on speaking with our clients about their businesses, and where their businesses need to be, not about recruitment.

My role at Alexander Ash has evolved during my tenure and over that time I discovered that I enjoy focusing on improving how we work as an organisation. I now head up operational excellence and process improvement. After all, as a company that specialises in change and transformation, making sure we are at the cutting edge of the recruitment industry through continuous improvement is essential to our business model.

Our clients and candidates are central to us maintaining the hard won reputation we have built in the market. Communication, responsiveness and market knowledge are all central to our approach which we believe sets us apart from the rest of the pack.

However, I would say there is one element that by far outweighs all else – our people. Alexander Ash is celebrating its 10th Year in business this year and I am proud to be part of a management team that has helped shape and drive the business; developing the operating model and growing the business not just in terms of revenue generated but more importantly, our people.

We are continuously developing both our people and the consultants that operate within a central delivery function. This enables them to work across a range of accounts and understand the end to end project lifecycle and the holistic view of clients. An

Recruitment Awards 2015 Corporate Vision 19

example industry would be financial services, where the themes of change and transformation tend to be similar across the industry so our consultants can discuss several clients’ requirements with potential candidates. Alexander Ash has never worked in silos or operated in a vertical environment. Our whole ethos revolves around cross functional, cross business, cross industry change.

We work closely with the Big 4 Consultancies in addition to working with the end clients so we have a good understanding of key themes within financial services and technology. FS has been impacted by continuous regulatory challenges and compliance re-engineering over the past 12 months which are high on the priority list.

Digital is now all-encompassing. We are working with banks to digitise their customer journeys; as consumers we are demanding a more stream-lined and interactive customer service with mobile banking apps for personal / corporate banking, making payments and mortgage calculators. Banks are also gearing towards becoming more digital within the internal client community; sales / trading relationship managers / wealth managers see the benefit in joining the dots and linking their CRM / ecommerce platforms with Pricing and also Client Intelligence.

We are also working with strategy houses to look at future utilisation of digital solutions; one area we think has real potential is digital communication within change programmes and projects (stakeholders, sponsors, users and project teams).

Company: Athena Recruiting Services Ltd Email: info@athena-recruitingservices.co.uk Telephone: +44 1206 266 847 or +44 1206 266 84 Address: Office Suite 72, Weston Business Centre, Hawkins Road, Colchester, Essex CO2 8JX

Best for Bespoke Recruitment 2015 - UK & Award for Excellence in Healthcare Recruitment - UK

Athena Recruiting Services Ltd Athena Recruiting Services Ltd is a specialist recruitment agency based in Colchester Essex. We cover not only the surrounding areas of Essex and Suffolk, but have successfully recruited further afield, enabling Athena to recruit nationally for our clients.

We offer a professional and failsafe service for all your recruitment needs. When clients are looking to grow their team, with either temporary or permanent staff, our dedicated works hard to meet their needs.

We specialise in a number of areas including permanent vacancies within office and commercial , sales and management , financial services, engineering, hospitality and catering and healthcare. We are based in Colchester, Essex but our recruitment services cover the whole of East Anglia and the rest of the UK. Furthermore, we are also able to offer temporary and short term candidates, alongside bank staff for all industries and predominately recruit for these roles within the healthcare and hospitality and catering sectors.

20 CorporateAwards Recruitment Vision 2015 Recruitment Corporate Awards Vision 2015 20

In terms of client service, we always find ways to give them more than they would expect by sourcing the perfect candidates for vacancies through our unique combination of searching, advertising and head hunting.

Our Company ethos is unprecedented, and as a recruitment agency we are proud to say that we go that extra mile to understand our clients and candidates recruitment needs and wants. Our most enviable qualities are understanding, loyalty and commitment.

Name: Uschi Bennett Email: info@bbbrecruitment.co.uk Web: www.bbbrecruitment.co.uk Company: BBB Recruitment Telephone: +44 (0) 208 889 7719

Best Media & Creative Recruitment Agency 2015 - UK

BBB Recruitment BBB Recruitment are media and creative recruitment specialists based in central London. We have a lot of contacts and background knowledge regarding the media world and we specialise only in the media and creative sector. Most of the clients that we work with fall into the marketing and advertising industry including, publishing, music, film production, TV, fashion and events.

As a rule, we always make sure that we meet all our clients and candidates. We believe that recruiting is all about building relationships so we like to meet our candidates in a very informal place. This enables us to sit down and have a chat with them to find out exactly what their needs are and to understand what they are like as a person. Meeting our clients also enables us to build long and lasting relationships, and understanding the “personality” of a company makes it easier for us to find them the perfect person.

A lot of recruitment agencies are solely focused on filling seats and just matching up CVs to positions.

However, we go much deeper than that. In the media and creative sector, it is very much about personality and getting the right fit for the client as well as the candidate. From our perspective, it is about understanding people and we believe that this should be at the core of what recruitment is all about.

We help to fill a broad spectrum of roles, our areas of expertise include (but are not limited to) secretarial support (executive PAs to runners and receptionists) to client services and account management, HR, events and production.

As an agency, we like to treat everyone individually, which allows us to offer a unique service to our clients and candidates. We really listen to people and whether it’s a client or a candidate, we create a tailored recruitment solution to suit them – and always strive to do that little bit extra.

We also pride ourselves on being honest. Most of the people that we work with say that it is so refreshing to work with BBB. Candidates find us flexible and truthful when we discuss what a jobs entails, we make sure we provide a solid background to the company so candidates are fully aware of what they are walking into. The same applies to our clients, we always make sure that they are aware of the candidates that are walking through their doors. For us, it is all about getting the right fit for the right job. One of our key ways of looking at recruitment and our main philosophy is to always be very honest and transparent in what we do.

As a company that takes great pride in the work we do, it feels absolutely amazing to have won this award.

Recruitment Awards 2015 Corporate Vision 21

It makes all of the hard work worthwhile and to be appreciated for the work that we do is a great joy for us.

There are only three of us on the team but we are all hardworking and all passionate about what we do. We hope to continue the relationships that we have with our clients and continue to grow. The most important thing for us is to always represent our candidates and our clients as best as we possibly can in the most honest and truthful way.

Company: Capability Jane Recruitment Limited Name: Gill Stewart Email: gillstewart@capabilityjane.com Web Address: www.capabilityjane.com Telephone: 0845 604 1916

Best for Part-Time Executive Recruitment Solutions - UK

Capability Jane Recruitment Ltd Capability Jane Recruitment was founded in 2007 on the back of compelling research, which found that 60% of highly qualified women want to work part time to remain in or progress their careers. A lack of genuinely flexible senior opportunities combined with a national skills shortage led to the creation of Capability Jane Recruitment, a recruitment company focussing on part time and flexible working roles. We spoke to their Managing Director, Gill Stewart, to find out more.

We are on a mission to create the marketplace for high quality, senior part time roles within business, enabling talented women and men who want to work flexibly to remain in, progress and return to their careers.

We have created the largest database of professional candidates seeking ÂŁ40,000+ part-time, flexible or job share roles in the UK. Capability Jane Recruitment works with forward thinking organisations who recognise the benefits of being able to access a different talent pool by providing genuinely flexible and part time career opportunities. We are working towards a world where flexibility, part-time and job sharing is the norm, not the exception and where organisations embrace innovative ways of working as a source of competitive advantage.

Over the years Capability Jane Recruitment has helped to promote this new world of work. We are rigorous in only working with clients with roles that are genuinely part time or offer a high degree of flexibility in how the job gets done. A key challenge for us has been to change the culture and mind-set of organisations that believe the only option is traditional, full time work.

For candidates, the opportunity to achieve their professional and personal goals is incredibly compelling.

Capability Jane Recruitment has helped to guide their business case, and secure their roles. Executive parttime flexible working is a reality, and when managed well it does not have to include any compromise on salary, position or quality of work. Capability Jane Recruitment is proud to have helped so many executives to succeed with the next step in their careers and personal lives.

For employers, this new approach to talent management can lead to an explosion of options as they access

new, previously unavailable executives, and explore different employment solutions that drive value and variety throughout their organisation. Capability Jane Recruitment understands that full-time permanent roles can be limiting and works with forward thinking employers to craft commercially viable solutions for better business outcomes. Progressive employers are enjoying the strategic and practical benefits of engaging with the highly experienced, top calibre professionals that are registered with Capability Jane Recruitment.

In terms of the major trends in our industry, a more diverse population has required recruitment companies to reconsider how they engage with candidates and clients. Coupled with this is the increasing desire for flexibility and flexible working, not just from those with families but from those seeking a transition into retirement, those with portfolio careers and generation Y/Z who value flexibility more than the previous generation X and the baby boomers.

As for our recruitment process, we have identified, developed and tested a wealth of search, marketing and communication channels with a reach of over one million professionals seeking part time or flexible opportunities over ÂŁ40k in the UK. These channels have proven to reach both those in current employment and those on maternity leave or career break.

We have scrutinised the outcomes of campaigns and know which channels are effective for which roles and geographical locations.

The Capability Jane Recruitment team practise what they preach and work flexibly themselves, we are all experienced recruiters with many years of experience and use our personal and professional networking skills to grow both client and candidate pools.

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We perform in depth telephone and face to face competency based interviews, and we use Skype video calls too. Furthermore, we use personality profiling tests via an external provider when a client requires.

The Capability Jane Recruitment philosophy is passion.

We are passionate about our business, our clients, our candidates and the unique service we offer. We are committed to changing the world of work, one job at a time. We believe in collaboration and working in partnership with our clients to achieve the best outcomes.

We set expectations and deliver on our promises. We are able to achieve this through a clear and simple focus – a focus on part time executive talent.

We are open, ethical, honest and fair in our conversations with clients, candidates and each other., and we work together as a team to achieve great things. We strive for quality in everything we do and if we say we will do it, then we will.

Capability Jane Recruitment also embraces diversity and aims to promote the benefits of diversity in all of our business activities. We seek to develop a business culture that reflects that belief and we explore alternative media to ensure that we have a diverse candidate base.

We will also strive to ensure that our clients meet their own diversity targets.

As for the award, Capability Jane Recruitment are proud to have been nominated for this award and equally proud to have won. Our success, we believe, is down to the fact that we work hard to unearth roles that are part time for our senior level candidates and we are strict in applying this philosophy.

Name: Geraldine Roche Web: citirecruit.co.uk Address: Garden Studios, 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ Phone: 020 7866 5463

Best for Catering Recruitment 2015 - UK

Citirecruit Citirecruit have an independent and passionate approach which allows them to build solid working relationships with both clients and candidates. We got in touch with Geraldine Roche, Hospitality Recruitment Specialist at Citirecruit, to find out more about this approach and what it’s like recruiting in the hospitality sector.

“We supply temporary and permanent staff spanning right across the hospitality sector, from Michelin starred, hotels, bars, clubs restaurants to small bistros.

stand that it really is a 24 hour job. I really do try to be available all the time because you never know when something’s going to pop up or somebody is going to need something. My team works the same way.

“We find that through our extensive network a lot of people are recommended to us, but we also search through job boards and word of mouth, and various other ways too.

“From our experience, it’s all about getting to know people and finding out what they want. We make sure that the candidates are in the right place as well as ensuring that the client has got the right person. It’s important that both sides are happy.

“We ensure that full research is done, such as looking at references, talking to people they know, using social media and just generally collecting as much information about that candidate as possible. Hospitality is a very small world, especially in London and it really is a place where everybody knows each other in some shape or form.

“I used to run multi sites and owned a restaurant, so having worked in this area I’ve got a pretty good feel for what’s needed. You need to be able to go with your instincts. You get a gut feeling of whether they would fit in with the client, each place is so different.

With this in mind, we tailor our search for the person who would suit the actual position and look beyond just what the role involves. We find this is especially important for temporary work, where one chef would be fabulous in one place but not in another.

“Being a hospitality specialist with over 20 years industry experience I understand exactly the type of staff they need. Having been on that side of the fence, I know what works and what doesn’t and I know that having a bad member of staff is worse than having no staff at all. I’m used to working hospitality hours, while many recruiters just do a nine-to-five. I under-

“The process can be quite difficult because each job is so unique. Some people would be looking for a chef de partie that specialises in fish, whereas some would be looking for a chef de partie for the sauce section, so you’ve got to really look at the criteria of each position in order to find the right match.

“With that, in order to find the right match, it is critical to have a very personal relationship with your clients and really get to know them. The more you know your clients, the better idea you have of what they would like. Therefore, it’s very important for us to have close relationships with our clients. We visit them not only to meet them, but also to experience enjoying the experience our clients offer their customers so we can get to know what it’s really like. Of course you can describe something to somebody, but there’s nothing like a first-hand experience. It’s the same for our candidates in that we meet everyone that comes through and build relationships with them too. I think what makes us different from our competitors is the attention to detail we give, that we care and listen to what they actually want as opposed to just guessing to see what they want.

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“We have noticed a lot of changes in our industry.

The main one being the influence of social media.

There are a lot of online groups posting jobs online at the moment, and everyone seems to think they are a recruiter these days, but it’s obviously not as simple as that. On the other hand, social media really has helped in terms of recruiting right across the UK and abroad.

“Looking further ahead, our future plans are to keep on doing what we do and make sure that our clients are happy. We look to maintain the good work we’ve been doing so far and to continue listening, caring, and bringing Citirecruit forward with the aim to improve every day.”

“

Looking further ahead, our future plans is just to keep on doing what we do and make sure that our clients are happy. We look to maintain the good work we’ve been doing so far, and just bring it forward.

”

Name: Mike Edwards – CEO/Founder Email: mike@companyfusion.com Web Address: www.companyfusion.com Address: Tring House, 77-81 High Street, Tring, Hertfordshire, HP23 4AB, United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0)207 993 3368

Recognised Leader in High Calibre Head Hunting - UK

Company Fusion Ltd Our mission at Company Fusion Ltd is to be the leading UK head hunting, search and selection recruitment company of choice for jobseekers and employers alike. As a result we are committed to delivering the highest quality service and jobseeker tools in the marketplace. We have expanded our network to cover the whole world and created relationships in nearly every country enabling us to bring fresh and unique untapped talent to clients.

Company Fusion Ltd specialises in providing flexible solutions through permanent and contract assignments. We work closely with our clients to help develop coherent solutions and to provide them with outsourced skills that will allow them to concentrate on their core business.

We focus on all areas and disciplines in every sector as our talent is to hunt for candidates that will hit the ground running with little or no support. Overcoming the instinct to turn to the familiar and convincing them to try a different and more complete service is always difficult. It is however a rewarding challenge as when you turn people’s heads from something they were so sure was the best way you become a name on people’s lips.

In recent years, the recruitment industry has transformed significantly, and we strive to work closely with our clients understanding their needs as intimately as they do themselves. This adaptability means we are constantly working with the right mind set to change with the times.

To find the right people, after extensive research, we may contact potential candidates directly. We then review the CV in detail and invite the person to have a telephone/skype or face to face interview with one of our experienced and knowledgeable consultants to assess skills, qualifications, experiences and more importantly getting to know the person. Adopting this process has enabled us to match candidates with clients more effectively.

Our experienced consultants will walk and talk candidates through the opportunities in as much detail as

possible giving as much information about the potential employer and what they are looking for along with career progression. If the role is right for the candidate, and the client wishes to progress through the interview stage, we manage this process thoroughly every step of the way. We are successful as we get to know both our candidates and clients, leaving no stone unturned.

Over the last twelve months there has been a continued shift in the way companies attract candidates, with a greater focus on use of social media than before.

Progressive and innovative recruitment agencies who find ways to integrate themselves with this technology will find themselves afloat while those who fail to move with the times will find themselves floundering.

Our philosophy here at Company Fusion Ltd is very much client focused. Our unsurpassed knowledge of our clients ensures we are able to offer them world-class bespoke solutions. We go beyond merely satisfying our clients by wowing them with every aspect of what we offer. We are dedicated to evolving the meaning of best, always striving to go beyond what our clients thought was possible.

Across the globe diversity is a major issue for businesses and so as head hunters we want to create a marriage of client and candidate that is unmatched and we could never achieve this if we weren’t open minded; seeking candidates in not just the obvious places but wherever they might be from.

It is our goal to be seen as the recruitment outsourcing provider that goes one step further, for our clients and colleagues. We take pride in our rich heritage, our success and our unrivalled growth. Our people are proud ambassadors for Company Fusion Ltd, representing us and embodying our values across the globe. We are one united team, working collaboratively across the globe. As a group, we work together to solve any problem through fresh, innovative thinking and produce completely bespoke solutions.

To both maintain and develop the culture within the firm we constantly seek a culture of communication and understanding; breaking down barriers so ideas can flow. In a very competitive industry we have to strive for the best, therefore a completeness of service that goes above and beyond other recruiters, seeking to anticipate client’s needs and services leaves them feeling valued and prepared.

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We are delighted to have won this award which clearly demonstrates the effort and continued support we give to clients and candidates. We are here for the long term build tight and close relationships with both our candidates and clients for a win-win solution. In addition, winning this award confirms that what we do works very well and very successfully – having this recognition shows that others do too and that can only motivate us to do better.

Company: CRS Professionals (UK) Ltd Name: Xara Herriotts Web: www.crsprofessionals.co.uk Address: Suite H, Radclyffe House, 66-68 Hagley Road, Birmingham, B16 8PF Phone: 0121 236 4717

Best in Contract Construction Recruitment - UK

CRS Professionals CRS Professionals (UK) Ltd are a family run business led by husband and wife Tom & Xara Herriotts. We spoke to Xara about why they decided to start their own business and why they are passionate about providing a professional and personal service.

Tom and I met, working for a large global recruitment consultancy. In 2011, after 10 years’ service, we decided to set up our own business so that we could offer a more flexible, bespoke and personal service to both our clients and candidates. Fundamentally, recruitment is all about people. It is easy for large recruitment companies to forget this and get lost in the numbers so we wanted CRS Professionals to be a company that focused on the personal element and be a more people orientated business.

We primarily operate in the construction & property industry, specialising in Architecture, Site Management, Project Management, Structural and Building Services Design amongst other sectors. Our clients range from global, multi-disciplinary consultancies and contractors, through to sub-contractors and housing associations. This specialist focus enables us to have a great grasp on the industry which is passed on to our clients and candidates.

Likewise, the same process goes for our candidates.

We meet all candidates that are put forward to our clients face to face. We discuss their career so far and what they are looking for in their next position.

We discuss how we will work on their behalf and also set out our expectations of them. We keep in regular contact, keeping them informed of progress the whole way through until we have placed them in a role.

We understand that the influence of social media and technology is huge but that shouldn’t stop a personal service to candidates and clients. We use social media to advertise our roles and find candidates.

LinkedIn is a fantastic way of finding new candidates and developing new contacts, but social media is just the first step for us in building those relationships.

Our focus as a business is delivering excellent customer service. Each candidate we meet and work with are trusting us with their careers and each client that we meet and work on behalf of is trusting us with helping to grow their business. It is because of this that we strive to deliver a high level of service, which for CRS means always being in touch with regular updates and developments. We aim to meet all of our clients so that we can get a good first hand understanding of their business and what they are looking for in a candidate joining them. This means we can pass all of this first-hand information directly on to our candidates when we are talking to them and find someone who will really fit the business, not just the role.

Recruitment Awards 2015 Corporate Vision 25

This award really is a great achievement and our success is down to our team. About 2 years after Tom and I set the business up, we were lucky to have my sister join us, who was already an established recruiter in her field. We have been very lucky when it comes to the CRS team as we have expanded.

We have been able to keep the ethos of a family run business and each team member has really bought into that, really giving their all. This has meant we’ve been able to create a great working atmosphere and environment. As a business we work together really well and it is through this teamwork and dedication that we have been able to win this award.”

Company: CV International (A Division of CVUK Group) Name: Cassie Owen – Head of International Email: cassie@cvinternationalgroup.com Web Address: www.cvinternationalgroup.com Address: Head Office, Duke House, Level 5, 50 Duke Street, London W1K 6JL Telephone: 0207 491 5300

Best in Fashion & Retail Recruitment – International

CV International is a division of CVUK Group, a leading international recruitment partner to the fashion and retail sector. The firm has a Head Office located in the heart of central London and international offices in Melbourne, Australia and a new international office opening in Dubai in January 2016. ’We caught up with Cassie Owen, Head of International at CV International Retail Recruitment, who told us about the company and just what it is that makes them unique in this exciting and fast-moving industry.

WHO WE ARE As an International company working across the globe, we focus on understanding each market independently in order to truly understand the cultural differences between our clients. We recruit across all International markets including the Middle East, Asia, Australia and of course Europe. Whilst our new office opening in Dubai will have a key focus on the Gulf region and the Middle East we are also seeing a huge increase in recruitment across Europe, Asia and also the US. Where fashion retailers are expanding across Europe we have seen a particular increase in recruitment projects across Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Denmark where our clients are rapidly expanding with new stores opening this year and plans for further store openings for 2016 and beyond.

The Dubai Mall is the Worlds Largest Shopping Mall

WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT From our experience, it has been essential to understand the challenges associated with recruiting in emerging markets particularly with more challenging countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Egypt and India where the market continues to be particularly buoyant. To this end, we work in close partnership with all of our clients to ensure we identify the talent they require and are in a position to offer vital advice and knowledge of their markets and the talent pool within each country.

As a result of providing such specialised and in-depth services, we have an excellent track record of placing key talent successfully into new roles. We have a database of over 40,000 candidates and on average successfully place every year more than 1,000 candidates. We firmly believe that our success is based around our forging of strong client relationships based on honesty, trust, transparency and an unswerving commitment to excellence. The working week in the Middle East is Sunday to Thursday so we have ensured we have consultants in the office during this period to reflect our commitment to our clients and their needs. From our perspective, this commitment to excellence ensures total dedication to client delivery, which is a large part of what lies at the heart of our values and success to date.

WORKING FOR US We also foster a strong team culture across the board and believe in always recruiting the very best in the industry. We run an advanced training program and a clear internal career path as we firmly believe in promoting from within.

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Furthermore, we are also committed to recruiting specialist consultants into our teams, which we believe has gone a long way to separating us from our competitors. Many of these consultants have worked internationally and so understand exactly what candidates experience and encounter throughout their relocation journey. These specialist consultants work across Head Office roles such as buying and merchandising, design, technical, wholesale, ecommerce, PR & marketing and executive c-level appointments. As well as store based roles including retail operations at all levels from store managers and visual merchandisers through to area managers and regional managers.

What makes us unique is that we take the time to understand our clients’ requirements and understand our candidates’ motivations for their next career move. We understand relocating to another country is a huge leap personally and professionally. We offer advice and support and provide local knowledge such as anticipated cost of living, accommodation costs in each area, cultural and social differences and local knowledge so they have all the information required to make the transition easily and comfortably into their new environment and next career step.

We have taken the time to work with clients in challenging and emerging markets, which many of our competitors have chosen to shy away from. We believe that by taking this step we have found our niche and have built our client base through reputation and the ability to understand and adapt to these more challenging markets. All of these factors combined have led to our firm becoming a byword for excellence and patience in recruiting in the international arena.

THE FUTURE In order to develop and maintain this reputation, we are always looking at new ways of improving and are constantly adapting to the ever-changing international market. We are also seeing an increased demand for assistance on a single project basis, particularly as retailers embark on new store openings on a vast scale across Continental Europe. The search for key talent is always competitive and companies are advised to be competitive and invest in employee engagement to retain this key talent once they are on-board.

Another continuing trend is that candidate expectations are higher and therefore companies have to re-evaluate their remuneration packages, relocation assistance, benefits and bonus structures. We offer guidance and support on this and offer advice to clients on the current market both in the UK and internationally to ensure our clients remain the employer of choice within their region.

Looking further ahead, we predict that the next five years will see continual growth in the international market and the search for key talent will be as buoyant and competitive as ever. Investing in employee engagement to retain this key talent once they are on-board is equally as crucial as the market becomes ever competitive and to retain this talent for the foreseeable future.

We are looking forward to our new office opening in the heart of Dubai in January 2016. We believe that this will only cement our client relationships further and shows further commitment to our Middle East clients to have a visible presence in the local market.

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Whilst we continue to grow year on year our long term vision is to have further international offices in Asia and in the US. In the short-term with the Expo 2020 being held in Qatar, we see our future in the Middle East, where retail is the 3rd fastest growing market and where we continue to out perform our competitors.

Company: DCS Recruitment Ltd Web: www.dcsgroup.uk.com Address: John Swift Building, 19 Mason Street, Manchester M4 5FT Phone: 0161 212 2308

Best in Global Construction Recruitment - UK

DCS Recruitment Ltd DCS Recruitment are temporary, contract and permanent recruitment specialists. DCS specialises in a number of niche specialist sectors which include but are not limited to: construction, engineering, energy and utilities as well as our specialist IT and Technology division.

Our specialist consultants are trained to truly understand the candidate’s aspirations, both technically and in terms of career development. DCS can provide contract and permanent recruitment solutions across the UK, from our network of offices. We work with a wide variety of organisations, from SME to leading global brands.

DCS offers a professional recruitment service for a diverse range of clients operating within the Construction related fields as well as IT and technology.

Our clients are highly valued and specific intellectual approaches are tailored to meet and surpass their individual needs.

DCS are able to effectively identify the best available resource to meet all technical and managerial disciplines to executive level world-wide. Currently DCS consults with clients operating in over 50 countries across 5 continents and this portfolio is expanding upon recommendation daily.

Sue Burton PhotographyLtd / Shutterstock.com

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Company: Euro Projects Recruitment Ltd Name: Stephen Brown Email: customers@europrojects.co.uk Web Address: www.europrojects.co.uk Address: Unit 1, Cartwright Court, Cartwright Way, Bardon Hill, Coalville, Leicestershire, LE67 1UE Telephone: 01530 833 825

Best in Engineering Recruitment - Leicestershire

Euro Projects Recruitment is a technical and executive recruitment consultancy set up in 1996. Specialising in engineering and manufacturing they combine over 100 years of technical knowledge and recruitment expertise to match the best candidates to the best companies. We got in touch with Stephen Brown, Managing Director at Euro-Projects Recruitment Ltd, to find out more about their company and how they deliver the best results for their clients.

Our approach is based on challenging the norm of typical recruitment businesses; we are consultative to all parties and have a culture of being extremely thorough and professional. As a result, our clients and candidates see us as ‘a breath of fresh air’ after their previous experiences elsewhere.

We like to think of our clients and candidates as partners, and we put time and effort into understanding their culture as well as objectives.

When working with us, they can trust that we have their best interests at heart. The robust processes we continually develop and refine ensures they can be confident that every job is matched to the right person for long-term success.

Initially, we started as an engineering and technology transfer consultancy, so we understand the values and objectives unique to advanced engineering and modern manufacturing companies. This unique background, which is hard-wired into our DNA, means we have the unrivalled ability to make the right technical and cultural matches for the companies and people we work with.

The key to our service can be encapsulated in one word: communication. We take the time to both speak on the telephone, and meet people face to face.

From our perspective, these are the best ways to get to know our customers and candidates, and once we understand a person’s motivations and objectives we can guide the recruitment process to the best long term result.

It is this process-driven approach that helps our customers avoid costly recruitment mistakes. We start

by mapping our clients’ culture and values so we’re immersed in their business and understand what constitutes a top employee in their context. We’ve developed a performance hiring method for generating and qualifying candidates which includes proper due diligence in assessing candidate motivation. We then help our clients position their company and job offer in the best light so they will attract and retain top-performing employees.

In terms of our ethos, we adopt a rigorous and structured recruitment methodology which helps reduce the risk of making an unsuccessful appointment. We work in close partnership with our customers and rather than ‘sell’ our candidates, we take the same objective approach as if we were employing the person for our own business. It’s this approach that has allowed us to enjoy such high levels of repeat business (87% of our clients are repeat customers).

The culture within the firm has always been very focused on customer service – both with clients but also towards our candidates. We value loyalty, evidenced both with the longevity of the team at Euro-Projects but also with our customer base.

We place great emphasis on not just listing our core values, but also making sure that new members of our team share these values and that they are ‘lived by’ within the business.

At present there is a real skills shortage in the engineering industry, which will be compounded by the fact that many organisations have cut back on apprenticeships and training during the recession.

When there is a shortage of suitable people, it’s our

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job to work in close partnership with our customers to make sure that their attraction strategy and candidate proposition inspires a high level of interest.

As for the award, winning the ‘Best in Engineering Recruitment – Leicestershire’ award is something we are very proud of as a company. Every day, our whole team aims to deliver the best possible service to both candidates and our customers. You never really know how well you are doing until you get feedback from outside of the business, and it is a big pat on the back for everyone here at Euro Projects.

Looking towards the future, we will face a number of challenges, but that is something we are excited about. We feel very lucky to work in the advanced engineering and manufacturing sector.

Everyone we work with treats innovation, change and self-improvement as a minimum standard.

We take the same approach, and push ourselves to use new techniques and technology, many of which enhance our ability to deliver. However, there is a real danger that we could follow a social media path at the expense of meeting new people. So our challenge is to simply stay focussed on meeting people, conduct a genuine conversation and give both our candidates and clients the service they expect.

Company: Exact Sourcing Web: www.exactsourcing.com Email: info@exactsourcing.com Address: St. John’s Innovation Centre Cowley Road, CB4 OWS Phone: 01223 421 446

Most Client Focused Recruiters of the Year - East Anglia & South East

Exact Sourcing represents more than simple skills matching, but rather offers a deeply focussed service that looks at the personality behind the CV. We were in touch with Rosa Dos Santos, Managing Director of Exact Sourcing, to find out more.

Our personal recruitment service and honesty underpins our process. We are committed to meeting all our candidates in person before shortlisting them for any vacancies. Morevoer, we believe it’s very important to take the time to explain the recruitment process and to really understand our clients and what they need from their staff.

Furthermore, we go to great lengths to really understand our clients’ business and what they need from their staff, not just from a skill-set perspective, but also from a personality fit. We look beyond the qualifications on CVs, and instead discover who they really are, what their ambitions may be and what motivates them to succeed. In doing so, we will find the job that best fits them and their current needs, as well as giving them room for growth and development in your career.

As a rule, we only send the best candidates across, and ensure that they only ever interview candidates that we have met face to face.

It’s a common saying that ‘a happy employee is a productive one’, so it makes sound financial sense to ensure the right person is engaged for our clients’ companies. Through our process, we can save companies time by searching, shortlisting, interviewing and fully briefing candidates before they meet them.

We also believe that the right match results in increased productivity, long-term loyalty and a happier working environment for everyone. Given that a large percentage of our business comes through referrals from happy clients and candidates, this suggests that what we do works.

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Company: Expion Search & Selection Name: James Didgiunaitis, Richard Clegg Email: james.didgiunaitis@expion.co.uk, Richard.clegg@expion.co.uk Web Address: www.expion.co.uk Address: Expion Search & Selection, Heritage Exchange, Plover Road, Lindley, HD3 3HR Telephone: 01484 599111

Best in Manufacturing Recruitment - UK

Expion Search & Selection Expion is an award winning, privately owned recruitment company headquartered in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

The business was established in 2010 by two recruitment professionals committed to growing their business in Yorkshire to support local business and job creation in manufacturing, innovation, engineering, food and supply chain. They both have a shared vision of how recruitment could be, and should be approached, and they took the time out to speak to us about this and more.

Expion believes that in order to deliver a cutting edge service to client companies, it is vital to provide a truly outstanding candidate experience. Exceptionally talented people are a precious commodity, and they have a right to expect respect for their wants and needs – just as much as the recruiting company.

Expion has grown rapidly over the last five and a half years, and growth has doubled year on year during this period. At the start of 2014 a second office was opened at Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire to enable Expion to respond to increased business demands in the Midlands and South of England. Furthermore, a third office was added in Leeds in the middle part of 2014. This has enabled Expion to build on its presence in the Yorkshire area, targeting the two major industrial heartland cities (Huddersfield and Leeds).

Moreover, Expion are a preferred partner to large blue chips such as Nestle, Arla, Princes, AMS and Johnson & Johnson. We also service many local Yorkshire SME’s. We are very proud to be consistently ranked within the Top 5 in terms of candidate feedback in the Jobsite RecruitRank awards. RecruitRank allows candidates to anonymously give feedback on the customer service received during the recruitment process, and our placing is very important to the business and contributes to business improvement plans.

contributes to the recent attraction of a number of high performing consultants who will enable us to grow the business even further in 2016 and beyond.

field. We’ve trained and developed them and have been successful in obtaining funding to in turn develop our management team into business leaders of the future.

When it comes to our recruitment process, we involve as many people as possible and try to make it as thorough and demanding as we can.We ensure that individuals are able to shine within the business through their entrepreneurial endeavours – there is no “Identikit” for an Expion employee. What they all are though are sales focussed and client driven individuals first and foremost.

In creating the Expion Academy and Future Leaders programme, we have added to our business model something that encourages and supports enterprise, and is effectively a business within a business approach.

Our clients are everything to Expion and we constantly look to how we can exceed their expectations. Our headhunt service has time and time again ensured that we consistently deliver for them on extremely difficult to fill roles and that ensures that the vast majority of our business is repeat business.

We are a company that consistently tries to exceed client and candidate expectations. We also recruit high calibre individuals that will add value to our current operation as well as take us into new markets.

It is this exceptional customer service that is at the heart of everything Expion does and is embedded into the business culture. Customer service at Expion is a unique balancing act, and involves managing the client relationship alongside the candidate relationship.

Finding the appropriate balance is fundamental to our success and what differentiates Expion from other recruitment organisations. Our independently commissioned marketing survey gave positive feedback and high levels of recommendation for the customer service offered by Expion. The Expion name is derived from expertise and opinion; key differentiators of the service offered by Expion to our clients and candidates.

We’ve expanded and grown our core sectors considerably and worked hard to listen to the market whilst investing our profits in growing the business. Our bonus scheme for consultants is market leading and

Since day one, we have shown exceptional sales growth in what has been a tough economic climate.

Our people are empowered, given flexibility and autonomy and the ability to become true specialists within their

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It’s part of our culture that we acknowledge success and promote people. Members of our management team have all been promoted from within and last year four of our consultants were promoted to more senior roles. We reward and incentivise success. Our consultants have enjoyed trips to York Races, been involved in competitions to win short breaks, alongside schemes to be rewarded with extra holidays for achieving targets.

Furthermore, we’re innovative in our approach to our service and our people. We offer flexible working, the ability to work remotely and more importantly, the opportunity for ideas to flow and be adopted by the business.

We’ve also gained considerable recognition of the service we provide, in particular to candidates. We were the winner of the prestigious Jobsite RecruitRank awards in 2011 and Runner Up in 2013. These awards are voted for by the candidates who use our service and means a lot to us.

This further recognition from Corporate Vision magazine’s Recruitment Awards is absolutely fantastic. The success is down to the people we employ across our 3 offices, as without them, we would not have had the success that we have had over the last 5 years. We want to continue to grow and build on this success in 2016 and beyond.

Company: FuturePeople Web Address: www.futurepeople.com.au Address: Head Office: Level 4, 228 Pitt St, Sydney Telephone: (+612) 9024 2900

Most Inovative Recruitment Firm - Australia

FuturePeople Recruitment FuturePeople is a specialist consultancy focused on helping organisations that are serious about customer engagement. They spoke to us about their unique recruitment process and more.

From our experience, companies with loyal customers grow faster, are more profitable and provide significantly higher shareholder returns. Similary, companies with engaged staff have 56% higher customer loyalty. This customer engagement happens on the front line of organisations, and involves people interacting with people, solving problems for customers and providing solutions.

At futurepeople we specialise in helping organisations find and develop front line employees who are highly engaged and emotionally intelligent. We have a 13 year track record as partner to the majority of Australia’s leading organisations; spanning banking, insurance, FMCG, health and government.

The Australian recruitment industry is highly commoditised and many organisations still don’t recognize the importance of investing in recruiting and developing the right people. We have had to invest heavily in research to demonstrate the link between highly engaged employees on the frontline and customer engagement.

Throughout the years, FuturePeople has evolved from being a recruitment agency to being a human capital partner. We provide consulting services to assist organisations in recruiting and developing the right staff to serve their customers. We have invested heavily in research to provide value to organisations who are serious about customer engagement. A primary example is our emotional intelligence (EI) research study looking at the relationship between EI on the front line and customer engagement. This has enabled us to develop an EI profile specific to Australian contact centres for recruitment and training purposes. Our future-proofing strategy involves educating organisations of the importance of investing in the front line to deliver customer advocacy. We will continue to evolve our training

offerings to support these employees in developing the skills required in the ‘new world’ of digitalisation and increased customer expectations.

Our trademarked FutureFit methodology is an eight step process focused on getting psychologically fit for front line customer facing roles. It has been developed in collaboration with Australian employers and employees analysing the attributes of high performing people and attrition trends. FutureFit evaluates candidates against an emotional intelligence (EI) profile which has been developed based on our industry research on the role of EI on the front line in customer experience and employee engagement. We focus on helping organisations find, select and engage ‘emotionally intelligent brand advocates’ on their front line.

Our ‘Heartonomics TM’ philosophy is about the economic value of how we make people feel: our employees and our customers. When customers are highly engaged they do the selling for us by acting as brand advocates.

It’s not possible to have engaged customers without engaged employees hence we focus on our own employee engagement to ensure our people are emotionally invested in creating genuine value for our customers.

At FuturePeople,we define culture as ‘values in action’ hence we focus on recruiting staff to serve our customers who share our values as an organisation so that it shows up in the right behaviour. Emotionally intelligent behaviour is a key foundation for our culture, and relates to emotional awareness of self and others to develop effective relationships built on trust.

Our specialisation in the front line and the complete solution we offer goes beyond simply recruiting the right people. Recruitment is only the first step in driving

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customer engagement through people. Once recruited the front line need to be in a culture that drives their continued engagement; a culture of development and effective leadership. We provide organisations with a range of interventions to achieve this. A key element of our differentiation is the research we have invested in relating to emotional intelligence in recruitment and engagement of the front line and the value this has offered to our clients.

Providing the best service is an ongoing process and we are always adapting to the myriad changes occuring in our sectors. In the recruitment industry, there is significant cost pressure, and organisations wanting to pay less for more. In our industry of specialisation – customer experience – it has been digital disruption: the industry now needs to recruit front line employees who are digitally competent and can interact with customers effectively across multiple channels – email, social, chat etc.

Organisations continuing to harness technology to automate customer service via ‘self service’ channels are likely to continue to have the biggest impact on our industry. The opportunity for us lies in educating organisations on the importance of having a much higher skilled person on the front line to solve problems for customers when the limits of self service technology have been reached. The challenge lies in connecting C level executives in organisations to what’s happening with their customers on the frontline and getting their buy in on the importance of investing here.

Innovation is part of our DNA at FuturePeople, and we invest heavily in industry research and thought leadership to drive innovation in our organisation and for our clients. So to have it formally recognised with this award is a great testament to the the effort that we apply here.

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Company: Harbourne Associates Ltd Name: Chris Stephens Email: chris.stephens@harbourneassociates.com Web Address: www.harbourneassociates.com Address: The Long Barn, Mousden Farm, Halls Hole Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 4RF Telephone: 01892 822833

Sustained Excellence in Bespoke Recruitment Solutions - UK

Harbourne Associates is an REC accredited specialist recruitment consultancy focusing its attention on sales, marketing, and executive search. They work within sectors including retail development, premium brands, food service, high-end fashion, hair and beauty, drinks and a developing area in agricultural, industrial, manufacturing, construction and engineering. We got in touch with Chris Stephens, Director of Harbourne Associates, to find out more.

Our candidate acquisition techniques predominantly involve headhunting and industry networking. We take a competency based approach to recruitment as our findings show that candidates in our sectors are best assessed through behaviours and competencies supported by experience and qualifications.

We have extremely high levels of success and conversion ratios that outmatch many of our competitors, not to mention staff retention figures once placed evidenced throughout many of our UK wide clients.

As a growing business in our third year of operation our challenge has been creating a brand that is recognised for its excellent work and consistent high level of achievement. Creating the right infrastructure to support our planned growth and finding talent for us has specifically been a challenge. Organisationally, as with any new business, we’ve faced many issues along the way however we are constantly learning and have achieved a lot with the support and effort of the core team now in place.

As a relatively new business, we have been able to establish ourselves around our own vision of a modern recruitment company and are not held back by the baggage which many of the older and larger agencies have. It has been a challenge to demonstrate how we stand out from the rest but we have succeeded by never bulking-out candidate lists and always delivering what we promise. Giving our clients and candidates alike the highest quality service has been our approach from the outset and so all the people we deal with see us in that light.

In terms of our recruitment strategy, we have a unique and in depth process that really helps us focus. To support this, each of our senior consultants and directors are tasked weekly with listening to the way each of us operate and commenting on each others’ performance. We have weekly pop-up staff/progress meetings to share information and this leads to mutual support and a shared understanding of workload on those even more challenging roles.

Everyone in our team understands that our success comes from the success of our clients. Our Mission is “To provide such a high level of service that all our clients and candidates recommend us without hesitation”.

The primary focus for our resourcers and consultants is to listen and understand our clients’ needs. If they do not really get to grips with that aspect of the brief then we cannot find the best candidates and we will not achieve our vision for each client and candidate.

A poor match will fail our clients by not finding the candidate who will deliver maximum shareholder value and fail the candidate by putting them in a job which will not provide the fulfilment they expect.

Clients need a nimble and innovative staffing partner.

Harbourne Associates’ techniques and tools focus on adding value to a client’s organisation and maximising their shareholder value. We reduce a client’s risk and free their time to build success. We are a free thinking consultancy with a fresh and vibrant approach to resourcing the market.

A number of the measures we ensure include: • Working to the client’s timescales; • Using our specialist skills and expertise to seek out candidates who fit the specification exceptionally well from our pool of talent;

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• Working harder and smarter to ensure the end result is over and above expectations; • Delivering results and the highest levels of satisfaction.

As a sales and marketing agency we make sure we employ recruiters with similar skills to the industry that they will target. This ensures that they empathise with and talk the language of our clients and candidates.

We also regularly share success and celebrate within our team so that morale is maintained at the highest possible level. We provide a good employment package for everyone in our team and encourage them to be involved with other non-recruiting aspects such as spending an afternoon presenting a workshop to local unemployed people advising them on the best techniques to employ when searching and applying for jobs.

We want to be the first recruiter a client thinks of when a vacancy arises because we will deliver the result they want. We don’t do a scattergun approach; we will just give a choice from a select number of perfectly matched partners to interview. We leave no stone unturned when seeking out premium candidates.

Over the past 12 months, we have definitely seen a significant growth in the demand for sales and marketing personnel across the UK. We are using different techniques and keeping up to date with social networking trends is a constant challenge especially within the younger professionals.

Looking ahead, the main challenge facing our company is finding new employees with the right skills

and behaviours who believe in our vision and culture to enable us to grow. We will continue to stand apart from the old guard and build the business according to our clients’ needs and delivery requirements. By focusing on excellence and bespoke solutions we will enhance our blue–chip accounts in direct competition to the larger players.

We are really proud to have been nominated for this by our customers as this confirms our approach is understood and applauded. Our entire ethos is built around the success of our clients and candidates and this demonstrates that the culture we have and our Vision “To see the right people working in jobs they love with successful and growing businesses” is producing the right results.

The award has given everyone at Harbourne Associates a boost and is great for morale as well as demonstrating to our current clients (and those to come) that we are an organisation which responds to our clients’ needs with the utmost professionalism and success.

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Company: HindeSite Ltd Name: Jane Hinde Email: Jane@hindesite.co.uk Web Address: www.hindesite.co.uk Address: Ocean House, 12th Floor, The Ring, Bracknell, Berkshire. RG12 1AX Telephone: +44 (0) 1344388020 / +44 (0) 7710505453

Best in Personalised Recruitment Solutions - UK

Jane Hinde began HindeSite back in 2001 with a vision of providing a first class personal service. Having had rather negative experiences with many recruitment agencies, she wanted to build a company that did things a little differently. We spoke to her about how she has built her success upon this alternative strategy.

We are a recruitment consultancy specialising in IT, but we don’t limit ourselves to this area. As a matter of fact, we’ve often been asked by our clients to recruit for all types of roles simply because they trust that we know the right fit regardless of the role. We work within a variety of different sectors including IT, fashion and footwear, accountancy, financial, and education.

Furthermore, we work with a number of blue chip organisations and maintain longstanding business relationships with all of our clients.

We mainly specialise in contractors and permanent staff and try to help candidates as much as possible.

This includes offering a CV writing service, and assisting with pre-interviews if the candidate finds that they need some extra help.

We are a smaller company and although there are some major players in this industry, we have proven that our personal service can achieve some exceptional results. Moreover, we’ve managed to struggle through the recession when contractors were laid off and companies were making redundancies rather than taking on new staff.

As for the candidates, we focus on providing a high end level of service. This involves regularly responding to their emails and calls, and ensuring they know we are not just “number crunching”. It may sound like a cliché, but recruitment really is all about people and if you’re purely in it for the sales, you’ll soon earn exactly that reputation.

We feel that it is important to stand out from our competitors, because recruitment is highly competitive and there are thousands of very good consultancies

that all offer a similar service. We believe we have a winning formula. Companies have realised that they need to take time in hiring, and candidates are realising that they are the ones in control.

It goes without saying that treating your candidates with respect is very important, and it’s crucial not to mess them about, be honest with them, and most of all keep them in the loop. I know from experience that there is nothing worse than chasing a recruiter and getting nothing back. You wouldn’t put up with it from any other service provider, so candidates certainly shouldn’t have to put up with it from someone who they really need to be in contact with.

As for finding the right people, it’s important not only to understand the company who are hiring but also their ethos, environment and personality. By being ourselves at initial meetings, we can ensure that we get a thorough understanding of the company we are going to be working with.

In terms of the culture adopted here at HindeSite, we are open, honest and very straight down the line.

Maintaining a fun working environment and relationship with clients is essential too. Being comfortable and confident in the clients that you are representing also means you will be genuine when telling the candidate that this is the company for them.

Unlike other recruitment companies we don’t bombard our clients with CV’s and this is one of the reasons our clients keep using our service. Being from Australia originally and having lived in several different countries has helped me to understand and to respect different cultures, which plays a very big part in what

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I do. I think it’s imperative to keep an open mind with all CVs, and if the client trusts you as a person, as a provider, and trusts your judgement, they are open to seeing candidates that may not fit the entire scope, but have the potential to assist the company’s growth and progression in other ways.

We are ecstatic to win ‘Best in Personalised Recruitment Solutions – UK’, and it was such an honour to even be nominated. We often get emails from both clients and candidates thanking us for going that extra mile, so this is the icing on the cake. I truly believe that if you enjoy what you do, it shows in your work, and this is something we will continue to do at our company.

Company: JVP Group Name: Cath Harrison Email: Cath@JVPGroup.co.uk Web Address: www.JVPGroup.co.uk Address: Bodelwyddan Business Centre, Abergele Rd, Bodelwyddan, North Wales, LL18 5SX, UK. Telephone: 0844 967 4467

Best for Online Recruitment Advertising - UK

JVP Group are the recruitment advertising experts, supporting employers across the UK with an innovative recruitment advertising solution which includes; employer branded ad writing, multiple job board advertising, a time saving applicant management system and testing solutions.

JVP maximise the attraction of suitable talent by posting each vacancy ad on up to 200 leading, specialist and regional sites. Our clients love the fact that we save them time and help achieve the best response with our professional advert writing service which promotes their employer brand. Our innovative online Applicant Management Portal minimises the clients time required for shortlisting and responding to applicants, removing the hassle of recruitment administration.

At JVP our attention to detail is second to none, aiming to consistently exceed client expectations by providing an extremely efficient and comprehensive online recruitment advertising service. Employers are used to traditional recruitment methods such as agencies or job boards. Our challenge has been in gaining confidence of prospective clients to trial our unique and cost effective service offering. Once an employer experiences our refreshing solutions they become a loyal JVP client, transforming their recruitment strategy and this award is a recognition of how we overcome that challenge.

The launch of JVP at the beginning of 2014 was in direct response to the changing recruitment landscape, particularly in terms of the use of technology and how employers can best attract and manage talent.

It wasn’t so long ago that everyone was looking in the paper for a job, now 45% of job seekers are using their mobiles to search for jobs at least once a day.

It’s vital that we are constantly analysing job seeker behaviours and making use of the latest technology to make it easier for both job seekers and employers, and it’s clear to see that with our mobile optimised job board, and our innovative online Applicant Management Portal.

JVP is all about getting the right exposure of our client’s vacancies. 43% of job seekers only use one job board in their job search, so we advertise each vacancy across multiple leading, specialist and regional job boards to ensure the employer attracts top talent. And with 79% of job seekers likely to use social media in their job search, it’s vital we also advertise the vacancy across social media platforms. By combining these methods we find that employers are consistently attracting the best people. The shortlisting and communication tools within our Portal ensure the selection process is quick and simple for employers.

In addition, our tailored and fully administered testing solutions put the employers mind at ease by establishing applicants’ skills and knowledge levels, helping avoid those costly mistake hires.

JVP’s focus is on offering outstanding customer service, and that means going above and beyond for the client to ensure that they find the right talent and that the recruitment process is as hassle free as possible. It’s why our clients keep coming back and recommending us.

Everyone at JVP feels that they play a key part in the team and are involved in the business as a whole. They are respected, appreciated and rewarded for the work they do. If you do the best for your employees, they will do the best they can for the clients, and this certainly rings true at JVP. We also encourage a fair work life balance which is rare in the recruitment industry.

There are many options for a recruiting employer, but from the outset we recognised the lack of affordable online recruitment advertising services which com-

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bines expert support from an experienced recruiter, user-friendly technology, wide yet targeted vacancy exposure and a completely transparent approach.

When we talk with employers, they are consistently surprised at how cost-effective whilst comprehensive our solution is in comparison to other recruitment methods and direct competitors.

Job seekers are becoming more and more selective when choosing vacancies to apply for, which is why at JVP all of our adverts are employer branded, with a focus on what makes the recruiting business a good place to work.

We are delighted to have our core values and innovative solutions recognised, and we owe demonstration of client satisfaction for this success, which will remain at the forefront as we continue to grow as a company.

Company: Liz Thompson Human Resources (LTHR) Contact: Liz Thompson Email: liz@lthr.co.uk Web address: www.lthr.co.uk Telephone: 01943 873772 Mobile: 07932 665026

HR Recruitment Specialists of the Year - West Yorkshire

Liz Thompson Human Resources (LTHR) specialises solely in the recruitment and placement of human resources and training professionals across Yorkshire. With clients spanning across every industry based in this region, they handle all roles ranging from HR administrator right up to director level. We spoke to their Founder and Director, Liz Thompson, to find out more.

I started the business in 2004, having previously managed a company called YES Selection (also HR recruitment) before taking time out to travel the world.

My first job after university was working in a busy human resources department, which is where I initially gained my understanding of HR Professionals and their requirements.

My understanding of HR departments means that I know just how much of a person’s time can be spent fending off endless sales calls from agencies, so my overriding philosophy is to never do this, and is something I know my clients appreciate and I think is what makes us different. I have previously worked in a company where the consultants were so pressurised to meet sales targets, that their priorities were on those targets and not the person in front of them who was looking for a new role. This style of recruitment has never sat comfortably with me, which is when I knew I had to work for myself.

As a result, I have always told my clients that we are very candidate driven. This may not sound good for them, but in the long run, the candidate has to be completely sure the role is right for them or they won’t stay and the company will be back to square one in no time at all. We always listen very carefully to what our clients need in their ideal candidate and would rather send them no CVs than the wrong ones.

During the recent recession, we witnessed an upsurge in HR vacancies requiring candidates familiar with redundancies and restructuring and a marked downturn in the number of roles in learning and development. I am pleased to report that there currently seems to be more roles in the training field, which is a welcome indication of economic confidence and a return to staff investment.

I think the biggest challenge for recruitment businesses is the fact that many organisations are looking at using social media to source their own candidates. I have noticed that the more senior roles can be filled this way because a simple, geographical, skills search on LinkedIn can potentially reveal a manageable shortlist. However, I am pleased to report that HR business partner, manager and advisor roles still need the assistance of a specialist like us to sift through and present the best people for the job.

As for the award, it is a fantastic feeling to have our efforts recognised and rewarded in this way. I would like to sincerely thank those who have voted for us and hope that it is our culture of honesty and our ability to truly listen to our clients’ requirements, which have shone through and made us a winner.

Having now worked in HR recruitment for 15 years, I have seen it change and evolve. There has been a recent shift towards using differing forms of social media to find candidates, but I have to say I am still a bit of an old school fan of utilising our extensive database of candidates to find that perfect person.

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Company: OAKWOOD Staff Solutions Name: Kerry Hooper Email: Kerry.hooper@oakwood-solutions.co.uk Web Address: www.oakwood-solutions.co.uk Address: Charlton Fields Farm, Charlton Road, Keynsham, Bristol, BS31 2TW Telephone: 0845 (OAKWOOD) 625 9663

Most Cost-Effective Recruitment Agency of the Year - UK

Oakwood Staff Solutions Established over 10 years ago OAKWOOD Staff Solutions set out as a specialist driving agency in 2004. As the owner, Kerry Hooper, with a background in the transport and logistics industry as well as recruitment, the complete focus has been to deliver to both our clients and temporary drivers a unique quality service.

I believe we have achieved this award through a constant, unrelenting drive to deliver quality over quantity, with every action and decision we make being based on our clients and temps best interests. Even in times of difficulty when an easier choice could be made we stick to an empathy of the others we serve. Ultimately this results in a long lasting good and honest relationship that is mutually beneficial.

Our overriding philosophy when it comes to our clients is simply quality over quantity. This is all too easy for many businesses to claim, but it takes strong leadership and faith in the philosophy to really stick too and see the results. A happy workforce combined with a satisfied client equals a successful business that will last and ride out harder times.

Our clients have the peace of mind to back this up with our unique “Professional Driver Guarantee”.

Fortunately our company culture of fairness, equality and honesty has been reinforced over the past five years with the introduction of the Agency Workers Regulations. Following our core values we have fully embraced the AWR, rather than seek ways to avoid it, using it as a tool to demonstrate further fairness and equality measures for our temporary drivers. This in turn has a positive result on our clients as they consistently receive the most suitable professional, experienced and content flexible workforce.

At OAKWOOD Staff Solutions the core values of its owners are reflected in the company culture of fairness and equality. This culture is displayed in every action, every choice and every agreement we have with our clients, our staff, our temps and even our suppliers. It is maintained through a Fairness and Equality policy that lead from the directors through the whole business.

When it comes to recruitment, our strong local reputation has assisted us no end. Our brand is well known through years of effort to maintain a positive, professional message. A very high percentage of our recruited drivers are recommended by other trusted drivers, ex-drivers and even our clients. To further strengthen this our recruitment process includes a lengthy interview or induction in person. With this we not only explore the needs and expectations of the individual, but we also look at the character of the applicant as well as the necessary skills or qualifications.

None of our staff are employed or set periodic targets based on the number of shifts or transactions.

We believe this distracts from our culture of decisions only made in the best interest of all parties as opposed to focusing on our own short term profit or gain. This advantage is obvious to our long standing clients that always choose to work with us over any other supplier.

Over the last year we have seen a sharp rise in both the opportunities with new clients as well as strong organic growth with clients we have served for many years. This in turn has also increased the challenge of availability of suitable or relevantly skilled workers. To help overcome this challenge the OAKWOOD group has created OAKWOOD Training Solutions a dedicated training company specialising

Recruitment Awards 2015 Corporate Vision 39

in transport and logistics development to compliment the employment agency by attracting and assisting newly qualified workers to our industry and our clients.

Diversity is a huge part of the success of any business, community or country, the recruitment industry has a major part to play in this. Such things as the Agency Workers Regulations and Fairness & Equality procedures can have a large positive effect on both recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce.

As for the award, I am deeply honoured to receive recognition for “Most Cost-Effective Recruitment Agency”. In an industry all too often focused on price rather than value for money it is a great achievement to demonstrate a cost-effective model that benefits our clients without being tempted to be cheapest. The two are very far apart.

Company: Opilio Recruitment Name: Philip Shepherd, CEO Email: philip.shepherd@opilio.co.uk Web Address: www.opiliorecruitment.co.uk Address: 48 Charlotte St, London, W1T 2NS Telephone: 020 7183 7145

Recognised Leader in SaaS Recruitment - UK

At Opilio Recruitment, we love technology, and we love all things digital. On top of all that we love talking to and meeting people and making connections. Add an intelligent and passionate team that has the right experience and you have Opilio Recruitment. We simply love what we do.

With offices in London, Birmingham and Manchester, we have the network and the reputation to make things happen. We are specialists in digital, technology and mobile and we are “inch wide, mile deep� as the saying goes. We have divisions in commercial (sales, business development, account management), technical (IT, infrastructure, development, architecture, front end, back end etc) and marketing (performance based so SEO, PPC, Ad Ops, Programmatic etc). We work with the leading global brands in entertainment, publishing, technology, music and ecommerce as well as start-ups of all shapes and sizes.

what their key elements are and how they make their money. We then understand what each party in the hiring process is looking for and what success looks like. After that, we take the brief and understand the role in detail. Only then do we go to market and look for profiles that fit the brief.

Working with our client base we see that technology is vital for any business, especially when working in such a competitive market. Our CTO and a Founder, Ben Stinton, has developed and built our own in house recruitment system allowing us to stay ahead of our competition by being able to access data quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, we are able to map the market and spot trends in the salaries, technologies and packages companies offer. This is our USP and allows us to stay one step ahead of our competitors.

Our mission is to be the first point of call for clients and candidates alike here in the digital world. To do that, we must strive to earn lifetime loyalty from both candidates and clients. We will always take the long term view over the short term sharp practice. Again, our values, inculcated from top down, allow us to make sensible decisions based on doing the right thing.

We have focused one part of the company on SaaS businesses and have really strong expertise with international companies growing their foothold in EMEA. The challenge in the current market is to find the exceptional talent when so many opportunities exist. We are able to do that via our extensive network and comprehensive talent pool we have across the UK and EMEA. Since the owners all come from technology and start up backgrounds, we know what our clients are looking for.

When it comes to our recruitment process we first get a deep understanding of the clients business,

As a rule, we have to make sure everyone in the process is met face-to-face, as this is vital to us. We must be able to pre select the right candidate for our clients not just technically but culturally as well, and meeting them personally is the only way to do this.

We strongly believe that culture is vital to the success of our clients and thus, we strive to make our culture the best. We have free breakfast for all, and we have a personal trainer come in once per week to give us the physical edge we need. Furthermore, we have table tennis, social events and most importantly, we believe in ongoing training for all so we invest in external trainers across presentation, selling, closing, negotiation, personality profiling etc. We invest heavily in anything that will make our people better from their time working at Opilio Recruitment.

Overall, what separates us from our competitors is that our sector knowledge is unrivalled and our network is extensive. The way we manage the business internally,

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using our own big data platform built with the latest technologies allows us to move swiftly through the process and bring satisfaction to our clients. Also, since we are lovely people to deal with and enjoy meeting people from all walks of life, we are ideally suited to recruitment. Finally, since we are building something of significance, we can take a longer term view of relationships.

In the UK at present, it is very much a candidate led market so companies are reluctant to loose talent and fight hard to keep them, and this has the tendency to drive up salaries. Also, there have been many new tech start-ups, which is great for the UK, but again strains the talent pool and with the difficulty of getting visas, finding international talent can be challenging.

However, since our network covers much of EMEA, we are able to assist in this process.

Looking further down the road, I only see a great deal of opportunities for Opilio Recruitment. London, Birmingham and Manchester and the rest of the UK is experiencing fantastic growth in digital companies and we are truly becoming a start-up nation. We see more funding coming into the UK to allow start-ups to grow and scale and since over 90% of our clients have re-used Opilio Recruitment our five years, we have a strong platform for growth. With our RPO services and executive division coming further down the line, we are well placed to continue offering excellent service.

As for the award, we are really grateful to be receiving this award as it’s always nice to be recognised by your peers for the hard work and effort put in. We have a great team and I know this means a lot to every single person here at Opilio Recruitment.

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Company: Prospectus IT Recruitment Web: www.prospectus.co.uk Address: Terminal House/Station Approach, Shepperton TW17 8AP Phone:01932 269563

Sustained Excellence in IT Recruitment - UK

Prospectus IT Recruitment Prospectus IT Recruitment is a company that has specialised in a niche area of IT recruitment for over 25 years. The company built their reputation by providing quality service mixed with an honest and ethical approach solely within the PICK / MultiValue market, and through client requests have expanded over the years to recruit within more mainstream IT markets such as .Net, VB, Oracle, SQL, SAAS, Business Intelligence and specialist web technologies. We spoke to their Managing Director, Elkie Holland, to get their unique insights into the recruitment process and more.

Perhaps what makes us different to our competitors is that it’s very much a team effort for us. When a client works with us, they work with us as an organisation.

There’s not just one recruiter working on any one job.

We ensure that there are always two: a lead recruiter, and a secondary recruiter which means that we work as a team, and as a result our clients can always be ensured that they receive the best possible service.

The reality is that people do sometimes get sick and people are allowed take holidays, so by working as a team there is no drop-off in service for our clients.

When it comes to recruitment, we still use all of the traditional techniques such as searching, interviewing and advertising, but also incorporate a lot of the more modern methods too. It’s all about keeping up with where the clients and candidates are and adapting to their needs. We do a mix of both, and things have changed since the company began, but the principles all still the same.

We have found that throughout the years, our Clients in the MultiValue niche are now looking for additional skills to work alongside the MultiValue technologies.

Because we know their business, they ask us to assist them and so we have expanded by working in conjunction with our clients.

We are also looking to expand on the advice that we give to candidates. CV styles have changed over the years: sometimes employers want just two pages, sometimes they want more, and this is always changing. We also attend conferences where we talk to other recruiters and we brainstorm new technicques for finding the good candidates.

Our process is to find the vacancies, find the right people, and talk to them. We can’t technically assess them in terms of whether they can write the

code needed, but we talk to them and check other suitability. During interviews, we try to make sure the candidates feel they’re being thoroughly screened and that we are also listening to what they are looking for in their next career move. We like to get to know the real person and not just the skillset. We remain as approachable and human as possible.

From our experience, a good fit for a job isn’t just the technical skills they have. In actual fact, the personality, and how they interact is just as important.

If you don’t get the interaction then the information doesn’t flow, and it’s just not a good match. There are also other issues for example journey time. If it takes someone three and a half hours to get to their job then it can work for a bit but longterm it’s not sustainable.

Some candidates say they’ll relocate, then they realise that they have children taking GCSEs so relocation is out of the question. There are a lot of things you have to keep in mind, but if you’re friendly, approachable and you listen, then you can get a good feel for candidates which makes them tell you honestly what they really want.

When we sit down with a client, we simply ask them what it is they need. Sometimes they want us to go out to the market and find as many potential candidates as possible and send lots of CVs, other times, they want us to consult and just give them the best 4 candidates. I’m a firm believer that there’s a difference between an agent and a consultant. You get some clients who want to read as much many CVs as possible because the role is flexible and they want to know figure out exactly what they want. On the other hand you get other clients who say that they’re really busy and just want us to find the right candidate for them.

Winning this award feels absolutely fantastic, and I’m really proud that we have managed to keep going for

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so long and work with many of our clients for over 25 years. From the early days, we have had 2 mantras: Mantra 1: The 3 Ds: Dedication, Discipline and Determination.

Mantra 2: Tell it like it is – be honest and to the point.

Looking towards the future, we’re going to continue to build on the relationships we have with our clients, and hopefully meet some new ones along the way.

Company: Remit Resources Web: www.remithq.com Address: Level 2, 48 - 54 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6EJ Phone: 020 7183 6232

Best Technology Focused Recruitment Firm 2015 - London & Award for Excellence in Software Development Recruitment 2015 – UK

Remit Resources’ clients are not only traditional tech companies, they are accountants, law firms, companies in engineering and medical and not-for-profits, typically with IT departments of between ten and a hundred people.

The one thing they all have in common is they have realised that IT isn’t a function of their business, but vital to their business. We got in touch with Richard Morgan, Recruitment Specialist and Director at Remit Resources, to find out more.

We live in remarkably changing times and right now every single business is living or dying by its tech capability. Technology is changing business and everything that previously worked needs questioning. As a result, companies must change and if they don’t embrace technology they run the risks of being sideswiped by a disruptive new player or a well-known competitor who got in first.

To make sense of this new technology and to be the best in their industry, they need talented IT people.

Hiring the right people is hard, and hiring the right IT people is even harder. This is where we come in, and we’ve got a proven framework to identify, engage with, recruit and retain the best technical talent.

As for our philosophy, we are passionate about transforming business through talented tech people.

Over the past 10 years we’ve screened 80,000 CV’s, interviewed 3000 people and placed 1500 talented people into better jobs. We know what it takes to find, hire and retain top technical talent. Over the past 10 years we’ve placed 1500 talented people into better jobs. We know what it takes to find, hire and retain top technical talent.

For candidates, we offer effective introductions to decision makers within quality organisations, seeking talented professionals in the IT sector. We recognise that each and every person’s job search is unique, and we are here to find the perfect opportunities for candidates to match their skills and ambitions.

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Our aim is to get to know everyone we come into contact with, be open, honest and deliver what we promise. We only work in this sector, giving us a real understanding of the current IT market and the latest opportunities.

With this award, we believe this is further acknowledgement that we are on the path towards developing and innovating our services. Looking towards to future, we will continue to both meet and exceed the ever-evolving needs of our clients.

Company: Renaix Ltd Address: 5A Underwood St, London N1 7LY Phone: 020 7553 6320 Web: www.renaix.com

Best for Auditing Recruitment - UK Best Small Audit & Finance Recruitment Firm - UK Best International Recruitment & Executive Search Firm

Renaix Renaix is a leading international recruitment company for audit and finance professionals. Since its inception in 1997 the company has established a strong presence in many key markets for financial recruitment, introducing candidates to companies throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia and Middle East Africa (MEA).

Renaix targets highly rated Finance Managers, Auditors, Analysts and Controllers from blue-chip multinationals and the “Big 4” public practice firms.

In addition to these roles they also recruit in legal, tax, treasury, procurement and general management.

We spoke to Paul Jarrett, Director and Co-Founder of Renaix, to find out more about their approach to the recruitment process and what brought their company to the forefront of the industry.

“Across our company, we have always looked to build on our global brand awareness. We value our reputation with clients and candidates which is fundamentally based on long term relationships. For many of our clients we are their preferred supplier of choice because essentially we are their business partner.

liver; in the majority of cases our engagement results in a successful introduction which is why 90% of our assignments come from repeat business.

we have built a multicultural team which is a significant source of competitive advantage. This diversity is critical for enhancing our global talent pool.

We believe recruitment is about service, reaching out and sourcing highly regarded talent. Our approach differs from our competitors in that we focus on utilising our network and maintaining close contact with other professionals in the audit and finance community. This referral network enables us to find candidates who are from a trusted and recommended source rather than just relying on social networks and job boards.

Social media and particularly LinkedIn have opened the door for in-house recruitment for generic roles and in candidate-led markets where there is an abundance of suitably qualified people. However, our audit and finance roles are specialist, requiring a deep knowledge and understanding of the industry. The right candidates are often scarce, necessitating a large network of contacts to source the right profile.

For us, it’s much more about working with people and building on these relationships. Our work often requires a fluency in languages other than English and

We are delighted to win these awards recognising, as they do, the efforts and professionalism of our team as we continue to grow and expand the business.”

In addition to technical ability, we place a great deal of importance on a candidate’s interpersonal skills, cultural awareness and international mobility.

Whilst the nature of our work requires us to handle a range of sensitive issues, we strive to work in partnership with our clients and candidates as transparently as possible.

“

We are delighted to win these awards recognising, as they do, the efforts and professionalism of our team as we continue to grow and expand the business.

Our evaluation of a candidate’s suitability for a particular role does not stop upon forwarding their CV; we operate on a consultative basis, so at each stage of the process we conduct in-depth discussions with the client and candidate, so that any feedback and potential issues are flagged up early and resolved.

During the offer stage we maintain regular contact, assist with negotiations and ensure the joining process is completed effectively and smoothly. Crucially we de-

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44 Corporate Vision Recruitment Awards 2015

Company: Rhino Recruitment Email: info@rhinorecruitment.com Web: www.rhinorecruitment.com Address: Rhino Recruitment, Suite 32 Ground Floor, One Caspian Points, Pierhead Street, Cardiff, CF10 4DQ Telephone: 0333 577 4466

Construction Recruitment Agency of the Year - Wales

Rhino Recruitment Ltd has over 30 years of experience specialising in temporary and permanent, blue and white collar construction supply to the construction industry on a national scale. The brand has locations in Central London, Cardiff, Birmingham, Swansea and Gloucester which service our national supply and database of 11,000 candidates. We spoke to Andrew Roberts, Managing Director of Rhino Recruitment, about how they consistently deliver for their clients.

Working through your 1st and 2nd years of a new business is always a challenge; the downturn in availability has always posed a threat to us and most agencies within our sector. Add to this the skill shortage within construction means that the only way as a brand we could perform to a standard which we expect is to grow the teams within. Attracting talent to our brand in the way of consultants has meant that clients and candidates have followed, allowing us to perform.

As a brand we pride ourselves by our service, we offer many different types of engagement. We have focused on technology to ensure that our client and candidate engagement is quickly, more accurate and easier. We have engineered our own app which allows candidates instant access to our job board to send timesheets through to payroll via a smart phone for free.

We offer our clients electronic timesheets and our customer made in-house candidate centre and payroll systems have again been made with 10 years worth frustration to deliver a truly unique experience. We are moving forward with many other ways including engaging trade centres and offering other types of construction based affiliations to produce a 360 service rather than a simple recruiting brand.

As a brand we have a militant on boarding process which is fair to all, we expect a certain standard and wherever possible we ensure that all internal checks are in place and appropriate. In terms of attracting our talent we again use a unique platform allowing for many different national options, with a number of exciting new ways of advertising for talent.

As a brand we are honest, I think that’s the key factor if we cannot help we will advise. We always try to find a solution to a problem and wherever possible we will work towards future planning of labour needs rather than the “knee jerk” recruitment style most will adopt, the majority of our internal staff have worked in a trade capacity themselves so can discuss projects and add value rather than simply thirst for an invoice to be sent.

The philosophy in my business is simple, my staff do not have any targets, we all know what is expected and all understand that together our collective understanding of this market place added together with over 30 years of industry knowledge sets the standard for delivery – this un pressurised atmosphere allows us to engage our clients in such a way that they feel valued rather than just another name on an invoice.

Our industry has changed within the last 12 months specifically the CIS scheme and also the issues surrounding talent pools of trades with very little in the way of apprenticeships and younger people taking up trades.

The EU has provided a fresh perspective on trades and skills entering Britain from other parts of Europe.

This initially was seen as a threat to the British trade community; however, my understanding is that the construction industry has definitely benefited from being able to attract talent from other countries.

The industry is developing day by day, with the CIS changes and skill shortages to our industry these provide both challenges and opportunities, we will see

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agencies having to adopt a careful strategy to delivering services over financial gain.

Spending over a decade working for the PLC’s and learning my trade with a great deal of success. All along this journey I always wanted to create an environment for my staff and the candidates who engage us to flourish without pressure to deliver excellent service. Since the brand creation I have assembled a team that are committed to deliver this vision with passion it is by no coincidence that the team have performed to a standard which means we as a brand have been recognised.

Company: Team24 Web: www.team24.co.uk Address: Premier House, 1 Warren Road, Reigate RH2 0BE Phone: 0330 024 1111

Recognised Leader in Medical Recruitment Compliance - UK

Team24 Ltd Team24 is a leading provider of healthcare professionals on a temporary and permanent basis. Their divisions include; Nursing, Doctors, General Practitioners, Managed Service and Allied Health Professionals. We got in touch with Malcolm Walker, Head of Resourcing at Team24, who gave us his insight into recruiting healthcare professionals and the many challenges facing them in this sector.

Team24 is now in its tenth year and has gone from supplying only doctors to launching over 6 brands providing staffing solutions for most roles in the healthcare sector, to both the NHS and Private Providers. They are specialists in recruiting temporary nursing staff for a range of clients. At any given time; they can have up to 300 professionals working nationwide on a daily basis.

Team24 receive up to 40 applications a day but, due to their rigid compliance requirements, only five or ten of these applicants will qualify to work with their clients.

Since the launch of Team24s Managed Service this year they have begun working on a more specialised basis. For example, they are working for a trust in London, whereby they aim to match their staffing requirements exactly and run campaigns to assist their recruitment needs. For this process, they always go and meet with the clients individually and will follow their framework guidelines accordingly. They conduct a face to face interview with every applicant, and then follow this up with one of their Clinical Lead Nurses, who carry out a clinical discussion which enables them to understand the candidate’s range of knowledge and expertise. This conversation is based on their CV; they will then sign off the candidates experience and where they are suitable to work. Team24 also test every professional’s clinical knowledge, by providing drug calculation and clinical scenario test papers depending on the area of expertise.

Malcolm believes one of the reasons why institutions like the NHS work with Team24 is that their recruitment process is very strict and they normally discard as many, if not more, than they take on.

Team24 have one of the biggest compliance and registration teams in the country which has become so highly recognised that they provide it as a service to other CAPITA recruitment companies. They recently developed a state of the art compliance software which allows candidates to manage stages of their compliance process and ensure their file is up to date at all times. The changes in technology have certainly helped them streamline the recruitment process, but it will never replace the face to face communication they have with their candidates.

When it comes to clients, Team24 are no different in their approach. Their sales teams are always in close contact and will usually be in touch with most of them on a daily basis. This is because the industry is ever-changing and the needs of the clients change with the hands on the clock. Team24 pride themselves in always being prepared to supply last minute staff to deal with any shortages on the wards, ensuring the highest standard of patient care is maintained. So when a client makes an urgent last minute request for additional staff, the company’s expert knowledge of the healthcare sector allows their consultants to be able to act immediately. As winter pressure mounts and the NHS comes under even more pressure to reduce spending Team24 are able to continually provide an invaluable service.

Malcolm said, “We are a people orientated company, and they are always our main focus. Although we meet with all our candidates and clients, at the end of the day it’s the people we never meet who really matter; their patients. It is these people who are our ultimate customers and we endeavour to supply the best service to them, because we care.”

46 Corporate Vision Recruitment Awards 2015

In the healthcare industry, all of the rules and regulations have become a lot more stringent since Team24 began. Ten years ago, if an agency were to register a nurse and put her into work within a Trust, all that would have been needed was to their qualifications, NMC pin and passport. Nowadays, the documentation required includes at least 60 pieces of paper and everything takes a lot more time. Despite technology making certain aspects faster, the process has actually become slower because of the numerous rules and the regulations. Most nurses need to speak to the compliance team at Team24 monthly if not weekly in order to remain on top of their compliance status.

Malcolm went on to say, “The next few months are going to be critical for us. With the changes in how the NHS work with agencies such as Team24, our compliance will need to be even more stringent, and this is a major challenge for us. Our strategy has always been to partner with our clients in the NHS, to supply a high quality service whereby, over time, we can help reduce their agency spend. However, it is important to us that no matter what changes in the NHS patient safety is not compromised.”

When asked about the award, Malcolm said, “We are very proud to have won this and other awards this year as our focus over the last three years has been on ensuring our compliance is of the highest standard.

We’ve brought in a lot of people into the business and invested heavily in technology so it’s great that that is being recognised”.

Company: The Recruitment & Employment Bureau Address: 2 St Peters Court, Station street, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, Ng18 1ef Web: www.recruitment-bureau.co.uk Phone: 01623 703602

Best for Part Time Employment Strategies - UK

The Recruitment & Employment Bureau The Recruitment and Employment Bureau is a multi-functional consultancy dealing with the placement of permanent, temporary and contract staff working across all industry sectors, and on a global scale. Our specialist recruitment services provide streamline solutions to our clients needs within Europe, Middle East and the UAE.

We have a proven track record in the placement of key personnel in industrial, warehouse, automotive, aviation, commercial, sales and marketing, secretarial, human resource, finance and accounting, IT, engineering and technical. Each division operates as an independent unit ensuring that our consultants have the extensive expertise that our clients and candidates expect from a leading recruitment consultancy. However, by working together we deliver a broader total recruitment program and comprehensive bespoke recruitment service.

At The Recruitment & Employment Bureau, we provide a unique solution to each assignment advising on the appropriate recruitment method. Whether it be a strategically placed advertisement, a targeted or database search, an interim or temporary assignment, or a combination of all three, we can provide the most effective answer.

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By working in partnership with you, our drive is compelled by understanding your business, its needs and requirements and your overall company ethos. This generates the very best in customer care providing a round the clock service when you need it.

Whether you are looking for the next specialist candidate or contemplating your next ambitious career move, we can assist in your search and provide the executive solution.

Company: TurningPoint Executive Search Name: Ken C. Schmitt Email: kens@turningpointsearch.net Web Address: www.turningpointsearch.net Address: 3460 Marron Rd, #103-351, Oceanside, CA 92056 Telephone: 760-434-5401

Best Sales Recruitment Firm – California

TurningPoint Executive Search Inc TurningPoint Executive Search offers a comprehensive approach to placing mid and senior level sales, marketing and operations professionals throughout San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles. We spoke to Ken Schmitt, President and Founder of TurningPoint, to learn more.

After working in the recruiting industry for nine years, I launched TurningPoint in 2007 as a local, contingency firm, recruiting accounting and finance professionals for San Diego companies. However, as the economy and the recruiting industry took a turn for the worse in 2009 and 2010, and my passion for the accounting/ finance sector waned, I began researching the local recruiting industry to identify gaps. Surprisingly, while many of my clients described a need to hire sales and marketing professionals, not one had a local resource.

It was at that moment I decided to rebrand TurningPoint as a retained firm, focusing on placing sales and marketing professionals. Today, four years later, we are a full retained firm, with 85% of our placements in the sales and marketing arena, and 15% in operations.

We have continued to work across a wide variety of industries, and thanks to our incredible digital marketing team, we have evolved from a local business to a national firm recruiting across the country.

One of the most challenging aspects of being in the executive search industry, is finding a way to stand out in a very crowded, and noisy marketplace. One of the best pieces of advice I ever received from my mentor Ron Gerevas, was “Don’t try to be all things to all people. Find a niche, and regardless of the specialization you choose, become the absolute best at it – and don’t be afraid to share your success”. I took this to heart and chose my path carefully, eventually selecting three areas of specialization: 1. Retained search with a local presence and a national reach 2. Sales, marketing and operations 3. Small to mid-sized clients ($5m - $450m), many of them family owned and operated

I believe it is this focus on a specific niche that laid the groundwork for our success. Once we identified this direction, the challenge shifted to getting noticed, without paying top dollar for Google Adwords or Facebook ads. Instead, we took an organic approach to gaining visibility. First we chose several specific keywords and phrases that we thought our clients would use when searching for a firm like ours. Search strings such as “sales recruiter San Diego” and “marketing recruiter Los Angeles”. We conducted our own searches using these strings, and researched the firms and websites of the firms that were coming up on the first page of our results – organically. We spent the next few months optimizing our site for these phrases, we built a YouTube channel, added video and weekly blogs to our website, added a Google+ page, and became even more active in LinkedIn. While it didn’t happen overnight, within 6 months, we were coming up on the first and second page of search results, and within one year, we were on page one consistently. Prior to this strategy, less than 5% of our revenues came from our website and social media, today that number is above 30%.

In today’s market, with so many tools available to the recruiting community, it is less about the volume of candidates, and more about the depth of screening. Like many firms, we start with a large swath of potential candidates, and narrow it down to our slate of five finalists. Unlike many firms, we subject our prospective candidates to a four-step screening process including two phone screens, the completion of a custom questionnaire and an in person, or Skype, interview. Given that we focus on placing sales and marketing professionals, the intangibles – commu-

48 Corporate Vision Recruitment Awards 2015

nication style, personality, drive, assertiveness, etc.

– are non-negotiable characteristics and we screen extremely hard to ensure the right match. We are very proud of what we call our “Placement Retention Rate” – the percentage of placements that are still working for our client one and two years later. Our one year rate is 94%, while our two year rate is 91%.

Moreover, our fill ratio is 96%, more than double the industry average.

Early on, we identified eight core values that guide our firm through every decision, every action and every search. If we find ourselves struggling with a particular client, candidate or business, we revert back to these eight principles to determine our best course of action. These include: accessibility, ingenuity; follow up and follow through; making long term matches, not short term commissions; providing free advice is a good thing; leverage technology; honesty and candor is King; encourage constant learning and giving; live your professional DNA; balance your life, laugh and have fun.

I also adhere to the philosophy that companies should avoid “group think” at all cost. In other words, rather than hiring a sales team comprised solely of industry veterans, in my experience, a sales team with a diverse industry background allows for innovation and creativity, and the team is forced to explore new and different ways of doing things, rather than sticking with the same old, same old. This is what drove my decision to work across industries, rather than concentrating on any one particular sector. With a more diverse client base, I am able to introduce a wider range of candidates who possess a unique blend of hard and soft skills, ultimately enhancing my clients’

sales and marketing teams well beyond what their competitors have to offer.

Furthermore, we do not believe recruiters are “order takers”, taking their client’s shopping list of hard and soft skills, heading to the market, and filling their baskets with options that may or may not make sense for their situation. We feel an obligation to our clients – and candidates – to provide realistic, real-time, straight forward, candid feedback and insights on each and every search. Some clients are not willing to hear that they are paying 20% below market, or that the candidates they want do not live in the local vicinity, or in some cases, the fact that what they are asking for simply doesn’t exist. However, we tell our clients upfront that we consider the engagement to be the start of a long term relationship, built on mutual trust and honesty. If they are not willing to operate in this manner, we refer them to another firm who is better suited for their style. Once again, I believe it is this adherence to working with, not for, our clients, that drives our 96% completion rate.

The TurningPoint team has worked so hard over the last several years, to support my vision for the firm and our innovative approach to targeted, functionally-specific recruiting, it is an incredible honor to share this award with my staff. It was their grit and commitment to expanding our presence beyond San Diego, away from accounting/finance, and into the world of retainers that increased our revenues three-fold between 2012 and 2015. Moreover, it is their unrelenting willingness to personally connect via phone or email with every candidate that contacts us, that has solidified our reputation as a true partner and resource, rather than simply a transactional recruiting firm.

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“

it is an incredible honor to share this award with my staff.

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