22 | February 2024
INTERVIEW
Maintaining focus on specialist FM recruitment James Fitzpatrick explains his personal and business development within the FM sector and his increasingly international focus
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imilar to most professions over the last three or four years, the role of the recruiter has seen a higher number of unique challenges emerging in quick succession, creating a testing environment that has seen many fall by the wayside. Regardless of the type of challenge facing individuals and companies, this will additionally bring opportunities for growth and expansion for those able to adapt sufficiently quickly to take advantage. With this is the central requirement of providing quality services, from which more positive options will emerge. Outlined above are the reasons that Boden Group has not only successfully faced the challenges of recent years but has also managed to enjoy further expansion. It is now an international provider of specialist FM recruitment services and its chief executive officer and founder James Fitzpatrick is confident that this trend will continue in the years ahead. Speaking exclusively to FM Director, he explains his first experience of the recruitment sector that began in 2000 within the construction industry. “This was in the Birmingham area and nothing related to FM initially, but then the financial crash of 2008 saw construction recruitment fall off a cliff,” he recalls. His next career move was working for the Carillion in-house recruitment service Skyblue Solutions with the intention of establishing a permanent service to recruit personnel for roles including FM, energy and utilities and construction. “The aim was to take it to the general market, but it wasn’t particularly successful because a lot of companies saw Carillion as a competitor and didn’t want to do business with them,” he continues. Mr Fitzpatrick saw the FM sector rapidly expanding in 2010/11 when outsourcing became a popular movement in both the public and private sectors. Having made contact with a number of senior FM personnel, he became keenly aware of the need to recruit people to join rapidly expanding businesses in all areas of the industry. “In 2012 I took the step of launching Boden Resource, which initially consisted of me working from my home then in a small office in Birmingham and having to do everything, including making sure the office was clean and tidy. I was also recruiting candidates and making sure everyone was paid on time.
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15/02/2024 09:54
