Recruiter February 2020

www.recruiter.co.uk

Business intelligence for recruitment and resourcing professionals

February 2020

INCORPORATING Recruitment Matter ers

The UK’s fastest-growing recruitment companies ALSO INSIDE:

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Talent intelligence: #Trending in recruitment?

08/01/2020 10:02

ENGAGED PE PLE ARE BETTER PE PLE THE SOLUTION IS IN THE PALM OF THEIR HAND Enhancing your people’s work life can really unlock business growth and success. Offering a complete package of vital health and well-being support, money saving lifestyle discounts and streamlined employment communications to your employees and temporary workers could revolutionise your engagement with each and every one of them.

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businesses over IR35 The call comes after the government promised to deliver on a review of its IR35 implementation Citizen Kind sees upsurge in plant-based specialist roles Veganuary could be a boon for the agency focusing on ethical jobs Reasons to be cheerful in 2O2O The latest Recruitment Sector Barometer shows a more optimistic year ahead for recruiters Start-up of the Month: Able Bridge Recruitment Joe Savidge says ethics are at the core of his new accountancy, finance and HR recruiting business Contracts & Deals

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18 THE BIG STORY Recruiter’s FAST 5O Despite a year of political and economic uncertainty, recruitment firms continue to report robust growth 24 Talent intelligence The end of recruiting using gut instinct and intuition?

INCORPORATING Recruitment Matters

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RedWigWam attracts a more flexible tribe Social Network The Workplace: Guy Hayward Workplace Innovation: John and Sara Gaughan Business Advice: Alex Arnot My brilliant recruitment career: Annalee Wood, Aspire Recruitment Movers & Shakers Recruiter contacts The Last Word: Alan Furley

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The human psychology behind cyber security Tech & Tools World of IT confusion: Delving beneath the technology terms

INTERACTION Viewpoint Eddie Finnigan, Two Rivers Soundbites

I M AG E S | I STO C K / SH UTTER STO C K

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IR35 ĊŪƫœđ ĉė Ƥķė ĉėƘƤ ƤķĻŞİ ƤŪ ķíƎƎėŞ ƤŪ NjŪƫƑ ĉƫƘĻŞėƘƘ in 2020.

No, really.

T§ǡǣ ĻƘ İŪĻŞİ ƤŪ ĉė ĉĻİ ĻŞ NjŪƫƑ DžŪƑœđȤ »ķė ĉĻİ ƐƫėƘƤĻŪŞ ĻƘ ķŪDžȥ Ƥ ¤ėŪƎœė HƑŪƫƎȟ Džė ķėœƎ ĉƫƘĻŞėƘƘėƘ ŪƎƤĻŜĻƘė ƎíNjƑŪœœ ƤŪ ķėœƎ ƤķėŜ İƑŪDžȤ !Nj ƤíŐĻŞİ í ĊŪŞƘƫœƤíƤĻDŽė íƎƎƑŪíĊķ íŞđ ƫƘĻŞİ ŪƫƑ ėNJƎėƑƤĻƘė íŞđ ƤėĊķŞŪœŪİNj ƤŪ ĊƑėíƤė Ƥķė ĉėƘƤ ƘŪœƫƤĻŪŞ įŪƑ NjŪƫƑ ĉƫƘĻŞėƘƘȤ gėėƎĻŞİ NjŪƫ Ƙíįė íŞđ đƑĻDŽĻŞİ Ƒėíœ ėįǙĊĻėŞĊĻėƘ íŞđ ĊŪƘƤȶƘíDŽĻŞİƘȤ ®Ūȟ DžķĻœė ėDŽėƑNjŪŞė ėœƘė ĻƘ DžŪƑƑĻėđ íĉŪƫƤ Ƥķė ƤķƑėíƤƘ Ūį T§ǡǣȟ NjŪƫ ĊíŞ œŪŪŐ įŪƑDžíƑđ ƤŪ Ƥķė ŪƎƎŪƑƤƫŞĻƤĻėƘȤ

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ear the breaking of the sound barrier? That’s our Recruiter FAST 50 2020 zooming past at the speed of sound to get the year off to a smoking start! Is your business on the list?

Read the insightful account by Mark Maunsell of the underlying factors of sales success for these 50 recruiters.

And it’s not too late in the year for a bit of fizz or your personal favourite celebratory drink to pat yourself on the back!

This could be one of our most significant issues ever – it’s filled with innovative thinking from recruitment business “See how a leaders London themselves.

From recruiter is contributing to a broadening market aimed at their mental helping people landscapes to how live ethically” technology is to work to offer a genuinely unique offer, John and Sara Gaughan of Finlay James and Lorna Davidson of RedWigWam share some inspirational thinking you won’t want to miss.

If that weren’t enough, see our news for a snapshot about how a London recruiter is contributing to a developing market aimed at helping people live ethically – and save the planet too.

Happy February!

DeeDee Doke, Editor

Don’t pick a fight with small firms over IR35

BY GRAHAM SIMONS

RECRUITERS HAVE URGED government to resist “picking a needless fight” with small businesses run as self-employed enterprises and defer IR35 changes until 2021 or beyond.

The calls come in the wake of the government following through on a pre-election commitment to deliver a review of implementation of changes to off-payroll working rules set for this April, which were first announced by then Chancellor Philip Hammond in his Autumn 2018 Budget speech.

Ahead of December’s General Election, Hammond’s successor Sajid Javid committed to a review of the implementation of the changes and followed through on the commitment as Parliament reconvened following the Christmas recess. The review is set to conclude by mid-February.

The extension of the rules has consistently been met with opposition by the industry, with the reform causing some global banks to opt to move contractors onto their payroll.

Harvey Nash CEO Albert Ellis told Recruiter that while he found the banks’ response disappointing, he blames government for the uncertainty they are causing.

“Even large companies have been unable to come to terms with the proposed changes and therefore have reacted by shutting the door on hiring entrepreneurial self-employed (mainly technology) contractors, believing wrongly in my view that the market will sort it out. But it won’t because of the skills shortage, which will get worse after

“Disruption and distractions aren’t what anyone needs now we’ve got some of the uncertainty behind us”

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38,568 FOLLOWERS AS OF 9 JANUARY 2020

we leave the European Union.

“It’s incumbent on this new administration to enact sensible policy quickly. All of the trade bodies, various recruitment confederations and ad hoc committees representing the contractors who may be affected have offered sensible solutions and asked for a rethink.

“Prime Minister Boris Johnson should simply listen to the experts and not pick a needless fight with the small businesses around their status as self-employed professionals – as we all know he has much bigger fish to fry.”

While pleased government had delivered on their pre-election promise, Hays UK & Ireland MD Simon Winfield called on them to reconsider their plans and defer them to 2021 or later.

“If they are undertaking additional consultation now until mid-February and the reforms are coming into effect from April, there simply isn’t enough time to give this the attention it so desperately needs.

“We are disappointed they didn’t confirm the delay and hope that the government will work with us as part of their review, given that we’ve already dealt with this in the public sector. The private sector reforms present a very real risk as they stand.

The potential for non-compliant umbrella firms to continue to flout the regulations is significant and needs further consideration by the government.

“The IR35 reforms will hit technology harder than any other market and introducing them will counter any investment in this area.

A number of industries are suffering from niche skills shortages and these reforms could worsen these gaps, just at a time when we have a real opportunity to make the UK a more attractive place to work and do business. Further disruption and distractions aren’t what anyone needs now we’ve finally got some of the uncertainty behind us.”

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Did you swear off meat for Veganuary?

BY DEEDEE DOKE

MORE THAN 250,000 people took the vegan challenge in January 2019, with this January seeing the launch in the UK of hundreds of new plant-based consumer products to accommodate new and existing vegetarians/vegans during the campaign and beyond.

For Citizen Kind, the London-based recruiter focused on senior roles in sustainable, ethical and vegan organisations, the life-changing decision in January to eschew meat and leather products will likely manifest itself in searches by candidates for a new kind of job later in the year.

However, the 2020 rush to Veganuary on Citizen Kind’s turf began before the New Year, founder Emma Osborne tells Recruiter. A job ad she posted for a head of innovation at a plant-based product company drew 500 responses, “the biggest response we’ve ever had”, says Osborne.

While increasing concern in climate

change has already been driving

growth in both the numbers of roles and candidates, the recent upsurge in natural disasters has put the demand for sustainable, ethical and vegan organisations and jobs directly in the spotlight, Osborne says.

“I don’t think it’s a trend; it’s not a passing fad. It’s a behaviour and mindset shift,” she says.

She is working with a number of start-up companies in the plant-based industry, “and they’re scaling up quickly”, Osborne says.

Acknowledging the growth in this previously niche market, Osborne says, “I’m hiring. Come talk to me.”

Employment professionals recognised in New Year’s Honours list Professionals committed to helping unemployed people and graduates into work, as well as those charged with tackling the scourge of modern slavery, were among those recognised in the New Year’s Honours list.

Sheila Flavell, chief operating officer at international professional services company FDM Group, was awarded a CBE for services to gender equality in IT and graduate and returners employment, while Margaret Beels, chair of the Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority, picked up an OBE for services to tackling and preventing modern slavery and labour exploitation.

Tracy Fishwick, founder of Transform Lives Company, which aims to raise employment levels and to transform the lives of those furthest from the labour market, and Emma Southern, manager at Talent Match Project, Prince’s Trust, were awarded an OBE and an MBE for services to unemployed people in North-West England and for services to unemployed young people respectively.

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THOUGHTS FROM… DOMINIC CUMMINGS C HIEF SPECIAL ADVISER TO PM BORIS JOHNSON

Q1 2020

Q4 2019

Q3 2019

Q2 2019

Q1 2019

Q4 2018

Q3 2018

Q2 2018

“There is so much in recruitment that takes place in the pub. And that is bad.”

Q1 2018

CEO, FINLAY JAMES

Q4 2017

JOHN GAUGHAN

THE ARNOT SCORE

RECRUITMENT 200 BUSINESS OWNERS 150 are looking forward 100 to a better year in 50 2020 than 2019, 0 according to the 50 latest Recruitment -100 Sector Barometer.

-150 As more -200 Net positive The Arnot Score Average weighted score recruitment companies came in under their revenue target than hit it or exceeded it in Q4 (the first quarter this has ever happened since the Barometer began in 2016) the turn of the New Year saw renewed optimism among recruitment business owners.

Among a raft of indicators predicting 2020 might turn out to be better than 2019, a year dominated by Brexit-induced economic and political uncertainty, the latest Barometer saw an upturn in the ‘Arnot Score’.

Commenting on the score that measures business owners’ optimism based on the prospects for their business today compared to 12 months ago, Alex Arnot, non-executive adviser to more than 30 recruitment companies, said: “Recruitment leaders should be optimistic about 2020.

“Although IR35 continues to restrict the contractor market, recruitment company owners and leaders are optimistic that Brexit paralysis is easing and that companies will again have the certainty that will encourage them to recruit. Reinforcing this, the Barometer shows a slight reduction in the percentage of respondents who see economic conditions/uncertainty as one of their top three business challenges.”

Even though the Barometer indicates that the market may be about to turn positive and that the net percentage of companies hitting or exceeding their revenue target could be about to rise, it also identifies a degree of caution. In particular, it shows that staffing companies are reluctant to take the risk of expanding their headcount.

In contrast, there is a sharp rise in the number of respondents that expect net profit to be higher by the end of 2020 than at the end of 2019.

Q3 2017

“I was bursting to tell people, especially my close colleagues and family. Seeing my parents’ reaction was very emotional they (uncharacteristically!) were speechless. I think Mum’s told everyone from the cashier in Morrisons to the GP.”

BY COLIN COTTELL

Q2 2017

TR ACY FISHWICK OBE CE O, TR A N SFORM LIVES COMPANY, ON BEING AWARD E D AN OBE IN THE NEW YEAR HONOURS

Reasons to be cheerful in 2020 Q1 2017

“We want to hire an unusual set of people with different skills and backgrounds to work in Downing Street with the best officials, some as spads [special advisers] and perhaps some as officials… The categories are roughly data scientists and software developers, economists, policy experts, project managers, communication experts, junior researchers… weirdos and misfits with odd skills.”

START- UP OF TH E MO NTH

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ABLE BRIDGE RECRUITMENT The founder of accountancy, finance and HR recruiter Able Bridge Recruitment says his new agency will seek to stand out in the market by placing ethics at its core.

Joe Savidge, the founding director of the Edinburgh-based firm, told Recruiter the business would serve as an antidote to agencies that are disreputable and that operate with no ethics.

“This is ethics at the core. The

whole idea is we’re going to treat individuals in the same way I would want to be treated myself,” he said.

“Also, I am going to be donating a percentage of the profits to two charities – one is Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the other is an organisation called Health In Mind, which is a mental health charity.”

He added: “It’s about having a detailed understanding about

what candidates and clients are looking for, and giving comment on the marketplace, as well as value-adds – things such as networking, and generally ensuring the service can be provided rapidly.”

Looking ahead for the remainder of the year, Savidge revealed he wanted to build a cash reserve for the business, establish a physical office in Edinburgh and explore expansion into the interim marketplace.

Find more daily news stories at recruiter.co.uk/news

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THIS WAS THE MONTH THAT WAS… Here is a round-up of some of the most popular news stories we have brought you on recruiter.co.uk since the January issue of Recruiter was published D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 •‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒→ 9 DECEMBER 2019

17 DECEMBER 2019

RECRUITER HOT 100 2019: HOT 10 TECHNOLOGY SECTOR RECRUITERS

CUT BACK ON THE BOOZE AND UP PRODUCTIVITY SAY FINLAY JAMES DIRECTORS

Ahead of the full list of Recruiter’s HOT 100 of the UK’s top-performing recruitment companies in January’s issue, we brought you details of the HOT 10 technology recruiters.

The HOT 10 technology sector recruiters (from 1 to 10) are: People Source Consulting, LA International Computer Consultants, Vector Resourcing Holdings, CD Sales Recruitment, Red Commerce, Marlin Green, Trilogy International (Trilogy Consultants International), Levy Associates, WA Consultants and Next Ventures Group.

Technology (IT/telecoms) specialists’ representation has taken record share this year compared with previous periods, with 39 companies making up this year’s HOT 100 (33 in 2018).

This remains by far the most frequently occurring sector in the HOT 100, while among the 20 companies ranked immediately below the HOT 100 there is also an even higher (45%) representation with nine further technology recruiters. The first pure fintech specialist, Harrington Starr, also made the HOT 100, with others such as Nicoll Curtin just five below the cut.

More: https://bit.ly/36kXRpB

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ANTAL’S GOODWIN SAYS IR35 ‘BIGGER ISSUE THAN BREXIT’ Interviewed just before the General Election on 12 December, Antal International chairman and CEO Tony Goodwin told Recruiter that although the certainty of the election result would boost the recruitment industry, IR35 was now a bigger issue.

With the uncertainty over whether the UK would leave the EU settled by the election result, Goodwin said a greater concern was the much anticipated introduction of the IR35 off-payroll rules in the private sector, where the government has promised [and since confirmed] a review.

“IR35 is going to be a bigger issue than Brexit for our contractor division where we have over 200 contractors, and for others with more than us.

I think it is a bigger issue than Brexit and I think it has been for a couple of months for the recruitment industry. It is something we will be looking at closely,” said Goodwin.

More: https://bit.ly/2swzXch

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As the office party season moved into full swing, the directors of one recruitment company highlighted the dangers of an office culture based around alcohol.

John Gaughan, CEO of technology and digital recruiter Finlay James, and his wife, chief operating officer Sara Gaughan, who both gave up alcohol three years ago, warned of “the carnage” that alcohol causes and the damage to people’s careers and lives. And they spoke of the marked improvement in their own productivity and increased revenue at the company.

“It’s not a coincidence, there has definitely been a correlation because we have had more time to invest into our day,” said Sara Gaughan. And while she said the couple “don’t want to preach to ensure that all our staff stop drinking, the levels of productivity that we see when staff do a dry January, for example, is just crazy.

They are just so much more focused”.

Although she said “it is hard to say” whether cutting alcohol consumption would lead to a similar increase in productivity in every single staffing company, “I would definitely wager that it would improve the sector”.

More: https://bit.ly/2ZITDFT

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SCARLETT ALLEN-HORTON MISSES WINNING BBC APPRENTICE BY ‘THE FINEST HAIR’ We ended the year by updating you on results of the BBC reality TV show The Apprentice, where our industry was hopeful of yet another recruiter winning the £250k investment and partnership of entrepreneur Lord Sugar.

Unfortunately, Scarlett Allen-Horton, the latest in a long line of recruiters to feature in The Apprentice, just missed out by what Baroness Karren Brady described as “the finest hair” in the head-to-head final.

“There were so many highlights,” Our Scarlett told Recruiter, “but probably the biggest highlight was just walking away after that final pitch [to launch a new brand] knowing that that I had given it my all, and I had some very positive feedback from the audience, and other candidates and from the panellists. So that was a very proud moment.”

She has “big plans” to expand the business, initially by opening a second branch and then “to continue to build the Harper:Fox Partner empire” – her existing executive search firm which already employs five people.

More: https://bit.ly/35l07vI

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2 JANUARY 2020

ARMY TARGETS INSTAGRAM ADDICTS, GYM BUNNIES AND DRINKERS New year, new job? The British Army launched a recruitment drive for social media addicts, gym junkies and binge drinkers.

Col Nick MacKenzie, the Army’s head of recruitment, said the campaign builds on its successful 2019 appeal targeting ‘snowflakes’, ‘millennials’ and ‘selfie addicts’.

More: https://bit.ly/2sUHmlI

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LORD SUGAR INVESTS IN RECRUITMENT FIRM

2 JANUARY 2020

RECRUITERS WARNED TO TAKE ETHICAL VEGANISM SERIOUSLY The start of a new year is always a good time to change your habits, work ethics or your lifestyle.

But what happens if your new philosophical beliefs conflict with your work?

Recruiters were advised to check that their recruitment and staff policies took account of veganism in light of a landmark tribunal case, which Recruiter reported on. The tribunal was to decide whether veganism was a ‘philosophical belief’ akin to a religion that should be protected in law by the Equality Act 2010.

Vegan Jordi Casamitjana claimed he was sacked by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) after he publicly disclosed LACS invested pension funds in firms involved in animal testing. For its part, the animal welfare charity claims Casamitjana was dismissed for gross misconduct.

Commenting on the case, one solicitor told Recruiter that should Casamitjana’s case prove successful, employers such as recruitment agencies would need to take its employees’ views on ethical veganism seriously and ensure that they are not directly or indirectly discriminated against, harassed or victimised for expressing their belief in ethical veganism.

In our follow-up story, we reported on the results of the tribunal ruling, which concluded that veganism was indeed a ‘philosophical belief’, which should be protected in law by the Equality Act 2010. However, employment lawyers Recruiter subsequently spoke to said although the ruling did not change the law, it did underline the importance of treating candidates with such views fairly in the recruitment process.

Even though Scarlett Allen-Horton failed to become the third recruiter to win the BBC’s The Apprentice, at the beginning of the year we broke the news of another recruiter who had persuaded Lord Sugar (below, right) to invest in his company.

Independent of The Apprentice, Tom Johnson (below, left), who only set up Hernshead Recruitment last July, told Recruiter he had approached Lord Sugar through the tycoon’s private investment vehicle Amsvest.

“He [Lord Sugar] was advertising that he is interested in businesses that maybe didn’t want to go on the TV show, and we are looking for investment, so I reached out to him,” explains Johnson.

He says the process involved providing Lord Sugar with an insight into the market, the company’s growth and expansion plans, and explaining how the company would differentiate itself from others in a crowded market. Johnson explained: “Engineering and manufacturing was his passion initially, and how he made his name and fortune, so I think it was a chance for him to enter a market he knows.”

More: https://bit.ly/2uszHLR

More: https://bit.ly/2s1ilVp, https://bit.ly/2QA7zz7

Find more daily news stories at recruiter.co.uk/news

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RECRUITMENT CONSULTANT GETS MISTAKEN FOR HOLLYWOOD A-LISTER A recruitment consultant came to our attention due to her startling resemblance to Hollywood A-lister and model Cara Delevingne (above, right).

Brighton-based recruiter Chloe Stott (above, left) spoke to Recruiter about her famous lookalikee. A recruitment resourcer at specialist software testing recruitment company techTesters, Stott revealed people on Instagram had messaged her asking her whether she was related to Cara – or whether she was in fact Cara.

“I have been scouted on the train station, [with people] saying I look like Cara Delevingne and they would like me to do a shoot for them…

And if I mention it, they [candidates] do say ‘You have the exact same face’…”

More: https://bit. ly/2QW2LTs

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CONTRACTS & DEALS Frontier SGS 360 Facilities management firm Octavian Group has signed a joint venture agreement with Frontier SGS to form a multimillion-dollar group that will be based in London and Nottingham. The new company will be called Frontier SGS 360 and will offer IT and security recruitment and services for companies in need of software developers, security professionals and security architects.

Bibby Financial Services Recruitment finance provider Bibby Financial Services has provided two funding facilities to businesses under the Venian Group of Companies. Specialist recruitment company Venian Recruitment has secured a £400k funding facility, while Venian Warehousing and Distribution, which offers storage solutions, has been provided with a £250k funding line.

Brookes HC Recruitment Specialist asset-based lender Ultimate Finance has provided Birminghambased healthcare recruiter Brookes HC Recruitment with a £400k invoice finance facility and a back-office facility, including chasing outstanding payments and managing candidate payroll administration. Brookes added the financial support had helped guide it through a difficult financial period and set it up for expansion after a financial issue with a client saw it run into financial difficulties.

Mane Contract Services Mane Contract Services has entered into a strategic partnership with Thompson Aero Seating, a supplier of premium aircraft seating. Under the terms of the 12-month deal, Mane will supply Thomson Aero Seating with skilled labour on an exclusive basis to meet the needs of its business based in Northern Ireland. Mane will be advertising all of the Thompson Aero Seating roles on its website, while also running a number of specific recruitment campaigns aimed at attracting the best talent for the client’s engineering roles.

Castle Employment Yorkshire-based recruiter Castle Employment is supporting the York City Football Club Foundation Tier1 Regional Talent Club (RTC). The RTC provides player development opportunities for elite football female players across the region at U10, U12, U14 and U16.

Degreed Workforce upskilling platform Degreed has acquired total talent platform Adepto.

Degreed says the acquisition will accelerate its global expansion, and add enhanced skills inventories, on-the-job development experiences and career mobility to its learning experience platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Investigo Group Multi-sector recruiter Investigo Group has acquired talent management consultancy Caraffi. Caraffi empowers organisations to build talent acquisition strategies and services. Working alongside HR directors, talent directors and C-suite stakeholders, Caraffi helps to execute effective people strategies for companies using diagnostic tools.

DEAL OF TH E MO NTH

The Adecco Group The Adecco Group has completed the sale of US healthcare staffing business Soliant Health to private equity firm Olympus Partners for €551m (£469.5m). In a statement, the recruitment giant said the sale forms part

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of its strategy to concentrate on globally scalable brands and digital solutions.

J.P. Morgan Securities acted as exclusive financial adviser to the Adecco Group on the transaction.

Operam Education Group Operam Education Group, a specialist provider of qualified and support staff to schools across the Midlands and North of England, has acquired Key Stage Teacher Supply, a North Westbased education recruitment agency.

Following an initial £3.7m investment in February 2019, growth funder BGF has committed further funding to support the acquisition of Key Stage as it continues to back management’s buyand-build strategy, while HSBC has also extended senior debt facilities to help finance the deal. To support Operam’s operations as it continues to scale, the senior management team has also been bolstered by the appointment of Sharon Bullock as chief operating officer.

More contract news at recruiter.co.uk/news

09/01/2020 09:34

The place to manage IR35

With new legislation coming in April, this includes compliance requirements and process for managing candidates whether they are inside, or outside, IR35.

With Engage, determining, sharing and managing the IR35 status for thousands of candidates up and down the supply chain becomes effortless because Engage connects end hirers, agencies, umbrella companies and candidates on one platform.

IR35 is in fact a great sales opportunity to lead and to reassure your clients you are a great partner with the knowledge and the tools to comply with the new legislation; ensuring that the right deductions are being made in the supply chain and proving it in a live audit platform.

We created Engage because we believe there is a better way to do recruitment.

Total transparency and automation allows you to take IR35 in your stride and stay focused on ďŹ nding the best talent and building great relationships with your clients.

Visit our website or email us to info@engagetech.com to ďŹ nd it out more.

info@engagetech.com www.engagetech.com Find the best talent. Automate the rest.

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PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND CYBER SECURITY It’s not only your IT systems that need checking but also the human factor in your company

BY SUE WEEKES

o business is immune from the threat of a cyber attack, which can cripple operations and lead to financial losses. It can also result in data breaches that the business itself could be liable for if they haven’t taken the necessary steps to protect their data.

It isn’t just the IT systems and databases where weaknesses lie, though, but also within the organisation’s people, with research suggesting that some cyber-security errors are more common among people with certain personality preferences.

To explore this concept in more detail, IT security firm ESET and business psychology experts The Myers-Briggs Company are investigating the link between personality type and vulnerabilities to cyber crime. Their initial whitepaper ‘Cyberchology: The Human Factor’ reminds us that while it is impossible to predict when a cyber attack will strike and the motivation behind it, the most successful ones rely on a degree of human error “and/or ignorance”.

Companies of all sizes and types, including recruitment agencies, must take the threat of cyber attack seriously, especially as the Internet of Things

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(IoT) and increase in smart devices in the workplace give cyber criminals more opportunities to strike. Many organisations also lack awareness and education of growing trends such as ‘formjacking’, which targets online forms and skims credit card details as they’re entered, and a ‘PowerShell’ or ‘Living off the Land’ attack, where a script will disguise itself within a ‘safe’ process (the ‘shell’) and phish for data and/or intelligence.

To defend against threats, the cyber-security conversation needs to be taking place in the boardroom and in teams across the organisation; ESET and The Myers-Briggs Company advocate an “integrative human and machine approach”, which recognises the strengths and weaknesses of both human team members and the digital systems they’re working with.

“The security conversation is starting to make waves among organisations through to the top, with the board starting to take note,” said Jake Moore, cyber security specialist at ESET. “The psychology behind it, however, may not be so well known yet, hence there still needs to be a huge amount of research done. We need to dig even deeper in the personality of people

“We need to dig even deeper in the personality of people who are too ‘quick to click’…”

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who are too ‘quick to click’ and easily persuaded.

“Usually, it takes a member of the board or a director to fall for a scam for the business to change its mindset.”

Using psychometric tests to build self-awareness can play a big part in this, as can multi-level training, and the two companies stress the importance of individuals and their managers, rather than IT departments and outside contractors as the true “key players” where cyber security is concerned.

Personality types Research carried out by The Myers-Briggs Company that looked at individuals across Europe shows different kinds of cyber security errors are more common among people with certain personality preferences. For example, people with more extraverted

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T R E N DS

INSIGHT

POWER POINTS

further research and has come up with a set of cyber security tips for each of the 16 personality types identified by the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and based on the four basic preferences of where you focus your attention: extraversion (E) or Introversion (I); the way you take in information sensing (S) or INtuition (N); how you make decisions: thinking (T) or feeling (F), and how you deal with the world: judging (J) or perceiving (P).

1

Business-wide approach ● Do not leave cyber security to the IT team.

Conversations need to be held across the organisation and at senior level.

‘Cyberchology: The Human Factor’ points out that many breaches could be avoided if a more integrated and business-wide approach was adopted. It states that senior and middle management need to play a much bigger role in identifying vulnerabilities and securing systems.

2

Personality testing ● Recognise the risk of the human factor and identify vulnerabilities in teams as well as digital systems. Explore the use of personality testing within the organisation with tools such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Learn how to modify your own behaviour to minimise security risks and be aware of the potential personality traits in others that might form a risk.

3

Education not ignorance ● Be aware of cybersecurity trends and share knowledge on areas such as phishing and social engineering. For example, the whitepaper highlights how cyber criminals are able to install phishing codes onto systems such as Alexa because many people are unaware of the need to protect their smart devices, as well as their desktops

Security pitfalls personality types (those that work out ideas by talking them through) tend to be more vulnerable to manipulation, deceit and persuasion from cyber criminals. These kinds of attacks are known as ‘social engineering’ attacks, and they’re particularly effective against extraverted types (who may be more susceptible to social overtures).

Meanwhile, people with a preference for sensing (those that observe and remember details) are more likely to spot phishing attacks than their intuitive counterparts. However, those that have the preference for sensing are also more likely to take cyber security risks, particularly when they also have a preference for perceiving (those that are more flexible and casual) and/or extraversion (those who are sociable and are expressive).

The Myers-Briggs Company did

“It is about how individuals and organisations can use the knowledge of personality types to find out what might be particular security pitfalls and how they can make sure they modify behaviour so they are less likely to be a security risk,” explains John Hackston, head of thought leadership, The Myers-Briggs Company.

For instance, he says his own personality type suggests he is knowledgeable about cyber security issues but there are also potential pitfalls. “We are also notorious for being keen to do things in our own way so it doesn’t mean we will follow the rules,” he says.

Hackston adds that even if you are knowledgeable about cyber security, don’t be over-confident that you won’t be caught out by cyber attack: “Be aware of who you are and your particular strengths and possible blind spots.” ●

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09/01/2020 09:35

Sometimes things aren’t always quite what they seem

FCSA Accredited Members: Adhere to rigorous standards.

Are assessed against a published Code of Compliance.

Are independently tested by regulated accountants and solicitors.

Have their FCSA audit disclosed to HMRC. Prove their compliance annually.

Take a closer look at your PSL. Check they’re an

Accredited Member

0203 772 8622 | info@fcsa.org.uk | www.fcsa.org.uk

REC.02.20.014.indd 14

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T R E N DS

TECH & TOOLS

World of IT confusion Delving beneath the technology terms SUE WEEKES

With the terms ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) and ‘machine learning’ often being used interchangeably, recruiters and HR professionals can be forgiven for being confused. Can people across the industry agree on a definition of these terms, so at the very least we have a common understanding of what we are talking about? Or is the fog and lack of understanding that those advising recruiters and HR departments on their recruitment technology surrounding the uses of these terms set to continue?

CONFUSION Recruitment technology advisers and experts agree there is a lack of agreement and consistency over what constitutes ‘machine learning’ and what is ‘AI’. “I was in a webinar and one vendor was talking about the AI they have behind their product, and I said ‘That is not really AI’, and we got to the point where he said ‘Well no, but from a marketing point of view, AI sells’,” says Peter Gold, principal consultant at human capital management software vendor Cornerstone OnDemand. Kamal Ladwa, founder and MD of Syun Consulting, CRM, technology and data consultants to the recruitment industry, says he sticks with the term AI to avoid confusing people in the

industry who are often ‘non-technical’.

MACHINE LEARNING One widely-used definition of machine learning is ‘replicating human behaviours by learning from data to identify what decisions would or could have been made given the available data’. A key characteristic of machine learning is the machine’s ability to learn patterns in data, and then to create rules from those patterns.

A good example would be a product such as Eva.AI that applies those rules to carry out tasks such as screening and interviews scheduling. “It’s a set of rules that says ‘Right, when this happens then this happens’,” explains Bill Boorman, who advises companies on their recruitment

technology. This allows machines to make what is known as ‘lateral decisions’ by capturing information from candidates, such as whether they have experience or not, and then using that information to rank candidates. Two other examples are IBM Watson Recruitment software and Google’s Natural Language Processing (NLP), which replicate speech patterns to allow hirers to infer emotion and meaning from what candidates say.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE While AI is a term commonly used by vendors and within the industry generally, there is no consensus on the extent to which AI has actually made inroads into recruitment and HR. While many would

THE TURING TEST Named after British mathematician and computing pioneer Alan Turing, the Turing Test is widely accepted as the ultimate indicator of whether a machine is intelligent or not. Developed by Turing in the 1950s, it tests a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviours equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human being.

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consider chatbots such as CVC.AI used by companies such as Unilever, as pure AI, others have their doubts. “I am not seeing anything that I would consider being pure AI,” says Boorman, explaining that for him, true AI is where machines have learned enough to be able to challenge their own rules, allowing them to think for themselves, and consequently failing the Turing test (see below, left). “Where we are now is not AI, but is actually supervised machine learning, characterised by intervention from humans and machines learning from people,” Boorman says. One example is the screening product Arctic Shores, which combines psychometric testing with neuroscience.

On the other hand, Jon Ingram from Strategic Dynamics Consultancy Services’ definition of AI is much wider. “It is anything that performs a cognitive task,” he says.

WHAT NEXT? For many, AI is the holy grail of technological innovation in recruitment, with the prospect of machines making decisions that are smarter than those made by humans today.

But while some experts claim we have AI now, some such as US futurist Ray Kurzweil say it will take another 30 years; others predict it will take 100 years. Boorman is more optimistic: “We’ll see some real AI within 12-18 months.” However, Gold argues it doesn’t matter whether we use ‘machine learning’ or ‘AI’, “if the technology provides a better service for candidates, saves time for recruiters and reduce costs for the company”. Ladwa says the issue is how to educate businesses to adopt new technology irrespective of the label.

He estimates that only 20% of businesses he speaks to are embracing these potentially game-changing technologies in any meaningful way. ● WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 15

09/01/2020 09:36

INTE R AC TIO N

C

VIEWPOINT

Expats still in demand Saudi Arabia remains a vibrant market despite Saudisation

BY EDDIE FINNIGAN

or decades, Saudi Arabia has depended on imported workers. Around 10 million foreigners are currently employed in the Kingdom – the majority hailing from countries such as India, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan and Indonesia. They dominate many parts of the private sector, particularly blue-collar and service jobs.

With a surfeit of cheap foreign labour and generous state benefits for nationals – which can amount to as much as two-thirds of the minimum wage in the public sector – there is limited incentive for out-of-work nationals to seek employment opportunities.

This situation has led to high levels of local unemployment, which stood at 12.3% in the second quarter of 2019. The problem is particularly acute among young people, with youth joblessness hovering near 40%.

Among those Saudis who are employed, two-thirds work for the public sector.

Faced with the need to modernise and diversify his country’s oil-dependent economy, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is overseeing what is widely regarded as the Kingdom’s most aggressive drive yet to secure private-sector employment for its citizens.

Launched in April 2016, the Vision 2030 plan seeks to cut

EDDIE FINNIGAN is founder and managing director of aerospace and engineering specialist Two Rivers

the unemployment rate among nationals to 7% within the next 11 years.

Efforts to achieve Saudisation – known officially as ‘Nitaqat’ – have stepped up in recent months, with the announcement that the government intends to nationalise 14,000 jobs in the ICT sector. That move followed a ban last year on foreign workers across 12 sectors including the banking and retail industries, along with plans to reserve some jobs in the hospitality sector by the end of this year.

All of these measures might create the impression that opportunities for international talent are drying up. But the roles most heavily affected so far by Saudisation have been at the lower end of the skills spectrum. For those internationals with the right expertise and experience, the Saudi market remains buoyant.

To successfully diversify the economy, Saudi government officials have recognised the need to bring in expatriate workers with specialist skills and qualifications, particularly in sectors where the local workforce is less experienced. These professionals remain in high demand to staff the training schools that are growing at a rapid rate, amid the push to upskill the national workforce.

Vision 2030 itself acknowledges the need for expats, stating: “Achieving our desired rate of economic growth will require an environment that attracts the necessary skills and capabilities both from within the Kingdom and beyond our national borders.”

UK recruitment agencies such as ours remain busy placing those with specialist qualifications into rewarding roles in Saudi Arabia. We already have thousands of such candidates on our books, but more will be needed.

Building foundations in sectors such as engineering and aerospace takes time, so the opportunities for those expats who fit the bill are available for the medium to long term. With competitive packages, high living standards and the chance to work on high-profile projects, Saudi Arabia remains a vibrant market for those looking to advance their careers. ●

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I N T E R AC T I O N

SOUNDBITES

L ET T ER S TO THE EDITOR STAND UP FOR WHISTLEBLOWERS We write in reference to the article, ‘Watch the law with whistleblowers, recruiters are warned’ (recruiter.co.uk, 11 November).

Protect is the UK’s leading whistleblowing charity. For the past 26 years we’ve been supporting individuals who call our free advice line seeking help about how to speak up about workplace wrongdoing.

Choosing to speak up over a public interest wrongdoing is extremely hard, but thank goodness people do.

Annually, our advisers handle around 3,000 whistleblowing cases, varying from fraud, patient safety, school governance issues to food health & safety concerns among others. We celebrate whistleblowers and train businesses and organisations to recognise their worth.

As a publication targeting HR and the recruitment sector, we found the tone and language of both the headline and first paragraph discriminatory toward whistleblowers.

We found the choice of words such as ‘serial whistleblower’ and ‘watch the law with whistleblowers’ and ‘fault-finding’ incendiary and suggestive that whistleblowers are troublemakers, when in reality they are public-spirited individuals who wish to see wrongdoing stopped.

Such ‘fault-finding’ might just save an organisation thousands of pounds in litigation costs.

While the rest of the article reflects that ‘most businesses perceive this is an employee of integrity who was willing to stand up for what is right and will not tolerate cheats in their business they work for’, it only highlights to us that there is still much to be done, particularly in the HR and recruitment sector to educate the benefits of whistleblowers to an organisation. Surely everyone must agree whistleblowing is a good thing?

Or is this all about paying lip service to accountability?

FRANCESCA WEST PROTECT CEO

Would you allow your consultants to take ‘hangover’ days?

MATT COLLINGWOOD MA N AG IN G D I REC TOR , V IQU

“I would never encourage colleagues to get that drunk they were unable to make it into work the next day, and I’d be worried if this became a regular occurrence at VIQU. However, we work in an industry that celebrates success and teamwork, so sometimes impromptu nights out happen, and often they’re great for team bonding. With this in mind, VIQU was founded on several core principles, which includes flexibility. Our recruiters can call in the next day if they’ve had a heavy night and cash in a day’s holiday with immediate effect and without challenge from their manager. We understand that sometimes ‘life happens’. Since we rolled these out, sickness has dropped by 60%.”

RUPERT GASTER FOUN D ER A N D D IREC TOR , P ROCUREMEN T H EA DS

“We’ve always operated a flexible policy at Procurement Heads and encourage the team to manage their own diaries when seeing clients. If one of the consultants needs to work from home, for whatever reason, we have confidence in them to manage their workload appropriately. Trust is such an important part of this, and we don’t feel the need to have set ‘hangover’ days.

Recruitment has always had a culture of presenteeism, and we sought to break the mould when we created Procurement Heads, and as a result, we consistently have low numbers of sick days taken by the team annually.”

K ATE VAN DER SLUIS MA N AG IN G PA RT N ER , H UMBER H R P EOP L E

“Of course, anyone in our team can, and should, take a hangover day (or ‘catch up with sleep’ day or ‘stop the world I need to get off ’ day). The beauty of the industry we work in is that work outside pre-booked meetings can be done anytime and anywhere. Who wants a hungover, grumpy or tired colleague? Go home, or stay home, make up the time to get the job done. Work should be measured in output, not input. We are all adults, after all!”

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RECRU I T E R FA ST 5 0 2020

Privately-owned recruitment businesses continue to report robust growth, despite a year of political and economic uncertainty onstituents of this year’s Recruiter FAST 50 ranking grew by an average compound annual growth rate of 36%, up from the 34% witnessed in 2019 – a hugely positive result. The results are based on financial years ending between February 2018 and May 2019 (see ‘Methodology’, p22).

Despite the ongoing uncertainty, the UK labour market has proven robust, with record levels of employment, low levels of unemployment, modest wage growth and a healthy level of supply from non-EU workers. The candidate-driven labour market has created opportunities for recruiters that can access sought-after talent, and has resulted in companies offering increasingly attractive remuneration packages and benefits to entice staff to switch employer.

The UK market is not only the largest in Europe, but also the most fragmented. The number of recruitment agencies in the UK is edging closer towards the 40,000 mark, with around 8,500 new agencies registering in 2018, data from Companies House indicates.

So it is no surprise that this year features 31 new companies placing for the first time, and dislodging more established agencies that cannot

maintain such high levels of percentage growth.

This year’s FAST 50 is consistent with that of previous years in that the niche sector specialists have triumphed. The data reaffirms the emerging trend that IT/technology agencies continue to outperform those in other sectors, with 11 specialist recruiters placing. 2020 also sees the return of several technical recruiters, while multi-sector agencies continue to be strongly represented with a total of eight companies.

Technology is fundamentally changing the business ecosystem, and the rate of adoption and acceptance by society is greater than ever. In fact, technology companies are now the largest public companies in the world, having surpassed the oil & gas majors.

However, the technology sector faces acute talent shortages and has the greatest imbalance in supply versus demand. Companies across all industries are now looking to source candidates with expertise in technology specialisms including artificial intelligence (AI), cyber-security, enterprise software and unified communications.

+ MARK MAUNSELL, director at corporate finance house and international M&A specialist Clearwater International compiles the Recruiter FAST 50

Technical specialists This year marked a notable increase in the number of technical recruitment specialists, several of which primarily focus on the oil & gas sector. It has been a sector in slow recovery following the WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 19

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RE CRUITE R FA ST 50 2020 FAST 20 17

This year’s Recruiter FAST 50 is consistent with that of previous years in that the niche sector specialists have triumphed Rank

2019 ranking

Company

Sectors

Revenue (£000s)

Compound annual growth rate (%)

1

1

130.9

Russell Taylor

Technical

119,926

2

Trilogy

IT/technology

21,408

65.7

3

Solutions Recruitment

Multi-sector

33,669

65.1

4

Staffing Match

Multi-sector

32,250

63.9

5

3

Green Park

Executive search

90,107

58.9

6

8

Logical Personnel Solutions

Industrial

61,303

52.4

Deploy UK

Technical

16,629

50.2

TFS Healthcare

Healthcare

38,621

49

LHi GROUP

Professional

49,474

43.1

7 8 9

9

10

Kintec

Technical

56,628

41.8

11

CareerMakers

Industrial

15,448

39

12

23

Amoria Bond

IT/technology

68,106

38.2

13

5

ERSG

Energy

74,704

36.5 36.4

14

10

MPA Recruitment

Multi-sector

21,439

15

16

BIE Executive

Executive search

40,071

35.6

Omni RMS

RPO

23,444

35.6

16 17

24

Quest Employment

Multi-sector

52,095

35.3%

18

32

The Curve Group

RPO

18,610

34.6%

Gravitas Recruitment

Technology, finance

42,537

34.3

19 20

11

Frank Recruitment Group

IT/technology

227,879

34.2

21

14

X4 Group

IT, engineering, pharma

32,028

32.5

22

7

La Fosse Associates

IT/technology

108,350

32.3

23

31

Falcon Green Personnel

Construction

39,814

32

24

On-Site Group

Multi-sector

26,110

30.4

25

Tripod Partners

Healthcare

54,948

30.4

26

TXM Recruit

Engineering

67,735

30.1

27

365 Resourcing

Multi-sector

10,943

29.9

28

Client Server

Technology

19,576

28.4

29

Orbital Recruitment

RPO

25,531

28.3

30

SOS Group

Technical

28,940

28.1 28

31

Castlerock Recruitment

Healthcare

56,271

32

44

Eton Bridge Partners

Executive search

49,852

27.5

33

29

Driver Require

Logistics

13,211

27.5

34

Templeton Recruitment

IT/technology

11,732

26.9

35

SPS Group

Industrial

75,554

26.8

36

Sanderson Recruitment

Multi-sector

426,500

26.4

37

Head Resourcing

IT/technology

70,985

26.1

38

Austin Fraser

Technology/life sciences

48,209

26

39

Levy Recruitment

IT/technology

21,293

25.9

Marlin Green

IT/technology

26,812

25.2

Mane

Technical

50,958

25

42

Oliver James Associates

Professional

118,397

24.9

43

Stanton House

IT, professional

32,712

24.8

40

4

41

44

25

45 46

38

Venturi Group

IT/technology

26,518

24.7%

Samuel Knight International

Technical

14,182

24.7% 24.5%

BMSL Group

Construction, engineering

93,143

47

Twenty Recruitment

IT, financial services

21,724

23.7%

48

Antal International

Multi-sector

30,862

23.6%

49

McGinley Aviation

Aviation

128,390

23.0%

50

Montash

IT/technology

28,951

22.6%

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Key shareholders

Website

Headquarters

Financial year-end

Ben Russell

www.russell-taylor.co.uk

Burton, Cheshire

Dec 18

Daniel Fox, Ivan Jackson, Jamie Bernstein

www.trilogyinternational.com

London

Nov 18

Michael Grayson

www.solrecruit.co.uk

Newcastle upon Tyne

Mar 18

Salman Iftikhar, Michael Gadsby

www.staffingmatch.co.uk

Middlesex

Dec 18

Raj Tulasiani, Steve Baggi

www.green-park.co.uk

London

Jan 19

Stephen Durant

www.logicalps.com

Leeds

Nov 18

Paul Ford

www.deployuk.com

London

Oct 18 Mar 18

Andrew Yetzes

www.tfshealthcare.co.uk

London

Thomas Glanfield

www.wearelhi.com

London

Dec 18

Neil McCarthy

www.kintecglobal.com

Manchester

Mar 19

Mohammad Zahoor, Omair Mohammad Akram

www.career-makers.co.uk

Manchester

Jul 18

Daniel Daw, Gareth Lloyd, Nicholas Barrow

www.amoriabond.com

Manchester

Nov 18

Peter Flaherty, Michael Ryan, Lucien Sullivan

www.ersg-global.com

Bromley

Sep 18

Patrick Anderson, Mary Pat O’Kane

www.mparecruitment.co.uk

Derry/Londonderry

Feb 19

Ben Hawkins, Gordon Whyte, Simon Moore, Emma Moreton, Robert Walker

www.bie-executive.com

London

Mar 19

Robert Leggett, Kay Leggett

www.omnirms.com

Cheshire

Feb 19

David Parker, Mark Russell

www.questemployment.co.uk

Northampton

Dec 18

Della Wolfe, Jeanette Ramsden, Lyndsey Simpson

www.thecurvegroup.co.uk

Hinton-in-the-Hedges

Oct 18

Daniel Wallis, Jonathan Ellerbeck, Cerys Ellerbeck

www.gravitasrecruitmentgroup.com London

Nov 18

TPG Capital, Nigel O’Donoghue, Sean Wadsworth

www.frankgroup.com

Newcastle upon Tyne

Nov 18

Glenn Norris, Mike Norris, Peter Rabey

www.x4group.co.uk

London

Sep 18

Simon La Fosse, Linda La Fosse

www.lafosse.com

London

Dec 18

Jack O’Connell, Joseph Sweeney, Kieran Nestor

www.falcongreen.co.uk

London

Mar 19

Saif Khan, Darren Burnett, Stephanie Burnett

www.theonsitegroup.co.uk

Hampshire

Mar 18

Philip Randerson, Dean Covill

www.tripodpartners.co.uk

London

Sep 18

Keiron Gallimore, Laurence Seward

www.txmrecruit.co.uk

Milton Keynes

Dec 18

Philip Gallagher

www.365resourcing.co.uk

Worcester

Dec 18

David Kerr, Nicholas Boulton

www.client-server.com

London

Apr 19

Frederick Wood, Mark Burton, Neil Powell

www.orbital-recruitment.co.uk

Derby

Jan 19

Mark Thirkettle, Samuel Poots

www.sosgroup.uk

Essex

Sep 18

Ian Munro, Twenty 20 Capital

www.crg.uk.com

Prescot, Merseyside

Mar 18

Ashton Ward, Mark Craddock

www.etonbridgepartners.com

Windsor

Dec 18

Kieran Smith, Chrysalis VCT

www.driverrequire.co.uk

Stevenage

Dec 18

Nadeem Ahmad

www.templeton-recruitment.com

London

Dec 18

LDC

www.spsgroup.uk.com

Bradford

Mar 19

Keith Dawe

www.sandersonplc.com

Bristol

Jun 18

Paul Atkinson, Moira Atkinson

www.headresourcing.com

Edinburgh

Dec 18

Derek Simpson, Peter Hart

www.austinfraser.com

Reading

Feb 18 Dec 18

Matt Murphy, Lawrence Levy

www.levy.eu.com

St Albans

Toby Dixon, Lee Nania

www.marlingreen.com

London

May 19

Luigi Pacelli

www.mane.co.uk

Watford

Aug 18

Nicholas Rogers, Oliver Castle

www.ojassociates.com

London

Dec 18

Neil Wilson, Nicholas Eaves

www.stantonhouse.com

London

Dec 18

Brad Lamb

www.venturi-group.com

London

Mar 19

Todd Grondona, Steven Rawlinson, Gresham House

www.samuel-knight.com

Newcastle upon Tyne

Nov 18

Bernard Goodchild

www.bmsgroupltd.co.uk

Billingham

May 18

Paul Marsden

www.twentyrecruitment.com

London

Dec 18

Anthony Goodwin

www.antal.com

London

Dec 18

Colm McGinley

www.mcginleyaviation.com

Hampshire

Dec 18

Andrew Larholt

www.montash.com

London

Dec 18 WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 21

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RE CRUITE R FA ST 50 2020

crash in 2014, and resulted in several companies diversifying into life sciences, specialist IT and other sectors in the built environment, to broaden their customer profile. However, companies that could maintain a skew towards downstream oil & gas, and as such benefited from more consistent operating expenditure (OPEX)-related placements, typically fared much better. The presence of seven technical recruiters in this year’s ranking is indicative of both market recovery and the increasing use of contractors to staff projects.

Despite the introduction of the price caps in 2016 and the subsequent implications of the off-payroll legislation in April 2017, healthcare recruiters have maintained a presence in the FAST 50 rankings over the past few years. For the second year running, three specialist recruiters ranked, down from a high of 12 in 2017, which corresponded to periods before the price caps. While NHS trusts have successfully reduced agency spend over the period, a growing number of unfilled vacancies, struggles with staff retention and an overall increase in activity continue to point to attractive market dynamics for agencies that can access compliant candidates.

Recruiters will now turn their attention to the shape of the Brexit deal that is negotiated tracked the FAST 50 to identify fast-growing, profitable and often single sector-focused recruiters. This is the third consecutive year that technology recruiter Frank Recruitment Group has featured, having been acquired by TPG Growth in 2016. Gravitas Recruitment also completed a management buy-out in October, although this is outside the corresponding time period for the ranking.

The outcome of the general election has created a more positive platform for the sector, but recruiters will now turn their attention to the shape of the Brexit deal that is negotiated. One key focus for them will be how flexibly designed the future migration policy is, as this will play a significant role in determining the availability of EU labour and, it is hoped, address the fall in net migration.

The coming year also sees the introduction of IR35 in the private sector, which will bring increased administration and responsibility for agencies, and potentially affect their profitability.

Finally, we expect forward-thinking companies to continue to invest in technology and AI, as ways to drive efficiencies through automating part of the screening process. ●

METHODOLOGY The Recruiter FAST 50 prepared by Clearwater International lists the fastest growing, privately-owned recruitment companies in the UK according to a revenue compound annual growth rate over the three most recent annual reporting periods.

Organic growth Though the recruitment sector is one of the most active in terms of M&A, constituents of the FAST 50 primarily opt to develop organic growth strategies. Such approaches often come in the form of either international expansion through new office openings or senior hires with a focus on adjacent markets. An alternative growth strategy is to leverage strong balance sheets and deploy capital through engaging in M&A activity – an approach deployed by Russell Taylor, which for the second year running has topped the ranking.

The company completed a transformational acquisition in 2017, which has helped the business grow from £23m revenue in December 2016 to £120m in December 2018.

Private equity funds have consistently 22 RECRUITER

CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION: To qualify, companies must be unquoted, registered in the UK and not subsidiaries, although their ultimate holding companies may be based offshore. Companies that are backed by private equity or other financial investors, either minority or majority equity stake, are also considered for inclusion. All companies considered for inclusion must achieve minimum annual sales of £5m in each of their past three financial years.

EXCLUSIONS: Companies that have filed abbreviated accounts at Companies House without disclosing audited sales are excluded from the FAST 50. Companies whose latest available filed accounts are 2017 or before are excluded. Companies that are not ‘pure play’ recruitment companies are also not considered. Recruiters that are co-owned by foreign trade recruitment companies, or where a listed recruitment firm holds a minority stake, are also discounted.

DATA COLLECTION METHODS: Qualifying companies are identified through independent research, which uses several financial databases, Companies House information, press coverage and other research sources. Entry submissions are therefore not required, although any firm that believes that it may not be automatically assessed in the 2021 FAST 50 may contact Clearwater International to discuss. Please email mark. maunsell@cwicf.com

FEBRUARY 2020

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07/01/2020 12:41

TA LE NT INTE LLIGENCE

recent whitepaper suggests that with the emergence of talent intelligence as a discipline within talent acquisition (TA) and recruitment, the days of using gut instinct and ‘feelings’ to recruit might be numbered.

The report argues that a combination of rapid technological change, which has led to the emergence of new types of jobs, skills shortages, continuous business transformation, and more data than ever before, as well as the ability to access it, provides the ideal conditions and platform for talent intelligence to play an increasingly influential role.

Contributors to the report include practitioners in Philips, Microsoft, IBM and other major corporates, plus external research firms.

‘Talent Intelligence – Why, what and how: A guide to commercially successful Talent Intelligence in a digital era’ showcases how these firms are already using talent

A

Are the days when decisions around talent acquisition and hiring based on gut feeling and intuition about to be consigned to the past? Colin Cottell investigates

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TA L E N T I N T E L L I G E N C E

intelligence to help them in strategic the senior leadership. “Otherwise, they will decision-making. never come to you to advise on strategic As Toby Culshaw, global head of talent business decisions they need to make,” she intelligence and executive recruitment explains. The best way to do this is to help research at Philips, puts it in the report: “As the business answer questions, she says, such an organisation, we are going through a huge as where to locate a particular business transformation. With this transformation, function. If you don’t have the capability there is a growing demand, importance and internally, there are lots of research firms that value that talent and market intelligence can assist, she adds. teams can provide in determining However, for organisations that already organisations’ buy vs build strategy, talent have a talent intelligence function, the report attraction strategy and location strategy; this identifies a number of key areas on which is what talent intelligence can provide.” they must focus their attention if they wish Marlieke Pols, talent intelligence analyst at to develop a successful talent intelligence Philips in the Netherlands, and author of the function. report, tells Recruiter that within Philips, “talent intelligence is no longer seen as a Collaborating with other functions value-add but as a prerequisite when All the contributors to the whitepaper with a designing our talent sourcing strategy”. corporate intelligence department see She explains that as result of gaining its collaboration with talent acquisition as vital. trust, the business now comes However, the report reveals that to talent intelligence for help the way corporate talent DEFINING TALENT with a variety of business intelligence departments INTELLIGENCE problems. Most questions, she collaborate with TA often differs “The application of says, are about what is the best between companies. For external data to people, location to expand the example, while IBM and Merck skills, competitors and business from the point of KGaA’s collaboration with TA is geographies, to drive view of availability of people more centred around sourcing, business decisions” with the right skills, as well Microsoft has built a network of as the cost. intelligence across TA in both “Let’s say an organisation wants to open an sourcing and recruiting. Although the report AI centre, but what is the best location? You draws a line between talent intelligence and can’t open an AI centre in your headquarters HR/people analytics, with the former using just because you have been there for 50 years,” external data and the latter internal data, it she says. The report shows that among those suggests that for maximum insight the two organisations, both corporates and external should work in partnership. research firms contributing to the report, Data quality and availability location feasibility studies are the most common service provided by talent The report states: “Data quality and data intelligence, followed by competitor insights availability [are] an ongoing challenge for and talent insights/availability. participants within a corporate talent While companies such as Philips and others intelligence function.” in the report are already some way down the Explains Pols: “There is so much data out road to integrating talent intelligence into there in the world due to technology their strategic business decision-making, advancements that data quality is sometimes the report provides examples of best practice a struggle. And also in emerging markets that could help others on that journey. In like China and Japan, it can be difficult to get addition, it highlights some challenges they the data.” are likely to face along the way, along with The report highlights a number of ways that possible solutions. organisations can enhance the quality of the According to Pols, the first scenario is when data they use. These range from an organisation doesn’t have a talent cross-validating data from a number of intelligence function or capability. In this separate sources, relying on smaller pools of situation, she says it is vital to get buy-in from local data, and using a data range rather

IMAG E | SH UTTER STO C K

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TA LE NT INTE LLIGENCE

Upskilling your team for evolving roles

than a specific figure. The report shows the extent to which organisations rely on external vendors for their data; this reliance ranges from “a lot” in the case of Philips to no reliance in the case of Microsoft.

Measuring success Being able to measure the success of talent intelligence is a key aspect of both getting senior level buy-in within organisations and in maintaining and enhancing the function’s value, says the report. While the cost “can be defined in most cases, benefit realisation is hard to grasp for most projects and difficult to materialise”.

“Quantifying findings into monetary values can help, but also presenting findings in the broader business context, and offering consultation, recommendations and advice to contribute to investment decisions also helps business leaders understand the value of talent research,” adds Mark Hodson, head, knowledge & insight services at strategic TA consultancy Armstrong Craven, who is quoted in the report.

While customer feedback is universally used by the organisations contributing to the report, there are some important differences between the companies.

For example, Merck includes monetary impact, and time and quality increases, an anonymous company cited in the report looks at actions taken as a result of the research, and Microsoft asks whether the project met its objective. A key issue highlighted by the report is ensuring that the research once completed is actually used in decision-making.

26 RECRUITER

TOP TIPS ● Decide whether to build your own talent intelligence team or outsource it ● Identify areas where you can help the business improve its decision-making ● Get senior leadership buy-in ● In addition to collaborating with talent acquisition, build alliances with other stakeholders, such as HR/people analytics ● Work how you measure success and identify relevant KPIs ● Pay attention to quality of the data that you use ● Upskill your team in line with client demands and changing technology

The report is clear that to be effective, a talent intelligence team must have within it a mixture of both hard and soft skills.

These range from the ability to analyse data, and to understand statistics to having great communication, consulting and influencing skills.

While some companies such as Merck believe that a data scientist background is needed, within the team at Philips all team members have similar skill sets and roles.

However, the report shows that even though talent intelligence is still a relatively immature discipline, the roles of those working in it are constantly evolving. For example, IBM has given more of its team client management responsibilities, while an anonymous company has developed from being an intermediary between their clients and their vendors into a more technologically advanced and proactive team.

There is a consensus that as roles evolve over time in response to changing client demands and advances in technology, this will require ongoing personal development programmes and staff training.

While talent intelligence is still a relatively new discipline, Pols says the evidence from the increasing number of open vacancies online around talent intelligence demonstrates that the numbers working in this field are on an upward trend.

“By the end of 2020 and early 2021, the majority of the larger organisations will really use talent intelligence to inform strategic business decisions,” she predicts. ●

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THE VIEW AND THE INTELLIGENCE

Why your industry needs you p2 BI G TALKI NG POI NT

Uncovering the latest industry trends p4

Recruitment Issue 82 February 2020 Ma ers

LEGAL U PDATE

The end of Swedish derogaঞon contracts p6 PRODU CTS AND TRAI NI NG

Interview: 2019 Recruiter of the Year p8

Best pracঞce

Good Recruitment Collecঞve welcomes th its 500 employer T

he Good Recruitment Collec ve (GRC) started 2020 on a high, with 500 employers now signed up to the Good Recruitment Charter – commi ng them to the highest recruitment standards.

The GRC, run by the Recruitment & Employment Confedera on, was set up in 2014 to help employers refine their recruitment strategies and a ract and retain the right candidates.

The businesses signed up to the ini a ve, such as Virgin Media, Na onal Express, EY, MacDonald’s and WaterAid, employ more than 3.5 million workers in the UK between them.

For Aggreko, a supplier of temporary power and temperature control solu ons, signing up has changed their approach to recruitment. HR Director Valerie Dale said: “We decided to rebuild our en re recruitment processes alongside the Good Recruitment Charter, which has resulted in

@RECPress RM_FEB 2020.indd 1

an enhanced candidate experience, shorter recruitment mes and an improved service to hiring managers, and significant cost reduc ons.”

At the heart of the ini a ve is the Good Recruitment Charter, which defines good recruitment prac ce through nine principles.

Signatories make an aspira onal commitment to these principles, which include being fair and ethical in recruitment, offering flexibility in work, and ensuring good recruitment in supply chains.

Good recruitment needs a network Formerly known as the Good Recruitment Campaign, the GRC was renamed in early January as

Making great work happen

part of a broader rebrand at the REC. The aim is to be er reflect the collabora ve nature of the group as those signed up are part of a network of HR and in-house recruitment professionals that they can share ideas with and learn from. Members also benefit from workshops, conferences, peer reviews, self-assessment tools and research data.

Tom Hadley, Director of Policy and Campaigns at the REC, said: “The aim of the Good Recruitment Collec ve is to put good recruitment at the top of the corporate agenda. Hi ng the 500 mark is a major milestone.

It reflects increasing recogni on that brilliant recruitment is at the heart of economic growth and drives both produc vity and worker well-being. As businesses compete for talent and workers want more out of their work, ge ng recruitment right has never been more important.”

www.rec.uk.com 07/01/2020 16:16

Leading the industry

the view...

Making great work happen transforms lives, says Neil Carberry, REC Chief Execuঞve

I

t takes a lot to silence several hundred recruiters on an awards night, but St. Giles charity did just that.

At the IRP Awards last November I had the very happy job of announcing this brilliant organisa on as REC’s official charity partner. And when two representa ves told us in their experience “nothing stops a bullet like a job”, you could hear a pin drop.

St. Giles helps people who have experienced abuse, poverty, exploita on or have been caught up in crime to build a be er future. They do this by looking at everything a person needs to turn things around – whether that’s a roof over their heads, training, advice or help ge ng into work.

Helping people into good work is at the heart of their approach to tackling some of the biggest challenges facing our society. In 2016/17, one project for vulnerable women who had been caught up in crime helped nearly 800 ex-offenders to find a job. It saw the rate of re-offending halved and, given the costs of incarcera on, it turned every £1 of investment into a saving for the taxpayer of about £10.

“Nothing stops a bullet like a job”

Recruitment is about helping everybody to live their best lives The importance of work and opportunity isn’t lost on any of us. Recruitment is about helping everybody to live their best lives. As an industry we should be proud of the posi ve impact our work has for our candidates, their families and the wider society.

We are extremely proud to support such an important charity. Show your support by considering a dona on at stgilestrust.org.uk/donaঞons

If you want to keep up to speed with all things recruitment then follow me on Twi er @RECNeil

2

NE TWOR KING

Think local, drive change Your industry needs you, says Tom Hadley, REC’s Director of Policy and Campaigns

I

n 2019, more than 1,000 recruitment industry leaders got involved in our regional Brexit seminars, IR35 workshops and high-profile roundtables with public figures like Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham. The aim is to build on this and ramp up our industry’s voice locally and na onally.

The REC’s 18 sector groups have provided support to members and driven campaigns based on industry priori es. We’re honing in on regional and sector specific challenges and opportuni es. Why? 1. Voice – the debate around skills and good work is increasingly devolved. We need a strong regional presence to influence the agenda.

2. Poli cal engagement – engaging with local MPs creates a different sort of rela onship that will support our ac vi es.

3. Compe ve advantage – employers look to their recruitment partners for exper se.

4. Brand trac on – organisa onal leaders are expected to have a view on big issues of the day, skills and good work included.

5. Promo ng the Good Recruitment message – regional Chambers of Commerce and other business organisa ons can help us.

Helping industry leaders to build their exper se and brand in their region is one of the aims of the Future of Recruitment Forums which we are rolling out in associa on with LinkedIn. We are also suppor ng business leaders to be ‘ac vists’ and play an ambassadorial role in their region to influence the localised skills agenda and to showcase our industry’s role in making great work happen. REC members, your industry needs you!

You can follow Tom on Twi er @HadleysComment

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Leading the industry

the intelligence...

66%

Employers feeling confident on 2020 prospects Josh Pren ce, REC Research Officer

E

mployers were looking into the new year with op mism despite a tough ride last year and a gloomy economic outlook for 2020.

Over the course of 2019 the REC’s monthly ‘JobsOutlook’ report saw employer confidence fall to new lows. Confidence in the economy dropped to a net figure of -34 in August-October 2019, while employers’ hiring confidence fell to net -8 in September-November.

In November 2019, the REC also surveyed employers about how they felt the economy and their businesses would fare in 2020. Unsurprisingly, confidence in the economy’s prospects was very low: 66% employers thought that economic condi ons in the UK will be worse than in 2019, while

only 4% of employers thought they would be be er. With a resul ng net confidence level of -62, that’s down four percentage points from November 2018.

Yet despite all this, 92% hirers thought that their own business would perform as well or be er in 2020 than it did in 2019. of hirers thought that Overall, employer confidence their own business in their own companies’ would perform as well prospects for 2020 was at net or be er in 2020 than +37 – down only 2 points from it did in 2019 the same me a year earlier.

So although the business community is very worried about the wider economic outlook, they have faith that their own firms will be able Overall, employer confidence in their own to find a way through the companies’ prospects for uncertainty. In many cases, they 2020 was at net believe that they can thrive.

This should be welcome news for recruiters as they have a

92%

+37

Only one in five are new clients New clients as a percentage of total clients (%), Q3 2018/19 34% 34% 26%

20%

17% 9% £0 Q3 2018

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Q3 2019

New clients as a percentage of total clients billed by the average recruiter in the RIB Index in Q3 2019 was notably lower than in the same period last year – down from one in three to one in five.

Such a significant change is reflected in other recruitment industry trends –

employers thought that economic condiঞons in the UK will be worse than in 2019

crucial role to play in the success of their clients.

Once business confidence starts to recover and hiring ac vity increases, agencies must be ready to show the added value they can bring to their clients. According to ‘JobsOutlook’, employers have consistently reported that quality of service and an agency’s exper se, in terms of the regions and sectors they cover, are the most important factors when it comes to choosing a recruitment agency to partner with. Recruiters should look to improve these parts of their offering to ensure that they are adding maximum value to their clients and helping them to succeed.

notably the REC’s ‘JobsOutlook’ – that employer confidence in making hiring and investment decisions is at an all- me low.

As a consequence, it is likely that fewer firms currently need to appoint new recruitment partners.

For the median recruiter, this resulted in an average of 7%

fewer clients billed across Q3 2019.

While fewer clients does not necessarily result in lower revenues, it does mean recruiters need to intensify efforts to sa sfy exis ng client requirements – which are also likely to be fast evolving due to the current market uncertainty.

Belinda Johnson runs employment research consultancy, Worklab, and is Associate Knowledge & Insight Director of Recruitment Industry Benchmarking (RIB). The RIB Index provides bespoke confidenঞal reports on industry benchmarks and trends. www.ribindex.com

February 2020 Recruitment Ma ers

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07/01/2020 16:16

Industry trends

big talking point

Rolling with the punches Taking a look at the latest recruitment industry figures, you can see recruiters are ba ling a challenging market – and surviving it well.

B

y now, everyone in the recruitment industry will be ge ng used to opera ng against a backdrop of vola lity, uncertainty and change. But the REC’s latest Recruitment Industry Trends (RITs) demonstrates that the industry’s businesses and employees rose to the challenges and capitalised on the opportuni es.

Of the challenges that dominated the 2018/19 financial year, several made their presence felt in this year’s report: • The ongoing uncertainty around Brexit and its impact on hirers’ confidence and investment decisions • The con nued fall in immigra on to the UK for work, par cularly from the EU, which caused fluctua ons in availability of labour and skills • The first full-year impact of the offpayroll reforms in the public sector and the corresponding need to provide increased levels of PAYE support for workers in this sector • Catering for an average pay growth of 3.1% • Managing an increase in official vacancies of 5.2%, mostly for permanent roles.

The industry conঞnues to adapt

The RITs figures con nue to reflect that an increasing number of REC members are diversifying as they emphasise their ability to act as expert partners 4

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www.rec.uk.com

07/01/2020 16:17

The industry mix £38.9bn

The employees 119,000

the number of people employed by the recruitment industry, up 3% on average on 2017/18

57%

the number of REC members reporঞng turnover rates of more than 30% among their consultants

and solu ons providers. Many have expanded from tradi onal staffing agencies to act as outsourcing partners for both permanent and temporary roles, as well as offering other HR services. The turnover of the industry as a whole has grown to £38.9bn in 2018/19, from £35.7bn in the previous year.

Other figures show a mixed picture of the industry responding to circumstance and working hard to maintain margins and to find the right candidates.

There are clear concerns for growth for the year ahead. Half of recruiters cited the deteriora on in client confidence as an important issue for permanent recruitment. A third of respondents are wary of legisla ve change and pressure on margins for temporary and contact recruitments. And the biggest challenge for the industry that refuses to go away? A shortage of suitable candidates.

But with recruiters iden fying investment opportuni es to help them develop more strategic rela onships with clients – including understanding regulatory developments, providing feedback on employer brand and candidate percep ons and accessing regional and sectoral knowledge – the industry is preparing for whatever the economy throws at it.

“2018/19 was an extraordinary year that showed the country what professional recruitment is made of. RITs tells a story of an industry that grew in the face of an incredibly tough environment marked by candidate shortages and economic uncertainty.

Despite all that, we helped even more people to find work,” said Neil Carberry, REC Chief Execu ve. “In mes like these, recruiters have proved themselves to be valuable partners for businesses that want the edge the expert knowledge of professional recruiters brings to the table. All this data is encouraging and I hope recruiters will find it a useful tool in tackling the challenges ahead – making great work happen with the same grit and determina on we saw last year.” www.rec.uk.com

RM_FEB 2020.indd 5

the total industry turnover, generated by 31,140 businesses

5%

the increase in the number of enterprises involved in permanent recruitment, compared to a 2% fall for those supplying temporary/contract workers

86%

the proporঞon of turnover delivered through temporary/contract placements

87%

the proporঞon of micro-businesses (1-9 employees) in March 2019 among those companies dealing with predominantly permanent placements, compared to 69% of those oriented towards temporary/contract workers – both down 1 percentage point on March 2018 figures

The candidates 1.07 million

the number of permanent placements made, compared to 1.14 million last year

1.1 million

the number of temporary/contract workers on assignment on any given day in 2018/19

2%

the drop in the number of EU naঞonals sourced for permanent roles (and higher for conঞngent labour)

The money £5,152

the average value of permanent placements from the wider recruitment industry, up from £4,238. But average margins have fallen from 15.4% to 14.7%

£30,219

the average annualised turnover of each temporary/ contract worker on assignment, generaঞng an average margin of 17.3% (only marginally lower than 2017/18)

3.8%

the average operaঞng profit recorded by the industry

February 2020 Recruitment Ma ers

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07/01/2020 16:17

Swedish derogaঞon

legal update Preparing for the end of Swedish derogaঞon contracts

By Jane O’Shea, REC Solicitor

O

n 6 April so called ‘Swedish deroga on’ contracts (SD contracts) will be brought to an end with the repeal of regula ons 10 and 11 of the Agency Workers Regula ons 2010 (AWR).

Under these contracts, agency workers give up the right to equal pay with comparable permanent staff in return for a guarantee to receive a certain amount of pay when they have gaps between assignments.

Under the new rules once a worker has been in a role for the 12-week qualifying period, they will be en tled to the same pay as a permanent employee.

Here is an overview of the op ons open to agencies

Own the change in 2020

Find out more at: h ps://www.rec-irp. uk.com/membership

6

Recruitment Ma ers February 2020

RM_FEB 2020-NEW.indd 6

“It is advisable to engage with workers early and to agree a new contract” when dealing with SD contracts: 1. Conঞnue with current SD contracts: the new rules will not automa cally mean the termina on of SD contracts and these employment contracts will con nue if no ac on is taken. But from 6 April any clauses that refer to workers waiving their rights to equal pay will be null and void. Where contracts are not being terminated agencies must provide qualified workers with a wri en statement confirming that they are en tled to equal pay under the AWR on or before 30 April.

2. Terminate the SD contract before 6 April: the rules

T

he Good Work Plan legisla on comes into effect in April 2020, so it’s me to step in, step up and own this transforma on. Think about the strategies you need to put in place to adhere to the five principles of the Good Work Plan, namely: 1. Sa sfac on 2. Fair pay 3. Par cipa on and progression 4. Wellbeing, safety and security 5. Voice and autonomy.

around agencies termina ng in this manner are very strict and it can only be done if all of the condi ons of Regula on 10 (1)(c) and (1)(d) are sa sfied. Agencies that wish to terminate contracts in this manner should seek specialist advice in order to minimise risk.

3. Amend the SD contract: where new contracts are not being agreed with workers, agencies should take steps to amend the current contracts to ensure that it is clear that the pay between assignments, and obliga ons under Regula ons 10 and 11 of the AWR, will no longer apply. Any varia on to contracts must be done with the workers consent and legal advice should be taken before making amendments.

4. Terminate and agree a new contract: it is advisable to engage with workers early and to agree a new contract where the worker voluntarily agrees to end their SD contract.

Agencies that will be impacted by the new rules and who have not yet sought specialist advice should do so immediately.

For more informa on on the repeal of SD contracts, see the REC’s Swedish Deroga on toolkit online, which includes detailed guidance and a checklist to help prepare for the changes.

The REC’s three pillars of a successful employee reten on strategy are a good place to start: • Train your consultants to make sure they’re at the top of their game • Recognise them to boost their credibility among your clients • Reward them for their contribu ons to your business growth to cement loyalty.

We’re here to offer our expert guidance and services to ensure you and your team have everything you need to succeed. www.rec.uk.com

07/01/2020 16:35

Inspiraঞon

Hilary Barnes, NHS

pracঞঞoner, on life as an agency worker Flexible working allows me to be who I want to be.

I’ve been working flexibly since 1997 as an opera ng department prac oner in the NHS – suppor ng surgeons and anaesthe sts, o en at three different hospitals each week.

If I went into nursing it meant I would have to retrain, and do a job that’s quite physically demanding, involving long hours for less money. Instead, at the age of 46, I went back to drama school. Now I’m able to fit work around a ending audi ons. And I’ve achieved my ambi on of being an actor!

When you’re going into new environments, where everyone is stressed, it’s important to know www.rec.uk.com

RM_FEB 2020.indd 7

Q&A

What I know

Behind the scenes with REC Professionals

your agency has your back.

I’ve always got my work through Pulse Jobs. It’s very important I know they’re there to help.

They’ve known me for years. They believe in me. But they are also very approachable and they’re always at the other end of the phone for support, especially when I’ve suffered bereavement.

So what do I value most in my agency?

The human touch.

Big agencies can sঞll get that right.

I don’t always get to speak to the person who originally contacted me for a job. But by sharing informa on between colleagues and recording the details, I don’t suffer for it at all.

Gary Venner, Managing

Director, Premier Jobs UK, on sharing best pracঞce

Premier Jobs was invited to share its recruitment best pracঞce by the Parliamentary Review. Why do you care about that?

clients, having the right exper se and becoming trusted advisors. The recruitment industry only stands to benefit if more of us share our best prac ce and ways in which to find growth.

The Parliamentary Review is designed to share best prac ce with business leaders and policy makers.

And while there is poli cal turmoil, Brexit uncertainty and industries are changing at a rapid pace, the country survives because business leaders are simply ge ng on with running their firms. Everyone can learn lessons from those doing it successfully.

As we established our company in 2007 in the financial services sector, we’ve got a good story to tell about adap ng to challenges and market changes, finding new, lifelong

You’re also keen to get more candidate reviews on Trustpilot and Google – why?

Recommenda ons build a business. We live and breathe the REC code of prac ce every day. It helps our business prosper. But reviews keep our feet firmly on the ground and shape everything we do. We want to understand what others are saying about us – and the only way to keep reviews high is to deliver what candidates and clients like. It’s about being the best you can at all mes.

February 2020 Recruitment Ma ers

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07/01/2020 16:17

Products & training

IRP Award Winner Georgia Walden, Senior Recruitment Consultant at Hyper Recruitment,

on what lies behind her recent win as Recruiter of the Year at the IRP Awards.

How did you get into recruitment?

The career chose me. I didn’t really know about recruitment when I le university with a Master’s in science. I received a call from a manager at Hyper Recruitment Solu ons, who described the company, how I could use my degree and the role recruitment played in helping people. It was more than helping candidates find their dream job and clients finding the best person. As the company specialises in science, the knock-on effect of placing someone who could play a part in crea ng life-saving drugs and life changing technologies was so inspiring. I joined the graduate scheme in 2016 and haven’t looked back since.

What do you think has driven your success over the past 3.5 years?

The opportuni es to progress have been amazing. I’ve changed desks and had the chance to do something new. The training and support I’ve received from more experienced colleagues when I’ve faced challenges has been fundamental to my success. But my mo va on remains the importance of helping people. It makes my job so much more enjoyable. My favourite stories are about placing graduates struggling to find work, or those finding it hard to come back a er a career break. It’s less about the commission, more about the sa sfac on of helping others.

What’s been your biggest challenge?

I moved from the biologics desk where I was one of the highest billing consultants in the company, to a new regulatory start-up desk – billing nothing. I’ve persevered through the tough mes. I’ve learnt about a sector I knew nothing about. I’ve even a ended a course that is aimed at regulatory professionals, so that I can be er understand what it takes to do the job.

One of my new clients had

Recruitment Ma ers

8

The official magazine of The Recruitment & Employment Confedera on Dorset House, 1st Floor, 27-45 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NT Tel: 020 7009 2100 www.rec.uk.com

Recruitment Ma ers February 2020

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struggled for over a year to fill a role specialising in personal protec ve equipment such as gloves and masks.

However, I believe I’ve found someone suitable by going way out of the market.

Another example was a start-up company, whereby I managed to fill 15 specialist roles (nego a ng on the high salaries that come with that), essen ally helping to build a company. I hadn’t done anything like that before.

Hyper Recruitment Soluঞons also won the ঞtle of Recruitment Company of the Year for the second year running at the IRP Awards.

How important is that to you – and the team you work with?

The team makes a massive difference, especially on those days where things aren’t going so well. The same goes for the environment you work in – and that is influenced by training and the posi ve a tude from management down, even when you mess up. I’d heard recruitment was cut-throat, but I’ve never seen that here.

What advice would you give recent recruits into the industry?

Keep posi ve. Keep focused. Recruitment can be very driven by your targets, but remember your team, your business, the sector that you work in – and that you are a part of something bigger.

Membership Department: Membership: 020 7009 2100, Customer Services: 020 7009 2100 Publishers: Redac ve Publishing Ltd, Level 5, 78 Chamber Street, London E1 8BL Tel: 020 7880 6200. www.redac ve.co.uk Editorial: Editor Pip Brooking Pip.Brooking@rec.uk.com. Produc on Editor: Vanessa Townsend Producঞon: Produc on Execu ve: Rachel Young rachel.young@redac ve.co.uk Tel: 020 7880 6209 Prinঞng: Printed by Precision Colour Prin ng © 2020 Recruitment Ma ers. Although every effort is made to ensure accuracy, neither REC, Redac ve Publishing Ltd nor the authors can accept liability for errors or omissions. Views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the REC or Redac ve Publishing Ltd. No responsibility can be accepted for unsolicited manuscripts or transparencies. No reproduc on in whole or part without wri en permission.

www.rec.uk.com

07/01/2020 16:17

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REDWIGWAM ATTRACTS A FLEXIBLE TRIBE

BY COLIN COTTELL

he world of recruitment is awash with companies claiming to be at the cutting edge of technology. But among the many claims and promises made by companies in the sector for the latest software, application or AI-based app, how many are providing candidates and clients with something that is truly innovative and different?

T

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Established just four years ago, could online temporary worker recruitment portal RedWigWam be one staffing company that lives up to the hype?

That is certainly the view of the company’s CEO and founder Lorna Davidson. According to Davidson, the booking portal for temporary workers combines the matching features of an online dating agency with review sites, such as TripAdvisor, to drive up levels of service to candidates and hirers alike, while at the same time responding to the needs of both for greater flexibility.

“The biggest thing about us is that we are using technology, but also recognising that although we are an online business, we are very people-centric,” says Davidson.

At the heart of RedWigWam’s operation, run from the company’s office in Liverpool, is

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UPSTART

““a very cleve clever algorithm”, explains Davidson. “Not only d es it does i match those looking for work with hirers hi based on skills and experiences, but also on attributes, such as how likely they are to turn up for work, and whether they have the disposition to behave in the correct way. A little like a dating site,” says Davidson.

Making the grade Borrowing the idea from review sites, RedWigWam’s allows Wam online platform p hirers to workers.

“After signing the o rate wo rs. “Afte “A timesheet eet off ff,, hirers hirrers will wil w ll grade the work between one-star ve-stars,” explains n one-sta e-sta star starr and an fiv ve Davidson. darken our door son. “One: “One “O One: e: Never Nev d idson. w tterrible. Five: They were again;; they th y were great. them in our resource eat. w put gre re ut the a Can we pool and use them again?” po poo ool a em ag grading The g gr gradi ad d ding ing g ssystem is also used as a way work. “What we say w wa ay ay off allocating allo ti allocat all to them th h ou hem em m iis, is ‘If ‘IIf yo you ou are a four or five-star worker, we we will ll offer you y work first, but if you are one-star then the h hen en ny you will be the last on the list’. So the better you do, the more likely you are to get the work you want.”

Workers who receive a low rating also have the opportunity to discuss it with RedWigWam’s staff. “They will come back and say ‘I was brilliant’, and then we will say ‘Let me tell you what the hirer said’, so it’s a learnin learning process.” Davidson adds: “What it means is that it also tests our algorithm. So if we said, ‘This person is going to be great great’, and they weren’t, what did we get wrong?

So we sort of self-lear self-learn.” Workers can then sign up to e-learning courses offered by RedWigWam aimed at improving their skills.

A recent enhancement to the online portal allow allows workers to grade hi hirers using the same five-star system stem ystem m that th hirers use to rat rrate ate e them. tthe This could be based something as base b ase sed on som small, though apparently sm appa nonetheless important to a nonetheles worker, as not getting a warm welcome or not being told where the bathroom is when they arrive on-site, or the induction not being very good. Or potentially something more serious. In extremis, Davidson says: “It allows us to say to the hirer, ‘Actually we are not sure we want to work with you because of the way you are dealing with our people, and these are the things we would like you to improve

“After signing the timesheet off, hirers will grade the work between one-star and five-stars”

E

TOP TIPS FOR TECHNOLOGY ● Before you invest time and money on the latest ‘must have’ recruitment

technology, ask yourself what problem you are trying to solve. ● At the same time, set yourself some goals and objectives for what you want

to achieve and ask what does success look like? Is it simply cost reduction, or is it metrics, such as improved fill rates? ● Make sure the technology you introduce is people-centric. This is not

just to help your clients and candidates, as well as the staff that have to operate it, but also that it is simple to use, and ideally intuitive. ● Introducing new technology to a company can be incredibly disruptive.

Work out what it will mean for your staff and their existing jobs. ● Can you train up existing staff or do you need to create new roles? Think

about how easy it will be to find people with the right skills, such as developers. ● Consider whether this work needs to be carried out internally, or

outsourced possibly to somewhere cheaper. ● If it means some roles become redundant, work out will happen to those

staff whose jobs are affected. ● Consider who owns the technology. Is it proprietary, or are you reliant on

a third-party supplier, in which case make sure this is a company you are happy to partner with.

before we send somebody else back to you’.”

It’s a course of action that she hopes she won’t have to take. As she points out, in a tight labour market with fewer EU nationals available, and “the worker becoming more dominant”, it is in hirers’ best interests to make themselves as attractive as possible by taking feedback on board.

“As the marketplace becomes more demanding they’re finding it harder to place good people in jobs, the way that they used to. I think hirers are going to have to up their game. They are going to have to be better. We have over 2,000 hirers on the system and it’s more about hirers needing to behave differently to the way they have always behaved,” she explains.

Flexible support Davidson says one of the most important aspects of RedWigWam’s technology is the way that it supports the flexibility that many of the candidates that the company targets, as well as

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hirers, want. “What we are looking for is not people who are seeking a full-time job, but people who want to be able to fit the work in around their life,” says Davidson.

“And because we are online we can be open 24/7, which means that somebody can place an advert late at night, and the worker can start work at 9.30 the next morning,” says Davidson.

With available jobs ranging from just 15 minutes to three months, Davidson says this flexibility is particularly popular among students. Not only do many students work for RedWigWam in their home town, but also when they are away from home studying. “They can literally work when they want to work and for how long,” says Davidson.

Another way that RedWigWam utilises technology to enhance its service is by using facial recognition technology to check people’s right to work in the UK. This can be done remotely on hirers’ sites, giving them

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almost immediate access to a verified pool of foreign nationals.

Paying its workers is another area where Davidson says the company is using technology, in this case automation, to be more responsive to the needs of its workers. As she explains, instead of the traditional weekly payroll, depending on their requirements, workers m can be paid monthly, weekly or even daily.

Litera ally you ou c “Literally can work today and be paid tomorrow, tomorro orrrow w ” says Davidson. tomorrow,” o ffac facili To facilitate this, Davidson explains the system au om automatically adjusts the booking fee that the hirer pays the company when they hire a worker, with a higher booking fee being charged to hirers who choose to pay in 30 days rather than within three. “Quite often they will come back and go ‘No, I will pay in three’,” says Davidson.

Where a hirer fails RedWigWam’s automated credit checks, payment is asked for upfront. edi dit c According to Davidson, all of this is done with Acc Accor virtually no manual intervention from staff. “On a good day, there is none at all,” she says, the only g exceptions ex exceptio on being when there is no worker in the right location, or when there is a disagreement rig loc lo ocati hen the between ween the hirer h r and nd the t worker over the hours worked.

“Otherwise, it’s a complete self-service rked “Otherw “Oth Oth herwise, wise, it system,” says Davidson. tem,” say sa ays ys Davids Da Davidson Davidson David Davi vidson vids son says says the high level of automation allows to employ a relatively allow lowss RedWigWam RedWi R i W small nu number er of 17 1 permanent staff, thereby cutting overheads.

“What we have found is that cut erhea rheads h a we we have have hav h e been able bl to run such a small team because use our system to run our business,” b ca beca au a us use e we w u says Davidson. ayss Dav Da Davidso Alll in all, all by taking some cleaver technology and applying it in a customer-centric way, RedWigWam ap appears to be providing benefits all round. ●

“What we are looking for is not people who are seeking a full-time job, but people who want to fit the work around their life”

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SOCIAL NETWORK WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO? GET IN TOUCH! Whether it’s sponsoring youngsters, sleeping rough or backing the right horse, you’ve certainly been busy since the last Recruiter…

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ERSG RENAMES IRISH HORSE RACE Global recruitment specialist ersg is to sponsor one of the feature races in the Irish horse racing calendar. The ersg Arkle Novice Steeplechase takes place on Saturday 1 February as part of the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown Racecourse.

CASTLE HELPS DEVELOP YORK’S FEMALE FOOTBALLERS Castle Employment is sponsoring York City FC’s Under 12 Girls team, as well as supporting the Regional Talent Club (RTC), which provides player development opportunities for elite female players across the region at U10, U12, U14 and U16.

I NSTAGR AM

ssqlegal Very excited to once again be back in the top 5 of this prestigious list! We are the only recruiter to have been in the top 6 every year since 2010. @recruitermagazine #legalrecruitment #hot100

AON BACKS YOUNG KART RACING DRIVER Aon, a specialist in talent measurement and psychometric assessment for recruitment, selection and development, is supporting kart racing driver Joshua Vallance. The 15-year-old Norfolk driver won the 2019 Motorsport UK WMKC Junior Rotax Championship and is all set to take on the 2020 race season.

HAYS STAFF SLEEP ON THE STREETS TO RAISE MONEY R Recruiting iti giant i tH Hays h has raised i d more th than £28k ffor it its charity h it partner End Youth Homelessness by taking part in Sleep Out events across the UK. Over 60 Hays employees voluntarily spent a night sleeping on the streets in recent weeks to raise awareness of homeless young people in the UK.

gareth_quarry Massive congrats to everyone on an unrivalled decade. Much looking forward to what we can achieve over the next 10. #legalrecruitment #hot100 #londonlawyers #uklegal

@RecruiterMag instagram.com/recruitermagazine/ recruitermagazine.tumblr.com/

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The Workplace

BY GUY HAYWARD

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with Blink. No more email communication, that’s been consigned to history; just our phone or desktop app for workplace messaging to connect to our people.

Creatively and visually, Blink accommodates our internal employee brand perfectly.

We are all trying to improve business performance, building a workplace that helps us perform better at our jobs.

Modern internal communication does that.

Those at the communication platform SnapComms are convinced the best way to do this is by bypassing email completely, as they believe only 50% of all internal communication is read when landing in someone’s inbox.

I believe we should communicate at work as easily as we read a Twitter or Instagram post. We need to read about what’s going on at work on our phone; we then like, share and comment. Quick and easy yet transparent and informed. Whether enjoying a coffee at your desk, popping out for lunch, on our commute to work, our mobile is our best friend.

What better place to embed your approach to internal comms than to tailor it to the mobile world?

Feeling that you are not being heard is the great

“When we see something we like, we share it and interact with the content. You can’t do that with the static information that sits on a corporate intranet” frustration of the modern workplace. Making communication interactive with engaging content solves this. Content that we like we share, and we start interacting with each other. The cycle becomes connected and the sense of belonging created.

From commuting in, to commuting home and everywhere in between we spend over two hours on our mobile phones during a typical working day. If we want to connect and communicate effectively, we need to be part of the daily routine of the people we work with.

That means putting mobile first, the intranet last and providing fresh, relevant content. ●

↗

AN INTRANET – as a tool of communication – has long been redundant and flawed in the modern workplace of today. Actually, so I believe is email, but we will come to that later.

In today’s world, how do we communicate with each other? Instantaneously through our various social media channels and our desperate reliance on instant messaging – real-time information that doesn’t become dated the moment a new day starts. When we see something we like, we share it and we interact with the content. You can’t do that with the tired, static information that sits on a corporate intranet. And because it is difficult to update and maintain, over time we stop using it.

What’s the solution?

Becoming a digital workplace should be a central agenda for us all, and one part of that is how we modernise our communication techniques.

Happeo claims to be the leading digital workplace communication system; Yammer pushes its story that it offers ‘open dynamic communication across businesses’; and Slack claims to ‘bring all your communication together’.

And there are plenty more.

We have chosen to partner

GUY HAYWARD – redefining the modern workplace CEO, Goodman Masson

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WORKPLACE INNOVATION

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BRING ON THE BRILLIANCE Look outside the recruitment mentoring box ↗ SARA AND JOHN GAUGHAN are directors of technology and digital recruiter Finlay James, who spoke with Recruiter’s Colin Cottell

“Whenever I am faced with a problem I don’t look at it from a recruitment perspective”

BY COLIN COTTELL

MENTORING HAS MANY advocates, but it would be hard to find one as passionate as John Gaughan, CEO of global IT, sales and digital recruiter Finlay James.

“My only negative is that I got my first mentor at 48. If had got one at 28, I might have been on the beach by now,” he says.

Praise indeed. However, perhaps what is even more striking is that both John Gaughan’s mentor and that of Sara his wife, who is Finlay James COO, come from outside the recruitment industry.

Sara Gaughan was the first of the two Finlay James directors to sign up for a mentor after being approached by a business support organisation in Manchester two years ago.

However, when she was matched with a qualified dentist, who had set up her own practice, Sara admits she began the relationship with low expectations. “I will be honest with you; I went in there expecting her not to be able to help me because she comes from a completely different sector, and had no knowledge of recruitment whatsoever,” she says.

However, Sara says she soon realised “there were particular bits where my mentor could help me”. Not only was her mentor a woman, but there was also the business angle, where Sara she says was able to draw on her mentor’s experience of scaling up her dentistry business, and selling some of the branches on. “We are so used to working in recruitment that we can’t see the wood for the trees sometimes, but she came up with some simple solutions,” she says.

In the end, Sara says she realised that her mentor’s lack of knowledge of recruitment “was actually an advantage because she could see some of the issues with fresh eyes”.

One example was what to do about a branch that wasn’t performing well. With her mentor having faced a similar situation with one of her dental practices, Sara says the directors took her advice on board and closed the branch.

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“It is probably not something we would have done otherwise but it was actually the best solution,” says Sara.

Although John Gaughan only began the relationship with his mentor, a senior executive from BAE Systems, about 15 months ago, he is equally enthusiastic about the benefits of his mentor coming from outside recruitment. “Most recruitment owners are in some sort of network or peer group, but the problem with that is that very often you are getting fed with the same ideas that you already know,” he explains.

However, having a mentor from outside recruitment gets around that type of ‘group-think’ and has allowed him to look at issues from a fresh perspective. “Where it helped me is that whenever I am faced with a problem I don’t look at it from a recruitment perspective. What he has taught me is to take a broader view,” says John.

John, who meets his mentor once a quarter, says he is also able to draw on his mentor’s experiences of growing a company globally, and of finding leaders who are both strong on the sales side and the management side, both issues that he has wrestled with.

Rather than getting bogged down in in the specifics of recruitment, John says his mentor’s lack of knowledge of recruitment has allowed him to focus on the basics. “It brings it down to in order to be successful you need to make some money, so you need to make the right choices, and you need to scale up, and you need the right people. We just concentrated on strategy,

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ASK THE EXPERT My team is generally happy but it feels like they aren’t taking ownership. Any suggestions?

While employees may never fully share your passion for the business, there is a huge difference between the performance of recruitment businesses where recruiters simply execute their roles and those where the team are all engaged in improving performance.

Given the opportunity and a little encouragement many will become energised by contributing to the company’s (and their) success.

Alex Arnot

Start with the vision

The SME Coach

To contribute effectively to the business employees need to understand where you are trying to get to. Prove the company’s ambition by holding a strategy session to build a three-year plan, including organisational charts and hiring plans, then share the plan with the team.

Scepticism erodes commitment, so encourage questions and ask individuals where their career ambitions lie in line with this growth plan.

Create a meritocratic career path to deliver the plan and support employees to achieve their ambitions through training and coaching. It is then up to individuals to deliver on the areas they need to get promoted, which creates personal accountability and motivation.

Encourage employees to propose their personal targets and how they will attain these (within parameters you set), then hold quarterly Career Meetings (not appraisals) assessing progress against target development areas for promotion. You can always push back and ask them to be more ambitious – Sir Clive Woodward successfully used this strategy of devolving responsibility but maintaining control as coach of England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup winning team.

Generating business improvement ideas

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Devolving responsibility and ownership Giving individuals responsibility for actioning their ideas is fundamental to fostering a culture of ownership that will energise your company. Encourage them to plan the initiative and set both targets and timelines; you can then review these and, if appropriate, sign off. More junior employees may need a mentor to support them while larger projects may require a small working group.

Recognition & reward Recruiters prioritise their core targets, typically maximising revenue. To avoid initiatives ending up on the back burner, embed business improvement into the culture by holding people accountable, recognising effort and rewarding impact.

Recognition can be achieved so many ways: updates celebrating progress on individual initiatives or profile at meetings, for example. Consider introducing ‘Business Improvement Awards’ that recruiters can then add to their CVs and LinkedIn profiles.

Reward can be more challenging. Some companies link business improvement to promotions or pay rises, others offer a percentage of the cost savings or additional profit generated. Create the right culture and you will reap the rewards. ●

↗

While senior management may have a clear idea of where to focus resources, getting the whole team to brainstorm business improvement ideas are more likely get employees to buy into and take ownership of initiatives.

There are many ways to get the team generating and sharing their ideas: • A suggestion box – a box in the office is a physical reminder that encourages people to share ideas. To make it easier still, create a suggestion form: “What could be improved?” “Do you have a suggestion to improve it?”

“Have you costed it?” “Would you like to help make this happen?”.

• Bi-annual brainstorms – dividing your team into groups of 4-8 (mixing levels and teams) to brainstorm ideas will get everyone used to contributing business improvement ideas. Having consolidated suggestions management should invite teams to take ownership of their best idea(s).

ALEX ARNOT is founder of MyNonExec and board adviser to more than 30 recruitment companies

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ard “The most cringy question I’ve heard has to be ‘Sell me this pen’ ” MY BRILLIANT RECRUITMENT CAREER

↗ ANNALEE WOOD Team manager manager, Aspire Recruitment

What was your earliest dream job?

Air stewardess.

What was your first job in recruitment and how did you come into it?

ANNALEE WOOD What’s your top job to fill at the moment?

I walked into Manpower looking for a new opportunity, and was offered a role where I met [Manpower] manager Cheryl Jones.

Business development executives for a mentoring project at a business growth organisation, that helps small business grow by matching them up with a Fortune 500 mentor.

Who is your role model – in life or in recruitment?

What would you regard as your theme tune?

Cheryl – I have worked for her three times now [at different firms]. She’s a true professional. She handles both clients and candidates in a professional but kind way. She’s inspirational, energetic, and creates a buzz around everything she does.

Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey.

What is your signature dish?

Shepherd’s pie.

What would you consider to be the most brilliant moment of your career?

Winning Recruiter’s Investing In Talent Award for Most Inspiring Team Leader/ Manager in 2019.

Laugh or cry, what did your most memorable candidate make you want to do and why?

A candidate who took a facilities role for three hours a day, and was later found hiding in a cupboard so they didn’t have to work.

What do you love most about your current role?

What’s the best or worst interview question you’ve ever heard?

The opportunity to see our candidates flourish.

The most cringy question I've heard has to be “Sell me this pen”.

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CLARICO

AIRSWIFT The global workforce solutions provider for the energy, process and infrastructure sectors has appointed Keith Gee as general counsel based in Houston.

The manufacturing recruitment specialist has appointed Russell Metcalf as managing director to deliver the company’s global strategy. Metcalf officially took over on 1 January, succeeding current MD and owner Jamie Town, who retains ownership of the company and continues in an advisory role.

CONCEPT RESOURCING BERWICK PARTNERS The executive search firm has hired Katie Poxon as principal consultant in its manufacturing and engineering practice. She joins from aviation manufacturing giant Bombardier where she was global executive search talent leader.

40 RECRUITER

The technology, engineering and sales recruiter welcomes Richard Wootton as technology manager of its Milton Keynes branch to help the company expand into new markets.

Red Recruitment, the specialist accountancy, contact centre and office support recruiter, has announced a major shake-up of its board.

Following the resignation of director and shareholder Neil Lewis, who recently left the business, the company, which has offices in Cardiff and Bristol, announced the appointment of two new board members. Jessica Taylor (left) and Helen Warhurst (right) will be joining the board as operations director and finance director respectively, both having been promoted from their current senior leadership roles with Red.

FINLAY JAMES The global technology recruiter has appointed Andrew MacAskill as its new chief commercial officer.

MacAskill, who joins from EO Executives where he had been MD for five years, will sit on the Finlay James board alongside owners John and Sara Gaughan and MD James May.

HORTOR Niall Cook has been promoted from head of Salesforce division to recruitment director at the global recruitment resourcing consultancy.

Email people moves for use online and in print, including a short biography, to recruiter.editorial@redactive.co.uk

Mark Standen is appointed associate director in its global automation practice.

HUNTER BOND The finance and tech recruiter has promoted Ben Woodhouse to director.

Joining Hunter Bond as a consultant, Woodhouse has worked his way up the ranks, most recently to associate director.

HRC RECRUITMENT The Scottish recruiter has appointed Matt Brown as director to lead its expansion

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into the healthcare and hospitality markets. He joins from ASA Recruitment, where he was regional director focusing on the healthcare and hospitality industries.

management firm, while Daryl Stickland joins as a new director, where he will lead the firm’s non-executive director (NED) and chairman practice.

Redactive Publishing Ltd 78 Chamber Street, London E1 8BL 020 7880 6200

CONTACTS EDITORIAL +44 (0)20 7880 7603 Editor DeeDee Doke

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING Recruitment@recruiter.co.uk

+44 (0)20 7880 6215

deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk

HW GLOBAL TALENT PARTNER

RSA GROUP

Rob Pettican joins as finance director. Elsewhere, Jake Slater joins the UK headhunter’s interim practice from its executive search division to support its consumer clients as principal researcher.

The life sciences executive search firm has promoted Kristian Jürgensen to chief commercial officer from managing partner for Germany.

Reporters Colin Cottell, Graham Simons colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk graham.simons@recruiter.co.uk

Contributing writers Mark Maunsell, Sue Weekes Production editor Vanessa Townsend vanessa.townsend@recruiter.co.uk

SPECIALIST PEOPLE SERVICES GROUP (SPS)

Art editor Sarah Auld Picture editor Akin Falope

The transport and logistics recruitment group has appointed Dean Hewitt to a new role within the business – director of international development.

ADVERTISING +44 (0)20 7880 6213 Sales manager Paul Barron paul.barron@redactive.co.uk

+44 (0)20 7880 6231 Senior sales executive Joanna Holmes

PRODUCTION +44 (0)20 7880 6209 Senior production executive Rachel Young rachel.young@redactive.co.uk

PUBLISHING +44 (0)20 7880 8547 Publishing director Aaron Nicholls aaron.nicholls@redactive.co.uk

RECRUITER AWARDS/ INVESTING IN TALENT AWARDS +44 (0)20 7324 2771 eventsteam@redactive.co.uk

joanna.holmes@redactive.co.uk

UNIT4 ISS LABOUR The rail services workforce provider welcomes Simon Higgens MBE to the new role of group business development and strategic partnerships director.

Higgens was CEO of ISS Labour between 2014 and 2017, and will be responsible for identifying supply and partnership opportunities nationwide.

The enterprise application software provider has appointed Hervé Couturier as non-executive director.

YOUR NEXT MOVE A selection of vacancies from recruiter.co.uk Prospero Teaching Health & social care recruitment consultant Essex Pioneer and Beyond Recruiter and headhunter East Sussex JMC Recruitment Solutions Recruitment consultant Devon Competitive salary

NORRIE JOHNSTON RECRUITMENT Rex Cridland has been promoted to MD from director at the global executive search and interim

For more jobs, people moves and career advice go to ● recruiter.co.uk/jobs ● inhouserecruiterjobs.co.uk ● internationalrecruiterjobs.com

CIRCULATION and SUBSCRIPTIONS Recruiter is the leading magazine for recruitment and resourcing professionals. To ensure each issue of Recruiter magazine is delivered to your desk or door, subscribe now at https://subs. recruiter.co.uk/subscribe. Annual subscription rate for 12 issues: £35 UK; £45 Europe and £50 Rest of the world • Recruiter is also available to people who meet our terms of control: http://bit.ly/RecruiterCC • To purchase reprints or multiple copies, or any other enquiries, please contact subs@redactive.co.uk or +44 (0)1580 883844 CONTRIBUTIONS Contributions are invited, but when not accepted will be returned only if accompanied by a fully stamped and addressed envelope. Articles should be emailed. No responsibility can be taken for drawings, photographs or literary contributions during delivery, transmission or in the editor’s hands. © 2020 Redactive Media Group. All rights reserved. This publication (and any part thereof) may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in print or electronic format (including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet) or in any other format in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of Redactive Media Group.

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48-49 PEOPLE MOVES_RECRUITER FEB 2020_Recruiter 41

09/01/2020 09:58

E THE LAST WORD CO M M UNITY

“People know they can see the reward three days later, not in their bank account in three months”

Alan Furley We have found the meaning of ‘less is more’

y business partner Henry and I are aware that our background in sales and recruitment has been mainly about achieving material things – money, cars, houses.

But, increasingly, we have been feeling that this focus is out of touch with our new generation of employees and what they might actually value.

So we decided to explore the team’s intrinsic motivation – what was it that they really wanted? We held our summer conference at the end of July, and we brought in an external consultant for the session to facilitate the conversation.

She helped the team to talk about the times when they had felt – as individuals and as a wider team – they were operating at peak performance levels. This resulted in a lot of discussion about collaboration, working with clarity, being part of something bigger, having

M

42 RECRUITER

clear goals, pride and celebrating success.

The team were then asked what would help to motivate people. A lot of the ideas were about unlimited holiday and shorter weeks, essentially giving everyone more time. This made sense, but was not something we wanted to just throw at them without thinking about how and why.

Henry and I agreed to reflect on the discussion. A week later, we decided to trial a ‘stretch target’ for the following week to have Friday off. The target was roughly 200% off-budget.

We didn’t hit it but came very close; the behavioural change in the office was immediately apparent.

There were much clearer expectations with clients and candidates on prices, avoiding surprises, and this created urgency across the board. It presented alternative options. People were picking up the phone to discuss candidates rather

than send emails in hope.

We were challenging clients on their appetite to hire.

These were things that we’d talked about all year, but never seen happen so consistently across the office, with a real impact on quality.

We realised we had to continue with this approach in some way, so we set a target of around 150% for both interviews and placements to finish at midday on Friday – and it’s really worked.

When we’ve finished early, everyone has chosen their own reward. Some have gone to the pub. Others have napped, cleaned, gone for a walk, played golf or picked up kids from school.

The impact, in the 12 weeks since setting the target compared with 12 weeks before, has been 38% more interviews and 41% more revenue. When we published these results, they even achieved national press coverage in the Daily Mail and The Sun.

But more importantly, the atmosphere in the office seems much more positive.

There is constant talk about what everyone has going on, with greater appetite to help each other. It’s encouraged challenge and innovation.

I think it’s worked so well because it’s a clear, short-term goal, agreed across the office. It’s been set at the sweet spot between ‘stretch’ and ‘achievable’.

People know they can do something better on Tuesday and see the reward three days later, not in their bank account in three months.

And, most importantly, the reward is theirs to choose. They can spend the time however they want – showing that less really is more, and that money, cars and material things are not the only incentives recruiters need to succeed. ●

Alan Furley is a director at ISL Recruitment

FEBRUARY 2020

50 last word_RECRUITER FEB 2020_Recruiter 42

09/01/2020 09:59

83%

Of contractors we surveyed said they have not yet been spoken to about IR35 by the business or businesses they contract for.

MAKE SURE YOUR RECRUITMENT AGENCY IS PREPARED FOR THE CHANGE! With only a few months left to prepare – speak to the experts for a FREE IR35 education session.

Get in touch with our agency support team: 01925 694 521 | agencies@brookson.co.uk | brooksonone.co.uk/recruitermagazine

*Conducted by Brookson Legal, between 15th April 2019 – 30th June 2019. Based on 502 Brookson contractors working in the private sector.

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