Recruiter June 2019 by Redactive Media Group

www.recruiter.co.uk

Business intelligence for recruitment and resourcing professionals

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June 2019

INCORPOR INCORPORATING RATING Recruitm ment Recruitment Matters e

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The rise of the chief growth officer 14/05/2019 14:08

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recruitment industry Described as such by an attendee, see the full list of winners from this year’s Recruiter Awards Allen: a hit at the Awards Comedian Tom Allen spoke to Recruiter about agents and comedy royalty Making the invisible talent pool visible The wife of the founder of Recruiter’s charity of the year on how Astriid can help the industry Start-up of the Month: Iconic Resourcing Hannah Green and Lauren Jow on joining forces in their new recruitment venture This was the month that was... Contracts & Deals

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The rise and rise of the chief growth officer Tech & Tools Augmented intelligence offers the human touch

FEATURES

INCORPORATING Recruitment Matters

18 THE BIG STORY An awards night to remember Coverage of the 2O19 Recruiter Awards, focusing on some of the winners: NES Global Talent, Annapurna’s Charlie Appleyard, Tara Ricks, HRS, VHR and Talent International

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Attracting flexible talent the Flexology way Social Network The Workplace: Guy Hayward Workplace Innovation: Alf Rehn Business Advice: Alex Arnot My brilliant recruitment career: Julia Roberts, GatenbySanderson Movers & Shakers Recruiter contacts The Last Word: Katie George

INTERACTION Viewpoint Steve Shutts, chairman of charity Astriid Soundbites

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

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ill we ever think of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer the same way again? I know I won’t, after hearing and joining in on a spontaneous explosion of a sing-along to the 1986 classic during the Recruiter Awards on 9 May. While it’s a standard in my Saturday morning dance/aerobics class, this particular number has never ever exerted the same impact on any group or event I’ve been part of as it did at the Awards. It was wonderful – a group sing-song that felt the recruitment industry’s full “Will we community power. Astonishing! Could ever think of it have possibly Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a been the deﬁning moment of the 2019 Prayer the Awards? How same way again? I know amazing is that. Our cast of I won’t” winners also hit the ‘amazing’ button on 9 May, with an exciting catalogue of achievements to hand. Plus our Recruiter’s Got Talent performers displayed uncommon skills in entertaining us: I hope we hear more from all of them! And thank you for supporting our Charity of the Year, Astriid. We’ll have more news about Astriid in future issues of Recruiter, and I invite you to have a look at Astriid leader Steve Shutts’ commentary on p16 for a compelling call to action that I hope you’ll answer. Thanks to all of you for making the Recruiter Awards the powerful affirmation of outstanding practice that they are – I can’t wait to do it all again next year!

Oscars of the recruitment industry THE 2019 RECRUITER Awards, held at Grosvenor House in the heart of London’s Mayfair, saw winners pick up trophies in 31 different categories. Comedian Tom Allen hosted the event and dealt brilliantly with a boisterously happy crowd. Technical and engineering recruiter NES Global Talent was a triple award winner, coming out on top in the Most Effective Compliance Operation, Outstanding Outsourced Recruitment Organisation and Recruitment Agency of The Year (250+ employees) categories. And winner of the third Recruitment Impact Award was principal at Elite Leaders, Tara Ricks. Take a look at all the winners and Highly Commended people and companies – and get a ﬂavour of the Awards event overleaf. RECRUITMENT IMPACT AWARD Tara Ricks: Principal, Elite Leaders BEST NEW AGENCY sponsored by Totaljobs Winner: Signify Technology Highly commended: Carestaff Bureau MOST EFFECTIVE BACK OFFICE OPERATION sponsored by IWFM Jobs Winner: Seven Resourcing MOST EFFECTIVE RECRUITMENT MARKETING CAMPAIGN sponsored by The Actuary Jobs Winner: The AA Ready for ANYTHING? Challenge: The AA in partnership with PeopleScout MOST EFFECTIVE COMPLIANCE OPERATION sponsored by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation Winner: NES Global Talent BEST RECRUITMENT AGENCY MARKETING TEAM Winner: Darwin Recruitment Highly commended: Harrington Starr BEST PUBLIC/THIRD SECTOR RECRUITMENT AGENCY sponsored by PF Jobs Winner: Sanctuary Personnel BEST GRADUATE RECRUITMENT STRATEGY Winner: Discovery Portal: Accenture in partnership with Capp & Co BEST APPRENTICE/SCHOOL LEAVER RECRUITMENT STRATEGY sponsored by Irwin Mitchell Winner: Greene King BEST CANDIDATE CARE Winner: Service Care Solutions

DeeDee Doke, Editor

BEST CLIENT SERVICE Winner: The Barton Partnership

BEST CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE Winner: Building What Matters: Engineering Exceptional Candidate Experience: Atkins in partnership with Amberjack BEST BANKING/FINANCIAL SERVICES RECRUITMENT AGENCY sponsored by NatWest Winner: Morgan McKinley BEST ENGINEERING RECRUITMENT AGENCY sponsored by CIBSE Jobs Winner: VHR Highly commended: The Green Recruitment Company BEST IT/TECHNOLOGY RECRUITMENT AGENCY Winner: Talent International BEST PROFESSIONAL SERVICES RECRUITMENT AGENCY Winner: Annapurna Recruitment BEST INTERNATIONAL RECRUITMENT AGENCY sponsored by 6CATS International Winner: VHR Highly commended: Amoria Bond, Talent International BEST TEMPORARY RECRUITMENT AGENCY sponsored by The Recruit Venture Group Winner: ASAP Pertemps MOST EFFECTIVE EMPLOYER BRAND DEVELOPMENT Winner: Love your everyday: Bupa Dental Care in partnership with Blackbridge Communications RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION OF THE YEAR Winner: Hinterview IN-HOUSE INNOVATION IN RECRUITMENT Winner: Student Recruitment Reimagined: PwC in partnership with Amberjack

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UPDATE

38,058 FOLLOWERS AS OF 15 MAY 2019

OUTSTANDING OUTSOURCED RECRUITMENT ORGANISATION Winner: NES Global Talent Highly commended: Omni RMS RECRUITMENT AGENCY OF THE YEAR – MICRO (UP TO 10 EMPLOYEES) sponsored by Class People Winner: MLC Partners Highly commended: BOWER Talent RECRUITMENT AGENCY OF THE YEAR – SMALL (11-49 EMPLOYEES) sponsored by Recruitment Investment Winner: Hyper Recruitment Solutions (HRS) RECRUITMENT AGENCY OF THE YEAR – MEDIUM (50-249 EMPLOYEES) sponsored by CV-Library Winner: Amoria Bond RECRUITMENT AGENCY OF THE YEAR – LARGE (250+ EMPLOYEES) sponsored by Zodeq Winner: NES Global Talent RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR sponsored by Recruiter Jobs Winner: Saville Assessment RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR Winner: Toby Babb: CEO, Harrington Starr Highly commended: Robert Chingwalu: Owner/Manager, East Point Care; Nina Lockwood: Founder/Director, Intuitive Interim & Exec Search IN-HOUSE RECRUITMENT LEADER OF THE YEAR Winner: Craig Morgans: Head of Talent Acquisition, HR Shared Services, Learning & Development, The AA AGENCY RECRUITMENT LEADER OF THE YEAR Winner: Charlie Appleyard: Director, Annapurna Recruitment Highly commended: Sasza Bandiera: Managing Director, Oyster Partnership; Raj Tulsiani: CEO/Co-Founder, Green Park BEST IN-HOUSE RECRUITMENT TEAM Winner: JCB • For more on the awards and to read why the winners won, visit www.recruiterawards.co.uk

TWITTER @RickyMartin247 And there we have it.... @Hyperec_HRS are now a multi award winning agency! I couldn’t be more proud of every single member of this life-changing business! Biggest awards in the recruitment industry #HRS #RecruiterAwards @volcanicuk HUGE congrats to all the winners from last nights #RecruiterAwards. We felt so proud to see so many Volcanic client winners, we would mention you all in this tweet but there are too many of you! So we’ve given you all a shoutout here instead... @NeavesAndNeat We had a wonderful evening at the Recruiter Awards yesterday! Unfortunately we didn’t win but so delighted to have been shortlisted and send our congratulations to all the winners! @RecruiterAwards #RecruiterShortlister

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Comedian Allen a hit at Awards BY COLIN COTTELL

COMEDIAN, WRITER AND actor Tom Allen encountered a boisterous but good-humoured audience at Grosvenor House when he hosted the Recruiter Awards on 9 May. At one stage he even joined in as the crowd launched into an impromptu rendition of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On a Prayer. Allen began his career in stand up before winning both So You Think You’re Funny in Edinburgh and the BBC Comedy Awards in the same year. He currently hosts Channel 4’s Bake Off: The Professionals. All that experience certainly stood him in good stead as he regaled recruiters with his unique style of acerbic wit and hyperbolic story telling. Asked before he went on stage what he felt about following in the footsteps of comedy royalty such as Dara O’Briain and Michael McIntyre, previous hosts at the Recruiter Awards, he quipped: “They have such lovely shoes.” No stranger to job interviews, and the difference between what you really think and what you actually end up saying, Allen said: “People always ask what are you going to be in ﬁve years’ time, and I always think I will probably be dead – although that sounds a bit morbid!” Recruiters, who have had to smile through gritted teeth at candidates’ poor attempts at humour, will be pleased to hear that even Allen, a professional comedian, wouldn’t impose a series of jokes on a potential recruiter. “I wouldn’t launch into a series of one-liners. People might think you are a bit odd.” As for any enterprising recruiter who is thinking about setting up a recruitment agency for comedians, Allen had news for them. “I think we already do [have them] they are called agents.” Sharing the same agent, Off The Kerb, as Michael McIntyre and Dara O’Briain, Allen’s message was clear: don’t give up the day job to start such an agency. “I am very loyal to mine,” he said.

Marno has the talent IT WAS A glimpse at what could have been with PMP Recruitment’s Kieran Marno at the Recruiter Awards. After scooping the Recruiter’s Got Talent award and a £500 Virgin Experience voucher with his rendition of Take That’s Nobody Else, Marno revealed he had been a professional musician in a previous life before turning his hand to recruitment. The huge Pink Floyd fan had intended to play live on the night before the logistics of it proved impossible, but Marno is keen to get back on stage next year. “I think it’s a great add-on to the event, and I hope next year they can get us there to do it live on stage,” he told Recruiter. “I’ve had a fantastic evening, I’ve really enjoyed it, and what a venue.” The ﬁnal shortlist on the night also featured singer Faye Howe from Green Park, and the singer-pianist duo of Taylor West and Claudine Eastwood from Harrington Starr.

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THOUGHTS FROM… THE AWARDS

UPDATE

GREG ALLEN GLOBAL HEAD OF TALENT ACQU ISI T ION LLOYDS REG IST ER

“Fundamentally brilliant. There is a lot of diversity winning the awards and a lot of diversity in the room.”

ROBERT WOODFORD FO UND ER AND RECRU ITMENT MARKETING CO NSULTANT, THE MARKETING JU NC TION

“It just put it into perspective how great our industry is, coming together to enjoy a great night out.”

SYBILLE STEINER PARTNER IRWIN MITCH EL L

“B Brilliant, I am really enjoying it. It’s my third enjoy year, yea and every year it seems to get better.” se

TAR A RICKS WINNE R OF THE IMPAC T AWARD

“I am surprised, delighted and honoured. The Recruiter Awards are the awards of the sector so to be recognised for your contribution is humbling. I am thrilled.”

Astriid: Making the invisible talent pool visible BY VANESSA TOWNSEND

REPRESENTING RECRUITER’S CHARITY of the Year Astriid at the Awards was Joanne Self-Shutts, the wife of founder David Shutts who died a year ago. Astriid bridges the gap between businesses and skilled people with long-term health issues, supporting the invisible talent pool by finding them flexible work. It was bittersweet for Self-Shutts, as 9 May was their wedding anniversary. Joanne Self-Shutts “It helped being there,” she later told Recruiter. (right) with her best friend Emma “It was a good reason not to sit at home feeling Patterson at sorry for myself as he [David] would most the Awards certainly have been there on the night.” And she added: “It was like the Oscars for the recruitment industry!” The silent auction on the night offered around 50 different objects, experiences and works of art to bid for, and Self-Shutts herself bid for and won a limited edition print, raising money for Astriid. The final total of funds raised for Astriid was still not known at press deadline last week. Her message for recruiters was simple: there are so many people with incredible skills who can’t give 100% in a full-time job but still want to work. “If you can give someone [with long-term health problems] employment – paid or unpaid work – you have no idea what a difference it can make to that person.”

I M AG E S | I STOC K / PA L HA N S EN

STA RT-UP OF THE MONTH ICONIC RESOURCING Hannah Green and Lauren Jow, who together have 26 years-plus experience in the recruitment sector, have joined forces to launch Glasgow-based professional services staffing specialist and executive search firm Iconic Resourcing. Speaking to Recruiter, Green said their combined experience would be a unique selling proposition for the business. Green’s career has included eight-and-a-half years at Scottish recruitment giant Search Consultancy, and Jow’s included eight years at global recruitment and talent consultancy firm Hudson.

“We’ve got length and breadth of experience between us so we are using that as a niche,” Green said. “We’ve come from two specialist backgrounds and joined forces. Quite often you get people who have come from one agency who set up together, whereas we have come from two different backgrounds.” Jow added: “We like to think we’re bringing the best of both together.” Green added Iconic would seek to stand out in the market by offering consultants they hire a relaxed environment and flexible hours. To candidates and clients alike, they offer a true partnership approach to

help them meet their goals, while e the duo plans to take a hands-on approach to recruiting for their clients. Looking ahead, Jow revealed the agency would seek to extend its reach beyond the initial sectors of HR, accountancy and finance to legal, sales & marketing and technology. They will also add value for clients through senior leadership consultations, and seminars and coaching in areas such as eliminating unconscious bias in a bid to improve diversity at clients’ organisations. WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 7

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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 May issue of Recruiter was published A P R I L •‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒→

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AGENCY WORKERS FIGHT CLAIM AGAINST STAFFING AGENCY AND ROYAL MAIL

EMMERDALE ACTRESS SACKING HIGHLIGHTS CANDIDATE NAIVETY WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

A law firm is pursuing a group action campaign against Angard Staffing Solutions and Royal Mail Group. Angard Staffing Solutions employees, who have been engaged as agents for Royal Mail, lodged claims in the Leeds Employment Tribunal through Irwin Mitchell, who served these claims on both Angard and Royal Mail. Irwin Mitchell is representing a group of 50 agency workers claiming unequal treatment. The law firm called on other individuals who feel they have faced the same treatment to come forward and join the claim. Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, agency workers have a right to no less favourable treatment compared to employees who are employed by the end user (in this case, Royal Mail). They have the right to the same treatment as comparable employees with respect to basic employment and working conditions, once they have completed a qualifying period of 12 weeks in a particular job. This covers issues such as bonuses, annual leave, rest breaks, night work and paid time off from ante-natal appointments. Additionally, agency workers have day one rights to be treated the same as a comparable worker in relation to access to collective facilities and amenities provided by the hirer to direct hires, including gym facilities, access to staff canteen or similar facilities, transport services and childcare facilities such as access to a crèche. When contacted by Recruiter, a Royal Mail spokesperson said: “This case is currently subject to live litigation; as such it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time.” More: https://bit.ly/2IFPc8b

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RECRUITMENT GROUP TO TRIAL 4-DAY WEEK AT UK AND EUROPEBASED OFFICES A Brighton-headquartered recruiter has announced plans to trial a four-day working week. Technology and financial specialist MRL Consulting Group revealed that from mid-May, it will be closed on a Friday – but staff will still receive the same salaries and benefits. The business also has offices in France and Germany, which will also both change to a four-day week next month. CEO David Stone said: “We have a clear desire to enlarge our team of world-class consultants. And to attract and retain the best people, we need to be a world-class employer. “There are some incredible people that work for MRL, and I want us to give back to them – to make their lives better, easier and more fulfilling. We have the training in place, excellent packages and limitless career opportunities, but this is about wellness and minimising the things that can cause stress, anxiety and depression. “I don’t want to hire people who just want to work a four-day week; I want to hire people who are good enough to do five days of work in four.” As a result of the change, the agency’s employees will receive an additional 47 fully paid days off per year. “Other firms that have implemented a four-day policy have seen significant productivity gains, and not just stood still,” said Stone.

Recruiters should ensure their terms and conditions can effectively deal with situations where candidates’ social media posts come back to bite them in the recruitment process. The warning follows Shila Iqbal’s recent appearance on ITV’s This Morning in which the former Emmerdale actress claimed she shouldn’t have been fired by the ITV soap over historical racist and homophobic tweets she posted, but suspended instead. Iqbal, who played Aiesha Richards in the soap, was sacked over the posts earlier this month. At the time of her dismissal, Iqbal apologised for using “inappropriate language” in tweets she had sent in 2013. Peter Wright, director at DigitalLaw, told Recruiter agencies need to ensure their terms and conditions can deal with situations where candidates have been found to have made such posts. Meanwhile Yvonne Gallagher, employment partner at law firm Harbottle & Lewis, added employers were entitled to distance themselves from behaviour that brings them into disrepute or suggests that they might in any way condone such conduct. But Beverley Sunderland, managing director of Crossland Employment Solicitors, said cases were more problematic if an employee had posted such tweets before taking up a new job. Anna Byford, employment lawyer at Kemp Little, told Recruiter while the merits of each case would depend on specific facts, given the high profile nature and reputation of Emmerdale and the nature of the views Iqbal shared, the tweets are relevant to her employment despite their historical age.

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

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IM AGES | ISTOCK / SHUT T ERSTOCK / ALAM Y / C ARM E N VAL I N O

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WHO WERE THE WINNERS IN THIS YEAR’S RECRUITER AWARDS? The Recruiter Awards, held at the Grosvenor House in the heart of London’s Mayfair on 9 May, saw winners pick up awards in 31 different categories. Take a look to see who the winners and Highly Commended were. More: https://bit.ly/2PZYM7z

DAYS

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RISE IN EMPLOYEE EXPECTATIONS AS GENEROUS BENEFITS INCREASE

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RECRUITERS WARNED ‘DADDY DAY CARE’ TAUNTS COULD LEAD TO POTENTIAL HARASSMENT CASES As some fathers face ‘banter’ for taking time off to look after their kids, recruiters have been warned to put in policies in place to prevent being brought to tribunal. The warning follows research commissioned by communications software company PowWowNow, which shows nearly half (44%) of fathers have experienced discrimination in the workplace after exercising their right to take time off to look after their child. The research also shows one in four fathers suffered verbal abuse or mockery after taking time off to look after their child, while more than a third (35%) of new dads experienced a negative impact on their career after exercising their right to parental leave. Of these, 17% suffered job loss and nearly 20% received a demotion. David Whincup, partner at law firm Squire Patton Boggs, told Recruiter agency bosses cannot simply turn down statutory paternity leave due to the potential cost to the business brought about by reduced billings from the consultant in question. Meanwhile Christopher Tutton, partner at law firm Synchrony Law, told Recruiter agency bosses should have policies in place outlining what is unacceptable with regard to ‘banter’ about fathers taking time off to look after their children. “If I was running a recruitment business, I would want to have published policies and training for staff so they know that sort of thing is unacceptable. It’s easy for jokey comments about ‘Daddy Day Care and changing nappies’ and stuff like that to upset people and to overstep the mark. “It would be potential harassment and unlawful discrimination so you need to be telling staff not to do it and getting the policies in place and thinking about training so people are alive to the issue.”

As companies increase staff perks as a way to keep workers engaged, employees’ expectations are also rising, with some now taking much for granted instead of valuing the benefits. While the culture at identification verification software company Onfido is defined by behaviours, values and attitudes, for instance, and not by “pool tables, ping pong, beers in the fridge”, director of talent ZeShaan Shamsi reported in an industry panel discussion on Wednesday (1 May) that generous benefits can fuel expectations. As an example, Shamsi said: “We’ve got avocados in the kitchen. But if they’re not there, you get, ‘Where are the avocados?’.” The challenge to the company is to demonstrate that the organisation is in business to deliver products and make money, and “not a service” focused only on pleasing its employees, he said. However, new joiners at Onfido are valued, and are thanked for coming on board and told, ‘You are the solution to our problem’. Shamsi said that the newcomer will be the solution to a problem of either capability or capacity and is told, ‘The culture is now you’. The event was hosted by food tech business Feedr and moderated by its CEO and co-founder Riya Grover. More: https://bit.ly/2LCopgb

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

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WINNERS SHINE AT 2019 RECRUITER AWARDS NES Global Talent was a triple winner at the Recruiter Awards 2019 on 9 May. The technical and engineering recruiter won in the Most Effective Compliance Operation, Outstanding Outsourced Recruitment Organisation and Recruitment Agency of The Year (250+ employees) categories at the event, held in London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. Congratulations to all of our winners and thanks to everyone who attended and followed the evening events from afar, which also included the presenting talents of comedian Tom Allen, Recruiter’s Got Talent performances, a silent auction in aid of Recruiter’s charity of the year ASTRiiD, as well as the great and the good of the industry singing their hearts out for a successive year in Rockaoke. More: https://bit. ly/2Vjp8lZ

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CONTRACTS

CONTRACTS & DEALS

Key Skills Education A £70k funding line has been secured by London-based education recruitment agency Key Skills Education from invoice finance specialist Gener8 Finance to enable Key Skills to expand its offering nationwide. East London-based Key Skills was established in 2010, and places teachers and teaching assistants into schools and education centres across London and the home counties, on longterm and permanent placements.

AMN Healthcare Services US healthcare workforce and staffing services specialist AMN Healthcare Services has entered into an agreement to acquire Advanced Medical Personnel Services. The purchase price is $200m (£153m), with up to an additional $20m to be paid based on Advanced’s 2019 financial performance.

Capita Crown Commercial Services, the government procurement agency, has awarded business outsourcing provider Capita a place on its new recruitment framework, covering candidate sourcing and processing for permanent positions across government departments. Executive search will be delivered via Capita’s Veredus brand under the agreement.

TempaGoGo TempaGoGo has raised £150k seed funding from unnamed angel investors to boost its expansion this year and expand its reach to clients and recruitment agencies. Launched in 2018, the online marketplace connects companies looking to hire temporary staff with recruitment agencies providing temporary candidates.

C Challenge Group Recruitment and distribution company Challenge Group has acquired logistics firm TRG Logistics for an undisclosed sum. The deal sees the two companies merge to become Challenge TRG Group, with current TRG CEO Nick Gordon and TRG MD Steve Imber continuing in their roles, as well as becoming shareholders in the newly-formed business. Challenge TRG Group will have a combined turnover of £120m, employing around 4,000 temporary workers and 150 permanent employees.

DEAL OF THE MONTH

Approach Personnel Nottingham-based Elizabeth Michael Associates has been sold to construction, civil engineering, shopfitting, interiors, office and industrial recruiter Approach Personnel for an undisclosed sevenfigure sum, with help from Fraser Brown Solicitors. Approach Personnel, founded in 1991, recruits across administration, accountancy, customer services

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and contact centres, logistics, procurement, sales, business development and HR. Fraser Brown corporate lawyer Tom Gray and assistant solicitor Hannah Raven advised John Hyde on the transaction. Roger Harcourt at Shakespeare Martineau solicitors and Trevor Witts at APC Accountants also acted on the transaction advising Approach Personnel.

HR GO Recruitment Recruitment and business services provider HR GO Recruitment has won a contract to supply temporary agency workers to Ashford Borough Council for the next five years. The roles are for essential services such as cleaning, clerical, customer services, community safety, housekeeping, facilities, payments, planning and welfare.

More contract news at recruiter.co.uk/news 15/05/2019 17:23

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INSIGHT

THE RISE AND RISE OF THE CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER Changing consumer behaviour driven by the digital economy means that business can no longer rely on traditional methods of growth BY MATTHEW PITT

t is precisely this nexus between the private and the professional that is providing companies across all sectors with an ongoing challenge: consumers are behaving differently and that means companies must respond. Keeping sales and marketing operating in separate silos just isn’t working anymore. Digital needs to be part of the equation too. Then there’s the whole question of customer insights and data analytics… Enter the chief growth officer. Often mistaken for a trendily re-badged chief marketing officer (CMO), the CGO typically has a far more wide-ranging remit. In short, they’re responsible for exploring every which way that a business can expand. But as with any newly fashionable job title, the speciﬁcs are interpreted differently across the market. Having worked on a number of CGO and related searches over the past few months, executive search ﬁrm Wilbury Stratton shines a light on the evolution of this new corporate role.

When is a CGO not a CGO? One of our most recent searches involved identifying talent across 14 target companies. Of these, eight (57%) had a CGO or equivalent already in place. But if these businesses embraced the theory of the CGO, they didn’t necessarily embrace the job title. Some opted for the moniker chief revenue officer or even head of revenue development. We also came across not 12 RECRUITER

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one but two chief accelerator officers. We expect a growing uniformity to assert itself over the next few years, with one or other title – probably CGO itself – becoming commonplace and the others falling into disuse.

How does the CGO role differ between companies? One of the reasons the de facto CGO may be known by a plethora of titles is because various job holders are each doing slightly different roles. In short, some CGOs are more equal than others. The areas of responsibility that most typically impinge on a CGO are sales, marketing, research & development, corporate development, digital and even mergers & acquisitions. Of the businesses studied in one of our recent projects, we found that 21% had all or almost all of these functions within their mandate. Other companies, though, parcel out these responsibilities among multiple executives – although not the traditional ones you might imagine. For instance, one company we investigated had created both a CGO and a chief revenue & e-commerce officer, with the latter holding responsibility for e-commerce and the broader sales team. Levels of inﬂuence also differ. Most often the CMO either reports into the CGO or is demonstrably less senior in the business. However, we found a couple of companies where the CGO-equivalent sat on the same level as the CMO, with the two acting (not necessarily harmoniously) as peers.

General reception of CGO role within the business Overall perception of the CGO is based less upon business theory and more upon the performance of the individual (or individuals) currently representing that function. Sources in companies seeing promising growth across multiple channels generally provided the most positive comments. By contrast, in companies where the CGO incumbent was doing less well, we encountered more disparaging comments – not just about the individual but also the overall theory underpinning the CGO designation. Significantly, it was the marketers who were the least enthusiastic, and most suspicious, of the CGO role. This was especially the case in those firms that retain a traditional CMO with a continuing presence on the executive committee. In such instances, sources felt marketing’s influence was in danger of being diluted or unreasonably second-guessed. It is our opinion that such suspicion is in most cases unjustified, based as it seems to be upon a misunderstanding of what a CGO actually does. Those sources that were more IM AGE | GET T Y

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T R E N DS

INSIGHT

POWER POINTS

Ultimate organisational design for CGO function? For every CMO who resents the existence of the CGO, there is another

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↗

supportive of the CGO role emphasised its potential to create both disruption (in a good sense) and greater convergence. Digital leaders in particular supported this view, seeing the role’s positioning as an opportunity to create a different sort of relationship with the decentralised business units.

who fully understands and supports the role. Similarly, we encountered chief data officers (CDOs) who see CGOs as something of an intrusion. The obvious question that emerges is: how do you model your company to ensure maximum inﬂuence and effectiveness for all three job holders? Unfortunately, there does not yet seem to be any prevailing model that answers this question. We saw various reporting lines and peer relationships and such a multiplicity of arguments for and against each that it is difficult, if not impossible, to speak about industry best practice. One of our sources described the CGO as “the chief customer advocate”. In a world where the consumer is more empowered than ever, that deﬁnition seems perfectly judged. But the advance of technology is unstoppable, so we can expect the consumer to become more, not less, powerful over the coming years. So the CGO is here to stay. The challenge for every business is to hire the right talent into the role and set it up for optimum success. ●

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In a recent search across 14 target companies, eight (57%) had a CGO or equivalent already in place. However, some opted for the moniker chief revenue officer or even head of revenue development, and there were two chief accelerator officers. The areas of responsibility that most typically impinge on a CGO are sales, marketing, R&D, corporate development, digital and even M&As; 21% had all or almost all of these functions within their mandate.

Overall perception of the CGO is based less upon business theory and more upon the performance of the individual (or individuals) currently representing that function.

It still seems too early to have a definitive model that answers the question of how to ensure maximum influence and effectiveness for the CGO, CMO and CDO within a company. The challenge is to see how the roles play out as time passes.

MATTHEW PITT is head of research at international competitive intelligence and executive search firm Wilbury Stratton

The Recruit Venture Group hands you, on a plate, the exact resources you need to succeed and help is there throughout. Scott Saunders SaVi Recruitment Ltd. 01977 52 94 74

www.recruitventures.com

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T R E N DS

TECH & TOOLS

Recruitment gets augmented Augmented intelligence offers the human touch SUE WEEKES

While there are still concerns about algorithmic bias, artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to make the recruitment process more streamlined, helping to uncover hard-to-find talent. The most successful applications of AI, however, will be those that combine its use with a mix of tools and technologies to gain a more holistic picture of a candidate and their fit for a role. Picked.ai is one of first platforms to use data-led profiles that pull in a broad range of information about a candidate and match them to potential employers via an AI-based recommendation engine.

DRIVING DEVELOPMENT? In a previous role at a digital marketing agency, Picked.ai founder Guy Thornton said the company’s brand wasn’t big enough to attract the best talent. “When jobs boards and aggregators failed, we used traditional recruiters, which produced some results, but the cost was huge for a small company.” Hence he decided to take a digital marketplace approach and use technologies such as artificial and augmented intelligence (see below) to enable small and medium-sized companies as well as bigger brands to directly engage with talent. Picked.ai is initially focusing on the

graduate market and tech, marketing, finance and sales roles.

SHOULD WE TRUST AI? Concerns are still being raised as to whether a machine can find the best person for a role. Thornton agrees that if AI was used as the “only” onboarding, matching and hiring technology in a platform, both the talent and employers would have reservations about its ability to succeed. “Indeed, I too have reservations as the nature of AI is that it improves with time. Our approach is not to rely on AI but to harness it, along with other technology and data-driven profiles to support and reinforce

human decisions,” he says.

HOW DOES IT WORK? Picked.ai makes use of high-resolution digital passports designed to replace traditional CVs, which feature far more information about candidates. These include psychometric and personality testing data, as well as information on what drives the individual, their attitudes and working style. Job ads, meanwhile, are replaced with digital shopping lists, which provide requirement mapping across areas such as attitude, aptitude, experience and culture. The technology behind the platform gives a percentage match in

THE OTHER AI: AUGMENTED INTELLIGENCE So how does augmented intelligence different from artificial intelligence? In short, it is described as a complement or support to human intelligence rather than a replacement. It has been cynically suggested that it is a vehicle for making artificial intelligence more acceptable but it works in a more assistive way and reinforces human intelligence rather than displaces it. I M AG E | I STO C K

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real-time and, if both sides want to take it further, they can communicate across instant messaging within the platform.

REVENUE MODEL Picked.ai is free for candidates, while employers pay a “success fee” on placement but nothing if they don’t make an appointment. Picked.ai helps employers create hubs for their job roles; Glassdoor integration allows them to pull in the best reviews, and they can also import images. A sliding scale tool shows how much an employer could potentially save on a placement by using Picked.ai based on salary. There are also profiles of real candidates on the site who have been recruited by employers with the cost-savings indicated (based on average placement fees).

FASTER, BETTER RECRUITMENT Earlier this year, Recruiter explained how the HireVue platform was combining video interviewing, gamification and predictive analytics with AI to improve the recruitment process. Picked.ai joins a growing rank of platforms, which are joining up technologies to make major improvements to the recruitment process. Thornton believes that traditional techniques have failed to harness the power of technology, remaining too inefficient and time-consuming. So far, it says typical times from sourcing through to interviewing and hiring on Picked.ai have been as little as 13 days but be believes this can be improved upon: “It’s time for same-day delivery to come to recruitment.” ●

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INTE R AC TIO N

VIEWPOINT

Thanks for voting for us! For charities, every penny counts BY STEVE SHUTTS

eing voted Recruiter’s Charity of the Year, for the second time, recognises that the role we play – that of connecting people with long-term health conditions to companies that need talent, skill and experience – is a vital adjunct to this industry.

B Our role

Astriid is a unique charity, with the mission to provide meaningful work for people with long-term health conditions and their caregivers. Founded by my brother, the late David Shutts OBE (above, right), following his experiences of inoperable stage four cancer, the charity connects skilled people with any chronic illness and their care-givers, to businesses looking for talent to fill flexible paid or voluntary roles. Following his diagnosis, David soon discovered just how much work offers in terms of self-worth, self-esteem and social interaction – much more than financial reward. He realised millions of others must feel the same. His treatment and experience provided the inspiration to found Astriid – a ground-breaking non-profit organisation aimed at helping people affected by chronic health conditions find meaningful employment, while offering businesses the chance to benefit from their unique experiences. His research identified an overwhelming need for Astriid due to the following reasons: ● the growing number of working age people living with a health condition + ● the UK skills crisis ● the positive impact working has on STEVE SHUTTS is chairman health/well-being of Astriid ● business benefits of a diverse workforce. With help from global CRM software

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giant Salesforce, David created a ﬁrst-of-its kind technology that matches professionals with long-term health problems to businesses seeking talent.

Invisible talent pool At the heart of Astriid is the mechanism to make the invisible visible – a unique online job matching platform where jobseekers describe their skills, how/when they can work; employers list their available work; and Astriid connects them. Astriid estimates this remarkable, untapped community of skilled UK professionals to exceed 7m. A simple, yet innovative proposition: ● Free to join for anyone in the UK with any long-term illness (or caregiver); cancer, MS to COPD or stroke survivors ● Nationwide businesses of all sizes and sector are invited to sign-up; currently spanning technology, law, HR and more – NHS Trusts to world-leading engineering consultancies ● Paid or voluntary roles are posted at no cost ● Participating businesses donate to Astriid once a candidate is secured and through fundraising activities.

The year ahead Crucial to the delivery of its goals are Astriid’s partners and volunteer army, with Recruiter and its readership taking an active part in amplifying our message and scaling our reach. David lived and breathed Astriid during the last six months of his life until his death in May 2018. Passing the baton to me, as Astriid chairman, David’s legacy will be the world embracing the ‘new normal’ for which he worked so hard to create the foundations. As we implement our plans for 2019/20 the contribution made by the recruitment industry will be vital. We always have room for more volunteers – people with skill and passion who can help spread our message, recruit partner businesses, and facilitate discussion on the creation of suitable, flexible roles. Beyond that we need to professionalise our charity, which requires a formal fundraising campaign. Key partners like Salesforce have committed staff action to raise significant sums this year. Can your business do the same? The money raised will be used directly bring more people back to the workforce, and that is a business benefit that is really worth the effort. Thank you, recruiters! ●

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I N T E R AC T I O N

SOUNDBITES

L ET T ER S/ WEB CHAT

GIVE US MORE GOOD NEWS STORIES! Just read your article ‘Homeless man lands job and somewhere to live thanks to Good Samaritan’ (recruiter. co.uk, 12 April). That’s a great story. Thanks for sharing. ALI NEILL

FOUR-DAY WEEKS? YES PLEASE! In response to your article ‘Recruitment group to trial 4-day week at UK and Europe-based offices’, (recruiter.co.uk, 24 April), what a great idea! Lots of firms are doing it; it was on the BBC the other day about a company in New Zealand doing it. Fair play to them! Wish we had something like this. BILLY ASHLEY

CEST TOOL CONTROVERSY: ANOTHER SHAMBLES IN THE MAKING BY HMRC I read your article ‘Arguments rage in war of words surrounding HS2 contractors and IR35’ (recruiter.co.uk, 9 May) with interest. This is another shambles in the making by HMRC. They have been consistently losing IR35 cases, so how can they say “CEST was rigorously tested against known case law and settled cases. It is accurate and HMRC stands by the result if the tool is used correctly”? They have already attacked freelancers re: the Loancharge and this is going to destroy freelancing in the UK. Electoral suicide... ARTHUR

How much tax and NI has been avoided? It could have funded the NHS for one year. SHAKTHI THAMBI

What’s the best piece of business advice that you have ever received? HOLLY ADDISON H EA D OF CON S UMER D IG I TA L , T R AV EL A N D H OS P I TA L I T Y, O D G E R S BERN DT S ON

“The best piece of advice in business I ever received was from someone who has now become a trusted mentor. She told me to be clear where I drew my energy from, to focus on that and become brilliant at it, instead of being distracted by too many other things. I realised that although I enjoy many aspects of my job, what really inspires me is working at a strategic level with CEOs, company founders and HR directors to build and develop their talent and leadership teams. I keep focused and always put it at the core of what I do.”

TONY GOODWIN G ROUP CEO & CH A I RMA N , A N TA L IN T ERN AT I ON A L & A N TA L IN T ERN AT I ON A L N ET WORK

“ ‘Tony, people won’t necessarily see the opportunities (or the problems) as you see them.’ This was given to me by someone in the Sunday Times Rich List top 200 whom I had written to, seeking their advice. I interpreted this as both a blessing and a huge frustration: a blessing insofar as no one had yet seen the potential of Russia, China, India, CEE and Africa for recruitment services; and frustrating because I had to keep explaining, demonstrating, cajoling and educating people as to my vision. Vision is great; execution and implementation of that vision is a whole different ball game, which is why most businesses fail.”

GAVIN WHITE MD, AUTOT ECH RECRUIT

“I met James Osborne, chairman of the Recruitment Network, in the mid 00s. At a time when recruitment companies were stretching themselves across every possible industry, boutique agencies – with an ‘inchwide, mile-deep’ approach – were popping up. James’ message that it was important to ‘keep it simple, don’t digress from the sector you are working within, and penetrate it as hard as you can’, resonated with me. The idea of an agency dedicated to the automotive aftermarket, particularly centred around temporary vehicle technicians and MOT testers, was already an idea, but after founding Autotech Recruit in 2010, sticking to this philosophy helped us meet the demands of an industry with many recruitment challenges.” WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 17

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15/05/2019 17:24

THE BIG STORY

AN AWARDS NIGHT TO REMEMBER The evening of the 2019 Recruiter Awards was a memorable occasion, not only for the winners and all those who were shortlisted, but also for the great job done by the host, comedian Tom Allen, and the entire Grosvenor House Great Ballroom’s impromptu a cappella rendition of Bon Jovi’s classic Livin’ on a Prayer! Recruiter caught up with a few of the winners on the night. First up, Colin Cottell spoke to three-time winner NES Global Talent he biggest single winner at the 2019 Recruiter Awards, taking home three glittering trophies was NES Global Talent. The Manchester-headquartered recruiter with offices in 58 countries around the globe won the Recruitment Agency of the Year Award – Large (more than 250 employees). NES also picked up awards for Most Effective Compliance Operation and Outstanding

Outsourced Recruitment Organisation. Up against the likes of Hays Recruitment, Morson International and Robert Walters, the judges described the company’s entry for Recruitment Agency of the Year as having “an excellent mix of strong growth, customer service, learning & development and diversity & inclusion”. Notably for a large company, the judges said they “liked

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the focus on helping and developing individuals so they can grow and develop within the ﬁrm”. Set against the backdrop of a downturn in the oil & gas market, which has been the mainstay of the company business throughout its 40-year history, the judges praised the company for its “exceptional levels of agility, tenacity and resilience”. Even against a backdrop of

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uncertainty, the company has made seven acquisitions in the past ﬁve years, grown its annual revenue to $1.2bn (£927m), and increased its contractor count to a record 10,500, taking market share from its competitors in the process. The company has also made signiﬁcant progress in reducing its reliance on oil & gas by successfully expanding into o other areas, particularly power, chemicals and life sciences.

Strong culture Stephen Buckley, NES Global Talent’ss CFO told Recruiter, “There is no one silver bullet” behind the company’ss success. “We just do a lot of things right. We focus on everything. It’s about excellence of execution in every erry area of our business.” Buckley says NES’s culture plays a huge part in the he e company’s success. “The key is the concept of one ﬁrm and one company, an ny, and the culture here is very strong. Itt is a meritocracy where people get on. Itt is a huge sharing culture and one based ed d on collaboration.” Company COO Simon Coton says NES’s 850+ employees are at the heart arrt of maintaining that culture. “I joined ed d as a recruiter in 1985 and worked my way through every role in the business, and there are lots of other people like me, who have got NES in their core.” With many company offices located ted in Muslim countries and throughout ut the Middle East, Buckley said the company puts a lot of effort into striking the right balance between local traditions, customs and ways of e life and the NES way. “Obviously, we are respectful of different religions,

NES Global Talent collect their Outstanding Outsourced Recruitment Organisation award from judge Gregory Allen (left) WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 19

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THE BIG STORY cultures, holidays and work times,” Buckley said, “but the way we use systems, the way we manage people, our approach to clients and contractors is absolutely the same. It is one business.” Coton says the ﬁrm’s office in Kuala Lumpur, one of its major hubs, is a good example. Although staffed mainly by local Malaysians, with the help of a few expats, Coton says it is NES’s culture that pervades the office. “And the staff absolutely embrace it,” he adds. One factor driving this ‘one ﬁrm’ ethos is the movement of people around the business. “Lots of people who started here in the UK then moved out to other offices or regions, and have taken that culture with them. They understand the business and are able to ensure that there is the same culture of excellence and performance in new offices, new regions and new locations,” says Coton.

Customer service An example of excellent customer service picked out by the judges involved the merger of a company client with another oil & gas company. Although given only six weeks’ notice, NES successfully doubled the size of its own team to meet the hiring needs of the client, who had doubled in size to almost 80,000 staff. The client praised NES for keeping agency hires – and costs – below 1% and maintaining 95% hiring manager satisfaction “in a very challenging environment”. The emphasis on serving clients and contractors pervades the whole company, says Buckley. With overall responsibility for payroll, Buckley says that if there are two or more contractor complaints a month, he personally follows up with the complainants. The company also carries out monthly surveys of contractors and clients. Compliance is an important area for the company. “We have to be ‘whiter than white’, so we make sure we do things properly,” says Coton. The company employs 20 dedicated compliance personnel delivering expertise in areas such as commercial &

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reports on the gender split at different levels for each region are now a scheduled item on the company’s board meeting agenda.

People matter

NES GLOBAL TALENT Founded 1978 as Northenden Engineering Services Employs 850+ Annual revenue $1.2bn (£927m) Offices globally 58 legal and data protection from six locations around the world to ensure it is up to speed on the intricacies of regional legislation, enabling it to support its clients wherever in the world their project may be. Rather than compliance being just one person’s responsibility, the accountability is shared across the commercial & legal team, assignment support, ﬁnance, operations and the executive management team. Particularly impressing the judges was its efforts to improve diversity & inclusion both internally and among its clients, particularly in the energy sector, where women have historically been under-represented. “We are very focused on working with our clients proactively to overcome some of the industry challenges,” says Coton. Among the company’s D&I initiatives was a survey of 1,000 female engineers, becoming a founding member of Pink Petro, an organisation dedicated to advancing women in the energy sector, and holding an event for HR managers in Aberdeen. The company was also involved in the recruitment drive to train the ﬁrst female driving instructor in Saudi Arabia. Although 51% of all staff are female, the company realises that women remain under-represented at senior level. To help drive this change,

Investing in its own staff is also a priority. The company introduced a career development framework for every employee, launched an online learning management system, and partnered with the University of Houston to create a graduate scheme aimed at building a pipeline of recruitment talent. “The quality of people and their development is absolutely critical to the success of the business, so we really do invest in our staff because at the end of the day we don’t have a product,” says Coton. Indeed, its willingness to invest in its people and to provide them with opportunities is what Buckley is the most proud of about the company. “You go into our offices around the world and you see people, some of them who will have come from the Manchester head office. Generally speaking they won’t have gone to university, but they are very good at what they do. They jumped on the plane, and they have taken the opportunity to really develop themselves and to change the lives of themselves and their families. From a personal point of view that gives you a massive sense of satisfaction and achievement.” Despite its success in coming through the last few difficult years, Buckley said the company is determined not to rest on its laurels: “We need to make sure we are top of the game, and remain top of the game, and that we don’t look back, but look forward.” The ambition is double-digit organic growth every year, along with further acquisitions, isitions, says Buckley. Selective office e openings will also continue, with two penned in for Europe this summer. On track rack to achieve its ambitious proﬁts targett of $100m by 2020, don’t be surprised rised to see the biggest winner at this year’s Recruiterr Awards back on the Grosvenor venor House stage in the none too distant nt future.

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www.investingintalent.co.uk L@RecruiterAwards | #investingintalent | +44(0) 20 7324 2764

AWARDS ENQUIRIES: Lauren Tandon T: +44 (0) 20 7324 2764 E: lauren.tandon@redactive.co.uk

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SPONSORSHIP ENQUIRIES: Paul Barron T: +44 (0) 20 7880 6213 E: paul.barron@redactive.co.uk

15/05/2019 11:27

THE BIG STORY

ENTHUSIASM AND BELIEF DRIVES APPLEYARD The respect and admiration in whic which ch he Y ear Agency Recruitment Leader of the Year gue es Charlie Appleyard is held by his colleag colleagues ee at Annapurna Recruitment was plain to ssee “I WENT BACK to the table and everyone was crying. It was pretty emotional,” Appleyard tells Recruiter. That respect has no doubt been heightened by Appleyard’s diagnosis of early onset Parkinson’s disease in 2016, something that he says “has made me a better person”. “I am a lot more positive these days, a lot more grateful for what I have got. I don’t get stressed or worry about things like net proﬁt, billing ﬁgures or productivity. These are still things I really care about but they don’t keep me awake at night because I realise there are more important things in life.” Appleyard is quick to credit his business partners James Ballard and Nigel Fox, and the rest of the management and staff at Annapurna for their contributions to his award. “It’s easier to lead a very good business than an unsuccessful company, and this is a great company,” he says. However, this modestly clearly downplays his own huge contribution

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to the company’s ompany’s success, which h in in tthe he space off just 10 years has seen it grow from three directors to 80+ staff working globally, with offices in London and Munich, and profits topping £1m for the first time in 2018. Among Appleyard’s many achievements are the creation of Annapurna’s High Performance Programme to give new employees the chance to optimise their business capabilities at an earlier stage, the use of technology and running monthly sessions for staff on how to manage their finances. And in 2014, he also came up with the idea of creating a charitable arm for the business, Annapurna Giving. Commenting on Appleyard’s leadership the Awards judges, said: “Charlie showed a passionate belief in how to run a modern community-led recruitment business. His enthusiasm about how he drives his beliefs through his company was clear to all the judges.”

Charlie Appleyard (centre) was a popular winner on the night

Ask Asked ked d wha what h t it it takes tto o be b an effective leader in a rec leader recruitment ruitment i agency whose raison d’etre is to do much more than simply ﬁnd candidates for clients, but to be a true partner, Appleyard says emotional intelligence has “to be a real core part” – be that with customers, candidates, business partners or employees. At the heart of Appleyard’s philosophy is a commitment to the company’s staff. “Everyone has problems at certain times, everyone has different lumps and bumps along the way, so you really have to look after your staff, and we are a very compassionate company, and we have helped every single person we have ever employed. “However,” he continues, “having compassion doesn’t mean you haven’t got objectivity. I am a very ﬁrm but fair manager. I look after my people but I can also make strong decisions when needed when it’s for the future success of the business.”

The Recruit Venture Group allow you to make the leap without ﬁnancial worry, there are no ﬁnancial restrictions holding you back. Patrick Wilson Wilson Recruitment Ltd. 01604 80 85 55

www.recruitventures.com

JUNE 2019

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RECRUITER AWARDS 2019

DIGGING IN FOR SUCCESS Recruitment is ty, everyone’s responsibility, winning construction rer equipment manufacturer JCB’s recruitment business partner told Colin Cottell TAKING THE RECRUITMENT effort to the entire company was the key to JCB successfully hiring more than 100 trained engineers under challenging conditions, according to Jason Gracey, recruitment business partner at JCB, winner of the Best In-House Recruitment Team Award at the 2019 Recruiter Awards. Faced with an industry-wide shortage of trained engineers, and despite its relatively remote location in n rural Staffordshire that can be a barrier er to attracting talent, the company beatt its target of 80 within a four-month period, allowing it to continue vital engine technology development work.. “Recruitment is not just our responsibility, it is everyone’s – that iss something we encouraged from the outset,” Gracey told Recruiter. Key to making the campaign a success was involving all the senior stakeholders – the managing directors of the business units who had a requirement for these engineers – as well as their teams in the attraction and selection, “for example, by making sure we advertised in trade magazines”. “Instead of relying on the JCB recruitment team,” Gracey said, “hiring managers used their network to share the opportunities within JCB.” These networks included LinkedIn, other social media, recommended friends, ex-colleagues and people who knew people. “That was what was behind the success in getting all those design and

The JCB in-house recruitment team picked up the final award of the night

development engineers in place,” said Gracey. The in-house team subsequently built on the success of this campaign campaig g gn by securing signiﬁcant capital investment to develop a new careers rs website and an online tracking system. tem. Launched in September 2018, the objective of the two-way portal – accessible by candidates, departmental ntal heads and interviewers – was to increase engagement and time spent nt on the site, increase the numbers of visitors and the number of applications. The ﬁgures are impressive with visitor numbers averaging 8,000 a month compared to 5,000 previously, and time spent on each visit up by 50%.

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E THE EARPIECE BIG STORY CO M M UNITY

CELEBRATING LIFE CHANGERS Hyper Recruitment Solutions’ founder Ricky Martin is proud of his life-changing people, as he tells Graham Simons FOR HYPER RECRUITMENT Solutions, winning Recruitment Agency of the Year Award – Small (11-49 employees) is a celebration of the ‘life changers’ at the science and tech agency, according to former Apprentice winner, and HRS founder and managing director Ricky Martin. Speaking to Recruiter, Martin said recruiters in general are life changers because they enable people to change career or let them do what they want to do at work. But recruiters in his sector in particular earn that descriptor. “HRS recruiters speciﬁcally are life changers because we actually put people into jobs that make drugs that change and save lives; so fundamentally, we change lives and help them to save them,” Martin said. “It’s It s a celebration of life changers g

because it’s alright me sitting here and telling the guys that actually what you are doing is making an impact on people, that what you are doing is helping drugs to be made and lives to be saved – but to be awarded the recognition has brought out that everything we are doing is having an impact and is recognised by experts and industry pioneers.” Awards judges also praised HRS for its commitment to investing in its people. An example: one of his ﬁrst trainees told him she would have to leave the business as she wanted to move back to Edinburgh. But Martin realised that she was committed to HRS and the only thing preventing her from staying with the company was their lack of a presence in Scotland. Consequently, q y, M Martin chose to set up p

HRS Scotland and the recruiter in question remained with the business. Another initiative that drew the attention of the judges was the HRS Annual Awards. The awards recognise areas of the business such as newcomers, support staff, teams of the year, sales successes and personal development. An example of the latter could involve a move for a consultant outside the comfort zone of a desk on which they made a lot of commission for a new role in an entirely new area of the business. And of course, the Awards have an added unique selling proposition in the form of Martin’s business partner Lord Alan Sugar, who presents the HRS company awards alongside Martin. “He’s actively involved in the event and has been every year we’ve run it. It’s one of the USPs about working with us – yes, he’s involved; no, he doesn’t recruit day-to-day but he will be there every year to recognise what we are doing and backing what we’re doing in every y sense of the word.” .

Ricky Martin (fifth (fifth from left ft) and his team of HRS life changers

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16/05/2019 11:21

RECRUITER AWARDS 2019

Talent International picked up Best IT/Technology Recruitment Agency

TALENT RISE INTEGRAL TO FIRM’S SUCCESS Helping young people into meaningful careers has contributed to Talent International’s success at this year’s Awards. Graham Simons reports TALENT INTERNATIONAL EMEA was founded by Richard Earl and Jon Butterfield and is owned by Talent International Holdings, founded by Earl in 1995. It operates across the globe with 17 offices from San Francisco to Sydney. Talent’s entry for Best IT/Technology Recruitment Agency was particularly praised by Award judges for its launch of the Talent RISE foundation that aims to tackle youth unemployment. Talent RISE was first established in Australia as a not-for-profit public company in November 2014 and was subsequently rolled out across that country and then into New Zealand. Work began on establishing Talent RISE in the UK in August 2018. “We think it’s a crying shame that the potential of so many young people, both in the UK and globally, is going to waste,” Butterfield told Recruiter.

“In the UK there are almost 800,000 young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) and many more stuck in dead-end jobs simply because they don’t have the knowledge or networks to climb the ladder. This all comes at a cost to young people and society as a whole. “At the same time access to talent is one of the biggest challenges faced by digital and technology employers, which for us shows a fundamental disconnect between supply and demand.” Butterﬁeld revealed Talent RISE has now placed more than 170 young people into meaningful employment and has engaged and supported over 2,400 through workshops, career insight days, training sessions and coaching. But many young people on the programme have lost conﬁdence in the

system, Butterfield explains, making it vital that trust is rebuilt and support is ongoing. For this reason, Talent RISE provides support for up to six months after placement, reducing the chances of candidates leaving the process and ensuring employers have peace of mind that help is available if needed. And while Butterfield is clear that the primary objective of the programme is that it helps young people and the digital community, Talent benefits through the staff ’s having a greater sense of purpose. An example of UK success is Ronnie from Brixton. “He’s had some trouble in his past, and several of his friends have been victims of knife crime,” Butterfield said. “Yet from the moment we met him he showed a huge hunger and determination to put all that behind him. So much so that we offered him a job in our London office where he’s now a valued part of the team.” While the programme’s initial focus has been in the capital, Talent RISE has also been launched in locations such as Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham.

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THE BIG STORY RICKS MAKES AN IMPACT IN MALEDOMINATED WORLD Recruitment champion Tara Ricks spoke to Colin Cottell about her contribution to the industry

The VHR team picks up its award for Best Engineering Recruitment Agency

ETHICAL TREATMENT, EXPERT TRAINING Developing experts from within that can recruit the VHR way helped the agency win in two categories at this year’s Awards. Graham Simons investigates THE WINNERS OF Best Engineering Recruitment Agency and Best International Recruitment Agency received particular praise for launching the VHR Academy in January 2018. VHR CEO Danny Brooks explains the Academy launched to address difficulties in ﬁnding good recruitment consultants; the agency is London-based, and aviation experts tend to be based across the south coast of England and in the North-West. VHR is looking for people who have either a background in sales or in the sectors the agency recruits across, which include aviation & aerospace, Formula 1 & automotive, marine and engineering & defence. Depending on their experience, recruits then receive training in sales and recruitment practices or industry sectors across the spectrum of the VHR portfolio. In the month following the launch of the Academy, Brooks revealed the agency made 199 contract placements and ﬁve permanent placements – the

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best ever month for the number of placements made. VHR was also praised by the judges for its dedication to working only with clients around the world who are committed to ethical treatment of candidates and contractors. “We recruit them ourselves,” Brooks said of their candidates and contractors. “They do not pay any fees to be recruited. When they are brought into the UAE, for example, they are met by a member of staff. Our member of staff will take them to [their lodgings], which provides them with accommodation of twin share with their own bathroom, kitchen and lounge, and utilities. Their apartments are cleaned daily and they are looked after. “From our point of view, we check every stage of the process from recruitment all the way through to delivery … We will only deal with companies that will allow us to provide workers with good accommodation and a fair standard of living.”

THE WINNER OF the Recruitment Impact Award has told Recruiter that championing women in the industry counts as one of her proudest achievements. Tara Ricks, a principal at recruitment business consultancy Elite Leaders, was recognised for contributions to the industry during a 30-year career that is still going strong. “Leading a business in what was actually a very male-dominated world and still is – albeit it things are much better – I think my contribution has been to champion women, and to help create an environment where they can continue to contribute to the industry, and build viable and very strong career paths,” Ricks told Recruiter. “Being a real champion of women in the industry has certainly been one of my main contributions.” As a principal at Elite Leaders, Ricks provides non-exec and board advisory services to mainly SME recruitment companies. “The really enjoyable thing is being able to leverage all my experience in the industry to support recruitment businesses, to add value, and to help them to achieve their goals and scale their businesses.” Ricks says she still has ambitions “to help people see the value of diversity in their business, the beneﬁts of ﬂexible working and to help them think more laterally”.

Tara Ricks receives her award from Recruiter editor DeeDee Doke and host Tom Allen

JUNE 2019

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THE VIEW AND THE INTELLIGENC E

Making a difference for recruiters P2 BIG TALKING PO INT

Getting to grips with the Good Work Plan P4 LEGAL UPDATE

RECRUITMENT MATTERS

IR35: the latest developments P6 Issue 74 June 2019

TR AINING

How training can drive growth P8

AC C E SS TO TAL ENT

The REC signs up to Lift the Ban on asylum seekers’ right to work T

he Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) has signed up to the Lift the Ban Coalition, which is calling for the right to work for those seeking asylum. The coalition, led by Refugee Action and Asylum Matters, consists of over 150 charities, faith groups, businesses and unions (including TUC, Church of England, Ben & Jerry’s, and the CBI). People seeking asylum in the UK are effectively prohibited from working. They can only apply to the Home Ofﬁce for permission to work if they have been waiting for a decision on their asylum claim for over 12 months and even then only for jobs that are on the government’s restricted (and restrictive) Shortage Occupation List. People seeking refugee status can wait years for a decision on their

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asylum claim. Meanwhile, they live on just £5.39 per day, struggling to support themselves and their families, while the government wastes the talents of thousands of people. The UK has one of the most restrictive policies at a time when employers are struggling to recruit the labour and skills they need. No other European country enforces a minimum 12-month waiting period. This is equally true of Canada and the US. If the UK were to adopt a six-

“People seeking refugee status can wait years for a decision on their asylum claim. Meanwhile, they live on just £5.39 per day”

month waiting period, unrestricted by the Shortage Occupation List, it would go from being an outlier to joining the international mainstream. “Removing the barriers to employment faced by people seeking asylum to the UK isn’t just the right thing to do – it would deliver economic beneﬁts and widen the labour pool for employers,” said Sophie Wingﬁeld, REC head of policy. “REC data has found that the availability of candidates for both permanent and temporary roles has declined every month since the start of 2013. At the same time, demand for staff from employers has increased on the previous month, every month since 2010. “With candidate shortages across the UK economy, even before the UK has left the EU, UK business cannot afford to discriminate against such a large talent pool.” Chris Russell, REC policy advisor

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L E A D I N G T H E I N D U S T RY

the view...

We need to ensure the industry has a strong voice to help the good recruiters to win, says TOM HADLEY, REC director of policy and professional services

It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it, says

NEIL CARBERRY, REC chief executive

he REC has always taken its role as the voice of the recruitment industry seriously – in the media, with government, with the wider business community. Alongside helping members to grow and developing good practice in the industry, it’s one of the core ways we support brilliant recruitment. The big challenge with this kind of role, though, is how to make sure you are listened to – not just heard. That means having messages that make a difference. Fact-based, but brought to life in the right way and within context. How you tell your story is just as important as the story itself. For us, that means focusing in depth on some key themes that run through all of our work, not trying to have a view on everything – or seeking media coverage for coverage’s sake. When we do something, it should have a persuasive and meaningful outcome. Our four key themes are: • Showing that good work and flexibility go hand-in-hand – The good work agenda is here to stay, so we should show the world how we contribute to it as an industry. • Demonstrating the value of our sector to the UK economy – This is a £35bn industry, but it contributes far more than that when we take the client growth we enable into account. We want to shout about that. • Ensuring a level-playing field – We need to make sure that firms who play by the rules and their clients can prosper. Whether that is on IR35 changes, the apprenticeship levy or prompt payment, the REC will stand up for fair treatment. • Leading the way on the future of jobs – The REC will be an important voice for optimism about what can be achieved, and clear-eyed about the challenges to be faced in getting there, whether that is in how we help you to help clients or how we speak to government on your behalf. These four principles will be at the heart of our lobbying and media work and help us to set out what you do in the positive and optimistic light it deserves. Now and in the years to come. And don’t forget, with our AGM coming up on 20 June, members have a chance to vote for council members who will help shape where the REC goes next. Use your vote to help us get the right mix of elected people, with the right knowledge and experience. Those members eligible to vote will have received their online ballots and voting closes on18 June. If you want to keep up to speed with all things recruitment, then follow me on Twitter @RECNeil

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HADLEY ’ S C O MMENT

An environment to thrive At the heart of our campaigning work is a very simple aim: we want the good guys to win! Ensuring a workable regulatory environment and level playing field for compliant businesses is a big part of this. Although Brexit-related uncertainty has occupied minds over recent months, we need to remain on the front foot to meet a number of other external challenges head-on. Here’s the game-plan: • Influence the priority issues for recruiters – The focus here is on driving a proactive solution-focused approach to our work with various government departments to achieve workable outcomes on hot topics as diverse as IR35 implementation, immigration policy, public procurement and regulatory changes linked to the government’s ‘Good Work Plan’. • Ensure a fair deal for great recruiters – This is a key focus for our campaigning too, and it means continuing our push for effective government enforcement, as well as driving REC compliance activities and client awareness through the Good Recruitment Campaign. • Navigate the political uncertainty – The core aim of our ongoing regional Brexit workshops and webinars is to pre-empt potential Brexit scenarios and to look beyond the politics at practical ways for recruiters to build more strategic relationships with clients at a time when workforce planning is the number one show in town. As well as positioning our industry’s voice at the forefront of some of the most topical political and social challenges facing the country (inclusion, productivity, growth, automation and the future of work), our focus is on influencing the immediate issues that matter most to recruiters. Data and ‘stories’ are key to making our case which is why the input from REC members will always be the life-blood of our campaigning activities. There has never been a more important time to ensure a strong collective voice for the industry. Together, let’s create the environment for great recruiters to thrive.

You can follow Tom on Twitter @hadleyscomment

www.rec.uk.com

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56%

the intelligence... Building strategic relationships with clients

In a survey of REC members in February 2019, the majority of respondents (56%) identiﬁed the need to gear up in order to provide more strategic advice to clients as the most important priority ahead of Brexit.

BY THALIA IOANNIDOU, RESEARCH MANAGER

ow often do you have strategic conversations with your clients? The ability to do so is essential for remaining competitive and winning new business. Economic and political developments since the Brexit referendum in June 2016 have highlighted more than ever the need for recruitment businesses to be well-informed of labour market conditions, so they can pass that insight on to clients. Employers’ confidence in the prospects for the UK economy has deteriorated in recent months and the outlook on the UK jobs market has remained uncertain. In light of this, an increasing number of clients are asking for advice on strategic planning. From workforce skills transformation and ways to increase productivity, to technological advances and new approaches to candidate attraction, employers seek recruiters’ guidance on ways to overcome challenges and grow their business. Responding to this call, in a survey of REC members in February 2019, the majority of respondents (56%) identified the need to gear up in order to provide more strategic advice to clients as the most important priority ahead of Brexit. Similarly, in another survey in March 2019, three in five recruitment businesses (60%) stressed that building more strategic relationships with clients was their main organisational priority when looking beyond Brexit. Meanwhile, skills sourcing and geographical expertise is of particular significance to employers; according to

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2.30%

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60% the REC’s monthly ‘JobsOutlook’, employers have consistently cited this criterion as one of the most important when selecting their recruitment agency partners. A lack of jobs market awareness and a reduced ability to offer advice on workforce planning to clients would greatly undermine the credibility of a recruitment business with prospective clients, and hinder relationships with existing ones. By monitoring regularly and understanding the implications of

The latest information from Recruitment Industry Benchmarking’s RIB Index shows that the median industry recruiter is seeing a slowing in year-onyear (YoY) growth in turnover from temporary placements. Set into historical context, the average

Nearly two thirds stressed that building more strategic relationships with clients was their main organisational priority when looking beyond Brexit..

changes in the jobs market – including staff availability, skills shortages, ﬂexible work and technology – recruiters can increase their ability to offer strategic advice to clients and compete effectively. Contact us to subscribe to the REC’s monthly ‘JobsOutlook’ and ‘Report on Jobs’ to ﬁnd out about the latest jobs market developments and how these can affect your recruitment business.

monthly YoY growth across 2017 was 9%, whilst across 2018 it averaged 5.4%. As we await data for the March to complete the Q1 2019 picture, a comparison with just January and February data in 2017 and 2018 shows that 2019’s YoY growth ﬁgure was lower than the ﬁgures

of 5.1% and 4.9%, respectively, recorded for the preceding years. As market uncertainty is set to continue, the importance of benchmarking performance against other recruiters to maximise performance cannot be underestimated.

2 0 Q1

Q2 Q3 2017

Q2 Q3 2018

Q4 Jan/Feb 2019

Average monthly YoY growth in turnover from temporary placements

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BELINDA JOHNSON runs employment research consultancy, Worklab, and is Associate Knowledge & Insight Director of Recruitment Industry Benchmarking (RIB). The RIB Index provides bespoke conﬁdential reports on industry benchmarks and trends. See www.ribindex.com; info@ribindex.com: 020 8544 9807. The RIB is a strategic partner of the REC.

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GOOD WORK PLAN

big talking point

Championing fair and decent work The government has outlined its plan to future-proof the UK’s world-leading labour market. Here’s what you need to know

t the very end of last year – amid the chaos around Brexit – the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Greg Clark presented a paper to Parliament that should have just as big an impact on recruiters and how they work: the government’s ‘Good Work Plan’. This ground-breaking work puts forward a vision for the future of the UK labour market, which “rewards people for hard work, that celebrates good employers and that is ambitious about boosting productivity and earning potential in the UK”. In it, the government commits to a wide range of policy and legislative changes to ensure that workers can access fair and decent work, that both employers and workers have the clarity they need to understand their employment relationships, and that the enforcement system is fair and ﬁt for purpose. And the government has promised to work closely with business, employers and those representing them to implement the changes.

Why is this happening now? No one can argue that the world of work is changing – thanks in particular to technological advances. New ways of

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working and doing business are emerging. New employment models are finding their feet. The UK labour market is adapting to keep up. But to stay competitive, it needs to do so effectively. While the government wants to embrace the benefits of change and recognises the strength of the UK’s flexible workforce, it has a keen eye on workers’ rights. That’s been highlighted in the prime minister’s commitment to not just maintain workers’ rights when the UK leaves the EU but enhance them. These dynamics led to the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices, and four further consultations into employment status, increasing transparency, agency workers and enforcement. The Good Work Plan brings together all this work.

The principles of good work Matthew Taylor was critical of “one-sided flexibility” in the labour market, where some businesses have transferred too much business risk to the individual agency or gig economy workers, sometimes at the detriment of their financial security and personal well-being. But good quality work means different things to different people. Some value flexibility, for others it’s higher pay or the opportunity to progress. To reflect this, the government’s approach follows five principles: • Satisfaction – By providing better jobs, employers will be better able to attract and retain the talent they need; by boosting transparency around job quality, individuals can make better choices about work that suits their needs. • Fair pay – The government has an aspiration to end low

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GOOD WORK PLAN

CHANGES TO WATCH OUT FOR Itemised payslips From 6 April 2019, all workers (not just employees) have been entitled to receive a payslip. This must document any variation in pay across the time worked.

pay. It is also targeting policy around tips and other discretionary payments for service. And of particular interest to recruiters, it is legislating to improve transparency around payment, as well as changes to holiday pay reference periods. • Participation and progression – The government wants to ensure everyone has the basic skills they need to enter the labour market in the first place, but people also need to have a realistic scope for development and fulfilment. • Well-being, safety and security – Happy and engaged employees experience less workplace stress and are more productive. The Good Work Plan emphasises the importance of mental health initiatives. • Voice and autonomy – The importance of employee engagement once again comes to the fore. The government is investing in improving the tribunal system (and raising fines for any aggravated breaches). It is also set to make the Information and Consultation regulations more accessible. These provide a mechanism for employee views to be taken into account on major workforce reforms, such as restructuring. By spelling out these principles, it becomes even clearer that recruiters have a key role in delivering the Good Work Plan, and helping employers play their part. The REC has been engaging with the government from the outset to ensure that the recruitment industry’s voice has been heard. It supported many of the principles and recommendations in the Taylor Review, particularly the emphasis on transparency. Now, as legislation is introduced, it is working to ensure the government guidance is clear and works for recruiters.

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The introduction of a key information document From April 2020, employment businesses will be required to provide work-seekers with a ‘key information’ document before terms are agreed between the employment business and the work-seeker. This includes: • the type of contract a worker is employed under • the minimum rate of pay that they can expect • how they are to be paid • if they are paid through an intermediary company • any deductions or fees that will be taken • an estimate or an example of what this means for their take home pay. The principle behind the legislation is to increase transparency for the workseeker on what they will be paid where there are other intermediaries in the supply chain – for instance, when an umbrella company is involved. Swedish Derogation As expected following the Taylor Review, the government conﬁrmed in December that they would abolish socalled Swedish Derogation contracts – which currently allow agency works to trade off equal pay for pay between assignments before terminating the contract – from April 2020. Written statement From April 2020, an amendment to the Employment Rights Act 1996 will mean that work-seekers are also entitled to a written statement about their employment status, days and times required to work, remuneration (not just pay), entitlements such as training, sick leave and maternity/

paternity leave, duration of contract, notice and probation periods, from day one of their employment. Holiday pay legislation and guidance The government is currently campaigning to promote the entitlement to holiday pay and has made guidance available to workers and businesses to assist with calculating holiday pay entitlement for irregular hours. From April 2020, the holiday pay reference period will increase the pay reference period from 12 to 52 weeks (or time worked, if less than 52 weeks). Future Legislation Finally, in the Good Work Plan the government made several proposals for future legislation or regulative changes. These are part of its drive to update employment law in the UK to better reﬂect and keep up with changes in the labour market and workplace. A number of these proposals are likely to impact on the recruitment sector including the intention to regulate umbrella companies, legislation to clarify and align employment and tax status, and the right to request a more stable and predictable contract. Along with this, we are likely to see consultations on proposals to tackle “one sided ﬂexibility” looking at legislation to enforce payment for cancelled shifts and reasonable notice periods. The REC will continue to update and consult members on all these changes, alongside continued engagement with government.

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IR35 CHANGES

legal update

Off-payroll rules By LEWINA FARRELL – REC head of legal services

he off-payroll rules were introduced into the public sector in April 2017. The government is now consulting on extending those rules (with some amendments) into the private sector from 6 April 2020. Though draft legislation is not expected until summer 2019, here are some key proposals. The government proposes that the off-payroll rules will not apply where the end user client is a small company. The government is consulting on what tests to apply for non-corporate entities. Where organisations are exempt, the existing IR35 rules (where the intermediary is responsible for applying the rules) will continue to apply. When an organisation becomes or ceases to be

MAKING WORK PAY KAY INGRAM, LEBC GROUP

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small in an accounting period, od, for the purposes of the off-payroll yroll rules that change will applyy from the start of the tax year ear following the end of that period. eriod. Under the proposals, clients nts will have to pass their IR35 status decision, and their reasons for coming to that decision, to the off-payroll worker as well as the party they contract with. Where there is more than one agency, each party will have to pass the IR35 status decision down the chain. In addition, the consultation proposes a client-led status disagreement process. We expect that a minimum set of requirements will be set out in the legislation. There are a couple of different points to consider regarding liability. Firstly, where the fee-payer is off-shore, the fee-payer’s responsibilities move up the supply chain to the next UK based entity.

The British Medical Association has highlighted that senior doctors are turning down extra NHS shifts for fear of large tax bills, which mean they would take home less than 33% of pay. This Treasury-inspired own goal has resulted from the complex rules, which tax the pension savings of higher earners. Other public sector workers are affected, as well as many middle and high earners with long service in deﬁned beneﬁt pensions. Those

Secondly, the government proposes that the liability should initially rest with the party that has failed to fulfil its obligations until such time as it does meet its obligations, at which point liability moves down the chain. However, if HMRC are unable to collect the outstanding tax liability from a party, the consultation proposes that the liability should transfer back to the first party or agency in the chain, and if that fails, then HMRC will pursue the client. The consultation does not propose personal liability for directors, office holders or associates of the fee-payer. fee payer. Clients should sho start to assess how they will be affected by these changes. They should also assess who among their contractor population might be popula affected affecte and decide how to respond to this. Clients resp identify who within must id organisation should their org make the status decisions and ensure that those individuals understand how to assess status. Agencies will have to ensure that they have the payroll capabilities to manage payments to contractors (we know from the public sector roll-out that this is not straightforward and some agencies have incurred significant development costs). The proposals raise a lot of questions. REC will run a series of seminars throughout 2019 to look at these in detail.

who get large pay rises in a short period or a high bonus could be caught. Those with an income of £110,000 or more could have their allowance for pension savings reduced from £40,000 per year to as little as £10,000, with a tax bill on savings made above this. Employers need to be aware of this stealth tax so that they and their staff can continue to beneﬁt from the tax relief available without accidentally incurring a tax bill.

The government should reform these perverse disincentives to save. At a time when more pensioners are living longer the prudent should be rewarded not punished. ‘Making Work Pay’ is the rationale behind government beneﬁt reform; it should also be applied to higher earners saving for retirement. Kay Ingram, director of public policy, LEBC Group kayingram@lebc-group.com

www.rec.uk.com

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I N S P I R AT I O N To keep up to date with everything the Institute of Recruitment Professionals is doing, please visit www.rec-irp.uk.com

JIM BAKER, deputy branch manager,

Tangent International, on ﬁnding diverse tech talent

It’s important to be honest and ethical – whatever industry you’re in – but there’s all the more reason to when kids are involved.

The ‘fourth industrial revolution’ has driven up the demand for tech talent. How is your business delivering?

We’re not scared to lose business. We go beyond the letter of the law to make sure teachers are safe to be in front of a class, before they arrive in a school. We’ve lost teachers and bookings to other agencies because of our strict recruitment policies, but it’s so important to get this right. I also won’t put a teacher in if I don’t

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SIMON DEAR, chief executive,

Step Teachers, on ethical recruitment

When I moved into the industry from phone sales, I liked the fact that Step Teachers was founded by a teacher, Marios Georgiou, who wanted to give supply teaching a better name, who had this ethos at heart. And because I’ve got children, I will always treat schools and teachers as if they’re teaching my kids.

www.rec.uk.com

Q&A

What I know

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE INSTITUTE OF RECRUITMENT PROFESSIONALS

think they’re right for the school. However, with tight turnarounds, I’ll be upfront about who we can deliver within minutes. I’d rather over-deliver, than overpromise.

I don’t make sales calls. I have conversations that build trust and longlasting relationships. I’d like to think of most of my clients as friends, but I treat everyone the same. Winning new business follows the same approach – playing the long game, making sure I have that relationship so that I’m next on their list when their regular agency lets them down.

Communication with the teachers on our books is just as important. I’ll always reply to texts and emails, so they know they’re not just a number, but a valued member of our family.

We’ve always specialised in supplying talent for the communications and IT sectors. As the two have come together with the Internet of Things, it’s been a natural evolution for us to focus on that. We’re good at ﬁnding hard-toﬁnd skills – partly through our extensive, global search capability, but also because we have high staff retention. Once we’ve found someone good, we don’t want to let them go.

You also focus on diversity to give you access to wider talent pools… By the nature of what we do, we’ve never really had an issue with ethnic diversity – we work all over the world. Seventy per cent of our own workforce is female. And we’ve thought

quite hard about the company we want to be – putting purpose before proﬁt, and making sure nobody gets left behind. We want to drive that diversity into the industry. It’s the right thing to do – and it’s good for business, as customers are looking at this too. Although tech is traditionally seen as male dominated, 44% of the candidates we put forward are female and our placement numbers are similar. The important point is we measure it – and we encourage it. It doesn’t happen by luck. We’re also a Disability Conﬁdent employer, working with local charities to offer workshops for CV writing and interview prep for those with Asperger’s or high-functioning autism, who can be extremely successful in working in tech.

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TRAINING

Training for growth When you’re a fast-growing business, it’s easy to push or training to one side, says Paul McQue, managing director n at MPA Recruitment. But just think about what you can achieve when your staff are ﬁring on all cylinders Tell me a little bit about MPA Recruitment… We’re one of the largest recruitment agencies in Northern Ireland, the largest healthcare provider, and we also have a large number of contracts with the private sector, as well as the National Trust and the Giants Causeway – which employs 200 temps at any one time. In February we were listed in Recruiter’s Fast 50 as the fastestgrowing multi-sector agency in the UK – and came 10th overall. We’re going through an extremely aggressive growth spurt – we’ve trebled turnover in the past three years. I’m extremely proud of our teams throughout our six ofﬁces in Northern Ireland. What’s behind your growth? I put it down to an outstanding team and the loyalty of our clients. But this is where the importance of training comes in. The founder, Mary Pat O’Kane, and I reshaped the business three years ago, when I joined as managing director. Over my career, I grew up through the likes of ManpowerGroup and Hays. I believe these organisations have some of the best recruitment training there is. And when you’re

RECRUITMENT MATTERS

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growing as we are here at MPA, you need to introduce new systems, and you need high-level performance and world-class recruitment behaviours. You’ve just put five of your recruiters through the Level 3 Certificate of Recruitment Practice (CertRP). Why choose this route? The breadth of recruitment expertise is so important. I’m talking real in-depth, front-toback, 360-degree recruitment training. And there’s no better place to start than with the IRP and the training you can get through them. With 44 members of staff, we decided to take 10% of them – some of our rising stars who just needed that industry-wide understanding that’s not always easy to come by on the job. These five recruits are the first to go through this course, which covers everything from sales

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

and relationship management to operational, legal and ethical requirements. They are studying for it remotely, but I would certainly sacriﬁce the time if they want to go on and do something else. This is the start of a journey that will see all members of staff doing some sort of training every year – whether that’s the CertRP, leadership training, accountancy, app and website development, and so on. We’ve seen incredible growth, but I want to keep it going. I’m always thinking, how do we double it or treble it again? Training is one of the fundamentals to change. What’s been the reaction among staff to the focus on training? They’re glad to see the company is investing in their future, and the continued success of the business. In a business that’s growing as quickly as ours, it’s important to maintain control over the growth, to ensure that it’s sustainable, so ongoing professional development – through training – is essential for us to ensure that our teams and our business are always prepped for the next level.

When a business stands behind its people, fostering relentless positive behaviours, people can grow careers. I believe that there’s no limit to their potential. And has it been easy to find the time for training? Training is a no brainer. It’s easy to push it to one side as your business grows. You think you’re growing, so you don’t need to worry about it. But there are always pockets in your business that need refining, skills that need brushing up and knowledge that needs expanding. We want the business to continue to grow. We don’t want to settle. So training is at the top of our agenda as we try to take MPA into the next phase in our growth journey. The Institute of Recruitment Professionals represents, educates, qualifies and supports the careers of individual recruitment professionals throughout the UK. Becoming a member of the IRP demonstrates your commitment to professionalism and best practice in recruitment and is signified by letters attached to your title. www.rec-irp.com/

Membership Department: Membership: 020 7009 2100, Customer Services: 020 7009 2100 Publishers: Redactive Publishing Ltd, Level 5, 78 Chamber Street, London E1 8BL Tel: 020 7880 6200. www.redactive.co.uk Editorial: Editor Pip Brooking Pip.Brooking@rec.uk.com. Production Editor: Vanessa Townsend Production: Production Executive: Rachel Young rachel.young@redactive.co.uk Tel: 020 7880 6209 Printing: Printed by Precision Colour Printing © 2019 Recruitment Matters. Although every effort is made to ensure accuracy, neither REC, Redactive 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 Redactive Publishing Ltd. No responsibility can be accepted for unsolicited manuscripts or transparencies. No reproduction in whole or part without written permission.

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ATTRACTING FLEXIBLE TA TALENT BY COLIN COTTELL

lexible working is not a new idea but a Bristol-based recruiter is showing there is now a growing demand for it from employers, employees and candidates alike. Flexology was set up just over two years ago out of the personal experiences of its founders, Shelley Snelson and Kristal McNamara. Successful professionals in their own right, and working flexibly four days a week, they becoming disheartened. “We were frustrated by the lack of Kristal McNamara and Shelley Snelson of Flexology opportunities to progress in our careers,” says Snelson. Finding they weren’t alone, and that lots of other people “were similarly frustrated”, was the catalyst for from that point of view, and while we launching Flexology, a recruitment consultancy that specialises in all things were putting a lot of work into employee to do with flexible working. benefits, our flexible working Just as was the case with Flexology’s two founders, Snelson says many arrangements seemed a little outdated,” people who need to or prefer to work flexibly get stuck in their role and end up says Proctor & Stevenson’s HR manager working at a level below their ability, or unable to get the flexibility they need Caroline Beardkins. they leave their job. “There is a huge pool of people who aren’t working to the Candidates and the company’s level of their ability and are trapped, or they aren’t working at all and the recruitment agency partners were giving whole economy is missing out,” she says. her the same message, and as a result, With the UK’s unemployment at 3.8%, its lowest rate since 1974, and many she says, “the length of time that it was employers desperate to recruit talent, Snelson says there is now growing taking to recruit was a lot longer than it recognition among employers that increasing the number of flexible roles can needed to be”. be a solution. This is particularly the case in areas such as technology, tech Although “quite a few people” had finance and legal, she says, “where people really struggle to find people”. adjusted hours allowing them to start “It’s also a way to opening up the candidate pool by attracting people who early and finish early or start and finish might not have been able to apply before (because of caring commitments, for late or worked part-time, Beardkins says example) and to resolve the gender pay gap and improve gender diversity,” many staff felt flexibility didn’t go far Snelson adds. More often than not it is women who are hurt by the lack of enough. “What we didn’t have was the flexible working because as the main care providers they are the ones that more ad hoc flexibility – for example, ‘My drop out of the workforce [to the detriment of their career].” car has just broken down’. People didn’t have the autonomy to consider who was Embracing change affected, and go ahead and make those One company to embrace the idea of flexible working is Proctor & Stevenson, a decisions rather than have to get approval marketing communications agency based in Bristol and one of Flexology’s from 10 different people. clients. “We were getting feedback from staff reviews and appraisals, and “The feedback was that while managers particularly from those leaving the firm, that there was not much flexibility in trust their team implicitly with managing their roles. They didn’t feel that we were keeping up with our competitors their time and getting the work done,

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CO M M U N NII TY TY

UPSTART

FLEXIBLE WORKING: TOP TIPS • Talk to people and teams, and not just departmental heads across the business, to find out what sort of flexibility (if any) tthey hey are looking for. • Find out what staff think would work in their role and what works best for their team.

“There is now growing recognition among employers that increasing the number of ﬂexible roles can be a solution” they didn’t feel that trust because they were restricted by these rigid hours and expectations to always be there at 9 o’clock on the dot and be at your desk until 5.30pm. Most deﬁnitely it was a 9-5 culture, and it was putting people off applying and leading people to leave.”

Getting feedback Beardkins says that working with Flexology, the first step to addressing the issue was to interview all part-time workers and their managers. However, Beardkins says: “The more we dug into this the more we realised rather than just the departmental head or just the line managers, we needed to speak to specific people within their teams. It was important to get feedback from everybody, so that we could consider everybody’s individual circumstances as much as we possibly could. That is hugely important.” In addition, a company survey of its 72 employees was taken to find out which of the many flexible working options, such as compressed hours, home working and core hours, staff preferred.

Beardkins says she was concerned that employees’ preferences might not show the commitment to providing a service to its clients “that goes over and above, and occasionally involves working at the weekends and after 5.30pm”. However, she says she was “pleasantly surprised people wanted to retain that – it is one of our USPs”. In the event, Beardkins says the changes that were made were “pretty much agreed by everyone”. These were to introduce core hours between 10.00 and 4.30pm, and a flexi lunch break of up to two hours between 12 and 2.00pm to allow for ad hoc events such as doctors’ appointments. “Home working was a key one,” says Beardkins, and as result efforts are being made to open this up to staff who currently don’t have the right IT equipment at home. One of the immediate changes is that all of the company’s five current open vacancies are now offered with the new flexible working options. The company’s flexible working policy has also been updated.

• Actively consulting and involving staff increases employee buy-in to any subsequent changes, and improve the chances of them being introduced successfully. • Make sure the infrastructure (such as line manager support) is in place to support a flexible role, especially if it hasn’t been offered as a flexible position before. • Encourage staff to share details of their working hours by sharing calendars. • When offering a role with flexible working options for the first time, think about how this changes how you are going to promote the role, who you are trying to attract and where you are going to advertise it. • Make sure that everybody who is involved in the interview process and anybody involved in onboarding is familiar with and supportive of the flexibility being offered. • Introducing workplace flexibility is an ongoing process, so keep an open mind about future changes or tweaks that may become necessary.

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Knock-on effects Snelson says that while the case se for flexible working, and widening the number mber and range of flexible roles that are available, is gaining strength among employers, oyers, they do have legitimate and genuine concerns oncerns about potential ramifications for their ir businesses. es. Prime among these are “how they hey retain ability to deal with client demands and to have the right people in the right place to do that”. Employers are also worried that managers are not used to managing flexible teams, and “how to retain the culture of the business when people are not in the office all the time”. Snelson says the big lesson for any organisation considering flexible working is “it’s not one-size-fits-all”. As she explains: “Not everyone has to be given the same flexible options; it’s a case of looking at the team, what it is doing and the demands of clients. There is always some flexibility that can be offered to every team; it’s just thinking about what works for that team.” Beardkins agrees that flexibility cannot be a free for all, but must fit in with the needs of the business and of specific roles. “We have two people who work front of house, who answer the phone. So the idea of both of them working at home on the same day is not realistic.” Similarly, Beardkins says some staff with childcare commitments cannot work late because they have to pick their children up, “so they can’t enjoy the same flexibility as others”. Beardkins says staff realise that there is an element of give and take in the new

wor working arrangements. “They have been very grown up about what is reasonable between gro one role and another,” she adds.

Positive outcomes Pos

“Flexibility cannot be a free for all, but must ﬁt in with the needs of the business and of speciﬁc roles” CAROLINE BEARDKINS HR MANAGER PROCTOR & STEVENSON

Bea Beardkins says it is too early to say whether the changes will lead to more interest from candidates. However, she says the company’s can recruitment agency partners “are excited” about being able to talk to candidates about this: “They had been telling me about candidates who wanted to have one day a week working from home, but we weren’t able to offer it. I know this will open up doors in attracting better talent, so it is good to know this is no longer a blocker.” She is also conﬁdent from the reaction of staff that better higher staff retention will result. “The day after we launched we had something like 15 staff who were out the door at 4.30pm because they had been able to come in early, with great smiles on their faces, so I know immediately it is going to help.” Among the other beneﬁts is that staff are better able to adjust their working hours so they are in line with those of clients, and with the company’s partners abroad. Beardkins accepts that in the past the company probably lost talented people, both those who left and those that were put off applying by not bringing in the changes sooner. However, she says: “I would rather focus on the future and the fact that we should be able to attract more and more talent, and keep the people that are here so we can grow this business and make it even better.” ●

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As modern day communication specialists we are asked to cover a lot of ground; from social media gurus to employer brand experts and that’s why at the RMAs we’ve created both team and individual awards. Before you can dust off your glad rags though, you need to enter first!

WE’LL BE THE JUDGE OF THAT! RECOGNISING EXCELLENCE IN RECRUITMENT MARKETING AND TALENT MANAGEMENT

AWARDS CEREMONY 30 OCTOBER, THE BREWERY.

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Check out some of our brand new categories: • • • •

Social media Recruitment website Recruitment effectiveness Graduate initative

To see a full list of the categories in more detail, head to thermas.co.uk

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CO M M U N I T Y

SOCIAL NETWORK WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO? GET IN TOUCH!

Whether you’ve been pounding the streets of London, sent to the Tower or deciding to become a Superhero, you’ve certainly been busy since the last Recruiter… SIMPLIFY AND APSCO TAKE RECRUITERS TO THE TOWER Compliant payroll firm Simplify Business, in conjunction with Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), held a roundtable lunch at the headquarters of the Fusiliers Regiment within the confines of the Tower of London. Priceless silver goblets, candlesticks and figurines added a somewhat medieval feel to the banqueting table. APSCo CEO Ann Swain chaired a lively discussion on a variety of recruitment-related topics, including the news Recruiter reported on in May’s issue about APSCo’s launch of an industry-specific MBA.

I NSTAGR A M ASTRIID LOOKS FOR SUPERHEROES If the Avengers: Endgame film has given you ideas of becoming a superhero, then why not do it for real? ‘Superhero in the City’, an iconic 5km run around the City of London’s historic sites, is launching on Thursday 13 June at 6.55pm. Recruiter’s Charity of the Year Astriid is offering free entry to Astriid Superheroes who can raise a minimum of £150 for the charity that matches people with long-term health conditions with job opportunities. You also get a free cape and a mask of your colour choice! Running is not compulsory, and you’ll get to see Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Borough Market and the iconic Shard building as you fly across Southwark and Blackfriars bridges back to the finish at the Millennium Bridge by St Paul’s Cathedral. As Spiderman says: “With great (running) power comes great responsibility!” Interested? Then go to the Astriid page on Superherointhecity.co.uk and sign up here: https://bit.ly/2vYlaF6

ENCORE’S MARATHON THON MAN RAISES THE FUNDRAISING G BAR In March, staff at blue-collar recruiter Encore Personnel chose the charity Children with Cancer UK as its charity of the year, setting an impressive target of more than £20k. And thanks mainly to director Ian Briers running the London Marathon in under four hours, the company is over a quarter of the way to its target, raising £5,218. Let’s hope the donations continue to flood in when staff attempt a Peak District Challenge in July and a coast-to-coast bike ride from Whitehaven to Tynemouth in September.

a auditjobs Congratulations to all of the w winners at last night’s Recruiter Awards, h hosted by @recruitermagazine! The C CareersinAudit.com team had a great e evening and we’re proud to have been s shortlisted again for ‘Recruitment I Industry Supplier of the Year’ # #RecruiterAwards #Recruitment # #Awards #Shortlisted # #MaybeNextYear #Audit #Jobboard recruitermagazine Hope you all had a great night! See you again next year...?! #recruiterawards @RecruiterMag instagram.com/recruitermagazine/ recruitermagazine.tumblr.com/

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The Workplace BY GUY HAYWARD

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It’s a debate we all should have. Maybe this should be the norm for our industry? Maybe it also helps with bringing mothers back to work – an amazing talent pool, but which often feels the hours are prohibitive for them. It’s well documented about Norway having one of the world’s shortest working weeks and change is underway in the UK too. Radioactive PR moved to a four-day week, with Friday as the additional day off. Led by founder and director Rich Leigh, his message is simple: “There are two ways to make money in my line of work. Retain clients and get new ones. Miserable, tired staff can’t do either.” The point is that shorter hours make us more productive… the message from the 4DayWeek Campaign and a new report by Autonomy. Look at all the research. Are we really only productive for three hours a day? What do we do with the other ﬁve hours, or more if we work longer? Discussing non-work ‘things’ with our colleagues (the latest football match or episode of Game of Thrones), phone calls to our friends or partners,

“Two years ago we changed our working hours to 9.00-5:30 and 3:30pm ﬁnish on a Friday, and we’ve grown to be the largest we have ever been” making cups of coffee, texting, checking our Instagram page. The list goes on and soon adds up… and it’s easy to do. Maybe we would do this less if we knew our working hours were shorter. My other belief. With shorter hours you create the environment where there is an obligation to perform and deliver – it’s a two-way trade. Greater ability to live your lives outside of work but a commitment to perform when you are working. Performance means progress for the business and individual careers – something that we all want, surely. ●

↗

A DEBATE AND two sides to a story. Take Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire and businessman. His formula and beliefs were laid bare this month: working from 9am to 9pm and six days a week is a must for those who work for his business Alibaba, dubbed China’s eBay. But he’s one of the 0.001% who have the multitude and range of skills that he supports with wanting to work long hours; plus, he has an audacious appetite to want to do this. His unique abilities are to be admired, but do we have to follow his approach to be a success? On the opposite side is the article I read online yesterday on Sky News that the British work the longest hours in the EU but are ranked only 14th in terms of output per worker per hour (productivity) in Europe. Which approach is right? Hours do not correlate to productivity, and I have felt that for many years now. Two years ago we changed our working hours to 9.00-5:30pm and 3:30pm ﬁnish on a Friday, and we’ve grown to be the largest we have ever been.

GUY HAYWARD – redefining the modern workplace CEO, Goodman Masson

JUNE 2019

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CO M M U N I T Y

WORKPLACE INNOVATION

BRING ON THE BRILLIANCE Hiring for innovation – paradoxes and possibilities BY ALF REHN

↗ ALF REHN is professor of innovation, design, and management at the University of Southern Denmark, and the author of Innovation for the Fatigued – How To Build a Culture of Deep Creativity.

“The notion of being able to kickstart innovation with one or a few key hires is an attractive one” I M AG E S | I STO C K

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WHAT DOES IT TAKE to build an innovative workplace? More speciﬁcally, what does one need to keep in mind when hiring for creativity and innovation? For many companies, these are important questions, as an increasingly complex business environment dictates that an organisation needs to be able to change and adapt with the times. Innovation, both as an output and as a mindset, is seen by many as a necessity for an organisation that wishes to succeed and grow. No wonder, then, that many organisations hope to be able to hire for innovation. The notion of being able to kickstart innovation with one or a few key hires is an attractive one, and resonates well with many an executive. That said, this is far easier in theory than in practice. This comes as no surprise to me, as my research on innovation and creative cultures shows that developing this is more complex than many realise. I’ve compiled some lessons – not without paradoxes, mind you – about what one needs to consider when recruiting with creative cultures in mind.

One size does not fit all. The ﬁrst thing to realise is that hiring for

innovation is not the same as hiring ‘innovators’. Many organisations already have enough ideas-people, and to enable innovation require people who can critique and develop ideas. The key job of the recruiter should be to spot what elements are missing in the company’s current creative culture, and to hire for this. If possible, insist on auditing the innovation culture, to avoid costly mistakes.

Hire for mis-fit. Is there a more insidious idea in the world than hiring for cultural ﬁt? When it comes to innovation, such thinking can easily lead to tepid and unchallenging approaches, as people aren’t challenged enough by their peers. Smart hiring for innovation and creativity adds just enough misﬁts to ensure that the organisation has a degree of creative friction. Not too many, not too few, introducing some weirdness

and oddity to an otherwise ‘safe’ organisation.

Consider the chronotypes of innovation. We all know about morning vs evening people. Interestingly, something similar exists in the world of innovation. Some individuals work best with quick, agile innovation projects, whereas others have a mindset that make them best suited for longer, more complex ones. When recruiting for innovation, consider what kind of innovation tempos the organisation currently lacks or need strengthening. Sometimes slow and steady wins the innovation race, and sometimes an organisation requires faster, twitchier energies.

Inject vitamin A(mbition). Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with either the creative culture or a company’s innovation management; what’s missing is simply a mindset that goes beyond copycat innovation. To enrich innovation, make sure to hire people for whom innovation is meaningful, not just a mandated management exercise. Try to ﬁnd people who wish to use innovation to achieve great things, as their enthusiasm and ambition is sure to catch on. ●

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ASK THE EXPERT The market in our sector is tightening. What should I change about how I manage the business? The market is currently harder than it has been for a number of years, however with small tweaks you can continue to grow aggressively. Here are a few thoughts: • Develop a resilient mindset – Those who haven’t experienced a tightening market may ﬁnd the extra resilience needed a shock. In a buoyant market, growth masks mediocre decision making and performance. As the market tightens competition intensiﬁes, and it can feel as though good decisions and hard work aren’t rewarded as they should be. • Tighten up everything you do – when growth is relatively easy, it is common to exploit opportunities rather than ‘waste’ time tightening up practices that could be done better. As market growth slows, little things – such as the wording used for new business calls and emails/LinkedIn messages – start to make a bigger difference to performance. Instil a culture of excellence and constant improvement. • Communicate with your team – your team will have sensed they’re working harder to generate the same results as six months ago. It is important to recognise their efforts, share how you are adapting and highlight how you’re going to support them to bill bigger through improved systems, technology or training. • Find a sounding board – management is often a lonely place but it becomes lonelier as the market becomes harder. Having someone who can bring perspective to the challenges you are facing and who has been there before can make a world of difference.

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The SME Coach • Is there anything our competition is doing that we should be doing? • What are we doing that you like? Share the results across the business to look at ways to improve your service. • Double down on business development – the greater your choice of clients, the more likely you are to be able to focus on roles that will generate a fee, so always have more clients than you need and then cherry pick. • Package your product – clients don’t know what you do for them, so paint a picture. Describe the lengths you go to and the processes you use to ﬁnd the best candidates. But don’t stop there. We are used to bespoke services and choice, so personalise what you offer for each client. What is your equivalent of a free year of fuel when buying a car? Or free Apple music when taking out a phone contract? Think about ﬂexibility, reassurance and value-adds to stand out from your competition. • Increase focus, efficiency and intensity – recruitment is a game of incremental margins – those who do more of the right things will win a disproportionate amount of business as the market slows. Focus on activities that deliver the greatest results and then try to increase the intensity and efficiency of those activities. In a market as fragmented as most sectors of recruitment, those who focus on excellence will continue to gain marketshare and grow. ●

↗

• Keep active clients happy – with competition for roles increasing, your clients will get ever more calls probing for hints of dissatisfaction. Keep in regular contact with your good clients (those who have roles and often appoint your candidates) to: strengthen your relationships; help to identify issues before they become problems; and alert you to new opportunities. Try asking the following four questions: • What are we doing that you would rather we didn’t? • Is there anything our competition does that you don’t like?

Alex Arnot

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

JUNE 2019

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“It does mean all of my candidates return my phone calls on the off chance it is that Julia Roberts” MY BRILLIANT RECRUITMENT CAREER What was your earliest dream job? I wanted to be an orthopaedic surgeon.

I was working in fundraising and went to lunch with the managing director of [search ﬁrm] Execucare. When he asked how my job was going, I said I hated fundraising and wanted something else. Lo and behold he offered me a job and I took it on the same day.

Has your name led to any funny incidents with candidates or clients? Just about everyone cracks a joke about it, but it does mean all of my candidates return my phone calls on the off chance it is that Julia Roberts.

↗

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

JULIA ROBERTS practice lead, education and not-for-profit, GatenbySanderson

Julia Roberts with a group of university trustees appointing a brilliant vice chancellor for a university that was in trouble.

it’s a director of a research centre at a top university in the UK.

What is your signature dish? Margherita pizza.

What’s your top job to fill at the moment? I’m brand-new in post, so I’m only working on one, and that’s conﬁdential. However, I can say that

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

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

Both laugh and cry. When she was at a ﬁnal panel presentation, she drew a picture of an elephant and described the organisation as an elephant. It stunned everyone into silence.

No, not the other Julia Roberts! It’s an amalgamation of a load of amazing women both in my family and among my friends.

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

What do you love most about your current role? Working in a brilliant company where everyone has a common purpose of serving a better society.

What would you consider to be the most brilliant moment of your career? I think it’s probably sitting at a table

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The worst was: “How are your kids going to impact upon your career?”

What would you regard as your theme tune? Lose Yourself by Eminem.

IM AGES | ISTO C K / S H U TTE RSTO C K

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View the latest jobs at jobs.recruiter.co.uk To place your advertisement E: recruiterjobs@redactive.co.uk or T: 020 7880 6200

W W W. R E C RU I T E R .CO.U K

RECRUITMENT

Our people are at the heart of our business. Newbury, Berkshire

We are Amberjack. Experts in future talent and volume recruitment outsourcing, technology and assessment. We deliver unparalleled results for our clients such as Unilever, Mars and PwC by combining intelligent insights and innovative technology with a passion for customer and candidate experience. We are the undisputed market leader in our sector and have recently secured a major investment to accelerate the business’s growth strategy and expand our service offering even further. We are looking for: Client Partners Ultimately responsible for the successful delivery of client campaigns, you’ll ideally have experience of managing and delivering RPO, high volume recruitment campaigns or similar. You’ll need to be an excellent project manager, with superb team and client management skills, plus strong commercial / budget management experience. Client Solutions Consultant You’ll be promoting the Amberjack brand, products and solutions. You’ll be an experienced Client Solutions/ BD Consultant with a track record of consultative solutions selling within RPO, HR Consultancy, Assessment & Development or technology. You’ll be building long-term relationships to ensure maximum revenue and continually coming up with innovative ways to reach the market. You’ll also play an active role in delivering proposals, pitches and pricing negotiations. We offer a working environment that is collaborative and supportive. We also offer a competitive salary and beneﬁts package, and great opportunities for development. To ﬁnd out more about these and other career opportunities with us please visit https://www.weareamberjack.com/about-us/join-our-team

Recruiter Jobs helping you to attract the best candidates for your vacancies. Recruiter Jobs is the online recruitment site for Recruiter magazine, the principal magazine for recruiting and resourcing professionals. You can search through a wide range of roles; from recruitment consultants to in-house recruitment, based in both the UK and International markets.

Sales Team | recruiterjobs@redactive.co.uk | +44 (0)20 7880 62 WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 39

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ADVANCE TRS

GUIDANT GLOBAL

The technical recruiter welcomes Matt Bray as construction managing director.

The managed service provider has announced the appointment of Karen Gonzalez to the newly-created role of chief sales officer and the promotion of Brian Salkowski to chief operating officer. Gonzalez was previously senior vice president of global solutions, and Salkowski held the role of president of the Americas at Guidant.

ARMSTRONG CRAVEN The global talent mapping and pipelining specialist has appointed Leslie Lazarus as head of Americas.

BIG CLOUD

HOLMES NOBLE Lee Mason joins the executive search and interim management ﬁrm as head of practice – IT & digital.

The data science recruitment company welcomes head of executive search Andrew McLoughlin to work on executive search across the US.

BNP PARIBAS LEASING SOLUTIONS UK The leasing solutions business has appointed HR director Rachel Appleton to its board.

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Banking giant TSB has appointed Liz Ashford (above) as HR director. Ashford joins the TSB leadership team and reports directly to CEO Debbie Crosbie. Ashford’s appointment is subject to regulatory approval. Ashford joins TSB from insurer Aviva where she was global people director, Aviva Investors and a member of their executive team for the investor business since 2014. She brings signiﬁcant experience leading change and business transformation gained from a career that has spanned ﬁnancial services, as well as retail and utilities sectors. This includes investment banking at both HSBC and ABN AMRO, the private bank Kleinwort Benson, the energy company Essent (part of RWE), Harrods and most recently at Aviva. Ashford is expected to join TSB in the late summer. Until she arrives, current HR director Rachel Lock has agreed to stay on to ensure a smooth handover. Her planned departure from her role as HR director at TSB was announced last year on 24 August 2018. Ashford said: “I am thrilled to be joining TSB at such an important time and I look forward to working with our partners to help deliver the best possible experience for TSB customers.”

board of directors, effective immediately.

Jo Rawlinson senior HR consultant.

INTROPROTECT The experts in recruitment fee disputes have appointed Olga Wierzchowska as an investigations officer.

NEXT VENTURES HUDSON GLOBAL The talent solutions provider has appointed Mimi Drake (above left) and Connia Nelson (above right) as new independent directors to its

Steven Kearney joins the IT recruiter as ﬁnancial director.

JACKSON HOGG The Newcastle-based engineering and technical recruitment ﬁrm has made

PARK GROUP The provider of prepaid gift cards, multi-retailer gift vouchers and digital rewards services has appointed Claire Jones as new group HR director.

JUNE 2019

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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

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Reporters Colin Cottell, Graham Simons

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

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Contributing writer Sue Weekes Production editor Vanessa Townsend vanessa.townsend@recruiter.co.uk

PEDERSEN & PARTNERS

YOLK RECRUITMENT

Michael Kotelec joins the international executive search ﬁrm as a client partner within its US team, based in San Francisco.

The Cardiff-based recruiter has appointed Merle Howells as head of its newly-created ﬁnance and accountancy division.

PURE Lucinda Youtan has rejoined the international search and recruitment ﬁrm as a director in its in-house legal practice. She will focus on senior legal appointments across commerce & industry. Youtan began her recruitment career in 2011 at Pure, progressing from consultant to director.

STAFFING 360 SOLUTIONS Rob Harper has been appointed to manage Staffing 360 Solutions’ brand CBSbutler. Harper left the Redhill-based engineering and IT contract & permanent business in the summer of 2015, where he managed teams in the technical staffing sector. Recruitment team leader Bethan Conroy, who has been with CBSbutler for almost six years, has been promoted to manage Staffing 360’s Longbridge Recruitment brand.

YO U R NE X T M OV E A selection of vacancies from recruiter.co.uk Vision for Education Graduate trainee recruitment consultant Healthcare, rec-to-rec Leeds and West Yorkshire £26.5k Concept Resourcing Recruitment consultant Healthcare, rec-to-rec West Midlands £20k-£25k + car allowance Michael Page Human Resources EMEA head of resourcing – Aerospace/Engineering Engineering City of London £50k-£60k

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

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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 mysidekick@recruiter.co.uk or +44 (0)20 8950 9117 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. © 2019 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. Redactive Media Group accepts no liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. The publishers cannot accept liability for any loss arising from the late appearance or non-publication of any advertisement for any reason whatsoever. ISSN 1475-7478

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E THE LAST WORD CO M M UNITY

That instinct to invent includes an understanding that mistakes happen and lessons are learned

Katie George What personality traits are top tech companies looking for? Personality traits that can help a candidate stand out from the crowd

e know that millennials, when entering the job market, value company culture above all other factors. Competition between candidates is always ﬁerce, and my recruitment team at Amazon is also competing with other top companies for stand-out candidates. That’s where company culture can be a deciding factor. By carefully developing a workforce with desirable personality traits, that culture can create a virtuous circle: a diverse, innovative workforce that does brilliant work and which brilliant candidates want to join. Putting skills to one side, what are the personality traits that a tech business needs to see in a candidate, and how can recruiters identify the best possible candidates for interview? For Amazon, our 14 Leadership Principles work

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hard across the business as a universal and meritocratic system of standards. We use them every day, whether discussing ideas for a new project or when interviewing candidates and assessing promotion opportunities. Businesses will often talk about employees being customer-focused, but a true leader obsesses over the customer, with competitor activity coming in second.

Strong character Likewise, we look for ‘owners’ who think long term, act on behalf of the entire company and who never say, “That’s not my job”. Those candidates are right – a lot. They have strong judgement, good instincts and the conﬁdence to seek diverse perspectives that may disconﬁrm their beliefs. That process requires backbone to disagree and commit – they will

respectfully challenge decisions and disagree, even when it’s uncomfortable. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion, and they commit wholly to decisions. This candidate also thinks big and sees through problems to ﬁnd practical solutions. They insist on the very highest standards in all aspects of their day-to-day work, and they expect high standards from their colleagues. But sometimes those standards have to be achieved on a small budget or a tight timeline. A sense of frugality allows them to accomplish more with less. And their bias for action means they can quickly assess the risks and reward of any decision. Putting these traits into action also requires a passion for innovation and invention. At Amazon, we’re a company of builders with a ‘day one’ mentality – every day is the ﬁrst of a new

start-up. This mentality keeps us ambitious, growth-oriented and vigilant to change. That instinct to invent includes an understanding that mistakes happen and lessons are learned. Sometimes brilliant innovations are misunderstood for long periods of time!

Continual curiosity Finally, we want to see a candidate who can learn throughout their time with the company and who will improve themselves through natural curiosity. With a huge range of growth opportunities on offer, candidates need to show both aptitude and desire to grab those chances when they come. ●

Katie George is EMEA student programs lead, Amazon

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