RedLaw

RedLaw is an independent executive search consultancy specialising in working with private practice legal professionals in the UK, the US and internationally.

  • RedLaw’s teams consist entirely of ex-lawyers and experts with extensive experience as legal recruiters, which helps attract and retain the best lawyers and legal professionals, making it vital to the firm’s success.
  • RedLaw invests time in understanding the individual needs of every client, such as the firm’s future ambitions, culture and their points of differentiation compared to their competitors. This often leads to future assignments from clients.
  • High levels of customer service, continual communication and feedback enabled RedLaw to deliver the right candidate for a challenging vacancy – the first German role for the client – and clearly demonstrated RedLaw’s skill as a trusted, results-driven leading legal consultancy.
  • A key change to the business was the successful launch of the Business Services division with the key strategic hire of Mark Neal. The team recruits facilities managers, paralegals, IT specialists, HR professionals, marketing managers, and even chefs and gardeners! RedLaw now offers a complete 360-degree recruitment service for clients from one point of call, sourcing anyone who works in a law firm, from a temporary receptionist to a managing partner.

Judges’ comments: “The best agency is not always the biggest – it is about the quality that is delivered and it is clear that RedLaw do exactly this. Their case studies show that they do a fantastic job for both client and candidate.”

TFS Healthcare

Founded in 2010, TFS Healthcare is a UK specialist healthcare recruitment firm placing nurses and healthcare professionals on a permanent and ad-hoc agency basis into the NHS, as well as private hospitals nationwide.

 This was a very closely fought category with many agencies overcoming significant challenges. Each finalist can be very proud of their achievements.

  • TFS Healthcare is clinically-led rather than sales-led, displaying a deep knowledge and understanding of the healthcare sector. The clinical team is led by two very experienced our nurses: Band 7 RGN Mary-Lee Harper, and ex-RGN, client services director, Roland Sheehan, MBA.
  • The clinical team provides continual onsite support to nurses and healthcare assistants through weekly meetings, ensuring they are supported in their role and given help with any concerns or issues.
  • All candidates are screened by the clinical team, and a bespoke competency-based clinical interview is completed face-to-face, enabling TFS to meet the candidate in person and assess their suitability.
  • The judges were impressed with TFS Healthcare’s candidate attraction to find the best talent. TFS career coaches constantly engage with new candidates through its referral scheme to grow its extensive candidate database. In addition, the firm holds extensive marketing campaigns, open days, road shows, and training and revalidation events.

Judges’ comments: “Clinically-led as opposed to sales-led, TFS Healthcare ran some excellent campaigns to attract and look after great candidates. Clearly a ‘people business’ that doesn’t let technology replace the personal touch.”

Also: This was a very closely fought category with many agencies overcoming significant challenges. Each finalist can be very proud of their achievements.

VHR

VHR’s global technical recruitment consultancy serves the aerospace & aviation, automotive, engineering, defence and marine industries across 50 countries.

  • VHR is led by industry experts including a former Formula 2 driver, an America’s Cup sailor and British Airways technician and ensures all its employees truly understand all its markets.
  • VHR’s internal recruitment strategy specifically targets candidates with second and third language fluencies. The company operates in 50 countries, up from 28 in 2017, opening its eighth and ninth global offices during 2019.
  • Working with clients, VHR has designed and implemented new training courses to upskill and migrate workers from around the world in the aviation industry, to help fill a shortage of cabin technicians.
  • VHR sourced and trained all individuals for its training courses, organising medical, flights, accommodation, visas and references, and worked with management to monitor performance. At the end of the intensive training programme, workers were transported to the UAE, all closely supported by VHR staff.
  • VHR arranges all onboarding and logistics for the contractor candidates it sources, even travelling to meet candidates in their home countries and personally transferring them to their new homes and work sites, arranging visas and work permits, providing expert guidance on local tax and healthcare – to protect candidates from any situations that could leave them vulnerable, and ensuring businesses receive the best quality services.

Judges’ comments: “VHR has an excellent way of meeting both customer and candidate needs through training and localisation. Clearly an innovative business.”

Evolve Hospitality

Established in 2012, Evolve provides front and back of house temporary staffing solutions for the hospitality sector, as well as permanent placements.

  • The business is underpinned by a support team comprising a finance department, which looks after temp payroll, staff payroll, invoicing and credit control, as well as an operations team of four – affectionately referred to as Team Slash, as it supports every area within the business (HR/operations/marketing etc).
  • To ensure all candidates have the correct Right to Work documents, the team uses uComply scanning technology, compliance software certified by the Home Office.
  • The team is also responsible for client compliance and ensuring it manages the requirements of each individual client site and their staffing expectations, from food safety and allergen training to uniform requirements and standards.
  • As well as all of the legislative and compliance support, the back office team’s agenda also includes making Evolve the best place to work for its own employees. The team spends a lot of time and effort planning and executing fun training, team building, rewards and events for everyone within the organisation – especially the annual ‘winners party’ to a secret destination.
  • Overall, the judge were impressed with how the back office team helped make Evolve candidates feel an important part of the Evolve team, not only by ensuring they were paid correctly and on time, but through training and the online benefits package – for temp staff as well as permanent.

Judges’ comments: “Evolve stood out from other entries as being focused on people, as well as having great processes and platforms. They brought a personal touch to the lives of everyone that they impact. We were impressed with their innovative use of technology, given the size and scale of the business.”

RedLaw

RedLaw is an independent executive search consultancy specialising in working with private practice legal professionals in the UK, the US and internationally.

  • With only 15 employees (10 fee earners), RedLaw has made an enormous, long-term impact on the legal sector, with notable successes in the highly competitive London private practice legal sector.
  • In January 2019, RedLaw launched a German desk with the appointment of a German-born recruiter to service the lucrative recruitment market and add value to clients. As German lawyers are very particular, it was essential to have a native, German-speaking consultant heading the division to earn the trust of candidates and clients.
  • RedLaw offers personal Career Pathway Programmes in line with each employee’s aims, as well as agile and part-time working opportunities for all, training, mentoring and the latest recruitment tools.
  • The judges liked that RedLaw aims to enhance the reputation of legal recruiters and position law as a sector not only focused on money, but caring about social enterprise and giving back. As a company, RedLaw fund-raises for organisations and charities linked to the legal industry, and is proud to be a member of the Association of Asian Woman Lawyers Society and work with the Black Solicitors’ Network.

Judges’ comments: “RedLaw is a consistent and innovative business who focus on quality – not just on results. It is a well-rounded recruitment business that puts employees first and understands the importance of CSR.”

Also: The judges felt the shortlist was very competitive, making it difficult to make a final decision.

Signify Technology

Last year’s winner of the 2019 Recruiter Awards Best New Agency, Signify is a bespoke technology recruitment agency, exclusively serving the Scala programming community.

  • Signify demonstrates its true commitment to improving the reputation of the recruitment industry, proving that a company can be ethical and live by customer service, and still yield incredible results. It managed to exceed all its targets, including 100% team growth, bring in improved revenue (growing 112% in sales) and expand globally (opening its first office in the US).
  • The judges were impressed with the zeal of Signify, where there was a culture of enthusiasm and pride in the recruitment industry, leading to building a business model based on customer service, placing candidates’ and clients’ happiness at the heart of its success. To prove these aren’t just words, Signify has got rid of KPIs in favour of customer service scores, putting them throughout its promotions and pay rise structure.
  • If consultants want to progress or earn more, they have to pass knowledge through the business, upskilling new recruiters and sharing lessons and challenges. They also have to show a dedication to community, whether that’s the Scala community or serving the local community through charity and outreach programmes.
  • A strong category. It was nice to see so many small businesses championing for positive change for their industries. Many submissions were punching above their weight with stories of investment and growth.

Judges’ comments: “Signify’s story was the most heartfelt and honest, weighting ethics and great service over just billings. They’re in a niche, they know who they are, and they’re sticking to it.”

Also: A strong category. It was nice to see so many small businesses championing for positive change for their industries. Many submissions were punching above their weight with stories of investment and growth.

Green Park

Green Park offers executive search, interim management, board advisory, diversity & inclusion and managed service people solutions across the private, public and third sectors.

  • Increased income per head by a whopping 600%, from £1,393 in 2018 to £9,837 in 2019, and at the same time reduced the average number of days taken to complete an executive search placement from 169 days in 2018 to 128 days in 2019, a 32% decrease.
  • Green Park’s 2019 strategy launched five new core values – courage, rigour, empathy, energy and diversity – chosen by the employees and rolled out with a series of events, games and interactive activities.
  • Green Park has always advocated for ethical, inclusive, fair and transparent recruitment practices. It runs an independent diversity search parallel to all executive mandates, providing clients with greater candidate choice through wide-reaching and diverse talent pools.
  • Green Park was one of 14 executive search firms that qualified under the government-backed Hampton-Alexander Enhanced Code of Conduct, helping boards achieve gender balance.
  • Green Park developed an employee wellness app, providing informative wellness-related content, a personal wellbeing profile tracker and an appointment booker to speak with qualified mental health professionals.

Judges’ comments: “A stand-out winner based upon every example provided feeding back to their core focus of being a true partner of talent for diversity & inclusion. From delivering regular thought leadership reports on diversity within the FTSE 100, and being a government adviser on this topic, Green Park is raising the professional image of recruitment in a way which benefits us all.”

Also: A highly competitive category with an impressive range of applications from some companies making a huge difference and leading the recruitment sector forward.

 

Investigo

Investigo specialises in audit, business change and transformation, compliance, BI and data analytics, human resources and talent management, pharmaceutical and life sciences, procurement, property, FM and workplace, risk, SAP, strategy and technology recruitment.

  • The judges felt Investigo fully invested into the future of both its people and culture, and was without question a worthy winner of the category.
  • An environment where everyone brings their true self to work, strengthening team bonds and helping Investigo people to outperform their competitors.
  • Investigo’s turnover was £140m, a 22% increase from 2018’s turnover of £115m, which made 2019 the company’s 14th consecutive year of growth –not only in profits but also specialisms, headcount and market share.
  • Investigo’s aim is to continually strive towards providing the best diversity & inclusion advice and support to both clients and candidates. In 2019, this included hosting three D&I events, publishing three D&I Insight magazines, producing a D&I guide to support and guide Investigo clients to ensure inclusive recruitment processes and launching Investigo Pride.

Judges’ comments: “While significantly increasing both turnover and profit, Investigo has benefitted from amazing values-led leadership. They’ve taken D&I insight, social responsibility and belonging to achieve brilliant outcomes to a new level.”

ERSG

Established in 2008, ersg is dedicated to the energy sector, specialising in clean energy, power generation, subsea and marine engineering.

  • ersg understands that a compliant business is more than a box-ticking exercise. The directors have made compliance part of the everyday routine throughout all departments and global offices in the company.
  • ersg places seafarer contractors onboard vessels, and keeps a log with every seafarer placement and records information such as daily rates, name of the vessel they are working on, the flag of the country they are working in and the type of vessel they are working on.
  • Seafarers’ placements and processes are audited every five years by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, an executive agency of the UK.
  • Whenever the government communicates on important regulatory changes, ersg’s compliance team, led by the global head of legal and compliance, will ensure that everyone in ersg understands and implements the new changes.
  • Recruitment consultants are regularly trained and updated on the latest regulatory requirements, and regular compliance audits are built in to managers’ weekly or monthly routines.

Judges’ comments: “ERSG demonstrated that they were elevating the role of compliance within recruitment, putting it front and centre within their complex market. While all entries were impressive in their approach, ERSG stood out for ensuring everyone within the company has compliance in mind – not just for the support operation.”

ResourceBank Recruitment

Established in 1995, ResourceBank is a provider of bespoke outsourced recruitment, talent and HR services to organisations throughout the UK and Europe.

  • Excellent customer service, together with efficiencies and cost-savings led to all new 2019 clients being won through recommendation. And at the same time, ResourceBank has maintained its long-standing relationships with clients – in some cases over 15 years.
  • ResourceBank is trusted to deliver RPO in sectors that are new to the company, such as new clients within Legal and Dentistry, despite having no previous sector knowledge. As a result, ResourceBank has now been recommended to others in those sectors.
  • In an impressive year, ResourceBank has had the highest-ever number of vacancies recruited (5,284) – an increase of 15% on 2018, the largest number of client RPO partnership agreements (16 separate RPOs in 2019, up from 12 in 2018) and the largest number (six) of new client RPO agreements established in the year.
  • The judges were impressed with the approach to the video-screening campaign for one of its long-standing clients, World Duty Free, which was looking to recruit large numbers of customer service staff to support its peaks. The new HireVue video applications introduced by ResourceBank reduced assessment time by 75% and improved candidate engagement.

Judges’ comments: “The judges were struck by how partnership-orientated they are. They are so much more than just recruiting – involving the candidate and truly understanding clients and implementing bespoke processes that work.”