BEST PUBLIC/THIRD SECTOR RECRUITMENT AGENCY 2023

Inclusive Boards

Inclusive Boards has a mission to support sectors, organisations and individuals with efforts to become more inclusive. More than 90% of revenue is derived from organisations operating in the third and public sectors. Since its founding, it has worked with over 300 organisations at board level and publishes authoritative diversity data for different industry sectors. It has a network of more than 60,000 diverse leaders.

  • Inclusive Boards has 77% of its client base in the third sector, where organisations have a strong social, cultural or environmental mission, such as Guide Dogs UK. It began publishing data of the UK’s top 500 charities in 2017 for board and leadership teams, priding itself as being the only organisation to collect this data about the charity sector.
  • The work has allowed clients and the sector to understand that leadership falls short when it comes to representation at the senior level. These statistics have improved in the six years since 2017. The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) was an initial respondent in 2017, and over this period its board representation of people from ethnic minority backgrounds has increased from 8% to 18%. 
  • More than 60% of Inclusive Boards’ placements are women, with more than 40% from a minority ethnic background. One in five of its placements identify as disabled, and 15% are in the LGBTQ community.
  • Inclusive Boards’ 2022 report found that 29% of Trustee Boards are all white, improving from 2018 when the percentage of all-white boards stood at 62%. The work has also gained significant press attention including coverage in: Third Sector, Civil Society and Charity Times furthering its reach and impact. Leading industry advocates focusing on inclusion in the sector have referenced the work, such as Charity So White and Getting on Board.

Judges’ comments 

“The judges were extremely impressed by ‘The Charities Inclusive Governance Report 2022’. Inclusive Boards identified 9,763 individuals on the senior leadership teams and trustee boards of the UK’s top 500 charities by income. Then it identified intersectional barriers – like how women from minority ethnic backgrounds experience discrimination on multiple fronts – and reported these statistics. The judges noted that this work allowed both its clients and the wider sector to understand and appreciate the fact that leadership in the third sector falls short when it comes to representation at the senior level. The judges applauded the organisation’s groundbreaking research and transformation activity.”

RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR 2023

The Clear Company

The Clear Company is a UK provider of services to employers to support inclusive recruitment and talent management practice. Founded in 2000, its goal is to free under-represented people from the barriers they face in recruitment and talent management policy, process and practice. The company’s entry was submitted by its client, recruitment organisation PageGroup.

  • The Clear Company’s evidence-based approach has enabled clients to grow as inclusive employers locally and globally, influencing supply chains, customer solutions and community investment.
  • PageGroup was an early adopter of the company’s Clear Assured approach and joined in 2019.
  • The Clear Company has an inclusive recruitment process that eliminates barriers for all candidates and an inclusive job design that removes unnecessary criteria limiting the talent pool – such as lack of qualifications that stops those from lower socio-economic groups from applying. It also attracts diverse talent by engaging local marginalised communities and providing adjustments throughout the application and onboarding process to enable and inclusive experience for all.
  • PageGroup praised The Clear Company’s commitment to quarterly reviews of DEI progress, compared to less regular assessments. “By having a more frequent assessment window, you can see the impact quicker which helps keep momentum going,” PageGroup said in the entry.
  • Initiatives to which PageGroup have committed and achieved success with support from The Clear Company included partnering with Ambitious About Autism and bringing on two interns so far, with one made a permanent employee; engaging with 10,000 Black interns and hiring six in 2021 and seven in 2022; launching a flexible bank holiday policy that allows employees to better align with their own beliefs; and offering free back-up emergency child and elder care support, among a variety of others.

Judges’ comments

“Via their client PageGroup, The Clear Company provided a fantastic submission that nailed the brief through their depth of services and value they add across the board. It showed a level of innovation and passion that has led to outstanding results and reputation. The Clear Company’s market knowledge and thorough approach has made it a stand-out winner in this category.”

RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION OF THE YEAR 2023

EY

Ernst & Young Global is a British multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, is one of the Big Four accounting firms.

  • In 2021, EY’s tech consulting student recruitment team partnered with skills-based hiring and talent mobility solutions firm Cappfinity to help develop an EY Internship of the Future. A ‘first-of-its-kind’ virtual reality programme for 19 diverse tech interns, it spanned five weeks of a fully immersive experience that “increases emotional brand engagement and improves retention” with a true-to-life job preview experience.
  • The VR Internship of the Future aims to promote a better wellbeing brand. In VR, interns can learn about sustainability and the wider work of EY, undertake competitions with peers using fun and immersive games, as well focus on their own health and well-being in a completely virtual world. This culminates in the intern being able to build their confidence to ‘pitch’ their client solutions to a group of senior leaders in EY – having prepared their solution with their peers, buddies and mentors.
  • As a result of the internship experience, 92% said their understanding of EY had improved and 100% of tech interns said their understanding of client projects had improved. Also, 92% said the internship had made them want to learn more and 100% of all interns were more confident attending meetings than before.
  • The summer internship and VR experience is about shifting perceptions of EY. In 2021, 50% of EY offers of employment either declined or reneged against a market average of 20%. However, the VR initiative has drastically reduced these risks, demonstrated by returns on the 19 summer interns at EY: none have declined the opportunity offered, and all were due to start in September 2023.

Judges’ comments

“The excellent metrics supporting the entry about the virtual internship programme meant EY had to be the winner. It confronted its challenge to compete with big tech brands and did so in a way that was inclusive as well as leading edge and engaging. It was good to see the equality and diversity agenda living outside of its box, being in evidence throughout the programme. The metrics prove it was clearly a compelling and enjoyable experience for candidates, and it has moved the dial in enabling the consultancy to compete with big tech brands.”

BEST IT/TECHNOLOGY RECRUITMENT AGENCY 2023

First Point Group

First Point Group is a specialist recruitment agency focused on the telecommunications technology and IT network technology space. In 2022, it provided telecoms and emerging technology recruitment solutions to 90 countries, making 1,516 placements, completing 3,310 contract extensions, and issued invoices in 52 countries and 10 different currencies.

  • First Point Group redesigned its business so it could be repeated globally across the company. First was a global new business sales strategy and process, where everything has a name and repeatable flow. For example, its client engagement process is called ‘GAMAR’ (Gather, Assess, Method, Action, Repetition). Secondly, that this strategy would be fuelled by a centralised Sales Toolkit, which was key in client engagement. Finally, it created a Learning Management System, to ensure each office was taking a uniform approach.
  • Those results translated into $2.5m (£2.01m) in revenue from 80 new clients, up from $1.7m in 2021 and turnover increased to $84m from $76m in 2021. Net fee income also rose to 27%, which was a $2.6m increase.
  • Consultants have all the tools and methodology for short and long-term client engagement strategies – up to 18 months in duration – to win new business. Also, the first intake of recruiters to be trained in this process have made the business grow, and the Sales Toolkit has dramatically reduced the time it takes to create marketing content, putting less reliance on the marketing team. This frees them to deliver leads and return on investment (direct marketing team ROI of $300k in 2022).

Judges’ comments 

“A clear winner in this fiercely contested category, demonstrating a fantastic depth of service and statistics. A complicated international business that demonstrated a high level of skill, explanation, and depth of service. Their submission was a compelling read that delivered personality and a story that made their business stand out. The supporting documentation was first class. It articulated the purpose, quantitative and qualitative factors brilliantly. The most authentic submission by far.”

OUTSTANDING OUTSOURCED RECRUITMENT ORGANISATION 2023

Omni Resource Management Solutions

Omni is a UK-based independent resourcing transformation specialist whose aim is to help drive sustainable organisational performance through its talent solutions. Founded in 1997, it has been transforming how organisations recruit in the UK for over 25 years, working to improve their resourcing effectiveness and providing expertise to create competitive advantage in the talent market across permanent, fixed-term and contingent hiring.

  • Omni’s employees have more than two decades of experience in developing inclusive resourcing strategies. Its combination of research, consultancy and best practice know-how, together with a partnership with the CIPD, has resulted in the development of a proprietary Resourcing Effectiveness Assessment that enables organisations to audit, assess and improve the return on their resourcing investment.
  • It has specialist diversity and inclusion knowledge, partnerships and an in-house team for the resourcing transformation function. The team, comprising of a director of resourcing transformation that has more than 25 years’ experience, is complemented by dedicated heads of inclusive attraction and employer branding, head of selection & assessment and a head of inclusive management and leadership training. The combination of their expertise in DE&I offers the latest thinking and interventions to ensure Omni’s own and its clients recruitment practices are fully inclusive.
  • The company’s online careers hub is a tech platform designed to enhance the employability and career skills of individuals. Tools available include an intuitive CV review system scoring CVs against 50+ checks and interview and assessment centre training. The careers hub was implemented with Co-operative Group to help improve career prospects with unsuccessful candidates and people affected by redundancies.

Judges’ comments

Judges noted the effect that the Resourcing Effectiveness Assessment among other measures had on improving many hiring metrics. “Omni recognised the competition for skills addressing the range of methods used, upskilling hiring managers, working to remove bias and increase candidate engagement. This together with targets to improve diversity helped to bring down time-to-hire substantially.”

BEST INTERNATIONAL RECRUITMENT AGENCY 2023

Select Offshore

Established in 2013, Select Offshore provides recruitment services to the maritime, renewable energy and oil & gas industries, with projects operating across every continent. It has offices in the UK, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia. It is certified under the Maritime Labour Convention and manages a complex supply chain, including transport to offshore sites worldwide, health & safety, testing, visas and international tax regulations.  

  • The offshore industry is project-based, requiring the business to service new markets and regulations every week. When a client picks up a new project in a new location, part of Select Offshore’s role is to assist them in finding solutions to get the contractors into the country, which requires research into visa requirements and any local restrictions/requirements.
  • With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Select Offshore had seafarers that became stuck on vessels, unsure if they could return home. The family of one such seafarer decided to flee to Romania, with plans that the seafarer would join them, but his bank accounts were invalid, leaving him without access to money. The business tried to set the individual up with a new bank account, but it was unsure where his next accommodation would be. Select Offshore decided to pay him in cash and an employee flew to Amsterdam to meet the individual where he was disembarking his vessel. They met at the airport, and he was able to reunite with his family and find temporary accommodation.
  • Almost 20% of the workforce are Ukrainian nationals, so Select Offshore built relationships with agents in Ukraine and were able to get seafarers out of the country via legitimate routes. They were able to provide for their families again but many Ukrainian nationals, as in the example above, were unable to access bank accounts, so the company partnered with maritime payment specialists MarTrust. This solution meant that seafarers were able to set up bank accounts without permanent addresses and allowed them to leave Ukraine, access funds again and also provided financial support to those separated from seafarers on assignment.

Judges’ comments

“Select Offshore truly possesses the capability to adapt and respond effectively to any situation, regardless of the country or scenario. Over the past 12 months, it has proven its capacity to creatively find solutions to challenges and, more importantly, prioritise the wellbeing of its workforce over financial gain. This was particularly evident and acknowledged by the judges when assessing how Select Offshore responded to help its workforce during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

Highly Commended: First Point Group

“In one of the most highly competitive categories, two applications stood out. First Point Group submitted a superb application that detailed their excellent, multi-jurisdictional client service.”

BEST ENGINEERING RECRUITMENT AGENCY 2023

Recruit 12

Recruit 12 has a macro influence on global projects, positively impacting environmental conditions and sustainability. Its revenue is generated in renewables, nuclear energy and electrification of automotive and aerospace.

  • The completion of a gender pay gap reporting initiative by Veolia Nuclear Solutions (VNS) revealed an inadequate senior female representation, and sought to reach a target of 50% female leaders. Collaborating as talent adviser and partner, it recommended and deployed multiple initiatives, including increasing the percentage of females achieving interviews to 57% and driving female hiring to an average of 65%.
  • At financial year end 2022, Recruit 12 had a turnover of £1.4m – a 291% increase against previous year, 12 employees (100% increase) generating £159k per fee-earning head annually (119% increase). Some 50% of employees are gender and ethnically diverse.
  • Recruit 12 worked with Dana Incorporated – formerly Ashwood Electric Motors – to find a plant manager to oversee the electric motor design, and Recruit 12 recruited the individual within two months (Dana gave it 12 months). It used its recruitment portal, which was customised to suit Dana’s needs, eliminating the need to carry out lengthy first-round interviews, which reduced time to hire by 50% and provided a shortlist that included female, local and national candidates.

Judges’ comments

“Recruit 12 is punching above its weight with its ability to drive change in the industry that serves. There is real specificity in the targets that it has met, for instance, the example of Veolia – which had a target to reach 50% female leaders, and it managed to increase the percentage of females receiving interviews to 57%. The hiring of females for the project was at an average of 65% with an industry average of 16.5%. From a commercial perspective, in 2022 Recruit 12 increased turnover by 291%, employees by 100%, impressive statistics captured by a small agency emerging from the global pandemic. The company has demonstrated that it is not just able to make successful hires in difficult locations; it is always looking through its diversity lens to keep the industry moving.”

BEST BANKING, FINANCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES RECRUITMENT AGENCY 2023

Kite Human Capital 

Kite Human Capital provides services to the financial, real estate and legal markets. It believes that hiring solutions should guarantee the ability to make a successful hire, and that clients deserve better return from their investment in people. Kite has offices in London and New York City’s Wall Street.

    • Kite has networked across the industry for 20 years and hosts regular industry stakeholder events, providing a setting for industry professionals to meet, share ideas and learn from each other. One such recent event was its chief technology officer event, where more than 30 CTOs met to discuss industry challenges and contemplate solutions.
    • The business achieved a score of 100% candidate satisfaction in its 2022 independent survey, with 97% grading it as excellent. They are proud to have 4.6 stars on Google with glowing reviews from candidates. As a global recruitment business, it manages talent pools in all major financial centres.
  • Kite maintains an internal engineering team managing API integrations and client journey enhancements. The team designed and deployed a solution that provides clients with real-time talent data, helping them learn from every hire and understand their talent universe. The solution included a dedicated Talent Insights dashboard, and the data gathered allowed each client to assess their brand within the market.
  • Kite outsources first-stage interviews and conducts technical assessments of candidates, as well as guaranteeing every hire for 12 months.

Judges’ comments

“In a field with very strong competitors, Kite Human Capital stands out. It delivers excellent candidate service, with a score of 100% candidate satisfaction alongside multiple other metrics that demonstrate success for its clients. Best of all, it does not rest on its successes in their specialism but have a constant effort to innovate the company’s offering as well. This proved the differentiating factor in the selection as this year’s winner.”

BEST NEW AGENCY 2023

The Search

The Search is a specialist HR/people & talent executive search firm founded by Penny Daniels in 2021. Having worked in HR search for nearly a decade, she wanted to create a market-leading brand focused on partnering with truly innovative, people-focused, forward-thinking HR and talent leaders.

  • The company prioritises people over profit with a culture-driven organisation, and it believes in values of ownership, authenticity and growth. It also has committed to donate at least 1% of profits every year to Children With Cancer UK and Women’s Aid and intend for this percentage to grow with each financial milestone.
  • Its specialisation in people and talent leadership profiles within innovative, growing businesses means it can better support companies finding leaders in this space. The Search has made 52 hires across 42 clients and supported CEOs and founders in making business critical decisions in under two years. It also tracks diversity; for example, 74% of their placements identify as female, 35% identify as people of colour and 11% identify as LGBTQIA+.
  • To stand out in a crowded market, the business created a 5-to-10 minute video – think MTV Cribs for Search – for each role that tells people what it is like to work at a particular company. It focuses on selling the role, discusses what it is like to work there, brings the culture to life and any quirks the business might have that sets them aside from their competitors.

Judges’ comments

“From an HR perspective, The Search is great, trendy and market-leading, and is a stand-out entry for Best New Agency. The Search has rebuilt trust and confidence among those who know it in the recruitment sector. We were particularly impressed by how it talked about itself and presented itself. The Search provided clear evidence of how it lives its values with an outstanding testimonial that was used as a case study in the entry. Gender pay equality, diversity & inclusion measures, and innovation with the use of video used in a dramatically positive way made The Search stand out in this category. From a commercial perspective, its productivity was best in class.”

DIVERSITY, EQUALITY AND INCLUSIVITY (DE&I) SERVICE EXCELLENCE 2023

Harper Fox

Harper Fox Search Partners provide senior leadership talent and executive search solutions for the global energy, engineering, manufacturing, transport, technology and utilities sectors. It is a female-owned boutique search firm, offering a bespoke service to their clients, with offices in London, Birmingham and Texas.

  • As a search firm it has achieved a 43% increase in placing diverse talent. 
  • Harper Fox drove higher engagement on recruitment campaigns through its DEI practices – for example, job descriptions that had been gender decoded received a 30% increase in female applicants. It also helped clients tap into diverse candidates not previously engaged with. As a result, clients are seeing increased employee engagement, higher innovation and faster problem solving in their businesses.
  • Its Trailblazer Talks series is enabling and encouraging clients to have conversations around more sensitive and difficult topics such as how to support menopausal employees, mental health and black identity in the workplace. The free ‘Harper Fox Guide to Attracting and Retaining Diverse Talent in STEM’ has been shared with a wider community of clients and is actively facilitating employers to develop their internal policies and practices.

Judges’ comments

Harper Fox fought off tough opposition in this category, “and if there was an opposite to the tickbox approach sometimes given to DEI, it is this company”, the judges said. “A very human and authentic entry, and when it says it tries to be different it clearly is.” The statistics and metrics show it is making a tangible difference to its clients’ recruiting practices when it comes to DEI. The judges applauded the business for the upskilling work it does for clients and various voluntary initiatives. Judges felt the stand-out project was the STEM:Diversified event for clients and prospects, giving representation to a much under-represented group and which it funded itself. Excellent testimonials and supporting information. 

Highly Commended: Inclusive Boards and Peregrine (formerly Modular People Solutions)

“We also decided to give two highly commended awards to Inclusive Boards and Modular People Solutions. The former has developed an excellent toolkit and is doing some truly great work in the sports sector while the latter was applauded for its highly inclusive and innovative work for Social Security Scotland.”