Winner: La Fosse Associates

La Fosse Associates is a values-based technology, digital and change recruiter, working at all levels from the board down. The company treats candidates well because it believes it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s a better way to do business. In 2016, La Fosse almost doubled its size. This experience created challenges; however, the process also gave the company an insight into what fast growth means. La Fosse decided to take these lessons and build a service line for clients, the Talent Advisory programme, that would draw on its own experiences to advise new enterprises on how to scale at speed.

• Working with fast-growing technology businesses has been at the company’s core since the start, and the Talent Advisory programme seemed to be the logical next step in providing value for the community of start-ups and venture capital-backed enterprises.

• The programme demonstrates La Fosse’s strength as a consultative partner as well as a recruiting body. Much of the programme’s structure is built around its internal hiring, HR and learning and development practices.

• La Fosse placed 25 candidates with long-standing client in 2017. La Fosse’s working relationship with the client means La Fosse now has an interview:placement ratio of 3:1 for the account.

• A case study of excellent client service during this year is a project with a public sector organisation during its transformation programme, when it was establishing a team from scratch. La Fosse helped the organisation fill 20 posts during the transformation period.

Judges’ Comments:

“La Fosse clearly aspires to be best-in-class at everything it does. Sustained financial growth and high net promoter scores underline how well the agency is run.”

Winner: Fircroft

Sponsored by: The Guild of Construction Workers

Fircroft provides a range of workforce solutions to engineering companies, including contract and permanent recruitment, managed services provision, recruitment process outsourcing, global mobility and onboarding. Oil & gas projects can crop up in the most far-flung, inhospitable locations. Fircroft’s experienced international team of recruiters allows it to source engineering talent for projects, no matter where they are based. It is trusted by oil & gas companies to recruit talent for locations as diverse as Iraq, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Europe. Every year Fircroft starts more than 2,500 contractors. In even the most challenging locations, its network of offices, strategic partnerships and relationships with foreign embassies ensures that it can take the highest possible care of staff and contractors.

  • When Fircroft starts its contractors, it arranges all relevant passports, visas, work permits, travel arrangements, accommodation, payroll, taxation, family support and more in a 100% compliant manner.
  • An example of a challenging vacancy the firm successfully filled was for Mercedes AMG HPP, which manufactures Formula 1 engines. When it needed a mechanical designer, Mercedes turned to Fircroft’s automotive division. Fircroft has since made five more placements for this client.
  • MechTool, a supplier protective equipment for use against fire, blast and radiant heat hazards, needed a HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) engineer to be deployed to Kazakhstan for a three-week-long project, at just a week’s notice. Fircroft managed to find an ideal candidate, arrange for interviews and fly him to Kazakhstan for the assignment.
  • An example of excellent candidate service in this period has been finding an HR adviser for oil & gas company Glencore’s operations in Chad. Fircroft managed to find a candidate who fulfilled all the conditions. However, after the initial interview, Chad entered a period of political unrest. Fircroft kept in contact with the candidate under difficult conditions, though, before she eventually started.
  • Several of the firm’s clients have benefited from an innovative online pay-and-billing system, which increases operational efficiency, improves accuracy and improves the user experience for contractors and clients.

Judges’ Comments:

“The winner was able to adapt to challenging political international conditions and deliver great results. It supported clients with exceptional attention to detail on compliance and governance.”

Sponsored by: NatWest

LMA Recruitment specialises in banking, secretarial, finance, risk, compliance and HR staffing. The firm has enjoyed continued growth across all metrics in 2017. Its success comes from retaining and developing its team, investing heavily in training and implementing technology to allow its people to spend more time talking than typing. LMA aims to be a pre-eminent force with the professional services recruitment market. Its plans include growing its existing teams while establishing new teams in legal, tax and treasury. The company has a diverse culture that treats its employees with respect and maturity, which provides opportunities for recruiters to build and develop an amazing career, and provides an environment where staff in all areas can excel.

  • Ongoing uncertainty over the Brexit process has caused many organisations to question their people strategy. Given LMA’s proximity to the candidate market, Brexit has been at the forefront of this planning process. Average call times in the team have gone up significantly, and this can be only because the company has been trying to advise people as best it can.
  • The company saw turnover growth of 22% to £11,216,325; net fee income of 22% to £4,029,495, and group operating profit growth of 72% to £588,229.
  • Banking and financial services clients contributed £542,340 towards group operating profit, equating to 92% of group operating profit.
  • The company is becoming an industry voice on diversity. It held an event last year with the Lord Mayor of London, which generated positive press about the need for companies to embrace the diversity & inclusion agenda more.
  • As LMA has developed relationships with long-term clients, it has tried to act as advisers to them. In 2017 it began a partnership with the Will Exell change consultancy to join the dots of recruitment, engagement and retention. Throughout 2017, we took one of the Will Exell team with us to strategic client meetings. This facilitated a far deeper understanding of our clients.

Judges’ Comments:

“The winner provided evidence of strong financial performance, of tackling difficult-to-fill roles, and of candidate service. It has also enhanced its offering and value to clients by partnering with a coaching business.”

Kite Consulting Group

Kite Consulting Group believes that the best agency is one that delivers the most customer value and satisfaction. Accordingly, the company has overhauled its business and redesigned its processes to put value to clients ahead of its fees. Clients get a good or great hire, or they get their money back for up to a year. In an independent survey, customers rated their satisfaction with Kite at 96%, as against average satisfaction with competitors at only 60%. This high appraisal rating is due to the development of innovative tools and practices that clients can rely on. In 2017, Kite’s number of clients grew by 240% and its staff by 157%, all without a sales function.
• Kite doesn’t employ salespeople. Instead, it relies on good service and word of mouth to generate new business.

• The company’s client service approach includes: integrity; only top-performer placements – average isn’t good enough; a video pre-interview between Kite and the applicant, embedded in each CV; interviewing each candidate’s previous manager on their job suitability before sending any CVs; including better data in CVs, with Scorecard; and using proprietary methods for capturing job specs, with Client Story.

• One example of Kite’s outstanding client service care was holding a capital markets networking dinner where attendees gained advice from experts in MiFID II regulation, which was increasing in pace and complexity during this period. The company’s insight into the senior managers who attended then helped it select hires for various clients.

• Kite also helped clients to develop blockchain capabilities by launching Blocktribe.com as a source of appropriate talent.

• In a third example, Kite provided market information on the behaviours and profiles of top performers with a Performance Trends White Paper, launched in partnership with the Change Management Institute.

Judges’ Comments:

“Kite’s innovative examples of how it supports its clients have contributed to excellent financial results, all backed up with clear metrics to underpin performance.”

Winner: ISE Partners

Sponsored by: Centralus

ISE Partners recruits in two main categories: business support, and PR and communications. Many of its candidates come to the company via direct recommendation. All candidates go through a thorough screening and selection process. They are then given interview commentary, advice and receive full preparation before being introduced to companies, receiving feedback throughout. ISE Partners’ recruitment consultants are knowledgeable and have extensive experience of the industries and sectors for which they are recruiting. Client retention is high, with candidates commenting on how well prepared they feel for joining their new firm. Because of the time and attention paid at the beginning of the process, candidate drop-out rate in the first year is just 2%.

• Experienced consultants offer tailored career advice at interview, frequently spending more than an hour and half with each candidate.
• Proactive behaviour – ISE’s small team markets specific experiences to interested companies, as opposed to waiting for the ideal role to land across their desks.
• The company offers candidates a personal service yet with the reach and client portfolio of a much larger agency.
• Once in situ, candidates have a two-week and a two-month catch up with their recruiter to relay their experiences of the onboarding and induction into their new firms, and to share any concerns
• 34% of ISE’s new client business in 2017 came via referral and recommendation, and more than 50% of this business was via candidates.
• More than 20% of its new candidate total in 2017 came via referral and recommendation.

Highly Commended :

La Fosse Associates

Judges’ Comments:

“The winner demonstrated themselves as genuine and transparent. Their deep knowledge of clients was reassuring to their candidates.”

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