The winner of the Recruiter of the Year Award at the Recruiter Awards for Excellence, headlined sponsored by Eploy, said that building relationships with clients and candidates as well as passion for the job were fundamental to his success.  

Mark Kelly, sales team manager at IT recruiter Computer Futures in Dublin, part of the SThree Group, won this prestigious accolade after billing £879,756 between October 2010 and October 2011. Kelly made 103 permanent placements in that period, with an average fee of £8,541.

Kelly told Recruiter: “I think that relationships are very important in this market, and trying to understand client needs. When you understand the candidate’s motivation for moving, you can bring it together with the needs of clients. It is also about being passionate about doing that.

“The candidates work with me through referrals, and they understand that I have their best interests at heart.”

As a sales manager, Kelly continues to recruit, however, he said his ambition was to move into a directorship role, making use of his Masters degree in business strategy and management.

Marcus Francis, a director of SThree, told Recruiter: “Mark is an exceptional talent and someone that is definitely going all the way to the top, in my opinion. No job is too big or too small for Mark and he will do anything to ensure the client and the candidates happy, and thinking outside the box in working to develop those relationships.

“Mark is an exceptional talent and someone that is definitely going all the way to the top, in my opinion.

“He has taken over a management role officially over the last six months, and the performance of the team has increased massively based on Mark’s ability to lead from the front and getting the team to follow his strategy.” 

The award is confirmation that “all his hard work and ability is really paying off”, he added.