Randstad UK growth down to strategy, employees and value over volume
20 February 2015
Randstad UK’s growth comes down to strategy, employee engagement and focusing on value over volume, said the business’s chief executive Mark Bull.
Fri, 20 Feb 2015
Randstad UK’s growth comes down to strategy, employee engagement and focusing on value over volume, said the business’s chief executive Mark Bull.
As Recruiter reported yesterday, the UK business’s revenue for 2014 was €821.7m (£605.5m), compared to €769.6m in 2013.
Speaking to Recruiter recently, Bull said gross profit for the UK business had doubled over that time.
While brand awareness and marketing had a part to play in that growth, it was “fundamentally” down to what consultants and managers were doing, and a targeted approach to value, not volume recruiting.
He said the UK business was split into 11 business lines, each with a particular speciality – finance, technology, construction, education, for example – and the business was growing each of those lines in its own targeted way by focusing on clients of choice.
He said it was a “conscious decision” to focus the business in that kind of structure, “rather than be a generalist, volume-based recruiter”.
That said, he added, “we do have volume accounts, some worth £50-60m in revenue a year, but they are accounts of choice”.
Randstad has, however, also exited contracts over the last two to three years that had high volume but low profitability.
On employee engagement, Bull said about two years ago he was “thinking about ways for people to feel that they could really contribute and add something to the business” and from that, the High Performance Panel was established.
The panel is made up of a representative from all business lines — each of the divisions plus function areas such as HR, IT and legal. The representatives are all voted for by the business area they represent and are chaired by an independent person, someone with no ties to Randstad.
With a brief to come up with ideas to make Randstad UK stronger, better and more effective, the panel developed three initiatives:
Bull said: “Growth last year was undoubtedly partly driven and affected by the real emphasis on the high performance attitude. We have a learning and development programme and a career development programme but wanted to overlay that with a real sense of ambition.”
He said having the people voted onto the panel by their peers ensured employee buy-in and meant the programme became “part of the fabric of the business”.
The Just One More phrase is something that has been picked up by the global team, he said, with the Australian business recently rolling it out there.
Randstad UK’s growth comes down to strategy, employee engagement and focusing on value over volume, said the business’s chief executive Mark Bull.
As Recruiter reported yesterday, the UK business’s revenue for 2014 was €821.7m (£605.5m), compared to €769.6m in 2013.
Speaking to Recruiter recently, Bull said gross profit for the UK business had doubled over that time.
While brand awareness and marketing had a part to play in that growth, it was “fundamentally” down to what consultants and managers were doing, and a targeted approach to value, not volume recruiting.
He said the UK business was split into 11 business lines, each with a particular speciality – finance, technology, construction, education, for example – and the business was growing each of those lines in its own targeted way by focusing on clients of choice.
He said it was a “conscious decision” to focus the business in that kind of structure, “rather than be a generalist, volume-based recruiter”.
That said, he added, “we do have volume accounts, some worth £50-60m in revenue a year, but they are accounts of choice”.
Randstad has, however, also exited contracts over the last two to three years that had high volume but low profitability.
On employee engagement, Bull said about two years ago he was “thinking about ways for people to feel that they could really contribute and add something to the business” and from that, the High Performance Panel was established.
The panel is made up of a representative from all business lines — each of the divisions plus function areas such as HR, IT and legal. The representatives are all voted for by the business area they represent and are chaired by an independent person, someone with no ties to Randstad.
With a brief to come up with ideas to make Randstad UK stronger, better and more effective, the panel developed three initiatives:
- A mentoring programme for people wanting to accelerate their careers.
- The phrase ‘Just One More’, which every person in the business takes as a mantra and pushes themselves to achieve just one more thing each day or week. For example, a recruitment consultant might secure just one more candidate for an interview.
- The High Performance Award, which sees each business line and functional area vote for the person within their department that they feel has gone above and beyond every quarter. That person gets a £1.5k cash reward and after a year, the 48 quarterly winners come together for an awards dinner, held this year on 11 February at the commercial skyscraper The Gherkin in London, where the top performer out of those 48 was awarded £5k.
Bull said: “Growth last year was undoubtedly partly driven and affected by the real emphasis on the high performance attitude. We have a learning and development programme and a career development programme but wanted to overlay that with a real sense of ambition.”
He said having the people voted onto the panel by their peers ensured employee buy-in and meant the programme became “part of the fabric of the business”.
The Just One More phrase is something that has been picked up by the global team, he said, with the Australian business recently rolling it out there.
- Want to comment on this story? The Comment box is at the bottom of the page. Sorry for the glitch but just scroll right down and share your opinions!
