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New to Market

25 April 2025
Construction & property, Graduates/Apprentices/School leavers

National student lettings agency launches apprenticeship scheme

In a bid to support young people and grow skilled and knowledgeable individuals for the student lettings sector, loc8me recently launched its 18-month programme, which is open to anyone aged 16-18. The scheme will offer hands-on experience, mentorship and the opportunity to engage in paid work.

Raffaele Russo, founder of loc8me, said: “We’re thrilled to launch this apprenticeship programme, giving young professionals a real chance to learn, grow and begin building a career in an exciting industry.

“Now more than ever, young people are seeking opportunities, guidance and goals to pursue. With this programme, we’re investing in their future – and in the future of the lettings sector.”

Apprentices will have the chance to study the theoretical and practical elements of the lettings industry, and on starting, they will be given a mentor from the loc8me team to support their development via regular meetings throughout the course.

loc8me now operates in 13 major university cities across the UK, including Loughborough, Durham, Nottingham, Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Newcastle, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leicester, Hull, Bath and Bristol.

Freya Watson-Russo, academy co-ordinator, said: "At loc8me, we’re committed to nurturing the next generation of letting agents. … We’re giving young people the chance to build a future, gain confidence and carve their own path.”

Founded in 2008 by Russo, loc8me manages more than 2,500 properties and employs more than 75 staff members.

(L-r) Apprentice Ollie Coe, loc8me's marketing assistant and academy co-ordinator Freya Watson-Russo and apprentice Isabel Tebbutt ©loc8me

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14 April 2025
Creative/Digital/Media, Engineering

NEW TO THE MARKET: 14-18 APRIL 2025

• Manufacturing and engineering specialist Busy Bee Recruitment has relaunched its website. The refreshed online platform has a modern design and enhanced user functionality, offering an intuitive browsing experience that makes it easier than ever to explore current vacancies, submit CVs quickly and securely, access expert recruitment advice via a blog and submit vacancies directly online.

• Deel, a global payroll and HR provider, has launched a suite of AI-driven products to help companies hire, manage, and pay international teams. Deel will offer an all-in-one global workforce platform integrating payroll, HR, and IT, designed to support compliant operations across borders. Key updates include: Real-Time Payroll in over 53 markets (expanding to 130+ by 2027), offering instant calculations and faster processing; Deel PEO for offering top-tier benefits without enterprise-level costs; Benefits Admin for simplified, compliant benefits management across countries; Deel Talent for streamlined recruitment via trusted agency networks; Workforce Planning, Compensation, and Engage tools – powered by AI – for smarter headcount strategy, global pay management, and employee development; IT Lifecycle Management features like MDM, IAM, and EPP, supporting global device and security control.

11 April 2025
Creative/Digital/Media, IT/Telecoms

Spotted Zebra merges Interview Intelligence and Assessment in one platform

This is technology that transcribes, analyses and evaluates conversations through an AI-powered lens. The merger connects assessment results with interview data, addressing the growing challenge enterprise talent leaders face: making confident, objective hiring decisions when candidate information can be fragmented across multiple tools.

In a statement, Spotted Zebra says that enterprise talent acquisition teams are facing twin pressures from AI-generated candidate applications and deepening skills shortages. 

The launch responds to a critical market challenge, the statement continues; while more than three in four businesses report widening skills gaps, employers are inundated with applications with around half of all jobseekers using AI tools to apply for roles. Current solutions force companies to choose between expensive, disconnected systems or compromise on either assessment breadth and depth, or a scalable interview process and structure.

“We’ve integrated Interview Intelligence with Assessment because our enterprise customers are facing unprecedented challenges in talent acquisition,” said Ian Monk, co-founder and CEO of Spotted Zebra. “By unifying these previously siloed technologies, we’re enabling talent teams to make data-informed decisions based on a complete picture of each candidate’s capabilities.”

Unlike standard Interview Intelligence tools that primarily transcribe conversations, Spotted Zebra’s implementation establishes a data framework that truly connects skill measurements across different evaluation methods:

  • Real-time skill evidence mapping: Comprehensive role skills profiles are automatically created thanks to AI-powered intake meetings between recruiters and hiring managers. 
  • AI-assisted interview questioning technology: The AI-powered Interview Guides automatically generate targeted question paths for specific role skills profiles and each candidate.
  • Consolidated hiring evidence dashboard: The Decision Kit combines summarised skill data from both assessment scores and interview evidence, weighting each source appropriately based on predictive validity for specific skill types. 

According to the company statement, AI in Spotted Zebra enhances human decision-making, ensuring the final call on a candidate’s suitability for a role is objective, data-backed and always in the hands of the hiring team.

Headquartered in the UK, Spotted Zebra was launched in 2020 by Monk and co-founder and chief commercial officer Nick Shaw.

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10 April 2025
Creative/Digital/Media, Executive search

NEW TO THE MARKET: 7-11 APRIL 2025

• UK recruitment firm HRGO has launched ‘Betty’, an AI agent tackling recruitment ghosting by ensuring all job applicants receive feedback. Since its December 2024 launch, Betty has provided personalised insights to over 40,000 candidates. A survey of 1,000 users found 90% valued the feedback, addressing a major frustration in the hiring process at scale. Betty was named after Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Parkinson, the founder of HRGO back in 1957.

• Recruitment firm Sowena Group has moved into new headquarters in Manchester city centre. Perran Cooke launched Sowena Group last summer after more than a decade in the recruitment industry, including roles as regional MD for the North at executive search company PSD Group and as a director at Axon Moore. Sowena now has a team of five and has taken office space at The Tootal Buildings on Oxford Street. The company statement says Sowena Group is expected to deliver more than £650k in revenue this year.

Senior recruitment consultants Dave Kreitz and Mackenzie Harrop have joined Sowena in recent weeks, along with Leah Allen as head of marketing and Megan Buckley as marketing executive. Cooke said he expects the team to grow to 10 by the end of this year, creating roles for recruitment consultants, back office and support staff, market research specialists and a non-executive director. Sowena Group focuses on senior finance posts in high-growth and private equity and venture capital-backed businesses across the North-West and beyond.

29 July 2019
Marketing, Legal, IT/Telecoms, HR, Accounting/Finance

Beesley and Dawe launch TIMESTWO Investments for entrepreneurs

The business, which has a specially-designed incubation hub on the outskirts of Bristol, supports entrepreneurs who have identified a market and are ready strike out on their own.

In its initial phase the firm will focus on entrepreneurs from the South-West before opening up nationally in the coming 12 months.

Along with financial investment, TIMESTWO also offers entrepreneurs support with brand development, marketing, IT, finance and legal services.

Over the past 40 plus years, Beesley and Dawe have created a group of independent companies that are some of the fastest growing in the UK and Ireland, including Sanderson and Resource Management, which sit under parent group Resource Solutions Group (RSG).

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23 July 2019
Retail, Industrial/Manufacturing, IT/Telecoms, HR, Apprentices/Grads/School leavers

NEW TO THE MARKET: 22-26 JULY 2019

• Background check and drug screening solutions provider First Advantage has launched RightID, an identity verification solution that allows property managers and employers to mitigate the risk of fraud with real-time artificial intelligence-based identity corroboration. The AI-based ID verification product will launch this August.

• Multi-sector recruiter Meridian Business Support has launched a new division called MBS Response, which will focus solely on high volume recruitment accounts in the food and distribution sectors.

• US cloud-based software company Salesforce has announced new capabilities to its Salesforce Essentials product. The changes will enable small and medium-sized businesses to communicate with customers on their preferred conversation channels, from Facebook Messenger, Instagram, YouTube and web chat to one-click inbound and outbound phone capabilities, without leaving the Salesforce platform.

• Pre-hire assessment specialist ThriveMap has developed a new cost of bad hires calculator. Based on data from Office for National Statistics, global forecasting and quantitative analysis Oxford Economics, leadership training and research firm Leadership IQ and HR trade body the CIPD, the calculator provides an indication of how much bad hires could be costing businesses.

• The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has launched a summer campaign offering opportunities and activities to school leavers and young people most at risk of falling into crime and anti-social behaviour.

Supported by partners including South and City College, youth engagement specialists from First Class Legacy and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, the #wmstrong campaign will provide teenagers with advice and information on a wide range of activities from employment training to sports and arts clubs.

They can also play football with coaches from Aston Villa and Birmingham City or gain batting and bowling tips from Warwickshire County Cricket Club’s experts.

Launched on social media as #wmstrong, the campaign is timed to coincide with the beginning of school summer holidays across the region. Already, campaign staff have been to Dale End in Birmingham city centre, an area where there have been incidents of anti-social behaviour and disorder involving large groups of young people.

As well as a variety of activities, young people were also handed information cards or pointed towards courses or opportunities, while campaign staff gathered information on young people about their current status and attitudes to training.

15 July 2019
Legal, IT/Telecoms, HR, Accounting/Finance

NEW TO THE MARKET: 15-19 JULY 2019

• Cheltenham-based employment law and HR specialist Eight Legal has launched HR Mate, an app that aims to enable HR freelancers to secure new business at the touch of a button. The app is free to download and is available from the App Store for iOS devices and Google play for Android.

• Global IT recruiter Frank Recruitment Group has opened a new US office in Park Tower, on the border of Irvine and Costa Mesa in Orange County. The office is headed up by business manager Taylor Jones.

• Business and financial adviser Grant Thornton UK has launched a new ‘Off-Payroll Workers’ (OPW) client solution aimed at helping firms prepare for the extension of off-payroll rules into the private sector. The assessment solution uses artificial intelligence, enabled by the firm’s technical knowledge and experience, to carry out IR35 status assessments of workers.

• Personality assessment solutions specialist Hogan Assessments has launched General Employability in Europe. This is a new streamlined assessment tool that aims to help companies recruit the right people by identifying the personality characteristics that predict employability across a range of jobs.

15 July 2019
Executive search

Start-up of the Month: Elite Talent Resourcing

De-Lara, who has worked as an internal recruiter, talent acquisition executive and headhunter, told Recruiter the decision to set up her own business followed on from her realisation that in previous roles she built up a loyal client following which had bought into her personally.

“The companies I worked for have given me a safety net that I felt I needed, with a guaranteed income each month, but I know that I can make this work alone and, hopefully, reap the rewards too,” she said.

In terms of standing out in the market, the headhunter revealed 90% of her roles are filled by passive candidates, who are not actively looking for a role. She added she prides herself on being a consultative and honest recruiter, who is straight with clients if they have unrealistic expectations of candidates or if they are paying below market rate, and equally straight with candidates who are asking for remuneration that is not in line with their skills.

De-Lara, who has two children, added that while most of her recent roles have offered some flexibility to do school runs, she wants to be able to be at home in the holidays or when her children are poorly. She added that as the business grows and expands, she wants to offer that flexibility to new staff.

“We have got off to a great start so far, making our first placement in our first month of trading. I need to keep up the momentum.”

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