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New to Market

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.

3 April 2025
Creative/Digital/Media, Executive search

Dragon-backed Chapter 2 boosts talent offering with transformation service

Backed by Steven Bartlett (from BBC Dragons’ Den and his Diary of a CEO), this strategic expansion aims to solidify “Chapter 2’s 360-degree talent solutions offering, delivering comprehensive, data-driven solutions to the most pressing talent challenges facing businesses today”, according to a company statement. 

Spearheading the new service is talent strategy director David Brammer. The Transformation & Advisory practice will tackle every area of talent acquisition, from capability and capacity to hiring process optimisation and workforce planning. The practice will also provide talent strategies to prepare businesses for AI-focused roles for the future of work.

As part of this offering, Chapter 2 will conduct in-depth talent and hiring audits, identifying opportunities and reducing hiring-related challenges, through structured hiring diagnostics and benchmarking. 

The service also includes recruitment efficiency assessments, policy and risk evaluations (including IR35 compliance) and contingent workforce strategy development.

Leo Harrison, founder and CEO of Chapter 2, says: “Establishing the Transformation Advisory completes our 360 offering, making sure that we’re able to provide solutions to both common and uncommon challenges that companies face in not only today’s workplace, but the one of the future.”

With 26 years’ experience leading global talent acquisition strategy for brands such as Boots, Kingfisher and Ocado, Brammer will be supported by experienced hire Marta Wasowicz, as the director of advisory and transformation.

L-r: Steven Bartlett, Marta Wasowicz, David Brammer, Leo Harrison ©Chapter 2

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13 May 2019
Retail, Public sector, Charity & not-for-profit, Executive search, Interim recruitment, IT/Telecoms, Hospitality/Leisure

NEW TO THE MARKET: 13-17 MAY 2019

• BeatMySalary, a new personalised recruitment platform, which uses flash cards instead for senior roles in finance and IT, is launching in the UK later this month.

• Scottish recruitment agency Brightwork has introduced new technology to speed up the complex but legally-required right-to-work in the UK checks.

The Identification Document Validation Technology (IDVT) system uses machine-learning algorithms to compare a candidate’s image with that of photos on supporting identity documents. Using a standard Android smartphone with the accompanying app, an on-the-spot picture taken of a jobseeker can be immediately compared with identifying information stored in a secure cloud, with results available in minutes.

• Executive search firm Friisberg & Partners International has launched an office in Dublin.

• Tech recruitment platform hackajob has launched a freelance contract service to help businesses recruit the technical talent they need on a freelance basis. The new service is an extension of the platform that matches candidates with roles based on their skills, not their CVs.

• Professional network LinkedIn has revealed a number of new jobs and hiring features. New features for jobseekers include: new instant job alerts; Jobs Home Redesign; Unlocked Salary Insights on Jobs; and Skill Assessments (launching soon). New features for hiring managers include new Recruiter and Jobs and Screening questions.

• Odgers Interim, the interim management arm of global headhunter Odgers Berndtson, has launched interim management workshops, to train the next generation of interim leaders.

Odgers Interim will provide these workshops free of charge in order to develop the UK’s interim leadership talent. Tailored to servicing the public, not-for-profit and commercial sectors, the workshops will equip early-stage interims with the necessary skills for a successful interim career. This will include guidance on setting up a limited company, how to go to market as an independent professional and how to navigate legislation such as IR35.

• Retail, hospitality, leisure recruiter SPE Resourcing has launched SPE Connect, which focuses on middle management hires.

• Product and technology staffing specialist Xpertise Recruitment, which already operates from offices in both Derby and London, is to open its third office in the centre of Manchester.

8 May 2019
Transport & logistics, Apprentices/Grads/School leavers

Joint project offers unemployed lift into logistics jobs

According to a statement from the company, new hires will be selected through a screening and assessment process by Challenge Group’s West Midlands-based training organisation Phoenix Training Services, who will then deliver the Fortec training package at Fortec’s distribution centre in Northamptonshire. 

The aim is for local unemployed candidates to undergo training in a real-time environment, through an eight-day training course – three of them classroom-based and five days’ practical. After completing the course, recruits will receive a Counterbalance Licence, as well as industry-recognised qualifications.

The successful trainees will then have the chance to join Fortec, initially on a temporary basis with a view to making the role permanent after three months.

When recruiting and screening, Phoenix has committed to looking at the wider issues of employment, such as integrating people back into work if they are lone parents, or have issues with transportation or family commitments, and providing support where necessary.

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7 May 2019
Creative/Digital/Media, IT/Telecoms, HR, Healthcare/Medical, Accounting/Finance

NEW TO THE MARKET: 7-10 MAY 2019

• The Association of Professional Staffing Companies has announced a five-day Trade Delegation to New York and Toronto beginning on the 11 November 2019. The event marks the second time the trade association has travelled with members to North America, after a delegation of 28 visited New York and San Francisco in 2017. 

During the trip, delegates will receive access to contacts across the sector, briefings from specialists about business opportunities and market trends and practical advice from experienced recruitment leaders operating in the region.

• Financial services specialist recruitment group BWD has opened a new office on Gray’s Inn Road in London.

• North West-based specialist engineering recruiter Core Talent has launched a staff employee benefits package. The ‘YourCore’ package offers flexitime arrangements to encourage gym breaks and family time; access to a confidential 24/7 employee assistance support helpline; socials to promote inclusion; and holiday vouchers to encourage luxury rest breaks.

The package features an NHS Top-Up Cash Plan benefit, which gives Core Talent employees access to a round-the-clock helpline where they can discuss personal matters from finance through to relationships in confidence. The agency has also appointed a new head of organisational development, Melissa Venner, who is a certified Mental Health First Aider.

• Technology recruitment specialist Head Resourcing has launched a dedicated senior appointments arm, based in the company’s Edinburgh head office. Anna Knight will oversee the new division.

• The government has launched an advertising campaign across three key regions of the UK to raise awareness of the signs of modern slavery.

The campaign will help frontline workers in employment offices, healthcare and financial services to spot the signs of human trafficking and will consist of advertising and social media. It is intended that the campaign will help workers to learn the signs of modern slavery and report potential victims to the modern slavery helpline.

29 April 2019
Executive search, IT/Telecoms, HR, Graduates/Apprentices/School leavers, Accounting/Finance

NEW TO THE MARKET: 29 APRIL – 3 MAY 2019

• UK cyber security firm Beyond Encryption has brought Steve Searle, the co-founder and former managing director of Matchtech, on board to promote its Mailock system to the recruitment industry. Beyond Encryption is looking to provide its Mailock system – a military-grade encryption protection to businesses’ emails – to the recruitment sector through Searle’s appointment as a recruitment industry specialist.

• Global specialist recruiter Michael Page has launched an Inclusivity Mapper, a tool that allows businesses to see how they fare on topics from leadership to culture. To support clients and businesses in creating an inclusive workplace, the tool offers tailored advice to businesses on how to improve their D&I (diversity & inclusion) performance, including a benchmark ranking against the industry standard.

• Graduate career specialist Prospects is to host a new series of Virtual Careers Fairs, bringing together high calibre students and graduates with career, education and lifestyle opportunities. The fair will take place on its site – prospects.ac.uk – at 12-3pm, Wednesday 5 June 2019.

• External talent market data provider Talent Intuition has launched Stratigens, a new platform which pulls together data points from the global talent market.

The technology platform, developed by Talent Intuition’s CEO Alison Ettridge, aims to provide HR directors with a new way of accessing people intelligence to shape strategy and reduce risk.

• Leeds-based finance search and selection consultancy Woodrow Mercer Finance is continuing to expand with the opening of a new office in Hull led by partner Emma Dutton. The move will enable the business to extend its reach into the Humber region from its new offices in Ergo House, Hull’s £4m business centre on the Bridgehead Business Park in Hessle.

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