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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

• Comment below on this story. Or let us know what you think by emailing us at [email protected] or tweet us to tell us your thoughts or share this story with a friend.

25 April 2019
Construction & property, Executive search, Graduates/Apprentices/School leavers

NEW TO THE MARKET: 23-26 APRIL 2019

• Leeds-based executive search firm Charlton Morris has partnered with qualified mental health practitioner Jaimie Shires, who will provide the agency’s staff with a four-point service aimed at supporting employee mental health.

This includes:

  • Quarterly half-day workshops for the whole business, designed to improve the understanding and awareness of mental health with topics of the workshops are also based on employee surveys
  • Training – all managers are being trained as ‘mental health first aiders’ 
  • Drop-in sessions where Shires will be hosting in-office drop in sessions for employees to have an informal conversation about their mental health
  • Counselling and support, with Shires available for conversations between 9am-6pm Monday to Friday to conduct a needs assessment on anyone who needs it. If she deems it appropriate, the company will pay for up to 12 individual counselling sessions for employees. 

• Property sector employment platform Gradfeed has launched. The site, which aims to make the sector more accessible for students and employers, targets both those with degrees and those without degrees seeking to get into the industry.

17 April 2019
Executive search

The Thrive Team

Search-and-selection specialist Martin Grady and experienced HR professional Alison Trodd have joined up to launch The Thrive Team, a search-and-selection, transition coaching and training provider.

Grady brings a 20-year search and selection background to the new business, having worked for firms such as Stonehouse Search and Selection, Hawker Chase Executive, ARM Consulting, MEG Recruitment Solutions, Matchtech and Manpower. Trodd has been in HR for more than 30 years, working for the NHS, the BBC, Boots and Butlin’s.

The Thrive Team places senior leaders in roles commanding salaries of between £80k and £200k, says Grady. But its support of the candidate does not stop when the placement has been made. Once a candidate accepts a role, the firm transitions them into that role during their gardening leave and notice period through coaching, so that they can be immediately effective in their new role. This coaching can cover a range of topics including emotional intelligence, their wellbeing – including mental health awareness – and issues they may have at home. “What that’s doing is helping them hit the ground running, and from the client perspective it’s taking the risk out of the hire,” Grady told Recruiter. “We’re often asked in recruitment: what’s the guarantee? And this is our guarantee, that they will have the right fit for the role and the culture, and they will absolutely be thriving in their new role.”

Asked about future plans for the business, Grady added: “We’ve got an associate pool, but we will take on permanent people and then grow it.”

15 April 2019
Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Public sector, Marketing, Transport & logistics, IT/Telecoms, HR, Healthcare/Medical

NEW TO THE MARKET: 15-18 APRIL 2019

• Vendor management service provider Engage Technology Partners has launched a new self-sign-up service that allows recruitment firms to have a more streamlined service through complete automation of worker registration and compliance.

The platform aims to reduce the administration burden on management teams and ensures that recruiters have more time to spend on meaningful engagement. Through the service, contractors will be able to register, manage timesheets and upload all compliance documents, allowing ease of managing payroll online, and much more.

• Technology staffing specialist Frank Recruitment Group has opened a third office in Germany. The new Munich office is located at Herzogspitalstraße 24, 80331.

• Chris Hughes and Steve Bromley, owners of HGV drivers supplier GO2 Drivers, have launched GO2 Personnel, a specialist recruitment company helping businesses find the right people for a range of roles.

Both businesses, based in Colwyn Bay, are part of the Welsh Government’s Accelerated Growth Programme. Bromley will head the business development side of the new venture, supported by a team of experienced recruiters. The two companies, GO2 Drivers and GO2 Personnel, sit under the GO2 People brand.

• Cloud solution HireFaster has launched. The platform offers real-time reference checking and on-boarding, and aims to mitigate fraud and cyber risk as well as cutting the cost per hire.

• Recruitment technology provider idibu has released the new idibu mobile app. The app delivers candidate management to mobiles and is available on both iOS and Android, and is compatible with all major recruitment CRMs.

Developed in-house, the app enables users to work through all new applications via a list. Data presented includes candidate profiles, key information, custom fields, links to social media, contact details. Users can also view the original CV. In addition, the app works with any candidate autoresponders users create.

• Healthcare staffing specialist Nurse Plus has opened an office in Durham, led by branch manager Rebecca Clish.

• Glenn Southam, the founder of strategic marketing consultancy TwoEnds, has launched a network dedicated to recruitment marketers called ‘The Lonely Marketers’, supported by podcast shows and events.

9 April 2019
Sales, Public sector, Executive search, IT/Telecoms, HR, Accounting/Finance

NEW TO THE MARKET: 8-12 APRIL 2019

• Cheshire-based wealth management firm Equilibrium Asset Management has launched a new recruitment website and training academy. As part of this recruitment drive, Equilibrium has also created an internal training academy to develop talent – based around workshops and group debate, and aimed at employees who aspire to be advisers, team leaders and specialists.

New starters can also join the company’s ‘Growth Zone’ - a series of workshops involving quizzes, podcasts and group debate covering topics such as how to communicate with different personality types and finding out the best way to learn and take on new information.

• Global recruitment specialist McGregor Boyall has launched WeAreMcGregor-Boyall.com, a career site designed to showcase life at the agency and highlight training and career progression opportunities available to new and existing staff.

• Specialist staffing company Onezeero, part of the global Impellam Group, has announced the launch of their technology executive search division, which will be managed by directors James Secker and Daniel Brin.

• Energy drink distributor Red Bull has launched assessment tool Wingfinder. Wingfinder can be used as a pre-screening tool during selection, as well as a development tool at any stage of one’s career. The tool has been developed by a team of psychometricians and psychology professors from University College London and Columbia University New York, and is based on psychological research and scientific studies.

Wingfinder aims to help individuals and HR professionals gain insights around strengths and weaknesses to better leverage talents in the workplace, overcome hurdles and launch their careers, and is available worldwide in English, German, Portuguese and Spanish.

• Recruitment marketing automation software provider SmartDreamers has released SmartDreamers Academy, a hiring, talent acquisition and recruitment marketing automation learning centre. The Academy, which is free of charge to recruiters, offers users a series of courses on a variety of recruitment-related topics, with a quiz at the end of each one to give people the chance to test their knowledge. 

• Dave Geddes has joined fire and security recruitment specialist Zitko Consulting to lead its new sales division.

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