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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.

11 March 2019
Engineering, Construction & property, Industrial/Manufacturing, IT/Telecoms

Start-up of the Month: Greywolf Recruitment

Established agency polkadotfrog recruits into professional sectors such as office, commercial, finance and IT, while Greywolf recruits into construction, driving, engineering and industrial sectors, he explained.

The two firms share central services across HR, payroll, marketing, and PR, and offices across East Anglia. “We have been lean in shared costs and shared services, which has given us a good platform,” Skipworth told Recruiter.

But he expects that it’s the firms’ shared commitment to providing a professional service – more commonly associated with white-collar recruitment – that will make Greywolf stand out in the market.

According to Skipworth, blue-collar clients welcome Greywolf’s professionalised approach to blue-collar recruitment, which has involved taking the time for site visits to fully understand client requirements through a one-to-one approach. “The consultants we have taken on so far have all been experienced in their own field, so they can take the time and understand what the client is looking for and fulfil those needs,” he said.

Skipworth’s goals for the next year are to make Greywolf financially independent from polkadotfrog, and to establish Greywolf on all of the polkadotfrog sites, he said. While there is a Greywolf presence in Cambridge, Norwich and Ipswich, it lacks a presence in Peterborough. A further goal is to ensure that Greywolf recruits across all four of its disciplines in each of the four locations, he added.

11 March 2019
Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Education, Engineering, Charity & not-for-profit, Executive search, IT/Telecoms

NEW TO THE MARKET: 11-15 MARCH 2019

• Global talent acquisition firm Alexander Mann Solutions has opened an office in Berlin to support its growing DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) client base.

• Personalised recruitment platform Beatmysalary is to be launched in the UK this month. The platform’s intelligent algorithms only allow relevant candidates to apply for particular jobs. Key information is displayed on personalised live profile cards rather than CVs. It also features a live application tracking function, which allows the candidates to know whether they can expect a call from the employer or not.

• Teacher recruitment service eTeach is relocating its global head office to Arlington Square in Bracknell from Monday (18 March).

• Technology solutions and engineering provider Arrow Electronics and freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace Freelancer.com have launched ArrowPlus powered by Freelancer.com. The new platform allows Fortune 500 companies and technology creators to design and build hardware products through accessing skilled electronic and electrical engineers.

• Multi-sector recruiter HR GO has opened an office in Wroclaw, Poland. HR GO Recruitment (Poland) is based in the offices that joint venture Eclipse, the group’s specialist IT business, established as its head office in Wroclaw last year.

Poland recruitment manager Dominik Kostecki said: “We are initially planning to start with three recruitment consultants and grow to a full size branch through 2019.” The new business is looking to recruit UK-based Polish workers who wish to return home, as well as qualified people in Poland looking for high-quality roles in the UK.

• Ex-Royal Marine Peter Kelly has launched imployable – an app designed to bridge gaps in unemployment and facilitate career tracking. Candidates create a digital CV that is used to apply for jobs. The app in turn uses the CV to tell users how qualified and experienced they are for any job post they are viewing. Imployable is available at the app store for both iOS and Android.

• A French government-backed start-up ecosystem La French Tech has launched a fast-track visa system. The start-up visa is free, valid for four years, extends to family members and has an identical process regardless of the worker’s country of origin.

• French recruitment technology solutions provider PIXID has launched its myPixid vendor management system solution in Ireland. The launch of myPixid in Ireland follows PIXID’s recent launches in the UK and the Netherlands.

• Global specialist recruiter Robert Walters Group has launched #BreakTheCycle – a world-wide employee wellbeing initiative.

This year, more than 4,000 employees of the group will be challenged to #BreakTheCycle and do something fun, active, meaningful and inclusive with colleagues – with the goal of improving wellbeing and checking in on peers.

Already stepping up to the mark are the Hairy Handlebars, a team of two who are cycling 6,000 miles from Robert Walters’ London HQ to its offices in Tokyo – to raise money for men’s health charity Movember.

The pair are being sponsored by the Robert Walter, and the launch of the campaign will be marked by the Hairy Handlebars’ departure between 11.30am-12.45pm on Thursday 21 March in St Martin’s Courtyard, Covent Garden outside Robert Walters Group HQ.

4 March 2019
Marketing, Creative/Digital/Media, Construction & property, Executive search, HR, Accounting/Finance

NEW TO THE MARKET: 4-8 MARCH 2019

• Independent job board CV-Library has launched specialist graduate job site Jobs-Graduate.co.uk.

• The founders of recruitment websites mummyjobs.co.uk and daddyjobs.co.uk are launching FindYourFlex.co.uk and rebranding the Mummyjobs Group to The Find | Your | Flex Group on 1 March 2019. The move is to provide an inclusive platform for anyone looking for flexible working.

The new job board (jobs.findyourflex.co.uk) will offer a range of roles across all sectors from casual work to senior appointments. All jobs will champion flexible working whether it’s part-time, job-share, compressed hours, annualised hours, staggered hours, term-time only or phased retirement. The site will also continue to share practical advice and provide a platform for people to share their experiences relating to flexible working. The Mummyjobs and Daddyjobs boards will remain but will become campaigning sites for parental rights and equal leave benefits.

• MyPeople Group, a provider of cloud-based employee performance management and engagement analytics solutions, has launched a new profiling service.

Developed by the same analytics team that helped GB cycling, GB rowing and England Rugby to achieve success through the aggregation of marginal gains, MyPeople’s profiling service applies the same principles to the use of scientific data to achieve comparable results in business. It provides organisations with insight into cultural and team dynamics, including the personality types and characteristics of high performing teams and individual employees that support improved business performance.

• Software provider The Access Group has launched Access Workspace, a platform for connected and collaborative working.

The platform brings together all departments across a recruitment business – from sales and finance to HR, IT and compliance – in one place. 

• Professional networking site LinkedIn has opened the doors to The Linked Inn – a pop-up pub where punters can combine socialising with getting a new job. The Inn, which opens its doors on 46 Great Eastern Street in London’s Shoreditch this week, aims to show how socialising with your community can get you closer to the job you want. Brands such as John Lewis Partnership, Lloyds Banking Group and LADBible are among those with vacancies at the pop-up.

LinkedIn experts will also be at The Inn, offering career advice, and profile pictures will be taken by a professional photographer at the event.

• Search and selection firm Walmsley Wilkinson Associates has moved into new offices in the Ribble Valley, near the village of Sawley and the outskirts of Clitheroe, Lancashire. Blackburn Rovers CEO Steve Waggott was the VIP guest at the opening ceremony, which also included suppliers such as accountants, architects, financial advisers, marketing and design agencies.

25 February 2019
Retail, Rec-to-rec, Transport & logistics, Engineering, Commercial & office support, Executive search, Industrial/Manufacturing, HR

NEW TO THE MARKET: 25 FEBRUARY-1 MARCH 2019

• Procurement staffing specialist Bramwith Consulting has opened new offices in the City of London and in Brooklyn, New York.

• Technical recruiter NRL Group has rebranded its Intec (UK) business under the NRL brand. The move follows NRL’s acquisition of Intec in November 2018. The historic Intec business joins the group’s other regional recruitment businesses as NRL’s Heysham branch. The move grows NRL’s recruitment business to eight branches, including one overseas operations in Cairo.

• Odgers Interim, the interim management arm of global executive search firm Odgers Berndtson, has launched a podcast series offering frontline perspectives from its network of industry consultants and interim leaders.

• The Apprentice 2017 winner James White’s recruitment agency Right Time Recruitment has launched a rec-to-rec division.

• Secretarial and PA recruiter Tiger Recruitment has published an e-book. Entitled An Exceptional Life: Creating Better Workplaces, the book covers the 11 tenets of the modern workforce. These include diversity, performance management, flexible working and mental health, capturing the latest research and trends from industry experts. Contributions come from the likes of Hootsuite, Atlassian, British Land and Deloitte.

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