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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.

4 February 2019
Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Creative/Digital/Media, Executive search, Interim recruitment, IT/Telecoms, HR

NEW TO THE MARKET: 4-8 FEBRUARY 2019

• The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) has published new guidance to help prevent age discrimination at work. The new Acas advice includes guidance on recruitment, training, performance management and redundancy, and other areas where age discrimination is most likely to occur. Included in the guidance is a myth-busting document.

• Recruitment portal GoFindMe has launched. The portal focuses on a person’s skills and experience by anonymising the recruitment process, with the aim of enabling companies to hire top talent while breaking down barriers created by stereotyping.

• Global talent solutions business Morgan Philips Group has announced a number of changes to its UK business following its acquisition of the Hudson talent solutions business in the UK and Europe (excluding Benelux) in April 2018.

These include:

  • The launch of a new recruitment business, Fyte. Fyte uses digital tools such as video job descriptions and video CVs together with a focus on digital sourcing techniques including social recruiting and crowdsourcing.
  • The launch of Morgan Philips Executive Search.
  • Investments in its Morgan Philips Talent Consulting business with an emphasis on a new, bespoke assessment framework, digital assessment centre management and predictive talent analytics and investment in a new managed solutions offering designed to help organisations scale up digital project teams.

• Ged Roberts, the founder of HR recruiter The HR Market, has launched Rec-interim, a day-rate RPO recruitment solutions business.

• Skillbase Contractor Management Services and Skillbase Consulting have rebranded under one brand – Skillbase Group. The group, which provides telco and IT contractor recruitment services to firms across Europe and across the world, adds it is opening an office in Galway, Republic of Ireland.

• Employee referrals and employee advocacy platform Talentry has launched the Talentry Candidate Relationship Management (CRM). The platform, which provides lead generation, talent pool building, talent lead nurturing and conversion of leads into applications, also integrates fully with applicant tracking systems.

28 January 2019
Life sciences, Engineering, Executive search, IT/Telecoms, HR, Healthcare/Medical

NEW TO THE MARKET: 28 JANUARY-1 FEBRUARY 2019

• The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Women and Work has launched a toolkit: ‘How to Recruit Women for the 21st Century’. The toolkit takes up a recommendation from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation to broaden the Apprenticeship Levy to be used as a Training and Skills Levy.

• The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), along with law firm JMW Solicitors and The Contract Doctor, has launched an updated written contract review service aimed at better supporting members in reducing liability through operational best practice.

Through the system, which aims to have a 48-hour turnaround time, members can receive a written risk assessment of client terms, which provides clarity on the obligations, risks and liabilities included within the contract. The service is designed to help businesses either before a contract is signed, if deciding on accepting terms, or after, if they are seeking to audit existing liabilities.

Fees for this service are variable depending on the experience of the reviewer, whether the provider is a regulated law firm with associated benefits, and the length of the terms. APSCo has also today launched an IR35 guidance pack.

• Boardroom staffing specialist Camino Partners has opened a US division. The division, headed up by managing director Matt Newman, is being run from the firm’s London office until next year, when the firm expects to open an office in New York.

• HireRight, a provider of employment background checks, has rebranded. The rebrand includes a website and logo redesign and messaging around the business. The rebrand and messaging revolve around the firm’s core values of service-first mindset, sense of ownership, collaborative spirit and grounded in respect.

• Midlands-based recruiter Morgan Parkes Recruitment has launched a new website offering clients and candidates information about the agency, including latest vacancies, links to their social profiles, services offered and contact details.

• Reviewedo, a community-centric reviewing platform dedicated to the recruitment industry, has launched. According to founders Harrison Dark, Chris Ogunsola and Jack Carlisle, the site enables users to review both the recruitment agency and the recruitment consultant.

Other features the site offers is the ability for recruiters to collaborate and connect with clients and candidates; a new way to generate business and build businesses client base and a new way to receive business intelligence.

• Software as a service provider Rightcheck has launched the Right to Work UK: Ultimate Employer’s Guide of 2019, offering comprehensive information on the Right to Work for small businesses and employers.

• Technology staffing specialist Source Technology has opened an office in Los Angeles. Director Jack Marsh, who currently runs the agency’s technical engineering division, will be relocating from London to head up the office.

Los Angeles was chosen as the base for the US arm due to its proximity to the tech hub of Silicon Valley, good transport links with other key regions and a strong existing recruitment market to feed the internal recruitment need.

The Los Angeles office will focus on contract and permanent hiring into technical engineering and cyber security, both of which are experiencing high demand.

• Science, clinical and engineering recruiter SRG, an Impellam group company, has opened its first Irish office in Cork. Paul O’Brien has been appointed associate director to lead SRG in Ireland from the Cork office.

21 January 2019
Creative/Digital/Media, Commercial & office support, Executive search, IT/Telecoms, HR

NEW TO THE MARKET: 21-25 JANUARY 2019

• Executive recruiter Bain and Gray has launched a candidate loyalty card for candidates commanding a salary of more than £30k. Holders of The Card, which is invitation only, will benefit from priority bookings and exclusive offers with a variety of high-end lifestyle brands, and a selection of perks for personal and business use.

• International creative, digital and media specialist staffing group Empresaria brand Become recruitment agency is opening offices in Brisbane, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.

• Humber HR People, an HR consultancy that also provides recruitment services, has been launched in Hull. The founding team is managing partner Kate van der Sluis, associate director of HR Kellie Calvert, associate director of talent Sharleen Lawless and associate director of leadership development Alice Ackroyd.

• Career site reed.co.uk has partnered with multimedia messaging app Snapchat to release a ‘Love Mondays’ themed lens. The innovation, available to Snapchat’s audience of more than 16m daily users, is part of reed.co.uk’s repositioned brand advertising campaign, built around the headline, ‘That’s how it feels to Love Mondays’.

Targeted at 18-24-year-olds in the UK, the lens will be live on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays until mid-February.

• Multi-sector recruiter Service Care Solutions has undergone an expansion and renovation to its offices on Starkie Street, Preston. The number of employees has doubled since moving into the building in 2015.

SCS’s managing director Richard Freye says headcount is anticipated to grow by another 10% (to around 120) within the next few years. The building was renamed Arthur House, after Freye’s eight-year-old son, who fittingly cut the ribbon officially opening the revamped building.

• Zellis is the new name for payroll and human resources (HR) software and service provider NGA Human Resources UK & Ireland. Following the sale of the business in February 2018, NGA HR UK & Ireland has become a standalone company, fully separate from NGA Human Resources. As part of this change, the company has rebranded to Zellis.

15 January 2019
Social care, Creative/Digital/Media, Industrial/Manufacturing, Healthcare/Medical

NEW TO THE MARKET: 14-18 JANUARY 2019

• Global Recruitment Thought Leaders (GRTL), an initiative that aims to investigate the future of work and the future of talent recruitment, has launched.

The project, led by Ian Knowlson, employment futurist and owner of growth consultancy Selling Success, and San Sunner, founder of REC-Social, a social media management company that focuses on the talent recruitment sector, aims to achieve its objective through in-depth discussions with industry leaders across a variety of sectors.

The aim is that constructive debates, informative interviews and knowledge sharing with global thought leaders will provide a hub for business owners to assimilate fresh ideas in preparation for the future.

• German recruiter Hager Unternehmensberatung has opened a new location in the centre of Munich. The office is managed by business unit manager industrial, Hagen Schönfeld.

• Five health and social care employers – University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, LOROS Hospice, Rutland County Council and Leicester City Council – have launched Y/Our Future.

Y/Our Future is a new recruitment campaign for doctors, nurses, and health and social care workers to work in hospitals, hospices and in communities across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

The campaign aims to promote Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland as a leading career destination for health and social care professionals, with great career and lifestyle opportunities.

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