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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.

9 September 2024
Retail, Apprentices/Grads/School leavers

Asda offers work experience to students with special educational needs

The programme will see Asda continue to collaborate closely with charity DFN Project SEARCH, expanding the initiative to a total of 11 stores including the existing Queensferry, Wales store.

The programme aims to give young people with special educational needs a taste of a real-life working environment, Asda said in a statement. Only 4.8% of people in England (4.1% in Scotland) with a learning disability go on to secure paid employment once their education finishes, compared to 80% of their peers. Asda’s initiative will provide students the opportunity to learn new skills and grow in confidence so that they can gain employment once they finish their studies.

As part of the expanded programme, Asda will introduce bespoke uniform items for interns, including t-shirts and fleeces will carry the message: ‘Happy to Help, please bear with me I’m learning.’ The uniform will help customers recognise that the young people are learning so that they can build their confidence to support and interact with future customers.

Asda will also work closely with local colleges to provide students with a full-time course of study based at the store, as well as access to work-based experiential learning every day and a specific employability curriculum, the company said.

Asda became the first supermarket to collaborate with DFN Project SEARCH in the summer of 2023, which saw the retailer work closely with a local college – Coleg Cambria – to provide paid work experience at its Queensferry store.

After the 2023-24 programme concluded earlier this year, Asda subsequently offered permanent positions to all of the five students within its Queensferry store, cementing its position as a diverse and inclusive employer.

The stores participating in the expanded programme are Farnworth Superstore, Sheffield Supercentre, Llandudno Superstore, Tunstall Superstore, Colne Superstore, Blackburn Superstore, Workington Superstore, Nuneaton Superstore, Hull Mount Pleasant Superstore, Derby Supercentre, and Queensferry Supercentre.

DFN Project SEARCH aims to support 10,000 young adults with a learning disability, or autism spectrum condition (or both) into paid employment by 2030 and has already helped more than 2,600 people to date.

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9 September 2024
Executive search, HR, Graduates/Apprentices/School leavers, Apprentices/Grads/School leavers, Accounting/Finance

Stafforce announces major investment in UK expansion

The new hubs will be located in Newport, Blackburn, Daventry, Bristol, Barnstaple, Loughborough and Tilbury. 

This significant growth initiative is a key element of the strategic plan being implemented by Kelly Kendall COO, who recently joined NAG and is in charge of driving growth, investing in people, talent and new locations.

According to a company statement, the expansion is backed by executive chairman Nick Cragg and CEO Paul Smith.

NAG offers talent management solutions from apprentice to boardroom appointments. The combined group has a turnover in excess of £100m and brands include The Apprentice Employment Agency, Graduate Career Solutions, Stafforce, Cra-Cro Site Services, Nicholas Associates, Ashley Kate HR & Finance, Main-Board and Olano.

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9 September 2024
Banking/Financial services, Legal

Search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa grows Partner Practice Group in London

Five consultants, specialising in partner level searches for law firms globally, are joining from legal search boutique LTN & Partners.

The expanded Partner Practice Group brings together significant experience across the UK and key European markets, complementing the launch of MLA’s Dublin office earlier this year. Beyond Europe, the new team has a track record of working in the US legal sector, and the expanded team will collaborate closely with MLA’s global network of offices, especially in the US.

This addition will also further bolster MLA’s expertise in priority practice areas including financial services, private equity, disputes, restructuring and capital markets.

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3 September 2024

REC launches campaign to champion flexible working in the UK

The new Labour government will unveil a long-awaited Employment Rights Bill later this autumn that is aimed to bolster protections for vulnerable and exploited workers. However, there are concerns that the Bill could go too far in stemming flexible contracts that benefit workers in work-life balance, accommodating personal life issues and enabling them to pursue long-term goals.

“Highly regulated agency work already offers employment rights and in-work progression,” the REC said in a statement released today. “And when the government reforms the Apprenticeship Levy as promised, it should also create more opportunities for them to upskill.”

For the ‘Voice of the Worker’ campaign, REC commissioned Whitestone Insight to interview 520 temp agency workers in Britain online in June 2024 to hear what they thought about agency work and why it mattered to them. Polling found:

  • Almost eight in 10 temp agency workers (79%) say their work provides an important need for flexibility.
  • More than two-thirds of temp agency workers (68%) say that their work provides a greater work-life balance.
  • More than half of temp agency workers (53%) believe that this is the right kind of role for their current stage in life – an active choice.

“Britain’s temporary labour market is working well for people, firms and the modern economy – with about a million temps working every day. And its success at bringing and retaining people in the labour force is vital to the new government’s central mission of driving growth,” the REC said.

Key points of the Voice of the Worker campaign are:

  • Flexibility serves a social purpose – more than two-thirds of temps say that their work provides them with a greater work-life balance.
  • Britain’s labour market is a source of competitive strength, with workers having a wide range of permanent, temporary and contract-based options.

The REC will highlight video and written case studies of temporary workers, in a variety of sectors in the UK economy, in which they explain the reasons for wanting flexibility and the benefits of temp working.

REC CEO Neil Carberry said: “Flexibility at work is something to feel optimistic about. It is working for millions of people. Individual choice and employers’ need for a versatile workforce can be brought together to deliver better careers and higher productivity. As our new survey and video case studies show, flexibility is a vital bridge to work for people who need to balance caring responsibilities, work despite health issues, combine work and study, and upskill.

“Government needs to make sure new rules support temps and that means having a real understanding of their lives. Firms too should always ensure that they think of temporary workers as people to support and develop. Getting this right is crucial because our acute labour and skills shortages mean we need to fill record numbers of vacancies, with a mix of temporary and permanent jobs. And we can close productivity gaps by giving people more varied and developmental career paths.

He went on to say: “Good and lasting workforce changes that are effective for workers and businesses happen when employers and government work together to determine what works for everyone. We passionately hope our new campaign will help even more policymakers appreciate the opportunity temporary work brings, the benefits it offers and why it is life-changing in many ways.

“The new government has won a huge mandate to go for growth - and we are excited to be working with them to support that,” Carberry said, “but as our Voice of the Worker campaign shows, success in that mission rests primarily on getting the people stuff right in workplaces around the country.”

• For more on this story, see the Sep-Oct 2024 issue of Recruiter, out next week

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