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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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21 April 2017
Creative/Digital/Media

LinkedIn’s ‘tracking’ feature could prevent candidate stealing

This is according to Mark Jury, a recruitment manager at Bristol-based Parkway Engineering Services, who has been successfully campaigning for the restoration of services lost during a LinkedIn redesign.

Jury was commenting on confirmation from LinkedIn that it is working on a new feature that could be a game changer for recruiters seeking to network with candidates at conferences and events.

In a statement on its site, LinkedIn revealed the feature now being tested would enable users to find other LinkedIn members nearby using their mobile device, providing members with opportunities to network with other LinkedIn members at conferences and events within their proximity.

To address privacy concerns, users would need to opt-in to use the feature and will also be able to control how long their location is shared with other members.

While welcoming the obvious candidate networking opportunities the feature brings, Jury said the service could also benefit recruiters in cases in which clients attempt to steal candidates on an agency’s books.

This happens when the agency has made the initial introduction of a candidate to a client and the client has interviewed the candidate but decided not to take the application further. However, it has then used the contact details on its ATS to get in touch with the candidate, interview them again and subsequently offer them the job without paying the agency a fee. 

The new feature could potentially mean recruiters would be able to see if their candidate has entered the offices of their client at a later date, after being put forward by the agency, Jury says, and challenge the client.

According to Jury, the new feature will be “great” for recruiters in cases in which clients persuade their new hires not to put their new employer on their LinkedIn profile to avoid the agency finding about their new role. He added if recruiters can find out if that candidate has entered the offices of that client at a later date, after being put forward by the agency, it would support their case for an introduction fee from the client.

Commenting on this thorny issue, Christopher Tutton, partner at law firm Constantine Law, advises recruiters to ensure they have a good contract in place with their clients to protect against these types of incidents occurring.

Tutton told Recruiter: “It's most likely to be a breach of contract issue between the agency and the client. Usually the agency will 'own' the candidates put forward and have an entitlement to commission on candidates introduced.

“Without a good contract in place it would be more difficult for the agency to challenge this. Arguably the client is also committing some form of misrepresentation. They might also be in breach of the data protection act.

“However, the best protection for the agency will be to ensure they have good terms of business in place with the client, which prevents this type of abuse.”

• What are your views on this issue? Email us at [email protected] or tweet us below to tell us your thoughts. We will run comments online in a round-up at the end of the week.

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20 April 2017
Banking/Financial services

Investing in Talent award-winner O’Loughlin sets up Summit Recruitment in Switzerland

Speaking exclusively to Recruiter, O’Loughlin, who won the award for most inspiring team leader/manager at Recruiter’s Investing in Talent Awards in 2014, revealed his new business, known as Summit Recruitment, will recruit across finance and technology roles in Switzerland.

O’Loughlin set up Nicoll Curtin’s Swiss office back in 2013, moving out there after joining the agency’s London office in 2010.

He then built the Swiss team up from two to 15 over four years and will now be succeeded by one of his own recruits – Yves Amar, who O’Loughlin says he has groomed to take on the role. Amar has now been promoted from manager to associate director following O’Loughlin’s exit in March.

Commenting on his next venture, O’Loughlin told Recruiter while he had a great time at Nicoll Curtin, he feels there is a gap in the market for an on-the-ground finance and tech recruiter in Switzerland.

“There was definitely a gap in the market for another provider in Switzerland of high quality recruitment services. In terms of my own personal development, [after] nine years working for other companies, I thought it was time to step out and take advantage of that market gap.

“There’s been more competition coming in from UK companies but they’re not really hitting the spot with the Swiss clients because they [clients] do like the personal hands on approach. That’s essentially what I’m trying to give them.

“Some of them [other recruiters] have been successful but a lot of them have been short-term successful rather than building partnerships with their clients. I think even in today’s digital age you still need that personal relationship to really be successful over the long term.”

O’Loughlin adds that a month into the operation, he is already seeking to recruit for his business: “To start with it’s me and one other person we’re interviewing for at the moment. The plan is to grow it out from there. I’m interviewing for that second person right now. Hopefully I’ll have someone in place within a month.”

The Recruiter Investing in Talent Awards are now open for 2017 - get your entry in today.

• What are your views on this issue? Email us at [email protected] or tweet us below to tell us your thoughts. We will run comments online in a round-up at the end of the week.

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18 April 2017

New to the market: 17-21 April 2017

• Appcast, a developer of programmatic job advertising technology, has launched Appcast Brand.

The solution uses retargeting and audience extension models to help organisations reach candidates who have previously engaged with a company career site, applicant tracking system (ATS) or job board through display and native social media advertisements, while brand ads are matched with candidates based on their online activity and job interests.

• Online portal for contractors and freelancers ContractorCalculator has published an IR35 guide aimed at helping hirers better understand new IR35 reforms and their implications to secure and retain contractors.

The 18-page guide, ‘Public Sector Off-payroll reform – How to retain your staff and ensure compliant working arrangements’, is available to download for free at IR35Testing.co.uk.

• Google is testing a job applicant tracking system, Axios has claimed. The service enables employers to post job listings, then accept and manage applications, according to job listing links spotted by Axios reader Colin Heilbut. Axios further claims, several tech companies seem to be using (or testing) Google Hire, including Medisas, Poynt, DramaFever, SingleHop, and CoreOS.

A Google Hire page does exist but the login page does not appear to have been made available to the public. Recruiter contacted Google about the new service but had not heard back by deadline.

• London luxury hospitality recruiter The Change Group is opening in Hong Kong. The firm says the launch is off the back of growing demand for skilled talent in Asia both as a result of the rise of local hospitality specialists in the region and to support the overseas expansion of UK businesses.

Suzanna Jones heads up the new Hong Kong operation, assisted by Dan Lam, who has spent many years recruiting in Hong Kong.

• Multi-sector recruiter Quality Service Recruitment has opened a new office in South Yorkshire. The Nottingham-headquartered firm's new office is located on the border of Sheffield and Rotherham and is a five minute drive from the M1 on the Magna 34 Business Park.

The new office is being managed by Anthony Ellis, who said the area has "huge potential" for the firm's main core sectors of logistics, manufacturing and healthcare. "Our research shows significant demand for our services and a large pool of qualified drivers, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour to meet that demand," Ellis said. "We are confident that the new office will flourish and both businesses and workers in the area will benefit from our presence”.

• Job board Sector1.net has been redesigned and relaunched. The redesign ensures users can also browse for jobs from their mobile and tablet devices more easily and gain quicker access to their applications and CVs.

Founded as a public sector specialist job site in 2001 by Newcastle-based Retox Digital, the site now advertises vacancies across all industries within the public and private sector, from Berwick-upon-Tweed to the Yorkshire Dales.

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10 April 2017
Hospitality/Leisure

NEW TO THE MARKET: 10-14 April 2017

• Accrosoft, parent company of Vacancy Filler Recruitment Software, has launched Accrosoft Connect. The service, which combines existing software with which employees are familiar with new elements on a one cloud-based communications platform, enables direct and indirect employees to collaborate and exchange information – even ahead of a candidate starting work – including HR policies, news, training materials, calendars, work groups, private messages, photos and videos, feeds, training materials and assessments on an app, accessible from via a smartphone or PC/Mac.

• Recruitment giant Adecco’s online staffing management platform Beeple is to extend operations beyond Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.

Adecco announced that in Q2 2017, Beeple is to continue its rollout to Italy, France, the UK and Luxembourg.

• Technology recruiter GCS Recruitment Specialists has relocated its New York office from Brooklyn to Manhattan’s financial district.

The firm says that having opened in June 2015 with just one person, it now has a team of 10, and the move to its new office in Broad Street, Manhattan, which can accommodate 25, comes as a result of increased demand for services.

• Canadian recruiter Lock Search Group has launched a new website. The bilingual website features a new design that showcases the firm’s national reach, along with its team’s personality plus original content and a user-friendly interface.

• Professional employment brand Parasol has opened an office in Edinburgh. The office on 116 Dundas Street is led by Bill Brown. Parasol is part of the nationwide professional services business Optionis Group.

• London-based hospitality recruiter Urban People Recruitment is moving to a new larger Central London office. The new office is located at 3rd Floor/10-15 Queen Street, Aldermary House, London EC4N 1TY.

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