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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.

28 September 2023
Marketing, Charity & not-for-profit, IT/Telecoms, HR, Accounting/Finance

NEW TO THE MARKET: 25-29 SEPTEMBER 2023

• Braver, a new talent and DE&I consultancy, has launched to challenge marketing and communications companies to be more “courageous” with workplace and employment practices by placing an emphasis on potential, rather than hiring on experience.

Founded by brothers Sheeraz Gulsher and Darain Faraz of not-for-profit People Like Us, along with the co-creator of the industry’s gender and ethnicity pay gap report, Mike Levaggi, Braver seeks to make the recruitment industry more inclusive.

The company aims to help businesses attract, find, retain and grow talent. It will offer evaluation services and consultancy on workplace policies and practices. In addition it will provide tailored recruitment services using its skills, personality and perspectives profiling system that aims to unlock talent from different backgrounds and other industries.

• Management and recruitment consultancy Campbell Tickell (CT) has been certified as a B Corporation. CT says its mission is to support its clients’ excellence in governance, resilience, performance and compliance. This enables the better delivery of clients’ social objectives for the people, communities and organisations they serve. CT provides its consultancy services primarily to charitable, not-for-profit and public sector organisations.

• JobHoller has rebranded to become Holler. JobHoller was founded in 2016, specialising in recruitment marketing. As part of the rebrand, Holler will divide services across key sectors, including employer branding, content and social and talent attraction. Holler is also launching two new service specialisms: Corporate Branding and Personal Branding.

• NorthStar People has expanded to provide HR, finance and learning & development (L&D) advisory services to recruitment leaders and owners. The new advisory service lines will be headed up by industry experts who have worked within the recruitment sector for many years: Tina Holt (HR director), Nives Feely (finance director) and L&D specialist James Gage.

By expanding its services, the firm says it is able to offer a ‘one-stop-shop’ for owners and leaders seeking external advice or support from industry experts to accelerate their personal development or help achieve “operational excellence” and sustainable growth.

• HR software firm for SMEs, Personio has opened its first office in the US in Soho, New York. The office will serve as a home to existing US-based employees and as a key talent hub as it continues to recruit technology experts in the world.

21 September 2023
Construction & property, Industrial/Manufacturing

Construction firm coalition unites to tackle diversity in the industry

The Construction Inclusion Coalition (CIC) has been established by CEOs at organisations including Aliaxis, Baxi, Bradfords, Highbourne Group, Ibstock, Knauf, Travis Perkins, Wavin, Wolseley, the Builders Merchants Federation (BMF) and the National Merchant Buying Society, to raise sector standards on equity, diversity & inclusion (EDI), with an immediate focus on gender representation in its first year.

The Coalition is being launched alongside new polling which shows that only one third (36%) of British people would feel confident that their female family or friends would be safe and respected if they joined the construction industry. The research of over 2,000 adults also outlines the opportunity for the sector, with nearly half of people (46%) saying they’d be more likely to actively seek out employment opportunities in the construction industry if it demonstrated a stronger commitment to diversity & inclusion.

Recruiter’s Investing in Talent Awards is also highlighting those recruitment companies – not just in construction – who are leading the field in attracting, recruiting and retaining diverse talent.

Construction Inclusion Coalition chairperson and Toolstation managing director Angela Rushforth says: “There is no doubt that the future of our industry is at risk if we don’t create an environment where all our colleagues feel safe, empowered and confident. I want all young women to see the construction sector as I do – full of opportunity.”

“We aren’t attracting and retaining from a diverse pool of talent, because many think the construction sector is not for them. These are industry-wide challenges that require industry-wide solutions, which is why the Construction Inclusion Coalition has been set up to improve EDI. We are calling on businesses across the sector – no matter how big or small – to join our Coalition and commit to taking action in their organisations.”

The construction sector has one of the most rapidly ageing workforces in the UK, with research showing that close to 1m construction workers – around a third of the UK’s total workforce – are set to retire in the next 10 years. Despite this, the industry is currently only made up of 15% women and 6% from ethnic minority backgrounds, and faces challenges attracting and recruiting from a diverse pool of talent.”

The organisations involved are urging businesses across the industry to join the initiative and take the Built on Better Pledge. The pledge covers seven areas members commit to working on.

Organisations will work together to enhance the impact of their individual EDI initiatives, by fostering collaboration and establishing a network to share knowledge and resources across the industry and co-creating solutions that will make a difference. Progress will be tracked annually and shared in a public report.

The Coalition has been endorsed by the Construction Leadership Council, the body that draws together business leaders from across the construction sector and links them with the UK government.

The Coalition was launched in front of hundreds of businesses across the construction sector at the Builders Merchant’s Federation annual conference at the Birmingham NEC on 21 September 2023.

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20 September 2023
Agriculture, Banking/Financial services, Executive search, Industrial/Manufacturing, Accounting/Finance

NEW TO THE MARKET: 18-22 SEPTEMBER 2023

• London-based specialist recruiter and executive search consultancy Camino Group has opened its new central London office near Liverpool Street Station. Camino had previously been located in Cowcross Street, near Farringdon Station. Established in 2011, Camino Group operates two recruitment brands: Camino Search, which specialises in international financial, private equity and M&A markets; and Camino Partners, which supports other recruitment companies non-sales professionals.

• Telford-based recruitment firm Swift Temps has announced its move to a new office following ongoing growth. The firm specialises in placing temporary workers in agricultural and industrial roles across the region.

18 September 2023
Marketing & Sales, Banking/Financial services, Legal, IT/Telecoms, HR, Accounting/Finance

The SR Group launches specialist IT consultancy Keller West

The new brand will initially focus on the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region, according to a company statement. This comes at a critical time for the German economy and the future development of its IT sector, the statement said. Plans are already underway to further deploy the brand across the group’s global office network.

At the end of 2022, Germany had a shortage of 137,000 IT professionals according to technology trade body Bitkom. The same study found that it takes an average of seven months to fill a vacant IT role, highlighting the scale of the challenges faced by businesses in the DACH region, the statement said.

Headed by Alex Gerritsen, the Keller West brand sits alongside The SR Group’s other search and recruitment brands (Brewer Morris, Carter Murray, Frazer Jones and Taylor Root), which currently serve international businesses across roles in tax, treasury, finance, legal, risk and compliance, marketing, sales and human resources.

Gerritsen has over 20 years in the recruitment industry, and previous experience in launching and growing recruitment brands in Germany and other European markets. 

Over the past five years, The SR Group has placed more than 15,000 employees into businesses across more than 55 markets.

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