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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.

30 May 2022
Education, HR, Graduates/Apprentices/School leavers

NEW TO THE MARKET: 30 MAY-3 JUNE 2022

• Baltimore Consulting has announced a partnership with Spectrum.Life, an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) offering free, confidential counselling and wellbeing support services to employees and their families. Spectrum.Life’s EAP offers on-demand support all year round and includes services such as counselling, career guidance and elder care support.

• PUSH Mind and Body, a wellbeing and mental health training company, has formed a partnership with Brixton Finishing School to support a work-focused community training programme for young people. The ADcademy programme, run by Brixton Finishing School, aims to help under-represented 18-to-25-year-olds by upskilling, inspiring and helping participants grow their professional networks.

Launched in 2021, more than 1,000 students have participated in the initiative so far. It includes ADcelerate – Get Hired, a two-week intensive programme that provides employment opportunities to its alumni, preparing individuals for life in the workplace through a series of employability-focused workshops and masterclasses. PUSH says it will initially provide support on this programme from June, hosting wellbeing workshops for participating students.

• Job application tracking platform RoleCatcher has launched two new integrations to help individuals better manage their career hunt. These new tools include a new, disruptive take on the traditional job board, allowing RoleCatcher users to search and apply for jobs from multiple external sources while still managing their applications and communications all in one place. The firm has also launched the Career Navigator feature, which will enable jobseekers to compare and contrast new job opportunities in other sectors or professions.

• Recruitment firm Skillsearch has announced that it has become an employee owned company, known as an Employee Owned Trust (EOT). This will enable its employees to become shareholders and have a say in the growth and the future of the business.

• Sky Recruitment Solutions has announced that it is opening a new office in Nottingham on 1 June. The office will be based at the Cubo Work serviced offices in Nottingham’s King Street. The firm has a head office in Derby and seven other offices across the East Midlands and Yorkshire.

23 May 2022
Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Public sector, Education, Executive search, IT/Telecoms, Accounting/Finance

NEW TO THE MARKET: 23-27 MAY 2022

• Global workforce solutions firm AMS has launched its recruiter skilling solution to help employers build their own in-house recruitment teams. Recruiter Skilling is part of the firm’s Talent Lab, which will sit alongside its tech skilling solution to help clients solve the tech skills gap through upskilling and reskilling existing employees, and developing new talent. Recruiter Skilling provides new recruitment team members with a 10-week training programme of which two weeks are dedicated to client-specific training. Ongoing training and mentorship from a team of experts is then provided until individuals become a member of the internal talent acquisition team.

• Eames Consulting has opened a new office in New York, adding to its offices in London, Zurich, Singapore and Hong Kong. David Miles is appointed director to lead the new office. He has more than 10 years of experience in recruitment and expertise within the financial services sector. The firm says the new office location also creates opportunities for employees within the group seeking international experience in their careers, as well as an opportunity for US talent.

• Tech recruitment platform hackajob has launched in the US in response to the growing tech talent gap, which has become even more “urgent” in the US following the pandemic. Hackajob launched in 2015 and was founded as a tech careers marketplace to eliminate the bias associated with traditional recruitment techniques to find tech talent based on their skills rather than backgrounds. Hackajob also has four European offices in London, Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam.

• NxGen Recruit, a new recruitment business, has announced its launch in the East Midlands. The firm says it has 72 years of combined industry experience and has achieved 100% in its compliance test.

• Operam Education Group has launched Operam Education Leadership Recruitment, a bespoke service focusing on sourcing and placing inspirational leaders within UK and international educational settings. Christian Walshe has been appointed to lead the new service offering. He has worked in a variety of senior positions in education recruitment for the last decade.

17 May 2022

NEW TO THE MARKET: 16-20 MAY 2022

• Recruitment firm Trinnovo Group has launched Equiris Consulting, a talent consultancy and solutions provider. Trinnovo’s fourth brand, Equiris Consulting offers diversity, equity and inclusion focused solutions across the full talent lifecycle including attraction, assessment, onboarding, learning and development, and retention.

11 May 2022
Charity & not-for-profit, HR

NEW TO THE MARKET: 9-13 MAY 2022

• Indeed Flex, an online marketplace for flexible workers, has launched a new initiative to enable Ukrainian refugees to find work in the UK. It has hired a Ukrainian-speaking onboarding team, based in the UK, to guide refugees through the process. Candidates from Ukraine will not need to fill in long application forms, and can instead talk through their work background, skills and the sort of job they’d like with the onboarding team in an online interview. Indeed Flex’s team will then find them suitable roles in their chosen area of the UK. Indeed Flex has launched its app in Ukraine, enabling those planning to come to Britain to secure offers of work before they even arrive.

• The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) and the Fawcett Society, a membership charity campaigning  for gender equality and women’s rights, have formed a partnership to produce a guide for recruiters to end the practice of asking job applicants about how much they earned in previous jobs. The REC and Fawcett Society guide contains information on the workforce issues caused by asking about salary history, and practical tips on how to address these problems.

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