Recruiter’s fastest and hottest recruiters in the UK
12 December 2012
For the first time, Recruiter has created a hybrid league table showing those recruitment firms who have managed to mix fast turnover growth and high profitability, making it on to both the FAST 50 and HOT 100 lists for 2012.
Wed, 12 Dec 2012
For the first time, Recruiter has created a hybrid league table showing those recruitment firms who have managed to mix fast turnover growth and high profitability, making it on to both the FAST 50 and HOT 100 lists for 2012.
The lists were compiled by, respectively, Boxington Corporate Finance and Agile Intelligence, with the Recruiter FAST 50 published in January, while the HOT 100, sponsored by Microdec, featured in Recruiter in November – with oil and gas specialists Swift Worldwide Resources leading a group of 11 agencies who found themselves in both.
While the top four firms are single-industry specialists with a single industry they focus on (in order: oil & gas, healthcare, IT, legal), the other seven have a broader scope and are involved in a wider range of disciplines and industries.
Templeton & Partners are unique amongst this list in being the only firm to have also appeared on both lists in 2010 and in 2011 – although Henderson Scott made both lists in 2011. Five companies (Swift, Cornwallis Elt, Timothy James, Head and Brightwork) were on neither list in 2011.
Last year, 12 companies made both lists, but the big difference this year is the combined scores: Selby Jennings with a combined rank of 31 were the top firm in 2011, and one of only two to have a score under 50, compared with six this year (the other in 2011 was Templeton, with 47). Last year, three companies had score of over 100.
Tim Evans, managing director of Boxington Corporate Finance, comments: “Last year’s FAST 50, which covered the deep recessionary period of 2009-2011, had the lowest growth rate of any FAST 50 to date, which may begin to explain the overlap of entrants here.
“The new forthcoming FAST 50 – which we’re publishing in the January edition of Recruiter, covering 2010-12, is likely to split once again the field between FAST 50 and HOT 100 entrants.”
Sue Dodd, director of Agile Intelligence, concurs that less commonality is possible as we return to growth, but notes that “recruiters do often find a way to excel and none better than HOT 100 and FAST 50 constituents”.
And Dodd adds: “With high professional sector content, especially in IT and energy specialisations, this really displays the increasingly technical demands on our workforce.”
Speaking to Recruiter about how the company managed to make both lists, Timothy James chief executive Chris O’Connell says the company “stuck to our guns with our specialism, we’ve stuck with what we’re good at… what we don’t try and do is spread ourselves too thinly”.
He adds that when hiring chief executives, you are able to get repeat business as the placed candidate is then responsible for hiring later on, and also said the company’s “rigorous hiring, training and onboarding”, which includes giving their staff a two or three year “career roadmap”, was key.
His counterpart at Shilton Sharpe Quarry (SSQ), also a co-founder of the firm, Nick Shilton (pictured right), adds: “While we obviously aim to get newly hired consultants up the curve as quickly as possible for both their benefit and SSQ’s, we invest time and money in our people. We’re not short term in our approach.”
Shilton, who also spoke on video to Recruiter about what the HOT 100 ranking means for the recruiter's business model, said that the company expects to expand further in 2013, including into mainland China and Singapore.
The same question on achieving the dual listing was put to Anton Round, sales director at Eurostaff's parent company Staffgroup, at the event celebrating the Recruiter HOT 100 firms, which he answers in the video below:
For the first time, Recruiter has created a hybrid league table showing those recruitment firms who have managed to mix fast turnover growth and high profitability, making it on to both the FAST 50 and HOT 100 lists for 2012.
The lists were compiled by, respectively, Boxington Corporate Finance and Agile Intelligence, with the Recruiter FAST 50 published in January, while the HOT 100, sponsored by Microdec, featured in Recruiter in November – with oil and gas specialists Swift Worldwide Resources leading a group of 11 agencies who found themselves in both.
| Company | FAST 50 Rank | HOT 100 Rank | Combined score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swift Worldwide Resources | 7 | 7 | 14 |
| Mayday Healthcare | 9 | 11 | 20 |
| Templeton & Partners | 10 | 12 | 22 |
| Shilton Sharpe Quarry | 22 | 1 | 23 |
| Investigo | 17 | 14 | 31 |
| Henderson Scott | 37 | 8 | 45 |
| Cornwallis Elt | 26 | 42 | 68 |
| Eurostaff Group | 49 | 21 | 70 |
| Timothy James Consulting | 2 | 72 | 74 |
| Head Resourcing | 1 | 81 | 82 |
| Brightwork | 38 | 56 | 94 |
While the top four firms are single-industry specialists with a single industry they focus on (in order: oil & gas, healthcare, IT, legal), the other seven have a broader scope and are involved in a wider range of disciplines and industries.
Templeton & Partners are unique amongst this list in being the only firm to have also appeared on both lists in 2010 and in 2011 – although Henderson Scott made both lists in 2011. Five companies (Swift, Cornwallis Elt, Timothy James, Head and Brightwork) were on neither list in 2011.
Last year, 12 companies made both lists, but the big difference this year is the combined scores: Selby Jennings with a combined rank of 31 were the top firm in 2011, and one of only two to have a score under 50, compared with six this year (the other in 2011 was Templeton, with 47). Last year, three companies had score of over 100.
Tim Evans, managing director of Boxington Corporate Finance, comments: “Last year’s FAST 50, which covered the deep recessionary period of 2009-2011, had the lowest growth rate of any FAST 50 to date, which may begin to explain the overlap of entrants here.
“The new forthcoming FAST 50 – which we’re publishing in the January edition of Recruiter, covering 2010-12, is likely to split once again the field between FAST 50 and HOT 100 entrants.”
Sue Dodd, director of Agile Intelligence, concurs that less commonality is possible as we return to growth, but notes that “recruiters do often find a way to excel and none better than HOT 100 and FAST 50 constituents”.
And Dodd adds: “With high professional sector content, especially in IT and energy specialisations, this really displays the increasingly technical demands on our workforce.”
Speaking to Recruiter about how the company managed to make both lists, Timothy James chief executive Chris O’Connell says the company “stuck to our guns with our specialism, we’ve stuck with what we’re good at… what we don’t try and do is spread ourselves too thinly”.
He adds that when hiring chief executives, you are able to get repeat business as the placed candidate is then responsible for hiring later on, and also said the company’s “rigorous hiring, training and onboarding”, which includes giving their staff a two or three year “career roadmap”, was key.
His counterpart at Shilton Sharpe Quarry (SSQ), also a co-founder of the firm, Nick Shilton (pictured right), adds: “While we obviously aim to get newly hired consultants up the curve as quickly as possible for both their benefit and SSQ’s, we invest time and money in our people. We’re not short term in our approach.”
Shilton, who also spoke on video to Recruiter about what the HOT 100 ranking means for the recruiter's business model, said that the company expects to expand further in 2013, including into mainland China and Singapore.
The same question on achieving the dual listing was put to Anton Round, sales director at Eurostaff's parent company Staffgroup, at the event celebrating the Recruiter HOT 100 firms, which he answers in the video below:
- The FAST 50 2013 will be published in the January edition of Recruiter, out on Friday, 18 January.
