Impellam Group, parent company of staffing firms including Blue Arrow, Carbon 60 and Career Teachers, attributes its increased year-on-year revenue in part to a cultural change programme it has introduced across the organisation.

Group chief executive Julia Robertson said the change is already yielding tangible results for the business, with year-on-year revenue increasing 34.3% to £1.8bn.

According to a statement for the financial year ended 1 January 2016, Impellam is aiming to be a “high-retention” organisation, a cultural change which Blue Arrow people and strategy director Jill Thornton alluded to at last November’s Recruiter Show.

These cultural changes included choosing to work with “like-minded clients who recognise people as assets that should be treated well”, and introducing its top 50 leaders to entrepreneurial and commitment-based leadership skills, as well as being trained in everyday promise management.

Year-on-year gross profit also increased 20.5% to £233.7m along with operating profit, up 34.1% to £55.8m.

Feeding into this increased revenue and profit were 2015’s acquisitions of healthcare recruiter Global Group and US-headquartered recruiter Bartech. These buys have given Impellam wider access to Australia and New Zealand, and North America respectively.

Revenue from the group’s specialist staffing business increased from £635.4m to £710.4m year-on-year, while Managed Service spend also increased from £1,581.3m to £2,318m. 

The statement acknowledges turbulent conditions in the UK’s healthcare market but expects to increase its marketshare in the medium to long-term. Looking ahead, Impellam recognises the need for “mindset changes” in the short to medium-term in the blue-collar market regarding the introduction of the National Living Wage, the apprenticeship levy and the removal of travel & subsistence benefits for freelancers and contractors.

The group saw major client wins in the past year. The new clients included: Airbus, Morrisons, Arqiva, the New South Wales Health Authority, City of Moreland Council, the Royal Marsden NHS Trust and the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Trust.

Twenty-one contracts were also either renewed or expanded, including those with British Airways, Interserve, Pitney Bowes, Hilton Hotels, City of London and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.

Impellam’s healthcare brand Medacs Global Group also developed a revalidation service for UK agency nurses, which included a three-year Royal College of Nursing Partnership.

The group also noted only one client of its top 50 client base was lost in 2015, which it attributed to the unnamed client being acquired.

Looking ahead, Impellam’s emphasis on driving further cultural change looks set to continue in 2016.

As well as growing organically through carefully selected acquisitions, the group’s 2016 priorities include embedding a culture in which its people can “thrive and flourish”.

In terms of product development, the group is currently replacing all of its brand websites and in April plans to launch a new product in adult social care that aims to help local authorities meet demand and budgetary pressures. No further details were provided about this new product.

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