• Recruitment investment group Bluestones Group has launched its latest joint venture, a specialist recruitment and training provider operating in Northern Ireland.

Belfast-based Bluestones Staffing NI will provide temporary and permanent personnel to the logistics, retail and manufacturing industry, as well as providing training solutions to companies throughout Ireland.

Debbie McDermott and Kieran Allmark, Bluestones Staffing NI directors, launched the business with the support of the Bluestones Group and have more than 35 years’ expertise in the industry.

As well as providing the investment and aid to launch the new business, Bluestones Group will continue to support Bluestones Staffing NI with its extensive range of services which include marketing, finance, HR, IT and admin.

• Liverpool-based headhunter Chad Harrison International has expanded its European operation with the opening of two new offices in Frankfurt and Brussels.

• Multi-sector recruiter Cobalt Recruitment has launched an office in Vienna, Austria. Managing director Daniel Bauer heads up the new office.

• Assessment specialist cut-e has launched video assessment platform vidAssess. The platform aims to ensure video interviews, which are often conducted early in the recruitment process, are structured and job-related, avoiding unconscious bias so candidates can be fairly and objectively assessed on their merits.

• Global executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles has launched Heidrick Consulting, a new business combining its leadership consulting and culture-shaping businesses. Managing director Andrew LeSueur, who was previously MD of leadership consulting in the Americas, will lead the new venture.

• Recruitment platform Novacare has launched. The software enables care sector teams to use live data to inform decisions, automate certain processes and interview potential candidates digitally.

• Global recruiter Phaidon International has launched its Phaidon Reward app in the US. The app capitalises on the targeted social networks of consultants across the company, rewarding them for their social influence.

• Bespoke pre-employment screening and vetting service SecureSearch has launched. Managed by a team of recruitment professionals who work alongside clients, SecureSearch is part of Search Consultancy, which employs over 700 people nationally.

Using a new cloud-based platform with banking-level secure encryption, the SecureSearch team researches a range of pre-employment screening requirements to deliver a report on the employment, qualifications and criminal history of prospective candidates.

• Recruitment technology provider Textkernel has launched Extract! 4.0 – a deep learning powered CV parsing solution.

CV parsing is the process of converting an unstructured CV into a structured format that can be integrated into any software system. Deep learning is a set of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that automatically finds patterns in data using brain-like structures called Neural Networks.

Textkernel is using the technology in a bid to help employers and staffing & recruitment agencies to be more efficient in their HR and recruitment processes. The new release of Textkernel’s CV parsing software is currently available in the English languages.