New to Market

7 December 2023

NEW TO THE MARKET: 4-8 DECEMBER 2023

• Distribution company CitySprint is recruiting couriers across London and the UK. New recruits will support the increased logistics demand during the 2023 festive season and driving continued business growth. The new recruits will join CitySprint’s team of more than 3,000 couriers across the UK and will work across a wide range of vehicles, with a particular hiring focus on long wheel-based drivers. Demand for drivers also extends to CitySprint’s electric vehicles, with the company’s fleet continuing to expand.

• Human capital advisory firm the Josh Bersin Company has launched a generative AI expert assistant and problem-solving tool for HR leaders and their teams. Galileo can help business and HR users to get answers to any HR or management question by interrogating the collective Josh Bersin Company accumulated intellectual property, covering research, in-depth maturity models, frameworks, benchmarks, videos, podcasts, case studies and more.

That assistance ranges from asking questions, but also allowing users to compare vendors, research solutions, and generate implementation plans, RFP templates, communications plans, and more. The expert assistant allows practitioners to interrogate all the Josh Bersin Company intelligence online at their own pace as if all the advisory firm’s analysts were there in the room with them.

Randstad Digital, a digital enablement organisation, has joined the global ‘RiseUp with ServiceNow’ programme to help skill and train individuals in the ServiceNow ecosystem and prepare them for in-demand jobs in technology. The partnership will provide organisations of all sizes with the talent needed to navigate the era of digital business, while expanding career opportunities for individuals. This collaboration designates Randstad Digital as ServiceNow's workforce placement partner, contributing to RiseUp's mission of upskilling one million people by 2024.

Search Capital, an investment and talent incubation company dedicated to fostering growth and innovation in the recruitment sector, has launched. The firm will provide environment, infrastructure and network for strategic business development. Currently, the company’s portfolio consists of five thriving businesses, including JCW Group, Guideline, Xander Talent, OutScout and the recently launched Core Consultants. These companies, with collective revenues of around $75m (£59.6m), represent a diverse mix of traditional and non-traditional human capital businesses across multiple specialisms and regions.

Search Capital says it brings a “transformative” approach to the traditional model of business growth by strategically investing in and supporting the development of human capital firms, helping to scale businesses and accelerate their success.

Sterling Check, an identity and background services provider, has announced Sterling RISQ is being rebranded as ‘Sterling’ in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. It is being aligned with technology enhancements to deliver global background screening and identity programs and local expertise. Sterling has employees based in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, the Philippines and mainland China.

30 November 2023

Payroll Compliance Authority launches for umbrella companies

The independent, not-for profit organisation said it offers “law-abiding payroll companies an avenue to honest and trusted business through a rigorous audit process, carried out independently by global accounting firm PwC”.  

It is not linked with any government bodies.

CEO Paul Newsham is a Lancashire-based chartered accountant and, among other appointments, is a director for registered company RfM Funding Solutions and several accounting businesses operating under the RfM brand name.

He said the PCA’s services would be “an ongoing rigorous process where non-compliance has consequences” for umbrella companies.

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28 November 2023

NEW TO THE MARKET: 27 NOVEMBER-1 DECEMBER 2023

Aston University is one of a number of institutions to receive funding for 340 new PhD places across the Midlands to train the next generation of social scientists. The Midlands Graduate School (MGS), a consortium of Midlands universities including Aston University, has received significant funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for a Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) that will advance research training provision for the next generation of social scientists and ensure that the Midlands remains at the forefront of methodological advancements in social science. The MGS partnership will recruit up to 68 PhD students per year for the next five years, including a possibility of 10 scholarships for PhD candidates at Aston University.

Engtal, a US-based staffing solutions provider for the STEM industries, has raised thousands of dollars to support underrepresented talent in Chicagoland (Chicago metropolitan area) to access college scholarship funding, through its work in the STEM industries. The primary sponsor of Diversify the Future Foundation, a non-profit initiative, which aims to remove the barriers faced by underrepresented students, Engtal will help support young people by helping them excel in a future career in the STEM space, enabling and empowering the next generation of industry talent.

• Technology recruitment agency Venturi has completed the move of its global headquarters to the Globe & Simpson Building, Enterprise City, within the St John’s creative district in Manchester. The international recruitment firm, with locations in New York and Dusseldorf, has made Manchester city centre its home. It specialises in placing technology talent into key areas of the IT and tech sectors, including business intelligence, data analysis, and security and software development.

• Recruitment services supplier Wave has launched a new version of its candidate sourcing and analytics tool WaveTrackR. The changes and updates focus on ensuring candidates are not missed in the search for talent.

20 November 2023

NEW TO THE MARKET: 20-24 NOVEMBER 2023

Berry Recruitment has opened a new branch in Watford, Hertfordshire. The branch will cover commercial office-based roles, light industrial and catering roles both for temporary and permanent positions. Carol Grainger is the new manager, who has worked in the industry and in the area for more than 17 years. Three experienced consultants have also been recruited, with more hires planned for the New Year.

• Facilities management company Mitie has recruited 60 new apprentices as part of its #SignupSkillup programme. The new colleagues are all in the early stages of their working lives, kicking off a career in facilities management with an apprenticeship, and are based throughout the UK, from Plymouth to Glasgow.

TalentPredix is launching in Scandinavia through a partnership with Gudman Leadership. TalentPredix is a strengths assessment system, which provides a measure of people’s talents, career motivations and values. It transforms the way clients hire, develop and engage talent, enabling businesses to improve talent outcomes and unleash the full strengths and potential of their people.

• Talent and reskill training provider Wiley Edge has partnered with Cisco Networking Academy to train graduates in the latest tech skills. The new partnership will ensure Wiley Edge Alumni are upskilled and ready to kickstart their careers.

14 November 2023

NEW TO THE MARKET: 13-17 NOVEMBER 2023

Code First Girls has launched a Mid-Level Accelerator (MLA) course aimed to develop and accelerate women’s technology careers. The 12-week MLA course is aimed at those with over two years of experience in tech. It will support women to upskill and progress into a mid-level engineering or developer roles whilst also having the opportunity to re-skill to a new specialism or develop mid-level specialist tech skills.

• US-based Creative Talent Endeavors, a retained executive search and HR advisory agency, has launched Fairantee, an algorithm that uses AI and data to allow companies to understand how much they should be paying for an executive search before they sign a contract. The technology will take into account the difficulty or ease of each search assignment by measuring how factors, including total compensation, location, workplace environment and title of the role, affect how much effort will be required to fill the role. Fairantee allows companies to get a quote for their search upfront, and keep that quote for five days as they make the decision for their company.

• The Eventus Recruitment Group has expanded its legal recruitment services into Ireland to enable law firms to benefit from a tailored recruitment service that has been found to be effective within the UK. Eventus Legal’s Ireland team is headed by managing director and founder Siobhan Courtney, who has specialised in legal recruitment for 25 years.

Know You More, a socially driven coaching and training enterprise, has expanded its programmes for young people throughout Scotland with free coaching and training on offer for 18-25-year-olds. The programme is offered free of charge, supported by Know You More’s commercial coaching offering and platform that combines one-to-one sessions with digital technology. After completing the programme, participants can also join the Build Up initiative which teaches fundamental coaching skills to empower young people to pass on what they have learned to others.

• UK-based recruitment firm Membership Bespoke has launched an executive search division, extending its expertise in membership employment. With 25 years’ recruitment experience, Ben Spragg has been appointed head of executive search. The firm is working with two national associations to hire a new managing director and CEO. Membership Leaders, the new online platform, allows stakeholders across boards to view candidates CVs, executive summaries, McQuaig Assessment Results and key competency benchmarking reports.

• Global employment platform Oyster has launched Oyster Embedded and Oyster API to make global employment more accessible for companies, partners and HR teams. With Oyster Embedded, industry partners can now offer global hiring, payroll and rewards solutions in one click, right from their own software. Oyster API helps partners and customers easily connect Oyster with tools of their choice.

• Industrial recruitment specialist PSI Global has launched a new division called PSI Global Training, and is opening a training facility in Liverpool next month. This will be the first location in the North-West of the UK dedicated to running Train the Painter courses. The firm says the new division has been set up following a lack of labour within the industrial services sector due to a skills shortage and ageing workforce.

• Tech recruitment agency Searchability has opened a new office in Sydney, Australia. Searchability was founded by managing director Martin Blythe in 2012 in the UK, and expanded into Australia in 2020. The new office will be located at Margaret Street in Sydney.

13 November 2023

MSP market report reveals vendor consolidation as trend for 2024

Kaseya, a global provider of unified IT management and security software for MSPs, small to mid-size businesses (SMBs) and mid-market enterprises (MMEs), has released its third annual ‘Datto Global State of the Managed Service Provider: Trends and Forecasts for 2024 Report’, which surveyed 1,575 MSPs worldwide about what keeps them up at night. The survey provides an in-depth look at the current state of the MSP market, demonstrating the critical role MSPs play in the overall success for small and mid-size businesses, as well as how the landscape has evolved and what the industry can expect in the coming year.

An MSP delivers services, such as network, application, infrastructure and security, via ongoing and regular support and active administration on customers’ premises, in their MSP’s data centre (hosting), or in a third-party data centre. Recruitment firms often use MSPs to service their critical IT needs.

“While MSPs have long been the unsung heroes of tech, this year’s survey results clearly speak to a growing understanding of the critical role technology plays in a sustainable business,” said Kaseya’s Holly Bateman. “With revenues and competition on the rise, and a focus on the need for a superior customer experience, MSPs have a front row seat to what makes their customers successful. As a result, these MSPs have a clear view into what keeps a major cornerstone of our economy – small and mid-size businesses – running.”

According to the report, the MSP industry has exploded over the last few years with major growth in 2023, despite a difficult economic climate. In North America, 68% of MSPs experienced a revenue increase, and among them, 38% saw their revenue grow by more than 10%. Likewise, the revenue increase was also significant in Europe. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of MSPs in Europe experienced year-over-year revenue growth, and among them, 37% of those experienced an increase of more than 10%.

At the same time, the survey shows that competition is stiff. More than a third (35%) of MSPs globally cite competition as the biggest challenge, up from 29% last year. While seen as a challenge, MSPs are harnessing this competition to drive innovation and are offering solutions to better meet their clients’ needs, with 91% regarding customer experience as a high or top priority.

With the IT needs of SMBs and MMEs constantly changing, the main priorities that stood out for IT professionals to keep in mind in the coming year include:

  • Embrace vendor consolidation 74% of respondents said they prefer to use fewer vendors to meet their technology needs – up from 64% in 2022. Fewer vendors mean a streamlined supply chain, improving procurement, delivery, deployment, asset management and services.
  • Expand the service portfolio Top services that respondents anticipate adding to their portfolios include collaboration software (27%), business intelligence or analytics software (22%), and incident response and forensics (22%).
  • Embrace cloud migration Roughly half of the respondents report that 50% or more of their clients are shifting their workloads to the cloud. MSPs in North America anticipate the most significant shift in cloud migration in the next three years, driven by clients adopting Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and migrating databases and email servers to the cloud. Nearly half of the respondents (47%) predict that 75% to 99% of their client base will move workloads to the cloud in the next three years.
  • Address cybersecurity concerns 28% of respondents cited their customers’ lack of concern about cyber-risks as a major cybersecurity challenge. It underscores the pressing need for MSPs to be equipped with the tools and knowledge to educate their customers effectively. 

“As we head into the end of the year and the start of 2024, we can all learn from the stories, challenges and successes of the MSPs shaping the future of IT services. We hope that this report will shed light on this thriving industry that is currently experiencing more growth potential than ever before,” added Pateman.

13 November 2023

The Protocol Group launches in education sector

The Protocol Group provides staff members for all levels of education, ranging from nursery level, through to school level, all the way to higher education and special education needs.

The roles the group covers include teaching staff and other staff needed for the running of any education institution, such as groundskeepers, lunch staff, cleaning teams and more.

From a team built on nearly three decades of experience, they will be based out of seven offices in London, Manchester, Hertfordshire, Aberdeen, Birmingham and Stamford, as well as its head office in Nottingham.

The Protocol Group recently announced the launch of two of three subsidiary businesses, Bookmark and eSafeguarding, which respectively act as a recruitment database and background checking service.

There will also be a third business within the group announced in December.

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10 November 2023

Green means go for UK jobs

A foundation aimed at supporting the UK’s transition to future green skills and jobs, including the pilot of a green internship scheme next year, has been launched.

Business and civil organisations including PageGroup, City and Guilds, PwC, the Living Wage Foundation, RenewableUK and Lightcast are supporting the Green Jobs Foundation in its aim of accelerating “the awareness and access to green jobs in the UK”.

The charity has been created as a personal drive by PageGroup head of sustainability and corporate treasury Joanna Bonnett.

Formally launched at the Eden Project on 2 November as part of the Anthropy Gathering, an annual event dedicated to inspiring a better Britain, the foundation was formed at the end of 2022. With the foundation’s launch was its first ‘Green Jobs: State of the Nation Report’, which details where in the UK the number of green jobs are growing and their economic value. The report also emphasises skills development and reskilling as part of the requirement to progress.

Bonnett said: “As a nation, we must invest in green skills as the workforce moves towards a skills-first agenda and provide workers with sustainable jobs aligned to their personal values and opportunities they can be proud of.”

The foundation’s focus is on “jobs in this emerging economy, the skills workers will require, how these skills are acquired, and successful pathways from the old to the new economy”, a foundation statement said. “It was formed as a ‘think and do’ foundation with the goal of helping to tackle the practical issues around the fundamental question of our time: how the UK and the rest of the world can successfully move to a low-carbon and then zero-carbon society, whilst leaving no one behind in a Just Transition.”

The report provides case studies of how green skills are being taught at community level in the UK, such as in Maidenhead, where a Green Skills Library is being created. Local residents can access free courses to learn how to upcycle, repair and create, and in future will be offered free group training in organic gardening, reupholstery and common repairs, as a result of recent funding.

Donna Stimson, the founder of the Green Skills Library, is a former councillor and sustainability cabinet member for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Stimson said: “Content in the courses can also provide individuals with new skills, which could lead to sustainable green jobs.”

The UK government plans to create 2m green jobs by 2030 and 6.9m green jobs by 2050.

“This transition of employment will create significant opportunities as well as challenges, which we must overcome by working together,” the statement said. “Students looking to enter the workforce and workers of today will be required to reskill and upskill to be match-fit for tomorrow.”

For more about the ‘Green Jobs: State of the Nation Report’ and the foundation, see The Big Story here.

Image credit | Getty
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