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New to Market

14 May 2025
Creative/Digital/Media, Engineering

NEW TO THE MARKET: 12-16 MAY 2025

• Global specialist recruitment company Eames Consulting has opened a new office in Philadelphia, focusing on technology and digital enablement. Located at the Wanamaker Building, 100 East Penn Square, this is the recruiter’s second US location, following its New York office, which opened in 2022. The Philadelphia team will be headed up by Steven Stahl, a highly experienced recruiter. Also joining are Sam Youngberg (managing consultant) and Callum Stainer (senior consultant), data and AI recruitment specialists.

• Eightfold AI, which helps organisations recruit and retain top talent, and upskill/reskill their entire workforce, has added two new foundational AI products to its portfolio. Expanding its capabilities in talent acquisition, Eightfold introduces AI Interviewer to automate candidate engagement and assessment, enhancing responsiveness and selection outcomes. The company has also launched Digital Twin, a personalised AI model that captures and applies employee knowledge across systems to drive real-time productivity and decision-making.

• SF Recruitment has opened a new East Midlands headquarters in Castle Donington, strategically positioned next to East Midlands Airport. The new hub unites the company’s Leicester and Nottingham teams, with the company broadening its expertise into STEM fields, including technology and engineering, alongside its core areas of finance, private equity and corporate services. Over 40 team members will be based at the new headquarters and plans for European growth are underway, according to the company statement.

13 May 2025
Transport & logistics, Graduates/Apprentices/School leavers

Aspiring pilots can apply to join fully-funded training programme

Flight training typically costs in excess of £100k.

The programme has been developed to support Jet2.com’s growth, enabling the leisure airline to fly more customers away to enjoy their holidays on an expanding fleet of aircraft.

Jet2FlightPath is open to candidates from all backgrounds (subject to meeting the application criteria) and aims to boost social mobility and promote diversity within the pilot community. To apply, candidates need at least five GCSEs at grade 4 or above, including maths and a science subject, or equivalent qualifications – making Jet2FlightPath more accessible than other programmes.

The selection process, including assessments and interviews, will see successful candidates invited to take their place on a fully funded 18-month Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL) training course in the UK, Spain or US, with courses starting this year. Upon completion of the ATPL course, trainees will then be offered Type Rating training on either an Airbus or Boeing aircraft, before becoming a Jet2.com pilot. Three partners set to deliver this training are Skyborne Airline Academy, Leading Edge and FTE Jerez.

When completing the Jet2FlightPath pilot training programme, trainees will also be fully immersed in the operation and culture at Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, “so that they can understand all the qualities that make up the businesses”, a company statement said. This includes gaining exposure to various customer-facing roles such as cabin crew and ground operations.

Jet2.com plans to put 60 pilots through Jet2FlightPath in the first year of the programme and then expand it to attract “even more” aspiring pilots in the coming years as the company continues to grow, the company said. 

The UK’s third largest airline currently employs over 1,800 pilots and will operate a fleet of up to 135 aircraft this summer, flying customers to sun and leisure city destinations across Europe, the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands from 13 UK airport bases.

The brand-new Jet2FlightPath programme opens for applications today [13 May 2025]. Pilots of the future can find out further information as well as how to apply by clicking here.

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6 May 2025
Public sector, Creative/Digital/Media

NEW TO THE MARKET: 5-9 MAY 2025

• Heidrick & Struggles has launched a new Government & Defense Tech Practice, aimed at serving the growing demand for technology leadership within public sector organisations. With governments estimated to account for 10% of global technology and IT services spending, the firm sees this as a significant market opportunity. The practice consolidates the company’s experience from over 200 engagements to provide leadership solutions for organisations delivering technology to national, state and local governments worldwide.

The new practice will support clients by offering leadership search, development and organisational effectiveness services. It brings together more than 30 experienced partners across sectors such as IT services, aerospace and defence, energy and private equity, operating globally across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The initiative addresses the increasing reliance of governments on advanced technologies like AI, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity and robotics.

• Workforce management solutions firm Matrix has supported more than 10,000 individuals across the UK into employment between March 2024 and April 2025 through its Social Value team. The efforts focused on a wide range of community initiatives, including employability workshops, career guidance and volunteering opportunities. These programmes were designed to help students, jobseekers and public sector employees gain essential skills and access new career pathways.

• UK start-up Project Brains has launched ProdigyPB, an AI-powered platform designed to revolutionise job description creation and recruitment. Tailored for SMEs, growing businesses, and HR teams, ProdigyPB helps define precise hiring needs by aligning job roles with specific business challenges. The tool generates clear, bias-free job descriptions in seconds and enables users to engage with vetted fractional specialists from Project Brains’ talent pool, according to a company statement. ProdigyPB is currently available in Beta across the UK.

28 April 2025
Life sciences, Engineering

NEW TO THE MARKET: 28 APRIL-2 MAY 2025

• Jobmatch Sweden, a leader in occupational psychological testing, is expanding in Norway through a new partnership with consulting firm Sund Raad. Sund Raad, which focuses on enhancing employee engagement for small and medium-sized businesses, will integrate Jobmatch’s DNV-certified Talent test into its services. This marks Jobmatch’s second partnership in Norway, following its 2022 collaboration with Hapro Jobb og Karriere. Jobmatch Talent is a scientifically validated tool used for recruitment and employee development, according to the company press release.

• STEM recruitment specialist Matchtech has launched STEM Futures, a free, on-demand employability platform aimed at helping young people break into engineering and technology careers. The programme includes expert-led sessions on job search strategies, CV writing, interviews and personal development, and is part of Matchtech’s broader initiative to address the STEM skills gap and support emerging talent.

In addition, Matchtech has awarded the first two grants from its Materna Fund, a £2.5k bursary created to support engineering students facing financial hardship. The inaugural recipients, Sergio Carreno Vargas and David Sarembock from the University of Portsmouth, are using the funds to focus on their studies and development without the added pressure of financial strain.

• Meet Life Sciences has launched Synergy, a new standalone service designed to tackle people capability challenges in the life sciences sector that go beyond recruitment. As part of Meet’s evolution into a full-service talent solutions partner, Synergy offers tailored support in areas like workforce planning, leadership development, skills mapping, culture embedding and organisational design. Led by vice-president Kirsty Wilson, the service is built specifically for the life sciences industry and is focused on delivering measurable, outcome-driven solutions. Unlike traditional consulting, Synergy provides hands-on support from design through to implementation, helping clients build the capability needed to grow, adapt and lead in a competitive global market.

• Right Management, part of ManpowerGroup, has launched a refreshed brand strategy called ‘The Right Way’. It’s a human-centred, data-backed framework that aligns workforce development with business strategy. The new identity centres on ‘The Right Way loop’, a distinctive visual element with modern colours and typography that will be used across all brand touchpoints.

18 February 2019
Oil & gas/Energy, Engineering, Executive search, Accounting/Finance

NEW TO THE MARKET: 18-22 FEBRUARY 2019

• Renewable energy staffing specialist Cathcart Energy has launched an office in Copenhagen. Nanna Bendixen has also been appointed as a new consultant, taking over responsibility of the company’s existing accounts in Denmark, and will lead the team in adding new clients to their growing portfolio.

• Global recruitment and consulting specialist Ignata has launched Ignata Actuarial & Investments, a specialist division recruiting insurers, pension funds and asset managers. The division is led by directors Peter Knowles and James Craven.

• Online recruitment referral platform Real Links has launched. The platform provides employee-generated referrals by tapping into the social and professional network connections of existing employees.

12 February 2019
IT/Telecoms

Start-up of the Month: TT Tech Solutions

Thakrar, who previously headed up the technology and financial systems division at former Apprentice winner Ricky Martin’s recruitment business Hyper Recruitment Solutions, told Recruiter working with Lord Sugar and Martin had given her the confidence to launch her own business.

“My network, my background, my eight years in recruitment have really given me a solid reputation in the space I recruit within.”

Looking ahead, Thakrar added she was uncertain whether she would seek external investment to aid expansion of her Thurrock-based business.

“I think I can call on my own savings to make sure I can keep all of the business, but I want it to grow so I would [look again] this time next year. I would love us to be based in London, somewhere in the Liverpool Street area… and have a solid team of about 10.

“We’re not massive but I really want to partner with organisations – to be an arm of their business. I want us to be onsite if we can at places and at organisations, and try and work with brands that are where we are – small brands that are growing, expanding and who really want to make a name for themselves in their markets as well.”

12 February 2019

Joining the dots: Exploiting big data to find talent

Video-interviewing, gamification, artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics are all changing the face of recruiting. The HireVue recruitment platform, previously best known for video-interviewing, acquired predictive hiring and talent analytics platform MindX last year and is one of the first platforms to unite these technologies. So how are they combining to help recruiters make better hires?

Really big data

The value of big data has been espoused for many years but it is only now that its true magnitude is being fully exploited in recruitment, with platforms having had several years to collect and analyse information. HireVue draws on data from more than 9m on-demand interviews and is on track to collect them at a rate of 4m interviews per year. It also holds large amounts of data on gameplay behaviour and performance. It has used this as the backbone for a platform that uses AI to identify the definitive traits in top performers. Candidates can then be assessed against these through their own gameplay and video interview, which are undertaken on the same platform.

Predictive hiring

The game-based challenges are designed to evaluate cognitive traits such as problem-solving, mental flexibility, learning agility, attention span, creativity and quantitative aptitude. The platform can be customised but HireVue has recently launched pre-built assessments for specific roles and job-related competencies. Currently, they are available for call centre service representatives, sales reps, retail associates and software developers, and feature a combination of video questions, games-based challenges and coding challenges for technical roles. “We aim to predict whether a person will have the right cognitive ability and thinking style to learn and adapt in a role,” explains Dr Nathan Mondragon, chief industrial and organisational psychologist at HireVue.

Can algorithms be trusted?

Platforms such as HireVue introduce a high level of automation into the recruitment process but are recruiters ready to trust AI to identify talent? Mondragon doesn’t believe the industry has crossed this “digital divide” yet: “We need to show that algorithms from a research perspective are more trustworthy than human judgement.” Unilever is one of HireVue’s clients and has used the platform to filter up to 80% of the candidate pool. Its criteria was to ensure that its process felt “human not robotic” and had to be “better and more efficient” at selecting candidates than an in-person interview. The system has helped reduce time-to-hire by 90%, increase new hire diversity by 16% and deliver £1m in savings.

What about bias?

Algorithms are unambiguous and don’t have grey areas so, in theory, can reduce bias in the recruitment process. They are based on human data, and so are fallible. Mondragon says it is important for developers to continually run manual and automated tests on software. HireVue regularly checks for bias in race, gender, age, culture and disability, as well as other areas that might be relevant to different countries. “For instance, our tools can identify and remove a datapoint that might be causing a male or female difference,” he says, adding that constant checks are important as the bias can return. The algorithms also understand that there can be traditional differences in how a person performs on certain exercises.

Change management

Bringing more predictive technologies into the recruitment process and shifting towards more to data-driven decision-making requires culture change. Mondragon believes it should be accompanied by a change management initiative. The message, says HireVue, is that it is “teamwork” between the algorithms and the recruiters that makes the decision. “Customers use the score to facilitate human judgement,” he says. “We want to stop them making a bad decision.”

WHAT DO ALGORITHMS DO IN RECRUITMENT?

Algorithms provide recruitment platforms with a scientific and step-by-step set of rules to follow to solve a problem, which typically in a recruitment context is to find the right candidate.

11 February 2019
Public sector, Construction & property, IT/Telecoms

NEW TO THE MARKET: 11-15 FEBRUARY 2019

• US-based tech talent acquisition platform AmazingHiring has launched an AI-sourcing solution based on machine learning algorithms to enable users to find the right candidates more quickly. The solution allows users to choose the core skill or specialisation from a list and the AI technology will do the rest.

• Cambridge-based learning technology company Coracle Inside, which already provides its Digital Learning Platform to offenders in prison, has partnered with recruitment tech specialist Highr to create an online jobs board designed specifically to connect ex-offenders with job vacancies likely to be open to people with criminal records.

The Coracle Inside Jobs Board offers 200 jobs each week in London and up to 1,000 nationally at launch, with expansion plans to advertise more than 3,000 vacancies around the country before the end of the year. Jobs advertised on Coracle’s Jobs Board are generally semi-skilled roles in high-demand industries including construction, warehousing, social care and hospitality.

Vacancies in companies, which have signed up to the government-backed ‘Ban The Box’ and ‘Clean Sheet’ schemes designed to eliminate recruitment discrimination against ex-offenders, will be given prominence on the new jobs board. Coracle Inside has also built an algorithm to bring up additional vacancies in sectors known to be short of staff and looking to fill vacancies.

• Professional network LinkedIn is moving talent tools – Jobs, Recruiter and Pipeline Builder – onto a single platform. The move means recruiters will be able to see all their candidates, from whichever LinkedIn tool they’re coming from, in one unified pipeline.

LinkedIn added it is releasing more than 15 new product enhancements for LinkedIn Recruiter and Jobs over the next few quarters. New features include helping recruiters and their teams collaborate better, helping them to be more productive and providing them with smarter results.

• Property recruiter Lloyd May has launched property tech staffing specialist LMRE. Led by director Bradley Bartlett, LMRE’s core areas of focus will be within strategy & innovation, product development, software development and business development & marketing.

• Software provider O.C. Tanner has launched a culture assessment service, which aims to enable organisations to quickly and easily assess their workplace culture.

The culture assessment service, which can replace or complement employee engagement surveys, uses methodology to provide measurement, in-depth analysis and actionable recommendations so that organisations can build inspiring workplace cultures. It focuses on the six key elements of purpose, opportunity, success, appreciation, wellbeing and leadership which, following global research with 10,000 employees, O.C. Tanner discovered to be the building blocks of organisational culture.

• Midlands-based recruitment specialist SF Group has vowed to ditch all single-use plastic and turn to a more sustainable material – bamboo. SF Group has made the pledge as it launches its new name, brand and values this month.

Now known as SF Recruitment, the agency, which has offices in Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham, has chosen bamboo to represent the values a recruiter needs to be successful and its drive to replace a wide variety of plastics being used throughout the business. The new tagline for SF Recruitment is ‘a natural fit’ – chosen to highlight the business’s philosophy on finding the perfect match between people and companies.

Recruiter Magazine

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