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20 May 2025
Oil & gas/Energy, Transport & logistics

International manufacturer invests £170m in North Wales facility

The UK and Welsh governments have welcomed the investment into a new facility from the international manufacturer.

The announcement comes as the UK and EU hold a summit to discuss future opportunities to boost economic growth.

The landmark development will produce more than 100,000 tonnes of non-combustible rock mineral wool insulation per year and create around 140 direct jobs, with more in local supply chains.

The announcement coincides with the UK-EU Summit that took place on Monday [19 May 2025].

Secretary of state for Wales Jo Stevens said: “This £170m investment by Knauf Insulation is fantastic news for North Wales and our UK government mission to drive economic growth.”

Using UK-First Submerged Arc Furnace technology, the new factory will produce non-combustible, low embodied carbon, recyclable rock mineral wool insulation to support the need for safer, more energy efficient and sustainable buildings.

The UK and Welsh government-backed North Wales Growth Deal and the Flintshire and Wrexham Investment Zone collectively support the decision by Knauf Insulation to lo-cate a second plant in the area.

As leaders in the production of sustainable building materials, Knauf Insulation’s expansion further supports the growing advanced manufacturing cluster in North Wales.

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20 May 2025
Creative/Digital/Media, IT/Telecoms

Human skills as important as ‘oven-ready’ tech skills

So says the CEO of the CIPD, the UK’s professional body for HR, learning & development, Peter Cheese.

Speaking last Friday [16 May 2025] at the Houses of Parliament launch of the UK Hiring Taskforce, Cheese told the 200 attendees that at the same time, however, instead of filling skills gaps, employers are also looking for potential in applicants through characteristics such as “attitude, aptitude to learn human skills like collaboration and communication, and critical thinking. The more we debate the future of work, the more we debate about AI impacting jobs and skills in the future, the more we are coming back to these core skills”.

Humanities knowledge is part of building such capabilities into organisations, Cheese said: “People talk now about the half-life of job skills is somewhere between three and four years. In other words, every three or four years, we’re going to have to retrain half of our workforce.”

Access to and retention of talent are a top issue for business leaders around the world, with “almost every organisation saying they can’t find all the skills. But then you question them on that, they say yes, we’ve been getting too focused on hiring what I’ve often described as ‘oven-ready employees’ and they don’t exist – partly because we are changing the nature of jobs at an ever-increasing rate”, Cheese said. “So, the reality of how we approach recruiting has got to be expanded from the point of view of the employers as well.”

He asked the audience: “So why do we seem to be reverting back to saying ‘I just want tech skills’? We know the world is not, unfortunately, going to be a better place if all we have are a lot of tech people. Frankly, we need humanity to work alongside that as well.”

Cheese has been appointed to the UK Hiring Taskforce steering committee.

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19 May 2025
Life sciences, Creative/Digital/Media

UK Hiring Taskforce launches to develop new hiring strategies

With 200 hiring leaders, recruiters, rec tech leaders and more in attendance, including Recruiter, the hiring taskforce kick-off also delivered the news that an association for recruitment technology providers is planned to launch in November “to have one voice with government, to give high risk assurance that they are people of good standing and to help us develop a rec tech roadmap”, said Keith Rosser, who as chair of the Better Hiring Institute is leading the joint force of parliamentarians and hiring leaders. 

“We want a national hiring strategy,” Rosser said in his address at the event. “What do we think the future looks like if we could start again – forget the baggage, forget the medieval CVs, the Victorian references, the industrial revolution, job adverts – and think about actually, what would starting again look like?

“And finally, a technology road map. What would rec tech look like if we had a magic wand? What do we need to consider? What do we need to debate?... What we want from you is your help shaping what needs to be considered, how we need to go forward, what are the things we really should be looking at?”

Organisers are hoping to gather concepts by November from the respective work groups, formed of people who sign up to participate, for strategy, technology and policy. “Those three work streams with then end in those three deliverables later in the year,” Rosser said.

“We want this to be the beginning of a new dawn,” he added. “We want to get leadership once more for the UK in hiring… It’s hard to imagine actually that once upon a time, the UK was a leader in this stuff… We just really haven’t moved forward. Today is our commitment to gain leadership once more.”

Viscount Camrose, shadow secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, will be the honorary president of the rec tech association when formed. 

Speaking on Friday at the taskforce launch, he said: “I’ve been worrying for years that the job market is too inefficient, but that it can be reduced in some sense, to a data problem. And I would love us to start making progress together in that director because actually, in a weird way, although it is a data problem, digitalisation and AI have made it worse. They have made it more difficult rather than less difficult, and I think we can go for some way this afternoon to starting that journey to correcting the problem.”

As examples, Viscount Camrose said: “Far too many jobs are far too overapplied; we see candidates receiving no response – even late on in the process, no response comes. And there are such huge advantages to all of us for doing that. First… if we are going to grow as an economy, we need to be more productive… and just placing people in jobs to which they are genuinely committed is going to boost productivity. 

“Second, economic inactivity. We have too many people who are economically inactive now, and how many of those people remain economically inactive because… it’s just too difficult to embark on the process of finding the next job. The easier we can make it [is] to everybody’s benefit. The third advantage is just national happiness.”

Also speaking at the event was Lord Chris Holmes, Paralympian swimming champion, who in 2023 introduced an AI regulation bill to address concerns about its development, fairness in use, privacy and other issues. He has since reintroduced it, terming it “light touch, right size regulation”, and believing that it has significant potential application in hiring. “If we get fairer hiring, if we get faster hiring, the aim for all of us today and for every day, we can truly have in the world the finest hiring ecosystem we can bring to bear,” he said.

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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.

21 August 2017
Education, Banking/Financial services, Legal, Accounting/Finance

NEW TO THE MARKET: 21-24 AUGUST 2017

• Global recruiter Antal International is to open a Hong Kong office, with Philip Hutchinson appointed as country general manager for Hong Kong.

The office will initially focus on banking, finance and technology roles.

• Law firm Exello Law has launched its 2017 recruitment campaign.

Based on feedback from the group’s 80 partners, this year’s campaign is themed on the key benefits the group’s lawyers enjoy of “freedom, flexibility and control” from smarter ways of working, giving them back the time to focus 100% on their clients’ needs without the burden of billable hours and office politics.

• Talent management consultancy IDEX Consulting is to open its first European office this September.

The firm says that this new office, located in the heart of Dublin, will serve many of its clients that are reviewing their trading platforms and considering establishing hubs in Dublin and elsewhere across Europe in order to continue trading with their European partners following the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

• Online supply teachers portal The Supply Register has moved to a new headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent. Located less than a mile from Stoke’s central railway station, the HQ sits alongside existing operations in Skipton and London.

15 August 2017
Hospitality/Leisure

Start-up of the Month: Hesketh James

Toby Holt and Amanda Hesketh, two former directors of multi-discipline recruiter Kellan Group, have joined forces to launch Manchester-based hospitality recruitment agency Hesketh James.

Holt was previously operations director at Kellan Group recruiter Berkeley Scott, while Hesketh is a former head of HR and recruitment at Kellan.

Explaining why the duo has chosen to work together again, Holt says it’s because they like each other and get on well. “That’s important. Not only that but our skills complement one another’s and we respect each other’s achievements.”

In terms of standing out in the market, Holt adds they will resist claiming to do anything differently but will seek to do recruitment properly – “the right way, not the easy way”. 

“Hospitality and recruitment is what makes us tick,” Holt explains. “When we talk about hospitality recruitment, the conversation doesn’t stop at CVs and job adverts. We also give back to the industry through our work with both Springboard and Hospitality Action [charities], also career coaching to school leavers and mentoring programmes.”

Over the next year, the pair say they will explore new locations. “Our most recent addition to the team, Sarah Lindley, will be establishing our accountancy business in the North-West. 2018 will see us develop the South-West business and take Hesketh James into new locations and markets. Watch this space.

14 August 2017
Oil & gas/Energy, Transport & logistics, Engineering, Construction & property, Industrial/Manufacturing, Accounting/Finance

NEW TO THE MARKET: 14-18 AUGUST 2017

• Transport and distribution recruitment specialist Bluestones Logistics has launched a ‘refer a friend’ scheme to reward its drivers and logistics personnel.

Every current candidate of Bluestones Logistics who refers a friend to the agency will receive £50 for themselves and £50 for their friend. Referred candidates need only work a minimum of 40 shifts for them and their friend to be eligible for the referral fee.

• Intelligent information management specialist M-Files has launched M-Files HR, a solution aimed at streamlining management of HR-related documents and information.

The solution aims to help recruiters keep tabs on the various candidates in their care, by storing documents such as CVs, cover letters and background information in a way that makes finding and managing these documents much more efficient and intuitive than a traditional folder-based system.

• Flexible working specialist Flexology has launched a returnship programme supporting professionals who have taken a career break.

The firm says it is looking to work with professionals with a background in accountancy, law, project or relationship management, marketing or HR who have had at least one year off from paid work, whether the career break was due to having children, ill health or taking on carer responsibilities.

These professionals will be offered a three-month Flexology Returnship placement, in which they will be able refresh their skills, gain confidence and develop recent experience for their CV in order to re-enter the workforce. Both the returnship and any subsequent role will be offered on a flexible basis.

• Opus Professional Services Group is expanding into new offices in the Spinning Fields area of Manchester. The new office will the group’s sixth.

Director Richard Thexton has been appointed to head up the new office after building and managing a number of successful teams at SThree.

• International recruiter Pure Search has appointed Warwick Pearmund to lead its new financial and emerging technologies practice. The firm already operates within financial services, commerce and industry and professional services.

• Following part relocation by a major client to Northampton, Kent-based recruitment company Red Eagle has opened a new office in Corby. Keen to retain their working relationship, Red Eagle says the new location will help with on-site assistance and also present new opportunities with businesses in the area.

Red Eagle has already compiled a database of local workers and is strong on food processing and logistics, which are significant sectors of the economy in the Corby area.

• Spencer Ogden has moved to a new location in Houston. The global energy, engineering and infrastructure recruiter has tripled the size of its Houston office and has relocated to the GreenStreet district in Downtown Houston at 1201 Fannin St.

10 August 2017
HR

Contractor market attracting tech start-ups

That is the evidence suggested by a recent HRTechTank London event, in which two HR tech start-ups highlighted the opportunities in the freelance sector as they presented in front of potential investors and experts. 

“The concept of a liquid workforce and the growth of a new organisational structure, which has a small core team and a disparate population of independent talent around that is now widely accepted. We feel this huge growth is going to be a massive part of the future of work,” said Jonny Dunning, CEO of TalonFMS, an automated freelancer management system, which has been actively marketed since April.

Dunning said projections that 30% of the UK workforce will be freelance by 2020 and “more like 50% of the US workforce” represented “fantastic opportunities, but also challenges”. He added the rapid rise in the availability and choice of talent and the speed at which the market operated driven by technology, as well as the compliance and regulatory challenges such as changes to IR35, meant that employers “could no longer ignore this part of their workforce anymore”.

Dunning went on to explain that the TalonFMS automated freelancer management system allows companies to interact with approved on-boarded compliant individuals, to contact them directly, to send out details of projects to matched relevant people and to create talent pools. Dunning said ultimately, it helped employers with large contractor workforces to maximise talent, control costs and reduce risk.

Mark Lee, CEO and founder of ContractElite, a start-up sourcing platform that allows contractors and employers to connect directly, said that the UK’s 2m-strong contractor workforce, increasing at around 5% a year, made this an attractive market.

Lee explained that ContractElite provides employers with data points based on “key criteria that were important in the hiring of contractors”. He said the most important of these were, “the contractor is available when I want them, where I want them, and for the right price”. The platform also allows employers to access contractors on the basis of their experience and on ratings by their peers.

Lee emphasised that the intention was purely to provide “the connectivity to allow clients to source contractors” and not for ContractElite to recruit them themselves. ContractElite is in the pre-revenue stage, with an initial aim of having 2,000 contractors signed up by September. 

• Want to comment on this story? Email us at [email protected] or tweet us below to tell us your thoughts. We will run comments online in a round-up at the end of the week.

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