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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.

7 August 2017
Oil & gas/Energy, Social care, Transport & logistics, Life sciences, Creative/Digital/Media, Construction & property, Legal, HR, Hospitality/Leisure

NEW TO THE MARKET: 7-11 AUGUST 2017

• Travel staffing specialist C&M Travel Recruitment has launched a technology recruitment division. Led by travel technology consultant Simon Woods, the division will recruit solely for technology positions based at companies within the travel sector.

• Manchester-based recruiter Employment Solutions has launched a new website. The site, developed by recruitment website developer Volcanic, features a search bar enabling candidates to search by job title, by location and an advanced search to filter by specific sectors and locations.

• Leeds-based online recruitment specialist Flat Fee Recruiter has launched IT system the Flat Fee Applicant Tracking System.

FFATS plugs directly into the employer’s website. Applicants fill in applications online and book interview times, which are tracked and managed by the system throughout the recruitment process. All jobs advertised using FFATS are automatically posted onto social media sites, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, and other recruitment platforms as selected.

• Recruitment platform iContract has launched. The platform connects contractors with recruiters – contractors can be matched to contracts tailored to their profile and preferences based on specific criteria they set.

It also enables recruiters to connect with recommended contractors who are matched to the contracts they are posting, helping fast track their candidate search process.

• Contractor accounting specialist Intouch has launched Freeflex, an accounting and umbrella service for contractors.

• Recruitment and employment law advisers Lawspeed has launched a new service provider accreditation to anyone wishing to use a service provider or umbrella company as its payment provider.

Lawspeed now offers an independent check of the service provider’s operation through on site audit and provides compliant operators with accreditation evidenced by use of the SPA logo. To ensure transparency, a brief description of the service provider’s audited operations and organisation will also be available.

• NonStop Recruitment, a Europe-wide staffing specialist in the pharma, medical devices, chemical, care, digital and technical markets, has launched an app – available on both Apple and Android platforms – to complement its recently launched new-look website.

The app enables candidates to search and apply for opportunities, manage their NonStop profiles and job alerts, and contact NonStop’s teams on the move.

• PMP Recruitment, part of Cordant Group, has launched a national recruitment and data centre in Media City, Salford Quays.

The centre, home to more than 100 candidate experience agents, focuses on analysing client operational needs and matching those requirements with the right candidates, enabling PMP’s team to better forecast headcounts and place candidates in roles that best suits their situation, including part-time or flexible contracts, and location- and work-based learning opportunities. It will also enable PMP’s team to measure aspects such as demographics, conversion, absence and attrition, bringing increased business efficiencies through the centralisation of all recruitment campaigns.

• Contractor tax adviser Qdos Contractors and recruitment giant Hays have joined forces to develop an IR35 solution aimed at helping public sector organisations work out whether off-payroll workers are inside IR35 rules.

The solution enables public sector engagers to comply with new IR35 reforms, which came into force earlier this year affecting contractors working through personal services companies in the public sector.

• Directors Liane Hartley and Sharron Clow have launched Source – an agency and social sustainability consultancy operating across construction and infrastructure sectors.

• Automated candidate-referencing company Xref has launched ‘sentiment engine’ technology.

The engine uses an algorithm that examines reference responses and rates feedback as positive, negative or neutral, with the aim of at interpreting the referee’s ‘tone of voice’ for the employer. The technology aims to save recruitment professionals up to 16 minutes per reference by using artificial intelligence and machine learning to scan references, creating a report that can be sent back to the employer. 

3 August 2017
Creative/Digital/Media, IT/Telecoms

Ex-Cititec founder Grant launches Spotter & Hunter with Leslie

Robert Grant (above left), who left Cititec and technology recruiter Excelian following its sale to New York Stock Exchange-listed Luxoft back in 2015, has joined forces with Nick Leslie (above right), previously managing director at London-based recruiter JLM Search, to launch Spotter & Hunter.

While operating from its base in London’s tech hub of Old Street, the agency has plans of growing internationally through attracting a global client base.

“After a couple of years out of the industry, seeing out my non-competes, I was determined to return to the right opportunity – this is it,” Grant said.

“My passion is for building professional service businesses that have substance and truly understand and deliver against their USP and what their market needs. This particular space has so much potential...”

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31 July 2017
IT/Telecoms, HR, Graduates/Apprentices/School leavers

NEW TO THE MARKET: 31 JULY-4 AUGUST 2017

• Specialist recruiter 2B Interface is opening an office in Munich, Germany. The move follows recent international office openings in Poland and Singapore by the company within the last two months.

• Recruitment software provider Bond International Software has launched the latest update to software system AdaptUX.

Improvements see AdaptUX 2.5 give customers enhanced recruitment and staffing cycle management features, including instant data synchronisation between AdaptUX and contingent workforce software TempBuddy, while client, candidate and contact records are replicated across both software solutions.

The update also aims to provide greater functionality for users for RSM InTime integration, CV importing, candidate ownership, field search and filter capabilities, and AWR management.

• North-West based multi-sector recruiter Cummins Mellor Group is relocating to new larger offices in the cathedral quarter of Blackburn. The relocation comes after completing the sale of its current premises on Whalley Road, Accrington.

• Software developer DevScore has launched an acquisition feature aimed at providing a complete candidate matching, acquisition, assessing and digital screening service for recruiters.

The feature enables customers to make targeted developer searches based on actual coding experience and also filter results by skills, experience and geographical location easily. This will enable them to pick the exact software development talent needed for their business’s individual requirements.

• UK technology career site Dice has launched a retro gaming microsite.

The site will include five classic games, live leaderboards, retro-inspired content and competitions to win retro-themed prizes.  

• Student resource RateMyPlacement has integrated with its software solution RMP Connect.

Student users on RateMyPlacement can ‘opt in’ to share their data with companies they are interested in hearing more about, giving permission for their data to be passed directly into an employer’s RMP Connect Talent Pool, while employers can target students directly in their talent pool based upon their preferences and characteristics.

Additionally, at the end of a campaign, employers can also track how many of these students, and other students in their talent pool, go on to apply and be hired using RMP Connect’s reporting suite.

• The Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative has released an online tool aimed at helping HR leaders calculate how many disabled people they should be employing to succeed in creating a truly representational workforce.

RIDI’s Disability Inclusion Calculator works by computing an individual organisation’s ‘disability employment gap’ based on the number of existing employees who have disclosed a disability coupled with overall headcount, and then advises how many more disabled people would need to be employed for the workforce to be representative of wider society.

24 July 2017
Transport & logistics, Engineering, Industrial/Manufacturing, HR, Hospitality/Leisure, Apprentices/Grads/School leavers, Accounting/Finance

NEW TO THE MARKET: 24-28 JULY 2017

• A former director of Kellan group’s finance staffing specialist RK Accountancy and RK Finance has struck out on his own. Director John Smith has launched Derbyshire-based Accountancy Recruitment Group, which places qualified and part-qualified accountants.

• South West-based employment business Backline Logistic Support Services has relocated to larger Winchester premises at Unit 2, Scylla Industrial Estate, from Moorside Road.

• Newport-based Celtic Manor Resort has launched two-year hotel and hospitality apprentice programme offering a number of modules designed to cover all aspects of the hotel and hospitality sector.

Included are models covering food and beverage, conference and banqueting, front of house, housekeeping and kitchens, as well as a stint combining all these areas at the resort’s Coldra Court Hotel.

Apprentices also benefit from a range of learning and development courses with subject matter including personal development, teamwork, guest relations, presentation and interview skills.

• Engineering recruiter Consilium Recruit has launched a salary guide for the aerospace sector. The survey covers a cross-section of regions in which employers involved in the manufacture and supply of aerospace components, systems, and/or services are based.

• Cardiff-based tech start-up Credas has launched. Credas uses real-time facial recognition technology to help companies speed up and simplify the process of ID verification, employee and client onboarding, and comply with Right to Work legislation.

By texting or emailing a link to the Credas app, clients or employees can verify themselves on the move and at any time and keeps a record of the verification on its secure cloud-based platform.

The site will include five classic games, live leaderboards, retro-inspired content and competitions to win retro-themed prizes.

• Graduate rec-to-rec firm ESG has launched the GradJobs Series, a guide for graduates wanting to break into the recruitment industry. Areas the series will cover range from writing a killer CV, to the day-to-day life of a recruitment consultant, and will be published weekly on the ESG blog.

• PMP Recruitment, part of Cordant Group, has launched Fundamentals – an onboarding programme for new starters aimed at improving learning, wellbeing and staff retention figures, while further increasing the quality of service each employee provides when working within a client’s facility.

Devised by senior and operational project groups, together with the agency’s learning and development department, Fundamentals is an eight-week long programme that is now available to new managers, site consultants and in-branch staff, covering areas including compliance, health & safety, policy and procedure, and personal development. 

The scheme is supported by an online portal that hosts a range of resources, including PMP’s Learning Heroes programme, workbooks, guides and other e-learning tools. New employees can access Fundamentals via a microsite, enabling them to complete designated modules when required. Additionally, the participant has learning reviews with their line manager to ensure they are benefitting from the training.

• European pallet freight network Palletways has launched a recruitment platform through Vidu Recruitment. Vidu is a new browser-based platform links employers and candidates face-to-face in real time across the globe through video and social media.

• Singapore government’s WSG Careers Connect has launched the R3 programme, aimed at matching people with jobs closer to their homes. The programme focuses on three stages of recruiting, reskilling and retaining.

The recruitment stage sees employers receive a list of potential jobseekers curated by career coaches from Careers Connect. The reskilling stage sees Careers Connect career coaches help employers identify skill gaps and relevant training for potential and hired candidates to equip them with the necessary skills.

Finally, the retain stage is where career coaches provide post-placement support to both the jobseeker and hiring supervisor to help address performance, competency or assimilation challenges, to ensure talent is retained.

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