Lucy Walker Recruitment Case Study How we support IP Group with their recruitment
IP Group: Client Background IP Group is an early-stage investor who specialises in partnering with universities to evolve great ideas, into world-changing businesses. The group achieve this by systematically helping to create, build and support outstanding intellectual property-based companies. Employ over 100 members of staff across the UK and USA Operates out of a head office in London, with regional offices in the UK, and have now established a base in the USA which supports a new select group of American university partners Have established 80 companies over the last 17 years 17 of the above companies are listed on the London Stock Exchanges AIM market The IP Group support their portfolio of companies with: Financial capital from their balance sheet and also from funds that they manage on behalf of others Strategic and commercial expertise Executive search and development Corporate finance and capital raising A range of administrative services The Administrative support is provided by the team at IP Assist, headed by Ani Earney to UK based companies. At times this support can include recruitment. However, the main recruiting needs are for IP Group IP Assist team. The team currently look after 52 companies and this is split into two smaller teams, one finance and one business support.
The Challenges of Recruitment Ani has experience of working with a variety of recruitment agencies across the UK when recruiting for companies that IP Assist support. When recruiting for her own team which is based in Leeds, there are a number of factors that influence her decision to work with an external recruitment company. 1. The time-consuming nightmare of advertising and ending up with a million CVs to go through. 2. The struggle at times to get a recruitment company to understand; What IP Group and especially IP Assist do How the IP Assist team works and what sort of people are a cultural fit for the team? Because the team is small this is particularly important to Ani 3. As the work is varied and across a wide number of companies, it has also proved a challenge to have recruiters understand the need to recruit on attitude and someone s desire to learn The roles are not classic finance support or classic business support and administration. As a result, if a traditional PA person succeeds, it will be down to their attitude rather than their skill set. Due to the above circumstances, Ani was looking for a new recruitment company to assist her. Having been introduced to Lucy Walker Recruitment Ani began to have a different experience. What happened next? When Ani engaged the services of Lucy Walker Recruitment (LWR) over 10 years ago, she worked with a number of Recruitment Specialists at LWR but in recent years she has worked directly with Lucy. Lucy and her team invested time in understanding the detail of what specifically the IP Group and IP Assist do. In addition, they explored in depth the roles that she would be recruiting for. Due to the level of questioning around the areas listed below (LWR) were able to provide relevant CVs. The business and what IP Assist do The Business support manager role understanding in depth the scope of the role The two sides to Ani s team and how they work together, including the type of person that would fit with the team The importance of attitude and a desire to learn as the key recruiting criteria Ani would read through and rate the candidates before deciding who she would want to bring in for an interview. Ani would then have a conversation with Lucy to discuss each candidate and what her overall impression was on the suitability of each individual.
During these conversations, Lucy will often question Ani s thinking by saying something such as; "But the person that you're dismissing I think will be good because of these reasons." As an example. A new team member is joining who had less experience in an admin role than Ani would usually consider. However, having interviewed the individual in question Lucy was confident that the candidate did have exactly the kind of attitude that Ani was looking for and would be a good fit with the team. What Ani Earney (Head of IP Assist) thinks of her experience of Lucy Walker Recruitment Feedback is given from Ani about her relationship with Lucy Walker. The key areas highlighted are as follows; Lucy goes above and beyond with her level of service Her in-depth knowledge of our business and my team mean that the candidates she provides are well screened and highly relevant Able to have open, honest and frank conversations that I don t think I could have with other account managers Lucy opens up your mind to people; I think that's really good, because you can be very focused on what you want Even though my team's core roles don t evolve significantly, Lucy always takes the time to refresh herself before she starts a new recruiting project with us Would you recommend Lucy Walker Recruitment and why? I have very open and honest conversations with Lucy about people and candidates and how my team are, which helps her to understand what candidates I want. If I can get a good candidate, it certainly makes my life an awful lot easier if they can get up to speed pretty quickly. By being able to have that level of relationship with Lucy, I feel like I get there a lot quicker. "I've worked with Lucy Walker for over 10 years, and haven't felt the need to look for anyone else to do the recruitment. I know that if I give Lucy a call for recruitment, I'll get sorted and that I'll get a good service. I always go back. They seem to understand the role that I am trying to fill, and always come up with good candidates. I think that they have a good reputation with people who are looking for work too. If I speak to friends who are looking for work, Lucy Walker will be one of the first Recruitment Agencies they ll think of. If LWR has a good reputation for finding work for individuals, and a good reputation placing people in the right jobs, then that's great, isn't it? Ani Earney Head of IP Assist (Part of the IP Group)
About Us "Excellence In Recruitment is the core value that we introduced from the start and this is something that I continually emphasise to all of my colleagues today. Our clients know that by working with clarity and honesty and by keeping the process simple but effective, we will achieve this value. Lucy Walker Managing Director Some areas we can support Office Management HR Secretarial PA Business Development & Sales Clerical & Administration Finance Supply Chain Legal Customer Service Marketing and Creative (This list is not exhaustive) What can we do for you? Provide assistance for temporary and permanent job roles Take in-depth job descriptions and briefs Advertise vacancies across a range of job boards and social media Pre-screen and select candidates In-depth registration interviews and candidate assessment Brief candidates about job role(s) Liaise between candidate and client Organise interviews and handle feedback Deal with job offers and placement Leeds 01133672880 www.lucywalkerrecruitment.com Manchester 01616614421
Recruitment Consultancy of the Year - West Yorkshire Lucy Walker Recruitment are a commercial recruitment consultancy, headquartered in Leeds, which specialise in providing quality business support staff with growing SME's throughout the West Yorkshire region. At Lucy Walker Recruitment, our values as individuals influence us in every area of the service that we provide, from our candidates looking for work to our clients looking to recruit. Our values are simple and effective. In 1992 on starting the business, Lucy Walker wanted to create a true recruitment consultancy which would do just that - be consultative in every element of service, focusing on honesty, integrity, professionalism and quality. We do believe that we have achieved this and that as our business continues to grow, we recognise that these simple but effective values at the heart of our business allow us to remain true to that value every day. We feel this is where we excel. Our company motto is 'excellence in recruitment', and this is the essence of Lucy Walker Recruitment. In an industry where quality has sometimes been questioned, we take pride in providing quality during every stage of the recruitment process. We believe this quality along with strength in attention to detail allows us to stand out so clearly in the recruitment market and brings people back to us time and time again. Our sheer determination to offer the highest levels of service delights our clients and surpasses expectations. This is backed up by our excellent testimonials and retention rates. The business has stood the test of time and maintained success despite the challenges of the modern world, whilst also remaining at the forefront of commercial recruitment in West Yorkshire. Managing Director Lucy Walker commented, "Our clients know that by working with clarity and honesty and by keeping the process simple but effective, we will achieve our values. However, we work within a competitive market and I will continue to drive myself and my team to continue learning as individuals, developing as a business and improving our skills as a team, to maintain our brand and service levels that we have worked so very hard to achieve."