Our decade of success
“Our decade of success is down to our people
Tunbridge Wells Business Magazine columnist Neil Simmons celebrates his recruitment business’s tenth anniversary and reveals the secrets to TN Recruits’ ongoing success.
On Tuesday 4th November 2014, I walked into my dining room, which was my makeshift office, in order to start TN Recruits. My wife Chloe assessed my attire: I was fully suited including a tie – well it was pre-Covid after all – and she asked me what I was doing. I responded saying that I had to feel like I was going to work. She quickly retorted saying: “Not the suit – them!” and pointed at my slippers, and so it began…
Being respectful of my restrictive convenance and my previous employer, who had been very good to me, my first calls were not to previous clients or candidates I’d worked with. In fact, the first vacancy I worked on was through a friend who worked in London who was looking for a CAD Technician, thankfully I filled it.
The following week I was invited along to BNI Tunbridge Wells. I’d attended BNI meetings previously and enjoyed the format and opportunity to meet other like-minded businesspeople. I had huge concerns about the weekly commitment and the fact I had to attend a meeting at 6.30am. I’d not been to work at that time of the day since I did a milk round in my teens!
The first person I meet at BNI chastised me for not having business cards. I explained the business had only been going for a week, I guess others may have spun on their heels and walked out. However this did encourage me to take a business card from everyone I met and promise to send them an email afterwards which I followed through.
I had a response from Darren Austin from Synergee Chartered Accountants, who asked if I recruited accountants – which I did. I took on the vacancy on the Thursday and had filled it by the following Tuesday which convinced me BNI would work for my business. BNI continues to be an important part of my week and Darren is my accountant, trusted advisor and friend.
After six successful months, I had more vacancies than I could handle so I decided to take the plunge and recruit someone. I interviewed several people and Jared was the standout candidate who accepted an offer to join me. Jared was with me for five years and was vitally important to the early successes of TN Recruits with his dedication and desire to succeed.
We continued to grow and so moved to a bigger office. Around this time, I overheard a candidate interview and was immediately struck by the maturity and conviction in the person being interviewed and knew I wanted her on board. Ellie Snuggs (now Waterman), joined as my Resourcer in November 2016 to support me with my key clients. It didn’t take long to recognise that along with Ellie’s hard work, commitment and loyalty, she always had my back. Eight years on, Ellie has progressed through the ranks and is now a fellow director, contributing significantly to the decision making and development of TN Recruits.
Over the years, the team has been so important to our sustained growth, and we were lucky to have excellent people approaching us. Melissa Staveley’s husband sent me her CV saying he believed she’d be good at recruitment – she has now been an important part of the company for almost eight years. I was flattered when Helen Barham, a former manager of mine at the Courier, applied for a role as a Recruitment Consultant, I continue to be inspired by Helen’s influence and energy every single day, some seven years on.
Rachel Fisher, a candidate I had worked with years before, wanted a more local role. Rachel is hugely respected by everyone in our team and has really put TN Recruits Accounts on the map as the ‘go to’ recruiter for accountants across the Southeast and has been with us almost five years.
Also enjoying her sixth year with us is Emma Moss. Emma joined as a generalist recruiter but with a huge passion for law. One of our ideas to scale was to have a dedicated team for the legal sector, and in Emma we were able to do exactly this. Emma is an exceptional consultant and, with a tremendous desire to help her clients grow whilst being dedicated to helping the careers of her candidates develop. She has made TN Recruits Law a market-leading legal consultancy across Kent, Sussex and Surrey. Her own career has gone from strength to strength and her talent and achievements have been rewarded with a well-deserved place on the board with TN Recruits.
Jo Marsden-Strong was a brilliant find and keeps our clients and candidates more than happy in our generalist division. She has been with us for the past four years and is amazingly conscientious in her approach.
We have an outstanding operations team in Katie Byrom, Debbie Jenkinson and Sarah Bysouth who are the unsung heroes and keep us all sane. In James Clements, Will Delve-Thomson, Ben Wright and Izzy Colman we have the upcoming superstars of the recruitment sector.
Our particular industry has evolved greatly over the past ten years with video technology and AI having a hugely positive impact to the way we work, and we must continue to embrace these developments.
But it’s not been all plain sailing as we have had our challenges over the past decade. Recruitment is a tough job, and our standards are high, not everyone makes the grade. Like everyone, Covid challenged us, but we got through and are stronger as a result.
According to the Office for National Statistics only about 40% of businesses survive past ten years. For me, our survival and growth could only have been possible with the amazing people past and present employed by TN Recruits.
So, what next? We have ideas for growth and, with internal interviews lined up as I am writing this, we continue to be on the lookout for more superstars who want to be part of the TN Recruits journey and work with our values which will help us through the next decade and beyond.
