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Recruitment firm clocking up success
PHOTO. KEVIN McGUINNESS. Kate Roberts is the LIMS Specialist Recruitment Consultant
Three clocks adorn a wall in the impressive offices of IT Works Recruitment and Agility Resourcing in Fulwood, Preston.
They tell the time in London, Puerto Banus and Dubai - and remind the team of the rewards on offer if they strive to be the best.
Managing director Tim Bashall, 49, founded IT Works with sales director Darren Mills, 38, in 2004.
Co-director Gillian Brown helped the pair launch Agility Resourcing three years ago, and the two firms moved into Artis House at Fairways Business Park in Pittman Way.
Tim said: “IT Works Recruitment is a very specialised, niche market IT and business systems recruitment company.
“We work both in the UK and internationally, whereas Agility Resourcing is more of a local based model, supplying accountancy and financial staff to the market in Lancashire.
“We set up in Church Street in an office with no windows. We moved a number of times, to Winckley Square and Friargate, and then we bought this office two years ago.
“It was just me and Darren and a couple of phones when we first started. It’s a different scale now!
“We’re going to be setting up IT Works in the US later this year.”
Darren said both the working environment and key incentives had been designed to drive success.
He said: “It was just a shell when we moved here, so we put in all the offices ourselves. We got a Feng Shui consultant in to make sure everything was positive!
“We look after our staff. We have a lunch in Manchester once a quarter. If we hit our targets we will go on holiday.
“We took them to Puerto Banus last year and four years ago we took everybody to Dubai.
“If consultants perform at a certain level they will get a Rolex watch. We’ve had three achieve it so far.”
In the next financial year the group aims to recruit 15 people, offering them structured training.
Tim added: “We recently announced our road map, which basically gives key members of staff the chance to take a share in the business, a meaningful share in their own company.
“It’s an important part of the philosophy really.”
Business support manager Kelly Wickham, 26, has been with the group for 15 months.
She relishes a varied role, which sees her support the directors, compile statistical data and reports, look after human resources, manage the modern reception area and run the company’s social media.
She said: “I’m always updating the website, tweeting and using Facebook - it’s great I can get away with doing that for work!
“The reception had a Mother’s Day theme and this week we’re going out to buy some Easter Eggs.
“Everyone comments on it when they come into reception - it’s just one of the things that makes this a really nice place to work.”
Andrew Thompson, 24, is Agility’s East Lancashire consultant, specialising in clerical finance recruitment.
He said: “I came in as a candidate to register my interest in a job, but ended up working here instead!
“I interview candidates across the area. I drive out and meet them and provide clients with the top finance and accountancy staff available to them locally.
“I enjoy getting to meet so many people on a daily basis, talking and finding out about their careers - it’s a good chance to be nosey!
“It’s very much your own business - East Lancs is my business model and I’m responsible for how I drive that part of the business forward.”
Laboratory Information Management System specialist Kate Roberts is motivated by targets.
Her clients now include pharmaceutical companies and research facilities, but she began her career working in marketing for an opticians, as an orthodontic nurse and in sales for a private hospital.
The 26-year-old said: “I wanted to get into recruitment specifically because I knew the money was very good and I’m very money motivated.
“I started my role from scratch, then built it up to the highest billing any trainee has ever had in their first year here.
“It’s a great environment, it’s small enough to still feel like a team, but big enough to have a lot of options for you to progress.
“There are a lot of perks.”
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Weather for Preston
Saturday 18 May 2013
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Light rain
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