INDIA – SIX MEN ARRESTED FOR RUNNING FAKE RECRUITMENT AGENCY

A racket of fake recruitment agencies were busted in Hyderabad, India and six people were arrested for allegedly cheating unemployed youths by promising jobs in Gulf countries after taking money from them.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner's Task Force raided the fake recruiting agencies and are accused of cheating unemployed youths and carrying on the business of recruitment for deployment of Indian workers with foreign employers without any permission from Protector General of Emigration, Ministry of External Affairs.

Police seized 44 Indian passports, applications/bio-data and medical reports, forms of applicants, and other incriminating material from their possession. The accused collected amounts and passports for "visa processing", but they did not provide any visas and jobs to the them and also they did not return their passports and money. They also sent some innocent people to Dubai for job by giving visiting visa. However, some job aspirants managed to return with great difficulty to their native places from Dubai and Saudi Arabia after they were given fake visas, police added.

Recruitment agencies fear chef shortage over Christmas

Restaurants and hospitality firms could struggle this Christmas because of a shortage of trained chefs.

A study by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) found there has been an increased demand from hospitality recruitment agencies for qualified chefs over the past three years.

However, of the 46 agencies questioned, nine out of 10 believed there was not enough trained chefs to meet demand.

They also fear potential changes to immigration policies could make the skills shortage worse.

REC Chief executive Kevin Green said: "As we approach the festive season the shortage of chefs is causing real headaches for restaurants. Training and progression needs to be improved so that more people are encouraged to become chefs.

"That's a longer term fix, but there's an immediate skills crisis which needs to be addressed. Any restrictions on access to chefs from the EU, such as a salary threshold for work visas, will only exacerbate the problem.

"Without a supply of chefs to meet growing demand, restaurants, bars and hotels will have to pay more for their staff and it's likely that these costs will be passed on to the customer. We may even see restaurants close their doors if they can't remain competitive and profitable."

In the gig economy, recruitment agencies are the gangmasters

Recruitment agency: an organisation that matches employers to employees and vice versa; an intermediary in the labour market” – or so the dictionary tells us. But, given recent findings that agencies are using aggressive tax avoidance schemes at a time when new benefit caps are driving single parents into poverty; that some agencies have conned low-paid temporary workers into buying worthless accident insurance; and, from my own research, that agencies are enabling the undercutting of workers’ rights and wages by pitting migrant workers against local people, it would be truer to life if we described recruitment agencies as arbiters of capitalism and the mass exploitation of workers.

It is estimated that recruitment agencies employ 1.2 million people every day. Agencies are now the vehicle by which desperate workers are driven into the arms of exploitative employers, and they are fundamental to understanding the new age of precarity in the labour market and the “gig economy”.

There are hundreds of examples – from Sports Direct to NHS cleaners – of agencies actively undermining the rights of employees. One recent case was brought to light by the trade union GMB. Agency workers at an Asos warehouse in Grimethorpe, South Yorkshire, are being subject to a “flexing clause”, which employers argue was introduced to help manage peak times and quiet periods.

What it actually means is that workers can arrive at the warehouse only to be told they will be starting two hours later (with these two hours unpaid), or indeed work two hours later in the evening. When workers refuse, they are disciplined. This practice can cause a great deal of stress – particularly for those with childcare commitments. These flex contracts are likely to be in breach of employment law because it means workers aren’t actually being paid the minimum wage.

This story won’t come as a surprise. We have known that recruitment agencies have been the pimps of the labour market for some time. What the Guardian’s new investigation has found is that they are not only promoting the use of temporary and zero-hours contracts where they are not appropriate, but using aggressive tax avoidance schemes that are depriving the taxpayer of hundreds of millions of pounds a year.


What a time for these findings to come to light. Earlier this month, a new benefits cap was introduced which reduces the household benefit cap from £26,000 to £20,000 outside London, affecting more than 80,000 households, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The new work and pensions secretary, Damian Green, has also confirmed that the government will be making the £3.4bn cuts to universal credit planned by the last parliament, despite fears that it will push working families into poverty, and protests by backbench Tory MPs. Recruitment agencies are therefore robbing workers of a decent standard of living in two ways: directly, through undermining rights and pay, and indirectly by contributing to the demise of social security and our public services.

This is maddening. Just like Mike Ashley, Philip Green and other fat cat capitalists, this is this sort of behaviour that reminds us how the economy is no longer serving everyday people.

There is another, relatively unexplored problem that recruitment agencies have created: friction between migrant and local workers. In 2009, I carried out some research in Hull, where there were a growing number of Polish migrants working in factories via recruitment agencies, especially in food packing and processing.

At one agency, a lead recruiter was candid about the way in which the agency focused on recruiting only Polish and eastern European workers. This, she said, was in response to business demands for workers with “a stronger work ethic”. When pushed further, she admitted that Polish workers were less likely to demand higher wages and to know the rights temporary workers were entitled to.

When I spoke to local people, they were all too aware that agencies were not taking them on, and were justifiably angry. At the time I couldn’t foresee how much such outcomes – which are due to lack of employment safeguards, rather than immigration per se – would fuel anti-immigration sentiments in the years to come.

It is therefore odd that while immigration has become a growing public concern, recruitment agencies have continued to flourish. At the Centre for Labour and Social Studies conference last month, the general secretary of the Unite union, Len McCluskey, spoke of this race to the bottom culture, calling for us to focus on safeguards for workers, and proposing that any employer wishing to recruit labour abroad could only do so if they are either covered by a proper union agreement, or by sectoral collective bargaining. Such solutions get to the heart of problems in the labour market and would help us move away from an unhelpful and misleading focus on the number of immigrants.

Of course, we must acknowledge that some progress has been made on the rights of agency workers – through holiday pay legislation, for example. However, such legislation is itself used for abusive ends. For example, the Agency Workers Regulations were introduced to ensure equality of pay for long-term temporary workers compared with their permanent counterparts. Instead, this legislation has been used as a means of undercutting permanent staff.

It is important to remember, however, that not all recruitment agencies are the same. Unfortunately for the good ones, the worst have damaged the reputation of the industry. Recruitment agencies do not simply represent a cog in the capitalist system, but rather the oil that allows it to function. When faced with all the challenges of the labour market, it can be overwhelming. But having been reminded of the many ways in which agencies are abusing workers, and how far they have veered from their supposed original purpose, it’s clear where our battle must begin.

3 Steps to Start Integrating Talent Management With Your Global Mobility Function

As the global talent war continues to heat up, it is becoming more important than ever for companies to have an effective global talent strategy in place to ensure the right talent is in the right place at the right time to take advantage of global business opportunities. In order to achieve this goal hr will need to take the lead in integrating talent management principles and processes into the global mobility function. In this article I outline 3 simple steps to getting the global mobility function on track to start driving the talent agenda, with closer integration with the talent management function, workforce planning and aligning closer to business strategy.

Step 1 - Who's who!!!

First of all you will need to determine where the talent management function sits within the organization and who the key players are. This may seem very basic but in a highly matrixed organization common with many large MNCs, determining who is driving talent management for the business can be very confusing. In the ideal scenario you will have a defined talent management function with clear talent management roles. However it is often the case that talent management may be one of many hats that a HRBP or manager may wear within their role. Typically a Talent Management Community (TMC) will exist however which links these individuals together and this is what global mobility will need to connect into. A good place to start is at the top, with either the Head of Talent and Acquisition or HR Lead, seeking their assistance to get you connected with the key talent leaders in their org. From there you will be able to make the introductions and forge the relationships.

Once you have identified who is who, it will be important for both sides to educate the other on what they do in the company. Present to the TMC on the global mobility function, including where you sit within the organization, structure of the team, key focus areas as well as the key strategy, vision and core principles. Also a brief overview of the framework and key drivers for talent movement will help the TMC visualize how they will be able to collaborate and what tools Global Mobility has to help them with their talent objectives. In return the TMC can present to the global mobility team on their function and business objectives, prompting a dialogue on effective collaboration.

Step 2 - Build the relationship

Once you know who is who, then it's time to start building the relationship and determining the connection points. This may involve setting up a regular cadence of meetings, potentially timed around other rhythms of the business, such as people review, workforce planning, budgeting, etc. You may choose to appoint one member of the team to take the lead in driving the meetings and agenda. As you build the relationship it will be important to ask the following types of questions:

How can global mobility assist with talent planning?
What are the logical connection points we should be making?
What can global mobility do to support you?
How can we integrate mobility into our talent management and development programs?
How does global mobility get the right data to become less reactive?
What data can we provide the TMC for better talent planning?
What is the organization's view on globally mobile talent?

During a recent client engagement, feedback from the Talent Leader summarized how mobility can integrate into the talent management process and help provide solutions "The Global Mobility Team has encouraged the TMC to continue to think about how to use different mobility options (including short term assignments and rotations) to build the global experiences of our senior talent as part of their career development."

Step 3 - Add value - metrics, tracking and reporting

As you build the relationship you will be able to determine the metrics and reporting data that will help support the partnership and enable more informed talent and business decisions, as well as incorporating talent management best practices into the mobility process. The complexity of reporting will depend on the HRIT systems an organization uses and the ease of pulling data on global employees. High end systems are able to provide customized reporting, whereas smaller companies may need to rely on manual reporting and spreadsheets. At the basic level, a Talent Leader at a large MNC states, "There is a strong need to get visibility of the mobile talent out on assignment, i.e. who and where this talent is and when the assignment is coming to an end. This will help to plan next roles and identify developmental opportunities for senior talent." At the more sophisticated end, the global mobility team can develop a mobility dashboard or mobile talent portfolio, showing reports and graphics outlining key metrics such as volume, cost, exceptions, performance, attrition, feedback, etc. Another opportunity is to use the reporting tools of your relocation management company, who can typically report on relocation and assignment costs, exceptions, employee feedback and track immigration and lease deadlines. Such reporting can typically be negotiated as a free value add for regional or global engagements

Once the relationship is in place with the right tools to support the partnership, global mobility will find itself playing a more strategic role within the company. Through increased branding and education, business leads and hr will start inviting global mobility to the table early as a proactive partner to help shape business and talent decisions, as opposed to a reactive role often taken by mobility teams today!

Restoring the Trust Between Clients, Candidates and Executive Recruiters

Recently, a client asked me; "What is the single biggest competitive challenge your company faces?" I thought for a moment and then answered, "It is the pervasive negative perception of executive search and the tarnished reputation of the executive search business."

Candidates tell us they feel treated like commodities and traded for a fee. Line managers frequently comment that search firms rarely have real knowledge about their business, their industry and/or the commercial issues facing their industry or company. What's more, the person who sells the assignment is often not the person who does the work. Line managers, HR professionals and candidates all perceive a general unwillingness by search consultants, including those from the big firms, to invest the time and energy necessary to really understand the client's business. As a result, positions are not really as represented and candidates are not as expected. The relationship of trust between clients, candidates and recruiters is damaged.

The feelings of clients and candidates applies to all types of search firms, retained as well as contingent; and all sizes of firms, large brand names and small boutiques. Many of the metrics typically used to evaluate search firms have little bearing on the quality of future service provided. A long list of prior assignments is no guarantee of future performance. Standard selection processes such as beauty parades, preferred provider lists and placement history may be convenient and easy to use, but they are, at best, poor measures of future service quality or assignment success. What should line managers, their HR partners and candidates expect from executive search firms?

The only way to establish trust is for clients and candidates to experience a quality search process. And that requires time, energy and commitment on the part of everyone involved in the process. So how does one identify a quality search process?

A quality search process begins with knowledge about the client and a commitment to client service. This means line managers and HR professionals need to find executive recruiters willing to commit the time and intellectual capital to get to know and understand the client's business and company. Specifically, they need to find search consultants who will do fresh research on the industry, the manager's line of business and competitors.

HR professionals should remember that when a recruiter says, "I know the market," he or she often means, "I know some people in your business." It does not necessarily mean, "I know and understand your business and the challenges and issues you are facing." Nor does it mean the consultants are willing and able to obtain the knowledge and understanding required to effectively complete an assignment.

A quality search process requires clarity about what the client really wants and why. In our experience, it takes a number of thoughtful and probing conversations to fully explore the scope of what a client wants from a particular role. This requires both time and effort on the part of the line manager, HR and the search consultant. This is not easy, but it is very important because, to get the search right, you have to get what the client really wants right.

The search consultants must be able to write a document which clearly articulates knowledge of the company, clarity about the position, understanding of the culture of the company and the specific performance expectations of the client. Putting the scope of the role down in writing, allows the line manager and the HR partner to be sure the search firm understands what is needed. It also allows everyone involved in the process to clarify any ambiguity, carefully consider exactly what they expect from a position, and resolve contradictions between the expectations for the role and the specific measures of success. A quality recruiter should be willing and able to do this before the search begins.

HR professionals will know this is done properly when the line manager, as well as everyone else involved in the hiring process, can read the final document and say, "This is exactly what we want and if you bring us someone who fits this document we will hire them." Potential qualified candidates should react to the document by saying, "I know exactly what they want to do, why they want to do it, what it takes to do the job and how performance will be measured. This document is clear and specific."

Most clients and candidates experience the process of executive search as bumpy and chaotic, which leaves everyone feeling uncomfortable. Many recruiters stumble from candidate to candidate, working their existing network of contacts or some internal database. When these efforts lead to dead ends, the search grinds to a halt. Both clients and candidates are left to question the value provided by the recruiter.

Quality search consultants understand that a strong search process has structure for the search firm and transparency for the client. It allows the client-both line manager and HR professional-to have timely input, provide valuable guidance, help steer and direct the search, and ensure a successful outcome. It requires a team effort. Any issue, confusion or misunderstanding must quickly surface and be resolved. Lack of commitment and engagement by the client is the best way to ensure poor search results. A well-defined process with clear benchmarks and deliverables at each critical step is the optimal way to keep an assignment on track towards success.

There is a point in a search process where focus shifts from the client to the candidate. Culture and chemistry are why a candidate succeeds in a given position. The candidate with the best cultural fit with the company and ease with the style of management will be most likely to succeed. It is always a mistake to place any candidate, who is not a good fit for the company, the manager and the role. And these concerns are just as important for any candidate.

When it comes to candidates, we are in the business of dreams, aspirations and ambitions. If we can match these dimensions with the strategic and tactical objectives of a client, the results are always powerful. Consequently, our focus is on developing a holistic view of candidates, in terms of their lives, not just their professional interests. We also caution candidates, that if for any reason they hear a little voice telling them that something is not right, to tell us. The process stops until that voice is carefully heard.

Fees are probably the most volatile issue. The rage clients feel is profound. They become angry when they have paid an entire fee upfront only to have the search drag on for months with few quality candidates and sometimes no placement. Quality search consultants get paid as they perform. They believe clients should not pay full fees for assignments that are not completed. Honest and fair dealing is important for both the client and the search consultant.

On the other hand, when the circumstances of a position change, clients must be open with the search consultant and the candidates about the change and the reason for the change. Problems and issues with the role or the company need to be disclosed up front as the assignment begins, not once the candidate joins the firm. Many search consultants feel angry when clients and their HR professionals try to hire candidates presented behind the search firm's back, attempt to renegotiate fees and/or reinterpret retainer agreements after candidates have been hired.

Clients should be charged for work performed based on agreed objectives and benchmarks. In return, clients and their HR partners have an obligation to work openly, honestly and diligently with their service provider to facilitate the completion of the assignment.

There are many good professional search firms dedicated to quality service and strong client relationships. Clients should be open with these firms, share issues and concerns, allow these firms to help them and, finally, let them demonstrate the level and quality of service they can provide. We want relationships with its clients. This means we will do what is right and best for our clients, and we hope and expect that our clients will do the same in return.

LinkedIn Q3 sales up 23% to $960M in its last earnings ahead of MSFT acquisition

Microsoft expects to close its $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn by the end of this year — pending some final regulatory approvals — and so, in light of that, today LinkedIn posted a very basic earnings report for Q3. It’s also skipping the customary analyst call and is no longer providing financial guidance for the coming quarter.

Still, the company reported growth in its key metrics, a positive note for the next stage ahead. Revenues for the third quarter were $960 million, up 23 percent on a year ago; earnings per share were $1.18 (versus $0.78 in Q3 last year) with non-GAAP net income at $163 million; and membership numbers were up 18 percent to 467 million. The financial numbers beat analysts’ projections: on average, they were expecting revenues of $959 million and EPS of $0.91. Mobile now accounts for 60 percent of all traffic to LinkedIn, the company said, growing at double the rate of its desktop service.

“In Q3, continued product investments across our platform drove another quarter of strong engagement and financial performance,” said Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn. “As we look forward, our combination with Microsoft creates the opportunity for us to dramatically increase the impact and scale with which we deliver value to our members and customers.”

The company has continued to provide updates to its products in areas like education and recruitment, two lines of business that I expect will continue to run as they are today, but also see increasing integration with Microsoft products and services, too.

Breaking out the segments, LinkedIn’s recruitment business, Talent Solutions, continues to make up the majority of its revenue, up 24 percent year-over-year to $623 million, with only $67 million of that coming from learning solutions (the Lynda.com business).

Its ad business, Marketing Solutions, brought in $175 million, while premium subscriptions brought in $162 million, with Sales Navigator (also a key product for Microsoft in its bid to compete with Salesforce) the strongest premium subscription product.

Tech gains: Clyde Marine Recruitment confident innovations will enable it to stay ahead of competitors

A pioneer in using digital seafarer employment agreements, CMR is working with its Singapore partner Connectdott to launch a document management system and mobile application My-Ankaa.com

In the bespoke marine recruitment business, trust, flexibility and knowledge of local networks are keys to success and longevity. Sharpened by experience and trusted by leading international shipping companies, family-owned crew management and recruitment services company Clyde Marine Recruitment (CMR) has nurtured lasting relationships with clients across Europe and Asia for more than three decades.

While the global shipping industry is experiencing turbulent times, CMR anticipates an eventual awakening in most shipping sectors particularly offshore. The company is therefore focusing on technological innovations to drive the future of recruitment within the marine sector, and possibly looking to use this platform in other industry sectors once established.

“The whole shipping market has changed massively in recent years in terms of seafarer demographic and statutory requirements, creating significant hurdles,” says Ian Livingstone, managing director. “There are many challenges, but when the market improves and that will happen, companies will need qualified people quickly to mobilise stacked vessels, and CMR will be there, ready to provide whatever requirements the industry may have.”

A pioneer in using digital seafarer employment agreements, CMR is working with its Singapore partner Connectdott to launch a document management system and mobile application My-Ankaa.com. This system will provide individuals and companies easy access to document portfolios including verification, alert systems and other features designed for seafaring by seafarers.

CMR delivers long- and short-term crew solutions promptly, and has carved a niche in providing marine specialists to all areas of the industry. Clients include P&O Ferries, DFDS, Northern Marine Group, MMA Offshore, Clyde Blowers Capital, Louis Dreyfus Armateurs and BP Maritime Services.

“Innovation will keep us ahead of competitors,” Livingstone says. “Our goal is to always find the right crew the first time, every time. Clients tend to stick with us for a long time because we’ve established and tailored relevant solutions.”

Recruitment in a Time of Consolidation

The "cost synergies" analog companies promote to their investors when Big Companies merge can be interpreted as a head-count reduction, which will likely affect engineers. EE Times approached one of the industry's best-known recruiters for comment.

It’s become a hard job, confirmed Gary Fowler, president and founder of Analog Solutions http://www.analogsolutions.com/, one of the semiconductor industry’s best-known recruiters. After 10 years in power management — tracking power management technologies, products, and the engineers who make it work ― the recruitment business has come to a screeching halt.

Blame consolidation, Fowler says.

The movement of engineers between companies has slowed considerably, if not entirely stopped. The Big Companies, many even bigger as a consequence of an acquisition, are still taking inventory. Sure, Linked-In is still collecting resumes, Fowler acknowledges, but there may be only a half-dozen “real jobs” out there. And while compensation for analog engineers may be quite substantial, they have little incentive to move.

Fowler sees his business as one of building relationships: not just identifying the “Best Talent” for a particular project, but understanding engineers’ career paths and recognizing what types of opportunities will entice them. In the current environment, engineers have little incentive to leave their current jobs. There may 30 new projects for which semiconductor makers are seeking stateside help, but that number may shrink as the newly merged companies look for places to cut.

Big Companies seek cost synergies
This year there has seen a shocking number of acquisitions, many on an unprecedented scale, and many ― like the acquisition of Freescale by NXP ― touting “cost synergies.” This can be understood as dramatic cost reductions: a sell-off of redundant fabs, a shrinking of the administrative staff, and ― for engineers ― a curtailment of risky projects.

The consolidation has been especially strong among analog companies. The acquisition of Freescale by NXP (though NXP elected to sell-off an otherwise lucrative “standard products” business to a Chinese holding company) created a $9.8-billion entity. Now Qualcomm has closed a deal to acquire the new NXP.

Other analog acquisitions (completed or still “in the works”) include:

• ON Semiconductor’s acquisition of Fairchild Semiconductor for $2.4 billion (with ON Semiconductor selling its IGBT transistor line to Littlefuse)
• Avago’s acquisition of Broadcom (for $37 billion)
• Analog Devices proposal to acquire Linear Technology Corp. for $14.8 (an incredibly large multiple for LTC)

Not be overlooked is

• Microchip outbid Dialog in the purchase of Atmel for $3.6 billion
• Intel’s acquisition Altera for $16.7 billion
• Infineon’s purchase of Wolfspeed (for a puny $850 million)
• Renesas bought Intersil for $3.2 billion

Wall Street has always been a dominant influence the semiconductor industry, with financial analysts telling semiconductor companies what kinds of products they should be making, and what kinds of margins they should be generating. Analog companies, with 65% and 70% gross margins, have long been a favorite among investors. But keeping those margins up in the current environment forces management to monitor productivity fiercely. Some engineers may be old enough to remember Friday afternoon beer blasts, when every week broke a new sales record, or three-hour Friday lunches. The same engineers now recognize that — counted in dollars and cents — that what investors are likely to allow these days is little more than a trip to the lobby vending machine. The target revenue per employee ― my guess ― is roughly $300 thousand. Otherwise, your company might be a serious contender for (let’s call it) “margin improvement.”

Just think what your job would be like if Apple acquired Broadcom, Gary Fowler invites.

The job has changed…
The nature of analog design has changed: It is no longer in the hands of the “analog artist,” the creative soul who could single-handedly invent and support an entire product line. The image of that kind of work style was forever punctured by the premature deaths of Bob Pease and Jim Williams.

The design of mixed-signal ICs is largely a team project supported by an array of EDA tools, but also programming tools for the firmware that embodies the “intelligence” everyone knows the mixed-signal part must now contain. The new assignments are in apps engineering, embedded software, and verification. And these assignments expand the capabilities of hardware (SoC) design.

It is not just the ARM integrators the new engineer needs to please. What becomes of your job when Apple or Google or SoftBank decide — for whatever reasons — they need to bring a semiconductor operation in-house. (The “Big Guys” ― Apple, Samsung, Microsoft ― have their own design teams, Fowler believes.) How does it feel when your job definition is three levels of management down the chief of product definition? He speculates. Are you considered an “Analog Wizard,” capable of realizing the electronics for a “talking room,” a “driverless car,” or some other seeming absurdity? Or, third level down, are you told to go look after your 14nm CMOS or otherwise mind your own business?

The compensation, even on the this level, can be quite enticing, Fowler acknowledges. You can get paid every penny Wall Street expects you to generate for your company. But work like you’re in a startup ― but you don’t get to go home at night until well after 8-pm

The only large-scale hiring (and not necessarily the greatest wage rate) is now in Asia, Fowler believes. The stateside analog talent market, Gary says, has become “horrendous.” With the billion-dollar company purchases, there may be only a small number “real jobs” remaining, the recruiter tells us.

Correction (Oct 31, 12:28 PM Pacific): We changed the bulleted list: Author Stephan Ohr added "Renesas bought Intersil for $3.2 billion" and corrected an error: "Dialog's acquisition of Atmel (an IoT play) for $4.6 billion" changed to "Microchip outbid Dialog in the purchase of Atmel for $3.6 billion".

MBO for £17m turnover recruitment business

MBO for £17m turnover recruitment business

The senior team of Essential Recruitment have completed a multi-million-pound management buyout from founder and majority shareholder Gary Wilson.

Established in 2006, the £17m turnover Chesterfield-based firm manages temporary workforces for more than 200 clients in the Yorkshire and East Midlands regions. It operates from an eight-branch network, supplying more than 1000 temporary staff each week.

The senior management team comprising Marc Orli, Kristyan Rachael, Carl Wootton, Lisa Hadfield and Alison Wilby plan further expansion from both the existing branch network and from additional locations.

Hawsons Chartered Accountants provided lead advisory (Pete Wilmer) and tax advisory (Peter Kennan) services for the deal.

Pete Wilmer, corporate finance partner for Hawsons, said: “It has been a pleasure to work with the management team over recent months in making their aspiration of company ownership a reality. The breadth of skills and expertise which the team possess gives me every confidence in the ongoing success of Essential Recruitment.”

Barclays Corporate Banking (Nick Salmons, relationship director and Julie Bennett, business development manager) provided funding facilities for the transaction while legal advice to the management team was provided by Nabarro (Gareth Saynor, partner, and Caroline Walker, associate).

Russell Thompson of Massers Solicitors acted on behalf of the vendor.