The North East’s only independent recruitment company dedicated to HR professionals is celebrating its first year in business and bucking the economic trend by appointing three new staff.
Gateshead-based Exclusive Human Resources was set up by managing director Mark Ions in July 2007 and since then has won a growing share of the region’s HR recruitment market, placing a stream of candidates into permanent and temporary roles.
Its fresh approach has seen it build relationships with a large number of the region’s businesses, from blue chip organisations to small, owner-managed businesses stretching from Teesside up to the Scottish border and across into Cumbria.
The three new recruits who take team numbers to four include Jen Ions, who has taken up the position of operations manager.
Jen holds a BA Honours in Law and Management joins the firm from a key role in the resourcing team at software giants Sage.
CIPD member Gareth Harrison has joined the company as its senior consultant, bringing with him a background in legal and HR in-house management and recruitment.
The company’s new customer relationship guardian Julie Armstrong has a range of experience in the professional services and financial sectors.
Her role will include maintaining strong client and candidate relationships and developing new business opportunities.
The company has operated on family-friendly working lines from day one and both Julie and Jen will be working flexibly to help balance their new roles with family responsibilities, using a web-enabled database that allows staff to provide a seamless service to clients and candidates alike, wherever they are.
Managing director Mark Ions said: “After nearly ten years in the recruitment business I was totally disillusioned with working for big recruitment agencies where numbers and targets counted for more than people.
“In the face of an economic downturn, and with the share price of one of the UK’s nationwide recruitment companies falling to its lowest for five years, it’s more important than ever that recruiters prove their worth.
“Between them all three of our new team members bring a wide range of talent, expertise and enthusiasm, putting us in an ideal position to see our future growth plans become a reality.
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“We are delighted about how far we have come in our first year and we are now moving into a new phase with the aim of becoming the leading player in the North East specialist recruitment market. We also have some exciting plans to expand outside the region and we have identified several potential target cities which would suit our business model.”
Covering the whole of Tyne & Wear, Teesside and Cumbria, Exclusive Human Resources provides a bespoke and personal HR recruitment and consultancy service, recruiting at all levels and consulting on a variety of HR issues from mediation and arbitration to process improvements and coaching.