As the end of 2018 draws near, my fellow founder Nick and I want to share some thoughts about the year and express our thanks to a number of people.
Our clients and candidates
In our markets we often find ourselves at the forefront of developing technologies, and our involvement in workforce planning means we can be fortunate to witness new ideas, new collaborations and new technologies very early in their development.
That we get to work with the brilliant, talented individuals behind these innovations is a privilege we never take for granted. Our assignments this year have ranged from a small graduate intake scheme to an international headhunt for a major OEM and all points between. Along the way we’ve been fortunate to work with people who are involved in some of the most exciting technological development programmes in the automotive, manufacturing and hi-tech industries. A huge thank you to all our clients and candidates for allowing us to be a part of their process and their success.
Some of our clients are household names. Others are not yet these businesses are oxygen to burgeoning new industries; small consultancies and highly specialised teams are collaborating with OEMs and government to create and refine technology that is changing the world. This collaboration is vital to a new generation of technology that will change the way we work, travel, shop, run our homes and provide healthcare.
That technology is significant for the economic health of the UK. Despite ongoing conjecture about the impact of Brexit we’ve seen growth within electric vehicles, battery technologies, AI and Industry 4.0 technology. Glance at our site and you could find vacancies in vehicle charging, Hybrid and EV development, IoT, connected vehicles, smart cities, big data and VR as well as more traditional technologies. It’s a sign that investment into R&D remains massive, while ongoing collaborations between the government, academia and industry suggest there is plenty more to come, especially in the technology and automotive markets.
Our team
Collaboration is one of my favourite words. To provide a great service you need people who are fascinated by others – as keen to learn as they are to help. And any success we have here at Gerrell & Hard is down to our superb team, who are endlessly passionate and fascinated by their markets. They’re fantastic, mutually supportive people who know how to work hard while never forgetting that there are other things to life, too; a message we’re keen to embrace and an idea that, for me, defines real success.
They’re a busy lot whose lives are continually evolving and changing. Between them the team have managed two house moves this year, while new additions to the extended Gerrell & Hard family include Simon’s baby boy, and, elsewhere in the team, two new puppies and a kitten!
So to David, Gemma, Paul, Nick, Jonathan, Simon and Paris we offer our warmest thanks. You could not wish to meet a more professional, dedicated team of recruiters. We’re hugely proud of their commitment to providing a great service and are grateful to work with each of them. If you don’t know these wonderful people, you can meet them here.
Our suppliers
On the subject of great teams, as the person responsible for business operations here at Gerrell & Hard my attitude has always been to get great suppliers and let them do their thing. This year we’ve enhanced our digital presence, with our new website and increased marketing activity already yielding results and driving candidate attraction.
Our new site went live in March 2018 (to a great deal of positive feedback) and we’re delighted with it as well as with our social media, content and new brand, all of which are driving engagement. As such we’re very grateful to the team at In The Box Marketing; they feel like an extension of our business, and their work this year has been both brilliant and one of our standout successes. Watch this space, because we’re planning a website phase two that will provide even more value to our candidates, clients and visitors.
Any recruiter reviewing 2018 should spend a moment reflecting on GDPR. We have always worked hard to ensure our data is well managed so we saw GDPR as an opportunity to review our policies and data practice. I see GDPR as an opportunity for the recruitment industry to enhance its reputation and stakeholder management, and we were also happy to share best practice with a number of clients, helping them with their own preparation for a seamless transition to full GDPR compliance.
Summing up
In conclusion, 2018 was a year in which we delivered consistently good results and placed a lot of outstanding individuals into roles with great clients working on exciting projects. We don’t want to be the biggest consultancy in the market. We just want to be really, really good at what we do.
From the outset our strapline has been, “When work’s a pleasure, life’s a joy”. We believe in it and we have lived it. I hope we’ve made a positive impact on our candidates and clients and have helped people to enjoy their working life a little bit more. If we have, that’s something to be proud of.
Sincerely,
Joel Hard and Nick Gerrell