No 47. Intapeople

Recruitment consultancy

Growth (2005-2007): 89.4%

Description

The fastest growing in firm in Wales in 2000, IntaPeople (www.intapeople.com), makes a welcome return to this year’s list. The company is a specialist recruitment consultancy that provides bespoke professional resource solutions to various businesses across Europe within the IT, Technical, Engineering and Energy sectors. Its success as a company is solely derived from its ability to match the job-seeker with the opportunities and role they realistically desire, and its clients with the people they need, equipped with the skill-sets and experience they want, within a timely, cost-effective manner. It has over 25 years recruitment experience and market knowledge, complimented by firmly established business relationships and a solid track record in successful recruitment solutions delivery. With the aim of establishing long term mutually beneficial business relationships, its services to hiring clients include the source and supply of permanent and contract professionals within the IT, Technical, Engineering and Energy sectors; source and supply of suitably qualified and experienced candidates from entry level to senior management/board level positions and engagement on one-off assignments to full project teams

Origins

IntaPeople was established in Cardiff in September 1994 with the purpose of providing a quality IT recruitment consultancy in Wales and the West. It has since grown to become the largest privately owned IT, Technical, Engineering and Energy recruitment consultancy in Wales. The business was started by two IT/Engineering professionals who were both working overseas but had a desire to return to their home to Wales. At the time there was no specialist IT/Engineering recruitment company that was working to establish itself within the Welsh market. Initial challenges faced during the first three years were mainly that of scepticism, in that the founders were trying to establish "yet another recruitment businesses", and also that of mistrust and misunderstanding of the recruitment industry in general. Typical client comments were "if you are still in business in three months time then give me a call", and "I often get phone calls from companies like yours, only to never here from them ever again". Another major challenge was to win over the trust of the personnel within the hiring company, and to change their mind-set on the use of recruitment agencies, and the value and benefits that they often bring when providing their specialist recruitment services. By adhering to the Recruitment and Employment Confederations Code of Good Recruitment Practice together with a transparent recruitment process IntaPeople gradually won over the trust of both candidates and clients alike, and this transparency/trust ethos continues to form the core part of our business today.

Success factors

Three main factors have contributed to the rapid growth of our business. First of all, the trust and people-to-people recruitment business model that the firm has established over the years, developed via its desire to build long-term mutually beneficial business-to-business relationships. Secondly, the investment within its continually cleansed and up-dated candidate database and contact management system, which has been developed over the years via extensive advertising, business relationships, networking and referrals. Finally, the continuous on-going investment of training our own in-house staff to work via an ethical recruitment process and best-practise techniques, together with their personal development and involvement within all aspects of the company.

The future?

Future plans for the business are to continue to grow and expand its services throughout the UK, Europe and the Middle East. It has set itself a target to recruit, train, motivate and retain a further 18 members of staff and to increase turnover to £10m by 2013/2014. This will only be achieved by continuous investment within the latest communication and contact management technologies, and via continuous development of staff and their training within best practise recruitment techniques, together with retaining existing and establishing new clients. Over a relatively short period of time IntaPeople has proved that it can compete with, and often provide a more responsive personal one-to-one recruitment service, than many of the more established and well-known names within the industry. Competition will undoubtedly remain fierce, however by continually striving to retain and build long term partnerships, backed by an increase in referrals and recommendations from customers, the team believe that IntaPeople will continue to grow and prosper.