INVOLVE RECRUITMENT (PONTYPRIDD)

Origins

Working through the difficult times in the recession, many recruitment companies in Wales pulled out of and away from the area. This was mainly down to the fact that construction in Wales was at an extreme low point and projects had either been shelved or dried up. Working together at another company, the founders decided to form Involve Recruitment as they believed that the market would change and could foresee the need for a local recruitment business that had experience in the sector. They had forged great relationships with local companies such as CMB Engineering, Evans Electrical, Whitehead Building Services, Willis Construction and Dawnus and knew that they would have the support from these businesses when they did set up.

Our main challenges when starting the business

The first three years were very tricky. The first hurdle was that the founders had to approach a factoring company for invoices and business for the first nine months. This was found to be difficult with clients and mistakes were made and they felt that there was a hurdle in between the relationship of supplying clients and then invoicing for the relevant work carried out. The firm was helped by NatWest and RBS in setting up an invoice discounting line which means that, effectively, Involve Recruitment now controls its own debt.

Success Factor

The rapid growth to the business has been employing the right people at Involve Recruitment. It has an extremely strong team culture at Involve and this has been paramount to its success as a growing business. The rapid growth has also been due to the upturn in the construction market such as the new BBC headquarters, the Capital Square development, Capital Quarter and various new student accommodation being built. These are being built by big construction companies that, in turn, are using local contractors. Working on the new BBC headquarters are companies such as CMB Engineering, Evans Electrical and Richard Kemble Ceilings, which means local firms are working on the prestigious jobs for the area which hasn’t always been the case.

The Future

There are plans to grow the business and whilst the firm started off as a construction-based recruitment company, a new healthcare division was set up in 2015 and, more recently, it also created an Involve Rail business. They will look to expand in Wales through other industries and sectors first and foremost and try to adopt the same blueprint that the construction division has held since inception.