{"id":417770,"date":"2019-09-19T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T02:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobadder.com\/blog\/ambition-recruitment\/"},"modified":"2024-10-16T14:31:42","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T04:31:42","slug":"ambition-recruitment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobadder.com\/gb\/blog\/ambition-recruitment\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambition recruitment: Lessons learned over 20 years of business growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was 1999 when <\/span>Nick Waterworth<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Paul Lyons<\/span><\/a> started Ambition in a tiny Sydney office. No pun intended, but they had ambition in spades and building a little cottage industry business was never on their radar. <\/span><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s where things got interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe listed Ambition on the stock exchange in November 1999,\u201d recalled Nick, who acts as the group’s CEO. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe essentially listed a business plan. We were a startup before they were called startups. And that was unusual,\u201d he added, noting that it was \u201cvery hard work. It might be some of the hardest work I\u2019ve ever done.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That influx of capital enabled them to hire more people, put better systems in place and \u201cgrow more aggressively than we would have been able to with just our own capital.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

WATCH THE FREE WEBINAR: Growth and exit strategies for agency owners with James Caan CBE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

From there, the only way was up, with the first office outside of Sydney being established in Hong Kong in January 2001. \u201cPaul had been working in Hong Kong before we started the business,\u201d said Nick, making that first decision easy. From there a presence was established in Melbourne and in January 2008, the group went to London and has grown ever since.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve done a couple of acquisitions. It’s primarily been organic growth with where we stand today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With two decades under their belt, there\u2019s been plenty of lessons learned along the way, a few of which Nick generously shares below:<\/span><\/p>\n

On the challenge of finding and hiring great talent<\/span><\/h2>\n

“I wish we had a magic bullet for this. It\u2019s the constraint on growth in our business. Broadly, the market\u2019s pretty good everywhere we operate. There are lots of opportunities. But a couple of thoughts…One is that talent joins talent. What we\u2019ve seen is that where we have a great team leader or a great country MD, magically, they get good people. That\u2019s just what happens. If you have great people that are leaders in your business, they will bring in other talent. Conversely, what I’ve absolutely noticed over the years is that if you have a leader who is not cutting it, he or she will find it almost impossible to get people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondly, the most successful thing for us is to hire rookies (associate consultants, but that\u2019s how we lovingly refer to them as). People who are either raw graduates or with a little bit of experience doing something, but not in recruitment. And we train them up. We find they have the most flexible mind, the greatest appetite to learn. Sure, it takes a while to get them productive but that’s the biggest mechanism for us is bringing in rookies. We do hire experienced people. But we have to make sure that we don’t get seduced by the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 because the person’s experience is only half of it. They might be terrific at X, Y or Z. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to work at Ambition. So we have to get cultural fit right as well.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ambition<\/p>\n

On culture fit and holding on to talent<\/span><\/h2>\n

“Like all recruitment agencies, we do have staff turnover, although much less in our most successful offices. We actually rarely lose people who are going really well. Most of the people we lose either leave the industry or they\u2019re not actually going that well. The job of a coal face recruiter is quite tough. There are all sorts of things coming at them. There\u2019s a lot of time management required. There\u2019s a lot of pace required. It\u2019s a tough job. If you get it right, it\u2019s a very rewarding job in terms of job satisfaction and financial rewards.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not enough to keep people. They have to feel that they’re in an organisation that has values that match their values. I think they have to feel they’re in an organisation where they can express themselves and to a reasonable degree, do things their way within the confines of the company’s approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

We also strive to be a global boutique. We’re an international recruitment firm, we’re in five countries, but we want it to feel like a boutique. Good resources, good people, good career prospects for them, but not too much of a corporate feel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They also have to feel they work for a company that gives a toss. I like to think that we do care about our people. We will go the extra mile for people that have been with us for a while or are doing the right thing. It matters to me that we have a caring culture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We do a lot of CSR initiatives. For example, this is our 20th year and so <\/span>we plan to carry out 20 CSR actions to celebrate that<\/span><\/a>. Recruitment is a hard-nosed business but getting involved in various CSR initiatives is a good thing.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n