MRK Associates

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"Maintaining our excellence of service, as well as the need for us to deliver value to our clients is at the core of all our relationships, and Voyager has allowed us to do that faster and smarter."

WELL PLACED FOR GROWTH IN 2019

3 months after the implementation of Voyager Infinity, Paul Thompson catches up with MD Roland Seddon @ MRK Associates.

 

NURTURING RELATIONSHIPS & SOURCING TOP TALENT

 

It’s pretty good, we’ve worked hard since 2011 to build a name for ourselves and it’s certainly paid off, we’re well known in our geographical location and are now working with some very well-respected companies. Whilst it’s hard to argue that Brexit hasn’t slowed activity and delayed some decisions, we’ve used that time to bolster our relationships with customers by staying close to them and meeting face to face. 

Running our own networking events and roundtable talks have been a huge success and positioned us well with those looking for their next hire, I think many recruiters are sat back waiting for the phones to ring – but we make the phones ring and use our CRM to ensure we’re proactively nurturing our clients.

You can’t influence the European Jobs market, but you can take steps to increase your efforts and activity levels instead.

As recruiters we only have control over the service we deliver and so we’ve raised our recruitment game by going to the market, instead of waiting for people to come to us, and it’s been a strategy that’s resulted in our team growing 64% year on year, with more growth planned in the next few months including a new office.

We believe that there will always be opportunities for top talent in our market, and clients are willing to pay a premium for those that can improve the productivity of their business, however, you need to be proactive to find those people. 

The challenge has always been the same, we need to find the top talent, nurture those relationships and be ready to help when asked.

We’re very busy right now working on today’s customers but also finding tomorrow’s, and the whilst the Finance, Office Support and Data Analytics sectors face challenges, we’re helping to address them.

 

 

FINDING A SMARTER WAY OF RECRUITING

 

We’re traditional recruiters, with traditional values, but until recently we had a traditional system too – it was holding us back. Nothing was broken, but we’d fallen out of love with our old CRM and it represented the past.  It was clear that if we wanted a competitive edge and to be at the front of our game we needed to find a strategic business partner that shared our vision of the future.

‘A database’ doesn’t go far enough in today’s recruiting world, and recruiters don’t like using old systems in today’s ‘appy’ world and so, it was clear we needed a tool that helped us manage our best asset – our relationships and data. 

As a minimum, we required a cloud-based tool that integrated our phone calls, emails, events, newsletter, mailshots, calendar, jobposting, website, reporting and KPI metrics into one easy-to-use solution. We needed a platform that facilitated a smarter way of finding passive candidates, whilst also helping us build relationships with tomorrow’s customers and pooling that knowledge across the business automatically – no mean feat! After researching the market for 18 months, we found that solution and invested in Infinity SaaS for the team and our future.

We still post jobs on job boards, but it’s now faster.  We still send emails, send outlook invites, registration packs and arrange interviews, but everything is more automated and integrated.  The staff love that logging their activity is no longer a chore.  Callbacks are automatically set against key tasks – it’s just easier. On top of that, and as an added bonus, it’s been really easy to implement GDPR and other compliance into the system so everyone’s happy.

As a result of the technology we now use, we’re better connected to our customers and in touch with what they want. Infinity SaaS allows us to work faster with less cost, pain and vastly improved levels of compliance, and the recruiters love using it too.

Recruitment has changed, it’s a skilled profession and great recruiters are hard to find, so the least we can do is give them the best tools the market has to offer us.

 

 

 A FOCUS ON ORGANIC GROWTH

 

We’re very process driven here at MRK Associates.  We’ve been fortunate enough to have identified what works for us, and can now easily replicate those processes. Onboarding graduates into our team will be a strategy moving forward as we require a certain level of aptitude in our team. 

We can be dealing with a Group FD one moment, and their office temp the next and customers expect a professional service. At MRK Associates we’ve always taken the time to make sure we’re working smart. 

We are a career consultancy, not just another recruitment agency and we pride ourselves on the long-term care and support that we provide to job seekers and employers alike. Our goal is to drive development and improvement in the workplace by supplying top talent to those companies.

I believe you’ll need more than luck and passion to succeed in recruitment and looking back my only regret is not changing things faster when they were not working.

Doing what’s best for the customer is always at the heart of what we do and with a focus on organic growth over 2019, and with no debt or desire to change our business model we’re well placed to grow.

Today MRK Associates serves some of the largest companies and best known employers in the area, many of whom use us exclusively to source their next hire.  It’s great having these companies knocking on our door – we’ve come a long way since it all started.

Maintaining our excellence of service, as well as the need for us to deliver value to our clients is at the core of all our relationships, and Voyager has allowed us to do that faster and smarter. We’re a people business with technology at the heart of our success. When asked, I don’t recommend Voyager to my competition!


Voyager Infinity and Voyager Mid-Office are software solutions that make Recruiter’s lives easier. Voyager Infinity is a CRM used be thousands of Recruiters globally to source, nurture and maintain the relationships of tomorrow placements, and Mid-Office manages the entire Pay and Bill process.


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