Member Article

Recruitment agency Novum Personnel says 'Hello' to success

A RAPIDLY growing recruitment agency is aiming to hit its £3m turnover target only 18 months after launch – and despite a global pandemic.

Novum Personnel was taken over by Managing Director Tom Simpson in late 2019 and has quickly established itself in key recruitment sectors, including construction, engineering, tech and, more recently, education.

Tom said the Covid pandemic accelerated growth plans for the business: “We’d only just started when the pandemic began, but rather than panicking we sat down, analysed what effects Covid was having on the economies of the Far East and what sectors would prove most resilient to the pandemic.

“We looked at what industries would be less susceptible to an airborne virus and took the decision to focus on the construction sector. This was despite the fact that other recruitment agencies were pulling out of that area.

“We made sure our offer to both those looking for work and employers was distinctive and attractive and threw everything at the sector – and it worked.”

The company now employs 17 people across three offices in Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Hull and is on track to hit its ambitious turnover target in its second year of trading.

Alongside Novum, entrepreneur Tom is now launching sector specific brands – with Hello Education already working in schools and colleges recruitment.

“Hello Education is doing well and we’ve had some really positive feedback. We’re about to go out with Hello Tech in the world of digital and technology.

“As well as correctly identifying the sectors we needed to be in, I think our success is also down to our partnership model. We work very closely with our clients and get to know their businesses or organisations well. We have open, transparent and honest conversations with them and they respect that. We also work hard with our network of contacts to generate new business for our clients.

“We try to remove any barriers for our candidates getting into work and we’re as flexible as we can be about payment terms from a client point of view. It’s working – we’ve placed more than 1,000 people over the last 12 months,” said Tom.

Now Novum is moving into new, larger offices in Newcastle, choosing recently-opened Haylofts as their new base.

“We knew it was the right place pretty much straight away – traditional, but modern; very central but quiet; and the offices have a high spec and won’t date,” explained Tom.

Haylofts is part of the HyHubs portfolio of business centres and provides innovative office space in the old Newcastle Brewery stables on St Thomas Street, adjacent to Haymarket travel interchange. The renovated space has 22 offices, seven meeting rooms, a lecture space for 80 and broadband speeds of up to 100Gbps.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hoults Yard .