8 Years

After 8 years, Permanent People isn’t the business I thought it would be. Not better, not worse, but different, but then again, I never had a distinct idea of where we’d be now.

The fact we’re still in business after 2020 means we’ve hung in there, and current levels of business show that we must be doing something right – and our relationships across the recruitment industry have never been stronger. I won’t lie, April and May last year were challenging (for everyone), but during the summer of last we year we actually made our 2nd biggest ever placement – right in the middle of a pandemic. Shows you that perseverance is key!

Did I think we’d have an office Amsterdam? No.?I’d only ever been there on breaks that I couldn’t remember afterwards, but I think us opening there this year really evidences what Permanent People is all about as a business. Opportunity. Adapting. Why not!

And what better place than Amsterdam. We have a great network there, and it’s lead brilliantly by Louise here, and what a job she’s doing. It’s a great base for us to recruit throughout the EU, but back in 2013, I was only really thinking of recruiting along the M4 corridor from South Wales to London. Since then, we’ve worked across 6 continents, bit of a gear change there!

Running a business is all about not really knowing what is going to happen next but trying to plan for all eventualities that may land in your lap, and when they do, dealing with them. I think we do this very well.

We’ve never tried to reinvent the Rec2Rec wheel, as much as some people would like it to be done, it doesn’t really need to fixed. You just need to do what you do and do it well. I think we’ve become great at that as well.

As always, it’s the people that work in a business that make it work and we are no exception. Our current team is brilliant, and with a new senior level person joining the business this month, it will only strengthen what we do. But everyone who has worked for PP over the years has contributed, and it’s not all been rosy. I’ve learned along the way, and there’s been times when I could have dealt with situations better, but that’s surely true of us all isn’t it. The important thing is to learn and not make the same mistakes.

We recruit all over the world, did I think we’d be doing that? No. But we are. It sounds fancy, but it’s no different from recruiting anywhere in all honesty, you just have to treat people with respect and communicate with them properly. We’re good at this too.

Thanks to everyone we’ve worked with as clients and to all the recruiters out there who we’ve helped, either into a new job or given advice to. We’ve been lucky enough to built up some great relationships with individuals who have transgressed from professional relationships into ones which are much more personal – and that’s really what we’re all about! Long may it continue.

So, are we where I thought we would be in 2021? Of course not. And that’s what makes it interesting every day.

And in 2029 will we be exactly where I think we will? Of course we will be, but by then I’ll have retired to my own island next to Richard Branson’s and just sit around drinking cocktails all day! At least, that’s the plan anyway.