Happy Birthday to ARRC!

On the 29th Sept 2014 Craig and Marcus incorporated The Audit & Risk Recruitment Company (ARRC), and 4 years on and we’re pleased to say we’ve achieved more than we planned, a lot more than we expected, and today we would like to take this opportunity to thank the many, many people who helped along the way.

This whole journey started with a conversation on the golf course (how cliché) about how exciting it would be to build a business that focused all its efforts and energies into being as good as it could be within a chosen niche. Central to that idea was choosing a name that removed the need to explain what it is that we actually do, and so The Audit & Risk Recruitment Company was born.

Over those 18 holes we discussed culture, environment and behaviours and what we would do to make ARRC a place that people really wanted to work for. We thought about past experiences and reflected on all the good and bad things we’d seen happen at previous companies, and we worked out what we needed to do to enhance the good and avoid the bad. We talked about sales and marketing strategies, recruitment and retention plans, flexible working, back-office operations and technology, processes and policies and of course bonuses and rewards. 4 hours later and we’d come up with some of the key concepts that went on to become the bedrock of the business.

We approached everyone we could for help, previous clients and candidates to hear what they had to say re the competition and to find out what it was they wanted, we spoke with friends who had experience in website design, marketing and branding and paid them in beer and nights out. We contacted other recruiters and listened to what they had to say about their successes, their failures, the mistakes they’d made and the lesson's they'd learned. We made the most of relatives with experience in finance, law, budgeting and planning and over the course of a few months we'd worked out exactly how we were going to achieve our goals.

4 years later, we’re now 15 consultants and 2 x Non-Exec Directors, supported by various outsourced back-office providers. We have specialist teams helping clients and candidates in Financial Services, Industry and Commerce and Practice, we have teams looking after London and the Home Counties and teams looking after our regional core hubs across the UK. This year we’ll have grown sales by over 40% and headcount by over 50%, we’re winning new clients on a weekly basis and more and more we’re being retained to recruit for some of the biggest roles in our market. Today we boast a client list well in excess of 150, ranging from FTSE100 and FTSE250 companies/size companies, global charities and top 10 practice firms.

What we do isn’t always easy, but working here is lots of fun, the team are brilliant and a real pleasure to be around and we’d like to thank them for all their hard work. We have a brilliant base from which to grow and we’re excited for the next 4 years and hope they are equally as fun and successful.

To all the friends, family and contacts who’ve helped, advised, challenged and supported us – THANK YOU, we couldn’t have done this without you!

From memory, It wasn’t the best game of golf we’ve ever played, but it was certainly the most productive and definitely the most transformative.