So we may well have a new starter, but Stacey doesn’t know everything about us yet, so with her investigative hat on, posed us the following questions. Please see below for what Rebecca and Nick had to say about Scout and each other!
Why the name Scout and why the green? (we have a lot of green going on in our office!)
We considered a number of different names before hitting upon Scout, and we completed some market research on a number of names. Scout was actually a late addition, but was universally popular amongst those asked and it helped that we were able to get the scout.co.uk website as well.
When we were setting up Scout, we looked at the branding of our rivals within the creative and marketing sector and there was very little use of the colour green and specifically Pantone 376C. We also felt the colour fitted with the open approach that we take to recruitment with both our Candidates and Clients.
What makes you different from other recruitment agencies?
Its three things really: Industry knowledge, added value and relationship building.
We are all ex. Agency and/or ex. Client side marketeers so can truly understand an industry with so many nuances and specific skills, that you really need to have lived and breathed it first to be able to recruit for it.
We feel it is very important for us to add value to the recruitment process – through employing psychometric profiling and offering wider consultancy services including team profiling, training workshops and staffing analysis and evaluation.
We have spent so long in Agency side, Account Service, that we adopt exactly the same attitude with relationship building. People are not just Clients or Candidates to us – they are busy people with specific requirements and we treat them with the respect they deserve. We spend a long time listening and discussing their needs and we seek to build quality, long-term relationships.
As joint owners, how do you work together to run the business?
Nick and I are very hands on managers – the office is open plan and we are not locked away in our own offices, all the staff will approach both of us with questions and challenges and all company decisions are run past both of us.
To avoid duplication though, we tend to split certain duties between us, so for example if it is a financial question it is best to direct this towards Nick and if it is a Client relationship or wider HR Consultancy based question, best to direct it towards me.
We bring very similar skills to the table yet we both have our different strengths: Nick’s brain works at incredible speeds, he rarely requires a calculator to work out anything financial and he has a photographic memory so can remember almost everything put in front of him. Pretty handy when we have so many Candidates to keep track of!
I have much more of the softer skills required to manage the team and retain very strong professional relationships with Clients and Candidates. I am also pretty organised and love a ‘to do’ list and getting it completed, even if it means working very late!
Can you describe a typical day at Scout?
Never a dull day in our office – unless most of us are out and about of course!
To a certain extent it depends on the day of the week but we will usually start with a bit of a catch up. Nick and I will usually catch up whilst driving to the office before everything kicks off, and a wider team catch up once we are all in – ensuring everyone has had enough tea and coffee as well!
In the morning we are catching up on Candidates that have come back to us about roles, Client feedback on Candidates we have presented, booking in interviews and arranging time to pre-interview Candidates either face to face or on Skype if they are further away.
Afternoons tend to be a bit more ‘search and contact’ new Candidates either using Linked In or the job boards that we employ. A blog will be written for the week and at least one tweet is sent out every day as well to ensure our social media schedule is tracking nicely. Candidates and Clients are updated of progress before heading home for the day.
Lunchtime on a Tuesday is when things really hot up! We have our weekly PT group training session outside in the park next to our office – the competition is fierce, the weights are heavy and the amount of burpies achieved in 5 minutes is insane! If we don’t have the PT session we tend to keep the competition going in the office – we recently had a ‘plank off’ in the office, no day is ever dull.
What is your favourite thing about Scout?
Rebecca: Our attitude (and Pantone reference 376C)
Nick: Our ethos, our approach and the feedback, recommendations and referrals we receive. It definitely makes it feel worthwhile.
Rebecca and Nick x
