Can you tell us about what led you to Neuven and how you prepared to take on the role of chief executive?
Neuven already existed as a dormant incorporated company at the point where I became involved. Due to my prior experience leading companies of a similar type, it was a good match for me to take the leadership role of CEO and shape how the company would grow. The initial decision for me to take the challenge was encouraged by a previous client, who urged me to build a company that gave them and the wider market an alternative to what already existed.
I basically started building the company from scratch with a few highly talented and loyal colleagues, who are the foundation on which the success of Neuven has been built. I took the role of CEO at Neuven because I saw the opportunity to take the good and bad from what I had seen in previous organsiations and build a company on strong values that was a force for good for clients, suppliers and colleagues alike. From regular colleague surveys, I am proud to say we appear to have achieved that aim.
How did your previous experience in leadership positions help during this process?
I think that one of the benefits of starting Neuven after having many years in senior leadership roles was being able to take all the positives from previous organisations and incorporate them into the new venture. This helped to ensure that Neuven learned from negative prior experiences to deliver a positive environment for our colleagues, clients and suppliers. I felt that in the past I had seen a concentration on client satisfaction to the exclusion of everything else. Obviously, whilst this remains the barometer of a great business it is equally important to have the same focus on colleagues and suppliers. I feel that if you can achieve all three, you have the ingredients for remarkable success. Of course, we do not get it right every time. However, I am confident that even when we fall short, it isn’t for a lack of striving to do the right thing the right way.
The single best thing I have done since starting the Neuven journey is recruit dedicated, high-quality colleagues who have the same ethics as I do. This is particularly true of the board of directors, who are custodians of the values and drive the success of the company. Each one of those board members was a key appointment at the time they joined us and with each one I knew immediately that they were perfect for the role and perfect for me. I interviewed many people for each role, and some had fabulous skills and experience, but something in me wasn’t totally sure of the fit until I sat down with the people who finally joined. Something clicked that told me without doubt that they were the perfect fit. I have been proven correct in each case.
This is incredibly important to the continues growth and success of Neuven and I think is the same for any organisation. If you can get the senior team right and they reflect your values and drive, then this will cascade through their recruitment and ensure you imbue a great culture in the company by engaging with people who ‘get it’ and want to live the values. The colleagues you have are the foundation of your business. That is a key lesson that I have learned over the years.
In what ways would you say your career skills, in leadership and other areas, have developed since you came to Neuven?
It is interesting to reflect on how I have changed over time when I look back on my career and, most recently, my time at Neuven. I guess you are shaped by the situations you find yourself in. When starting a company with no revenue you are a very different leader to the one you are when you have a fabulous team of colleagues and a thriving business.
I think my leadership style has softened over the years as I have had to develop a style that encourages others to take the initiative and support them in trusting their instincts. At the outset, I was directly involved in all aspects of Neuven from sales through to account management and writing our contracts. As time has passed and we have developed departments within the company to take care of all aspects of our service, I have had to understand that in many of those areas, I now have people with better skills than me to execute their area of responsibility. Thus, my leadership style has become more about encouraging them and giving them the space and clarity to perform at their best.
I would like to think I am a more relaxed leader than I was twenty years ago and find it easier to relinquish control to let others flourish. Ultimately, my colleagues are the only ones who can tell you if that is correct!
How has the UK recruitment sector developed over the course of your career, and what do you predict the future might hold?
The recruitment sector has developed and evolved like all other industries since I first entered the sector. Companies have become far slicker at purchasing HR and staffing services and are far savvier at gaining the best price for the optimum service.
I think we have seen an evolution from a point where even the biggest companies procured recruitment services in an ad hoc manner that allowed recruitment agencies to charge high margins without control or regulation. We then moved into a period where cost became everything and those services were procured at the lowest possible price – I think this meant that companies were sometimes focused on price reduction at the cost-of-service levels. Latterly, companies have managed to find a balance between searching for optimum price whilst also demanding the highest standards of service and compliance. This has sorted the wheat from the chaff and as a result I believe the recruitment sector is far slicker and more professional than ever before.
Companies like Neuven have been at the forefront of this evolution as they ensure that prices are fair, that workers are provided in a compliant way and that all responsibilities to the end worker are adhered to rigidly. Our services have been key in helping to shape the way the sector currently operates. By implementing our technology, companies have been able to gain transparency over the way they are being charged. This has helped eradicate unjustly high agency margins and helped provide robust and streamlined management reporting. As the sector has developed, our clients have become more focused on compliance and quality. Whereas our original pitch to our clients would have mainly been about cost-saving, now we are expected to explain how our solutions can help in ensuring proper process is followed in the recruitment of workers and that a robust electronic audit trail is available, so all actions are easy to reference and validate at the flick of a button.
Although making savings and gaining the best value for money will always remain vitally important, I am convinced that companies like Neuven will be required to support this push towards protection and compliance. Clients are also expecting to be offered a far more layered service with a push to a greater recruitment process outsourcing solutions (RPO). Quite rightly, organisations want technology to link all the platforms they use and take the strain of procuring and the ongoing management and effective deployment of workers.
In what ways are you tapping into these trends at Neuven?
At Neuven Group, we are determined not only to ensure that we are on top of the key trends in the staffing sector, but to set the trend and be trailblazers. Neuven Solutions are currently investing millions of pounds into our technology platforms and we are incredibly excited at the impact they are certain to have. I truly believe they will be disruptive in their impact and will set the bar even higher. We know our clients want us to go deeper into the sourcing, recruitment and management of non-permanent staff, both direct and through agency providers, so our upgraded platforms will do exactly that and will be incredibly intuitive and flexible whilst being a major support in managing all types of talent pools.
Additionally, compliance and accountability are becoming more and more important. This has seen Neuven Consult develop several new service models, including Bid Management and Training alongside our traditional Audit function. This allows us to prove employers with real comfort and reassurance. It is vitally important that someone being supplied into an intensive care theatre is fully qualified and has had all experience and qualifications ratified correctly. Neuven Consult do this and with the advent of new technology to support the team, this will become more and more effective.
But more important than the technology are the people. We are investing heavily in our colleagues, and they are the lifeblood of everything that we try to achieve. Our success is totally down to this incredibly skilled and dedicated group of people we have managed to assemble. By combining our talent with state-of-the-art technology, we will stay ahead of the trend and deliver exactly what our clients require.
What motivates you to achieve success for your clients?
The day you stop being motivated to deliver excellence to your clients, then it is time to stop. I am as enthusiastic today about providing an ever-developing service to our clients as I was when we first started Neuven. Getting feedback telling us that our people and technology are delighting our clients is the biggest buzz I can get. I love watching our team display the same passion and desire to exceed made money doing something that has always coursed through Neuven. It is in our DNA.
I am also fiercely proud of our reputation for total honesty and transparency. I would rather go to bed with a clear conscience than with the feeling we have something to hide that will come out later, as it always seems to. It is not the Neuven way and never will be. So, to keep pushing the boundaries and to keep delivering excellence for our clients is a major motivator for me.
Lastly, I am also extremely passionate about doing the right things for our colleagues. They are incredible and the DNA we have developed is carried on by each recruit who joins the Neuven family. They make me proud daily, and I owe it to them to keep trying to provide them with opportunities and development. I want people to enjoy working for us and striving for that is a never-ending objective.
Is there a personal motto or creed that you follow?
I would like to say that my personal motto is to do everything to the best of my ability and with honesty. I am proud that Neuven as a company follow that creed and although it may give you less short-term profit at times, I believe we get rewarded with long-term business relationships that are built on trust.
I would also say that I am driven more by the fear of failure than the joy of success. This can mean that I do not enjoy our wins as much as I should, but it also means that I am constantly looking to protect Neuven and my colleagues. I feel a strong responsibility to them and that means that I will not take any decisions that could put their livelihoods at risk. I will never forget the sacrifices that some of my colleagues made to join Neuven when it was just a ‘good idea’. They trusted the project and they trusted me, I promised them that I would never take a financial risk that put their jobs in danger. I managed to do that and that has set the tone for the business ever since.
What aspirations do you have for the future of your business?
I am still super ambitious for Neuven. We have grown remarkably and consistently over the past 10 years and received awards to mark this success; I am determined that that should continue. We will generate turnover of around £750 million this financial year and one of our next aims is to hit the magic £1 billion. We are looking to take all our solutions global and are in discussion with several international prospective clients.
I also love seeing colleagues fulfil their ambitions, so I want to see as many as possible appointed to senior positions within the company and we will invest in them to make sure this happens consistently. We want to keep scoring highly in our internal colleague surveys and learn from what we are being told by our most valued asset. Despite being a software solutions provider, I am determined to ensure we always remember that Neuven is not about the technology; it is all about the people.
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