25 years of Harvey Sutton!
25 years of Harvey Sutton! Our strap line back in 1992 when we were first established was “if you specialise why shouldn’t we?” That’s no longer the line that we go to market with and you won’t find it on any of our social media accounts or advertising campaigns (but back in 1992 we didn’t have any of those!).
Our values as a business may have been tweaked slightly over our 25 years, but they are still focussed on knowing our key areas implicitly; this allows us to provide genuine career advice to our candidates and giving our clients the sort of market insight that can only be found by having an in-depth knowledge of their specialism.
I have been with Harvey Sutton for 11 years and I’m pleased to say I have witnessed some significant changes; we’ve upgraded our coffee machine and even have a hot water dispenser! In all honestly though, one of the key constants is our commitment to the areas we serve; we believe that to know an area and be capable of classing yourself as a specialist within it, you must be fully entrenched within it. Dipping in and out is ineffective.
For me the biggest change has been our marketing strategy. We used to solely rely on our reputation, and on conversing with as many contacts as possible. We now have an efficient website that creates candidates and clients for us, a significant and complex google ad words campaign and a growing presence on LinkedIn which demands a rather large advertising budget. This coupled with 25 years of networking allows us to class ourselves as the leaders in our field.
I don’t tend to talk too much about joining Harvey Sutton as a Consultant and path to Director, however it does illustrate the sort of culture we have. The team itself has changed considerably; not only by number of individuals but also, with a completely different reward structure for our consultants which lets the whole team operate with a more collaborative approach. As a small team we all share the same values; our culture is one that encourages change and supports entrepreneurial behaviour – something that we all work towards. I’m confident all our clients and candidates would agree that the whole team offer an experience that they would recommend – that’s down to the people in our team and I’d be in a lot of trouble if I didn’t say that they are highly regarded at what they do.
Other changes include a shiny CRM that allows us to manage our data in more efficient way. When I first joined Harvey Sutton interviews were hand written in an A4 note book! Surprisingly that changed quickly…
What do we think 2018 will have in store for us? We are very close to rolling out a new strategy with the help of one of our latest external advisers. We believe change is important and are engaging with a management consultant to make sure the business continues to grow with fresh and ideas. Insolvency and Restructuring continues to be our busiest area and there are real signs that 2018 might be even busier than 2017, with a number of current Partner mandates and a board full of mid to senior level jobs right now!
We have recently seen an increase in firms looking for Employment law jobs which had previously been a market that had really felt the effects of our troubled economy. The great news about the Reward & Incentives market is we are now carrying out more work in the in-house space than consulting, which has been a target of ours for the last twenty-four months. The fact we are making real progress with that goal is a testament to the team’s work and dedication.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our clients and candidates who have worked with us over the last 25 years. Change is something that is inevitable – I believe you need to plan ahead to take advantage of it. Surrounding yourself with people who embrace it and enjoy it, might even make it fun!
Rob Worthington