This week marks three years since Jenna and I were sat in my kitchen completing the Companies House registration of Mackie Myers Ltd. From trying to set up a bank account and register for VAT, to growing a team of twenty and leading a multi-million pound turnover business, a lot has happened since then. As such, we wanted to mark the occasion by sharing a bit about our journey and the market.  

The Market 

We are fortunate enough to have experienced significant year on year growth since we launched within the context of what has been an incredibly challenging market for many over the last 18 months. Whilst there has continued to be near record high vacancy demand across the economy at large, inflation and rising interest rates have had a significant impact on consumer confidence at a time when the working world order is still recalibrating post pandemic. This myriad of factors have had an adhesive effect on job processes, making it increasingly challenging to get the best job seekers ‘to the table’ and ‘over the line’. In many ways, this is of course a good thing for demand of our services, but we have certainly been earning our fees more than ever before in my career.  

Biggest challenge? 

As any recruitment leader would attest to, attracting the right talent to join and help grow our business has been the ultimate challenge. When we set out, we wanted to build a team through a combination of attracting high quality experienced talent that we know and trust, as well as through developing our own future leaders. We couldn’t be happier with the unit we have but it has certainly not been for the feint hearted. We operate in a very competitive marketplace and the best talent is well looked after and have a lot of options to choose from when they do decide to make the move. Despite the white noise that can occur in this game, we have confidence in our point of difference and long term plan, knowing that the people that are right for us will make the right decisions at the right time for them.  

What’s next? 

Over the last 6 months, we have completed a brand refresh, changed to a new CRM, moved office and launched our regional business. One might think that is enough for now but we are eager to keep improving. March represents our year end so we have some exciting planning sessions on the horizon including our AGM in Lisbon where we are building out our 2030 vision and refreshing our focus for the year to come. Additionally, we have new hires due to embed into the business, are soon to be launching our own podcast and have a new service line we are bringing to our customers. With a solid plan, great people, good reserves and increasingly improving process, we go again the only direction we know how…onwards.