A tech recruitment specialist has celebrated its fourth birthday by hitting 拢1m revenue for the first time.
Jack Donohue launched Knutsford-based Fairmont Recruitment in April 2018 with the aim of disrupting a sector with a reputation for working long hours and being slow to adopt new technology.
At the height of the pandemic he changed to a four-day week to protect his staff鈥檚 mental health and wellbeing and said it鈥檚 the best decision he鈥檚 ever made.
Fairmont Recruitment has grown to nine staff and is on course to hit a record 拢1.3m turnover for the current financial year.
The company wants to grow to 20 staff inside 18 months and is looking to expand into the US market.
Donohue said: 鈥淭he last four years have been a real rollercoaster because of Covid but I just want to thank the staff, clients and candidates for enabling us to reach this milestone.
鈥淩ecruitment is an old industry and when I launched Fairmont I wanted to move away from the perception that recruiters had to be chained to their desk for 12 hours a day to make any money. You can have a better work / life balance and still provide a first class service to your clients.鈥�
‘Switching to a four-day week transformed our business and our staff鈥�
The 30-year-old credited the company鈥檚 success to switching to a four-day week last year and hiring a senior management team at the start.
鈥淎ndy Ward, Mark Pugh and Wayne Bennett all joined as directors at the start and between us we have more than 50 years鈥� experience in the recruitment industry,鈥� said Donohue.
鈥淏ringing in a senior leadership team in first and foremost rather than build a senior leadership team around a growing business was one of the best things we did.
鈥淭he other thing was switching to a Monday-Thursday working week. I was worried about staff being burnt out and I live my life by the motto 鈥榳ork smarter, not harder鈥�.
鈥淭here are enough hours in the working day to get your stuff done so we took the plunge in July 2021 to switch to four days with no deduction in salary. The change has been transformational.鈥�
Donohue said hitting 拢1.3m turnover is all the remarkable because of the impact of Covid.
鈥淟ike everybody else I panicked at the beginning,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he business literally stopped overnight but we dusted ourselves down, took any opportunities that presented themselves and we鈥檝e come out the other side a stronger business.
鈥淲e鈥檝e invested heavily in tech, which has allowed our staff to go to a four-day week.
鈥淩ecruitment is an old school industry but there鈥檚 a lot of new technology you can plug in to allow your staff to focus on the really important work.
鈥淎lthough the recruitment market is buoyant at the moment that presents its own challenges because it鈥檚 also very competitive. It鈥檚 the reason why we鈥檙e working harder with our clients and our candidates than we鈥檝e ever done.鈥�