Week 4

“The king is dead, long live the king”

The growth of LinkedIn and RPO

In the UK, the immediate economic recovery from the GFC witnessed the rapid growth of RPO and the wider adoption of LinkedIn usage.  Well, I thought, that’s me out of a job then!  Many in-house teams and RPOs initially thought the same!  But here was the thing: 

1. In-house teams were not HR discipline experts and were stretched super thin.  They were often the “Cobbler’s Child”!  HR seemed to fall in priority well below other areas that shouted louder! 

2. As above, the RPOs were not HR experts and were stretched super thin also.  Margins were already getting squeezed: rewards were based on time and cost to hire – not necessarily the best incentives for quality!  The inability to discuss the hire with the hiring manager was definitely hindering the process: “don’t talk to line”!! 

3. Perhaps not surprisingly, people only tended to update their on-line profiles when they needed to look for a new job: the lead indicator of someone in your team looking for a new role was a LinkedIn update!!  This remains as true today as it did at the time.   

4. Apparently, some individuals lied on their profiles! Ring any bells?  

But who cared – a bum on a seat was all that was needed and time and cost of hire were critical.  Few at the time ever measured success of hire!   There really was initially a “one size fits all” approach to recruitment that failed to take in one key factor:  the product and the protagonists were human!!  I suspect in later articles I will be looking at the next existential threat – AI – and I wonder if the same themes will arise?  

We all pretty soon realised that partnerships, based on honesty and delivery, were keys to success for both parties.  It remains exactly the same today. And more so than ever, we need to clearly define our value position. 

Here are Oakleaf’s: 

• A brand associated solely with HR, with a holistic view of the Profession 

• 20 years in partnership with the HR community 

• Global reach – UK, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East 

• Deep technical, sector and geographical expertise 

• Outstanding customer service, speed of response and delivery 

• A network of both passive and active HR talent that is second to none 

After a 2-year decline, according to various recent research papers, the global recruitment industry is expected to see a growth rate of around 5% in 2025, with the market potentially reaching a size of approximately $650bn. It appears that reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated!      

 Why Oakleaf? 

Oakleaf Partnership Oakleaf Partnership is the leading independent HR recruitment and Executive HR Search business in the UK. Over the last 19 years we have built the business on the foundations of outstanding customer service and enduring relationships within the broader HR community with clients from across every industry sector, thanks in part to our expertise but also our highly collaborative approach. 

Week 3

Initial Shock

The initial shock of the Global Financial Crisis ebbed away into a long and very dull economic downturn. I reduced my London headcount by 6 or 7 and, sadly, had to cut our Leeds office also.

I was keen, however, to try and persuade the hugely talented and high potential Amy Morris to come and work in London.  “Have you ever considered re-locating down South?” I asked in a nonchalant manner (belying my enthusiasm to get her to move down!), “I’ve just bought a house in Leeds!” was her answer.  This wasn’t going to be that straightforward!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we managed to persuade Amy to “try” London – my tactic worked and suffice to say, we’ve never looked back.  Amy was instrumental in driving the growth of both the temporary and broader commercial Oakleaf businesses and is now the UK/Europe MD.  She has been a Main Board member for several years now and is a trusted and highly valued colleague.  She’s certainly proved that age is no barrier to success at Oakleaf!

The broader (non-FS/PS) commercial offering was a direct byproduct of both the GFC and of Amy’s drive and ability. After several rather dull and frustrating years the economy was on the up and it was time to fire up our growth engine again!

Week 2

Keep Making Friends

I’ve always lived by this mantra – it’s intellectually challenging, mutually beneficial and can be lots of fun. Even in the early days of Michael Page, I’d realised that basically clients and candidates were the same thing: customers!  Why would they not be? It’s the morally correct way of doing business, after all.

The first week of Oakleaf involved a trip to buy sleeping bags, “Oakleaf sleeping bags”!  Late nights out with customers seldom involved taxis or hotel rooms – we had no money yet!  We just had a shared floor with the Middlesex Street mice! 

HR in 2005 (or “Personnel” as lots of Personnel Directors referred to their function: “I’m not a resource, I’m a person”!) was starting to evolve from order taker to strategic partner (it still has some way to go in some sectors!).  Different sectors embraced this evolution in varying degrees.  The Investment Banks were streets ahead at the time, securing an endless supply of HR talent from (amongst others) Ford and M&S – both were top of the HR game at the time but didn’t have deep enough pockets!   Despite this outstanding talent in-flow, the banks seemed to continually wrap themselves up in internal politics and some quite “challenging” cultural issues, that often started at the very top. One Reward Director once told me that she knew exactly how to get her own way with the CEO.  I’ll leave that thought for you to ponder…

Bonuses were still being discussed over long, boozy lunches.  If you weren’t prepared to “fit in” you might as well look for another role if you hadn’t already been managed out.  I once had an impressive and high performing customer who didn’t agree with her boss on a professional issue.  The debate didn’t go well – apparently her boss didn’t appreciate being challenged.  As she left her office after the debate, the CPO followed her out and shouted across the whole HR floor: “Get back in here, young lady!”.  Suffice to say, she politely declined the offer to continue the debate and left that afternoon!  Internal meetings were often about who you could shaft in public (whilst minding your own back) as opposed how the team could achieve its collective goal. 5 days a week in the office, long hours, huge pressure, acute politics and big bonuses didn’t necessarily create the best behaviours. 

At the time, Oakleaf was 99% City focussed but with the GFC storm clouds gathering all that was about to change.  As the banks began to topple, live vacancies didn’t just gently fall away, they fell off a cliff!  I have on first-hand authority that on a global MDs conference call on a Saturday, the CEO told them to buy company stock for a “once in a lifetime price” – many of them did just that and by Sunday night had lost it all when the firm went into Chapter 11.  Fear drove obedience. 

Pre-GFC, the City was huge fun but the crisis was an opportunity to learn and re-set. It was an opportunity to recognise cultural failing and inappropriate behaviors.  For Oakleaf, it was a chance to make sure our own culture was all about our people and was aligned with my own values.  We all spent far too long in the office to ever get that “Sunday evening” feeling.