When David Taylor joined Howie White Resourcing, straight out of university, he didn't predict that in nine short years that he would be at the helm of the first and only recruitment company that he has worked for.
Fast forward to 2022 and David is now the Managing Director, taking over from Fred Howie, who is taking a sideways step.
“Although I didn’t realise it at the time, I now know that this was always Fred’s plan, that at some point he would hand things over to someone else, but he needed to be 100 per cent certain that the new MD would ensure that the company continues to build and be successful.” said David. “As far as our clients are concerned, nothing will change – and that’s incredibly important because we have some clients who have been with us from the day we opened for business in 1999. They need to be certain that the level of service and attention to detail which we have become renowned for, will continue.”
David is a rarity in the world of recruitment, in that he hasn’t worked for another recruitment company and has no intention of going anywhere else. Anyone who has dealt with recruitment firms will know that it’s highly unlikely that you’ll speak to the same person twice. To say the industry has a reputation for people flitting from one firm to another, is an understatement.
“Clients like to build relationships with recruitment firms. You can’t do that if the agency is continually changing staff. It’s a merry-go-round. Clients need to have confidence that the person they are dealing with is up to the task. It’s why here at Howie White Resourcing we have a core of around 30 clients who come back to us on a regular basis. It’s also why nearly all of our new clients come from referrals. Clients like the way we operate and are more than happy to pass on our details. We take that as a massive compliment.”
David is not one to rest on his laurels and, whilst respecting the successful business model that Howie White has worked to over the last 23 years, is keen to drive the business forward. Fred’s ethos had always been that “nothing beats face to face meetings with both clients and candidates.” This still stands true to David who agrees and has no plans to change this method – “we know that candidates and clients alike benefit from face to face meetings. There are some things that can’t be conveyed over email, phone or even web calls, however, we didn’t anticipate COVID coming along and forcing us all to be more comfortable over a web chat.”
Zoom, Skype, Teams – whatever your poison, we have all used them recently and David has seen potential in a new way to do business. “I will always be available for a face-toface meeting, whether formal or over a coffee. However, there is definitely a place for hopping online to have a call. We have had clients hold first to final interviews over Zoom, presented shortlists over Skype and discussed job specs over Teams. They can be quicker, easier to fit in to people’s busy diaries and give an alternative when we are being advised to work from home.”
David, with Fred alongside him in a consultancy capacity are keeping Howie White’s standards and successes of finding the right people for the right roles are the forefront of everything they do. From initial client meeting to discuss job requirements to shortlisting to interview processes – they are keen to be flexible in this ever-changing landscape. Fred himself has noticed a sudden shift in recruitment requirements in the last two years “since COVID hit, and working from home became the norm, we are increasingly seeing clients wanting to broaden their searches and cast the net further. It is now common practice for an employee to be present in the office once or twice a month but work from home the rest of the time. This has allowed us to fill more diverse and challenging roles by having a larger geographical scope.”
It has also lead to a shift in the responsiveness of candidates, arguably it has never been easier to achieve a work/life balance. By working from home or hybrid working, we can choose breakfast with the kids over an hours commute to the office every day. One who fully appreciates this is David, with an eleven month old at home, he says “it’s great to be able to be there at bed time every day, a luxury that working from home has afforded me.”
So, it’s all change. In the wider world and in the recruitment world. Except from the perspective of Howie White’s clients where it is business as usual.