THE HIRING SQUAD

“We describe ourselves as a rocket ship,” says Katie Dowling, Global Talent Director at Opus Professional Services Group. “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, you don’t ask which seat. You just get on.”

The company, which was founded in 2008, has picked up a host of awards for its work as a global recruitment consultancy, working across all the professional services, such as IT, finance, energy, architecture and the public and third sector. Opus was the youngest recruitment company to feature on The Sunday Times’ 100 Best Small Companies to Work For list in 2015 and 2016, when it came second and fifth, respectively. It has also featured on The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 awards for four successive years.

Innovation in action

One reason behind Opus’s success is its innovative approach, both in how it operates as a business and in how it recruits and develops its staff. One such groundbreaking concept is the company’s adoption of Northstar technology, which emulates the minds of entrepreneurs, recruitment leaders and successful sales leaders to help other companies to measure and map their business’s efficiencies. It gives indicators of performance levels in every part of a business, which enables companies to look at their growth, productivity, efficiencies and profitability.

An example of Opus’s success is its global recruitment partnership with Foster + Partners, the world’s largest architectural practice. Opus looked at the firm’s business objectives, processes and gaps, and advised it on how to improve. A global recruitment solution was devised and agreed, through which Opus now supplies 96 per cent of all Foster + Partners new hires.

Opus also stands out in terms of the opportunities that are available to its 220 staff, based in five countries. It offers a clear career pathway, and rewards hard work with a variety of monthly, quarterly and annual incentives and benefits. Indeed, it has rewarded top performers with trips to a variety of destinations such as Miami, Las Vegas and Monaco. The group operates share incentive schemes to which all qualifying staff are eligible to contribute, building wealth creation for all.

In exchange, the company looks for graduates who are aligned with its core values: working hard; delivering excellence; being driven, ambitious and professional; improving and inspiring; working with integrity; and being positive and having fun. “If you’ve got those,” says Dowling, “you’re on the rocket ship.”