Happy New Year from everyone at 3Search

3Search Director, Charlie Rawstron, reviews 3Search’s 2016 and looks to the future.

No doubt your timeline right now, like mine, is full of those ‘year in review’ articles explaining just how awful 2016 was — you know the type: What a 2016 of a year. Never again, Is 2016 really one of the worst years in history?, 2016. Worst. Year. Ever? And so on and on and on.

Here at 3Search we want to offer our own little antidote to all of the prevailing misery. 2016, our second full year of business, was undoubtedly our best yet and has set us up for what looks likely to be a fantastic 2017.

The team continues to grow

Since our last update back in September, there’s been a lot of change in the business albeit with a common theme: new arrivals.

We’ve welcomed two new team members. Joe Tudor has joined our consumer team. He’ll be working alongside Michael Judkins, and is already proving a great addition to the London office with his knowledge of the consumer marketing space only being surpassed by his expertise in Preston North End football club!

We’ve also welcomed Ben Parsonage to our Bristol office. Ben will be working with Matt Waring to continue to grow our presence in the South West.

Even more exciting on the new arrivals front has been the birth of the first 3Search baby! Michael and his wife Louise have welcomed baby Oliver into the world, and I’m not too far behind with my wife due to give birth to our first any day now.

In other news Andy’s wedding is now booked in (the diet’s already started, he says… we’ve heard that one before!), and the 3Search five a side football team is on track for another steady mid-table finish.

Record-breaking business growth

As for the business side of things, we broke records over the summer in terms of the number of successful placements made and then smashed our goals again in the fourth quarter (October, November, December in our case). The result was a fantastic year-end and strong momentum going into 2017.

Olly, Lucy, and Joe Tudor, in particular, put in huge efforts in the final few months of the year to connect their clients with some fantastic candidates. In fact, between all us of us we have some great individuals starting new careers in January — if you’re one of them, all the very best and good luck!

We remained busy right up until the 23rd December, so we’re feeling very positive about the outlook for 2017. Many of our clients are discussing plans to grow teams and we feel well positioned going into next year especially as we have invested in the latest recruitment technology to keep us ahead of our competitors.

It’s not all hard work

Being a sociable bunch we were busy in the run up to Christmas.

At the beginning of November, the whole business attended the Marketing & Digital Awards evening where we were nominated for four awards. Later in the month, we held our annual networking event where we were delighted to host over 90 guests in the garden of our London offices in Victoria (we have a bigger and better social event planned for the summer of 2017, so watch this space!).

It was also great to get the whole team together for our annual Christmas party; we had an excellent meal followed by a night out in London. It’s safe to say there were a few sore heads the next day!

Do you want to join our team?

Our biggest challenge in 2016, and going forward, is hiring top talent to join our team in both London and Bristol. The market for top consultants is incredibly tough and — because we’re committed to offering only the highest quality of service to our clients — our hiring standards are high.

A career at 3Search is fast-paced, challenging (in a good way), fun, and very rewarding. We’re not run like most recruitment companies — we’re a close-knit team with a strong focus on doing recruitment the right way: by focussing on our clients’ needs, delivering an unparalleled standard of service, and having a lot of fun as we do it.

So, if you happen to be reading this and interested in talking to us about working at 3Search, or if you know anyone in your network who is looking for an opportunity in recruitment, please do let me know. Hiring great people who can add to our culture is top of our hit list for 2017.