IntaPeople bucks trend in struggling recruitment industry

Feb 4 2009 by Sion Barry, Western Mail

A CARDIFF-BASED niche recruitment company is continuing to expand.

Despite testing market conditions and billings within the UK recruitment industry rising at their weakest pace in five years, Inta- People is continuing to successfully buck this trend with 2009 promising to be as profitable as 2008.

It saw revenues soar within its engineering and technical division by more than £1.1m in 2008 for the fourth consecutive year. Together with the consultancy’s continued ongoing core IT business, this will account for year on year growth of around 19% in 2008-2009.

Now the firm has appointed Khalfan Nassoro and Saif Sabri on the back of growing business.

Phil Handley, resource director, said: “As a specialist IT, technical and engineering resource provider we have developed mutually beneficial working relationships with a wide spread of industry sector clients throughout Europe and the Middle East.

“We welcome both Khalfan and Saif to our recruitment team and believe both will continue to provide our clients with the high level of service and personnel that they have come to expect.”

IntaPeople currently employs 29 consultants at its Cardiff headquarters and plans to increase the head count to 40 consultants within the next two years as the company continues to increase its client base.

And its continued success is in stark contrast to recent reports indicating that the UK recruitment industry can expect to lose more than 9,000 jobs over the next 12 months as a consequence of the worsening economic climate, with some firms expected to shed as much as 30% of their workforce.

Mr Handley added: “To date we’ve managed to buck the trend within the current economic downturn and continue to supply high level, key staff that hopefully provide our clients with the skills, knowledge and know-how that their businesses require to ensure they continue to prosper during these demanding times.

“We believe that many generalist recruitment companies may suffer badly within the forthcoming predicted recession. However, as a specialist niche supplier of high level, key personnel with business critical experience and skills, we expect to buck the trend and work through the economic downturn.”

On the future, he added: “Over the next 12 months we anticipate that the biggest growth will occur in the energy and environmental sector, with many companies looking at green issues and the implementation of latest IT systems in order to save energy and costs. Demand for key engineering workers, for example, has increased by 60% in the last year alone.”