A Dorset recruitment consultancy has reported a huge increase in the number of US-based job candidates it has successfully placed with American firms.
Despite the 4,000 mile distance from Oakstone International’s office in Poole, the company has seen a 400% rise over the last two years, with its UK team securing around 80% of its US hires during the previous 12 months.
The business, which has satellite bases in Chicago and San Francisco and turns over $1m (£830,000) in the US, has found executives for American tech firms such as Introhive, Coupa, Simpplr and Pagerduty in the US.
The business, which has a specialist division in Poole which works into the evening to cope with the time zone challenges, said it was “unusual” for UK recruiters to place US candidates in US roles, estimating less than 10% of British firms in the sector operate in North America.
Oakstone added that US firms accounted for the “vast majority” of its stateside business competition, with divisional director Andy Strong saying its performance was “hugely rewarding”.
Mr Strong added: “The vast majority of our clients are North American-headquartered and we work with them on Europe-based projects, but it became apparent that they would also like to use us for internal US hires as well.
“Off the back of our delivery, having built trust in our quality, speed of work and results, we made it clear that we were as capable of hiring in the US as we are in Europe. Consequently we end up delivering for them domestically in the US too.”
Oakstone attributed its success to building a business model before the pandemic that does not “rely purely” on ‘in person’ meetings, with the firm saying it had a “100% delivery record on retained projects”..
Mr Strong said that since the Covid19 pandemic the need to meet face to face had been “diminished”, effectively removing any barriers for the firm to cover other parts of the world.
He added: “We have proven over time that it’s easier to scale a team of people here in the UK, that we train in-house and which conforms to all of the ethics and standards of service that Oakstone provides than it is to try and hire a similar team 4,000 miles away in the US.
“Therefore, us being creative in hiring here and being creative in terms of the working hours in order to deal with the time zones is the optimum model which we have tested over the last 10 years and is proving to work.”
Read next:
- Dorset boating navigation app crowdfunds close to £1m in hours of launching campaign
- E-bike and scooter firm Beryl secures £2m for new Dorset factory
- Housebuilder completes 21 Dorset homes for rural social housing scheme
- Ambulance services providers merge in ‘multi-million pound’ deal
Like this story? Why not sign up to get the latest South West business news straight to your inbox.
