Pros
- Integrity. Some recruitment firms will encourage lying, or at least blur the line between honest practise and abject manipulation. Barclay Simpson always has the best interests of clients and candidates at heart. There is no culture of investing stories, pressurising candidates into roles that are not right for them. The horror stories you hear from other firms – do not happen here!
-Profit share – Barclay Simpson is an employee owned Business, so all the profits of the business are shared between the employees. This creates an environment that truly seeks to service our clients and candidates, regardless of whose initials they are recorded in. There’s no internal sharking, fiddling figures, top drawing candidates or arguing over fees as we all work together to generate wealth for everyone. (You have to generate enough income to be on full profit share – until that point you are on a % of profit share as discretionary bonuses. These Discretionary bonuses fit in with your contributions to the business, value added through NFI, but also other activity, targets, collaboration and are formalised by way of quarterly appraisals etc.)
-Culture – The culture here is wonderful, the office is welcoming and colleagues generally collaborate, as the more fees everyone generates, the more we all earn. It’s a supportive environment.
- Recognition – because of our collaboration we recognise those who may have contributed more in a particular way, eg those who bring on new business or have excellent runs are celebrated as it positively affects everyone. We have a (sporadic) internal newsletter that details success from across our global business and the odd jovial picture too! On top this we have quarterly and annual awards (with extra financial rewards) for different successes, eg most placements etc. in a given quarter. There is also a section for any employee who has embodied the Barclay Simpson values in a special or momentous way, ensuring that even if you’re not a fee earner / or if your book hasn’t had the best quarter you can still be rewarded for something qualitative.
-Work Life Balance – Barclay Simpson has some great features for w/l balance. The days are generally shorter than most other firms. Most people arrive from 08.30 and leave around 6. Naturally there are lots who work later if they are busy, but the culture here is not based on facetime. We also have a holiday entitlement of 1 half day per month which doesn’t come out of our annual allowance. There is also an early finish or late start, once per month which you can use at your discretion.
- Office socials – As we’re big into working together there is also ample opportunity to socialise with colleagues, by way of monthly drinks in the office to catch up with people you may not have had the chance to during the month, from different teams etc. We also have quarterly company meetings which update everyone the business’s progress and aims for the next quarter – as well as some accountability for the directors to showcase their various projects.
360 desks- The business is all about building yourself and your area up. I was given a relatively new desk, which I had to build up and am still in the process of doing. You are given the freedom to do this in your own way with the help of those around you – albeit in a way which is compatible to Barclay Simpsons values, ie long term, quality work. This is not overly target driven, though targets are important these are used more as pointers as opposed to hard and fast deliverables. Quality of work will always win out here. If you’re employed at Barclay Simpson you are building your area, in your way, creating your own business to grow. This isn’t a firm led by resourcers who are trapped into one aspect of the job – we expect all our consultants to be excellent with their candidates and their clients – as well as being able to maintain a clean database, manage existing accounts and bring in new business, and contribute to the business in other ways too.
- Training – excellent, full training when starting / mixture of classroom, group and on the job. Also some external training and “CPD” is provided, which I find useful.
- Support from management is strong. I have excellent communication with my manger. It’s open and honest. There is also a system of mentoring, whereby you are given a mentor who can assist with personal progress. We have personal development plans and regular meetings with our manager and a director to discuss development and progression, as well as a quarterly appraisal system. There is also a peer-group which exists to channel any frustrations or suggestions to the board directors, so if there are any issues that need to be addressed, there is a mechanism to by-pass line management/mentors in an anonymous way though the reps.
- Structure – The firm is building it’s structures out a little more, as a small firm which may have, in the past, lacked a little bit of formality but this has now changed.
- Values – Collaboration, Integrity, Commerciality, Passion and Quality
- Branding –We have a great reputation in our markets especially Internal audit. People generally always take a call from Barclay Simpson because they know what we stand for and are familiar with brand and relationship to industry bodies.
Cons
- There’s been a changing of the guard over the last 12 months, which I hope will not affect some of the more positive aspects of our history, though the plans and new initiates are very good.
- there is little consultation about new initiatives, as all employees have a large steak in the business it would be nice to be more informed as asked more about ideas / reviews of plans etc.
- As we share of the profits of the business –there is obviously a pressure to ensure that you are contributing and not over egging the expenses.
- Extremely high billers may not feel as comfortable with profit share as others, ie 1mil+, although there is now enhanced profit share which can stem the difference quite dramatically for the top top fee earners.
