14 years of work.

In-house TA builds. Embedded partnerships. Global placements. Revenue operations. Here is what it looks like in practice.

IN-HOUSE TA

Ministry of Justice · Government Technology · 2016–2018

200+ technology hires. Broken process. £5M disappearing in agency fees.

Problem

The Ministry of Justice needed to hire 200+ people across Product, UX/UI, and Technology. The existing recruitment function relied almost entirely on external agencies charging standard government rates. There was no structured interview process. No direct sourcing capability. And no visibility on what was working. Time-to-hire was high. Quality of hire was inconsistent. The cost was unsustainable.

Approach

Built an internal direct sourcing function from scratch. Introduced structured interview frameworks specific to technical and digital roles. Created KPI dashboards for HR leadership — time-to-hire, source of hire, cost per hire. Ran direct sourcing campaigns using LinkedIn and specialist platforms rather than routing every vacancy through agencies.

£5M+ in agency spend eliminated.

200+ hires delivered across Product, UX/UI, and Technology. Agency dependency reduced to near zero for the majority of roles. Time-to-hire reduced by 57%. Agency spend cut by 39% on retained roles. The internal function continued operating after the engagement ended.

200+

Hires delivered

57%

Reduction in time-to-hire

£5M+

Agency spend eliminated

IN-HOUSE TA

Frontiers · Open Research Publisher · EMEA and Americas · 2021–2023

Scaling a commercial team globally without an agency bill that matched the ambition.

Problem

Frontiers was scaling fast — from a Swiss open-access publisher into a global research platform competing for enterprise contracts. The commercial team needed enterprise sales leaders, account executives, and customer success managers across EMEA and the Americas. Agency costs at that volume were unsustainable. The existing pipeline was thin. Time-to-fill was slow.

Approach

Owned end-to-end recruitment for sales, commercial, and digital functions. Built direct sourcing pipelines for enterprise sales talent across EMEA and America. Established structured interview processes for commercial roles. Reduced dependency on agency suppliers through direct headhunting, LinkedIn, and referral network activation.

£1M+ in agency spend eliminated in 20 months.

Enterprise sales, account executives, and customer success teams scaled across EMEA and the Americas. Agency spend reduced by over £1M through direct sourcing. Commercial growth targets met with talent in seat.

£1M+

Agency spend eliminated

20 months

Engagement duration

EMEA + Americas

Markets covered

IN-HOUSE TA

Nationwide Building Society (via AMS RPO) · Financial Services · 2019–2020

52 specialist hires for a £1B digital transformation. In nine months.

Problem

Nationwide was running a £1B digital transformation programme and needed 52 specialist hires across data engineering, infrastructure, and cybersecurity. These were hard-to-find roles in a competitive market. Speed was essential. The talent pool was thin and contested.

Approach

Delivered specialist talent acquisition across data, infrastructure, and cyber functions. Provided market intelligence and salary benchmarking to influence workforce planning and ensure offer competitiveness. Direct sourcing led — agency used selectively only where pipeline could not be built internally.

52 hires delivered for a £1B programme.

All 52 positions filled within the programme timeline. Market intelligence delivered to HR leadership shaped compensation strategy and reduced counter-offer attrition. Programme delivered on schedule.

Specialist hires delivered

£1B

Digital transformation supported

9 months

Delivery window

IN-HOUSE TA

Attorney General's Office · Government · 2018–2019

Time-to-hire 57% too slow. Agency reliance too high. Reporting invisible.

Problem

The Attorney General's Office recruitment function had no structured reporting, high agency dependency, and slow hiring processes that frustrated the business. There was no visibility on where candidates were coming from, what was costing what, or why some roles took months to fill.

Approach

Built KPI dashboards for HR leadership — first time recruitment data was visible in real time. Rebuilt direct sourcing capability to reduce agency use. Structured the hiring process to reduce time-to-fill through better intake, clearer briefs, and faster decision-making frameworks.

Time-to-hire reduced 57%. Agency spend down 39%.

Reporting dashboards adopted by HR leadership as standard. Agency dependency reduced significantly. Time-to-hire cut by 57% giving the business faster access to the talent it needed.

57%

Reduction in time-to-hire

39%

Reduction in agency spend

0 → live

Recruitment reporting visibility

GLOBAL PLACEMENT

Solar Installation Company · Cheltenham · 2026

9 weeks searching. Director doing admin himself. Quotes going out late.

Problem

A solar installation company in Cheltenham had been advertising for an admin coordinator for 9 weeks. The director was covering all inbound enquiries, managing the quote pipeline, and handling scheduling himself. The salary he could offer locally was not attracting the quality he needed. Leads were going cold. Quotes were going out 3-4 days late.

Approach

Brief call on a Thursday. Role, hours, and what success looked like in 90 days. Screened candidates from South Africa against the 3 H's. Three shortlisted candidates uploaded to the portal with 2-minute intro videos. Candidate selected and offer made the following week.

Quote turnaround: 4 days → same day.

Amara, based in Cape Town, started within 3 weeks of the brief. All inbound enquiries managed within 2 hours. Quote pipeline cleaned and managed proactively. The director reclaimed 4 hours a day. 8 months in, Amara now manages two junior team members. Two further placements followed from the same client.

£17,500

Year one saving vs UK equivalent

4d → same day

Quote turnaround

Placements with the same client

“I was doing quotes on my phone at 11pm. I don't do that anymore.”

IN-HOUSE TA

Equal Experts · Technology Consultancy · Contract Engagement

100 technical hires. Rising agency costs. Inconsistent quality.

Problem

Equal Experts needed to scale their technical team significantly while managing rising agency costs and maintaining the quality standard their consultancy model depends on. The existing approach was heavily reliant on external suppliers with limited control over quality or cost.

Approach

Built a direct sourcing strategy for technical roles. Implemented structured technical assessment frameworks to improve quality consistency. Provided hiring manager training to reduce time-to-decision and improve offer acceptance rates.

£1.25M saved. 100 technical hires. Quality improved.

100 technical hires delivered. Agency reliance reduced significantly. Candidate quality scores improved by 60%. Time-to-hire reduced by 40%. Assessment frameworks adopted as the ongoing standard.

100

Technical hires delivered

£1.25M

Agency spend saved

60%

Improvement in quality scores