CEO Jack Donohue launched Knutsford-based Fairmont Recruitment in April 2018 with the aim of disrupting a sector with a reputation for working long hours and being slow to adopt new technology.
At the height of the pandemic he changed to a four-day week to protect his staff’s mental health and wellbeing and said it’s the best decision he’s ever made.
Fairmont Recruitment has grown to nine staff and is on course to hit a record £1.3m turnover for the 12 months to the end of April.
The company wants to grow to 20 staff inside 18 months and is looking to expand into the US market.
Donohue said: “The last four years have been a real rollercoaster because of Covid but I just want to thank the staff, clients and candidates for enabling us to reach this milestone.
“Recruitment is an old industry and when I launched Fairmont I wanted to move away from the perception that recruiters had to be chained to their desk for 12 hours a day to make any money. You can have a better work / life balance and still provide a first class service to your clients.”
The 30-year-old credited the company’s success to switching to a four-day week last year and hiring a senior management team at the start.
“Andy Ward, Mark Pugh and Wayne Bennett all joined as directors at the start and between us we have more than 50 years’ experience in the recruitment industry,” said Donohue.
“Bringing in a senior leadership team in first and foremost rather than build a senior leadership team around a growing business was one of the best things we did.
“The other thing was switching to a Monday-Thursday working week. I was worried about staff being burnt out and I live my life by the motto ‘work smarter, not harder’.
“There are enough hours in the working day to get your stuff done so we took the plunge in July 2021 to switch to four days with no deduction in salary. The change has been transformational.”
Donohue said hitting £1.3m turnover is all the remarkable because of the impact of Covid.
“Like everybody else I panicked at the beginning,” he said. “The business literally stopped overnight but we dusted ourselves down, took any opportunities that presented themselves and we’ve come out the other side a stronger business.
“We’ve invested heavily in tech, which has allowed our staff to go to a four-day week. Recruitment is an old school industry but there’s a lot of new technology you can plug in to allow your staff to focus on the really important work.
“Although the recruitment market is buoyant at the moment that presents its own challenges because it’s also very competitive. It’s the reason why we’re working harder with our clients and our candidates than we’ve ever done.”
