Talent Nexus is five years old: an interview with Ashleigh Ferris, Account Director
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We're celebrating five years of Talent Nexus! A lot has happened in the business over the last five years, so we caught up with some of the team to find out how Talent Nexus has grown and developed, and where they see it heading in the future.
Ashleigh Ferris joined Talent Nexus in 2017 and is now an Account Director.
She heads up a growing team that provides industry-leading recruitment marketing services to recruitment consultancies.‍
‍1. How has Talent Nexus changed since you joined?
I've been here for nearly three years, and it's changed so much since I started. When I joined there were only eight people in the business and now, we're almost 30 strong.
This is a big shift in terms of culture, the way you work together and processes that need to be in place. It's great though, and I love seeing the company grow.
The other big change has been in the services we deliver as we've evolved into a full-service agency.
We work on many different types of campaigns, including programmatic advertising, Google Ads, LinkedIn and content marketing. It's exciting to have such a variety of different types of campaigns to work on.
Video is one of our newer services, and we've recently been shortlisted in the 'Best Use of Video' category at the FIRM Awards for our video project with Starbucks which we're really excited about! ‍
2. What are you most excited about for the future of Talent Nexus?
I think the continued growth is going to be really exciting. The company as a whole has recently doubled in size which means we have additional resources to support our clients.
Becki and I manage the two account management teams here. Two years ago we brought on our first executives, Hannah and Amie.
Since then our teams have continued to grow, and we're both currently hiring. It's a really exciting opportunity as a manager – developing the team, and so satisfying to be able to deliver a wider range of services to our clients.
3. What's been your favourite Talent Nexus memory?
We're fortunate that once a quarter, we go out for the afternoon as a team and we also get together once a month to do something fun.
We've done some cookery courses, a Lego building afternoon, the Crystal Maze in London, learned to play croquet, and cocktail making.
Plus, our Christmas parties are always so much fun! I love working somewhere where the team morale and unity are so strong, and we've got such great memories from these afternoons.
We're also really lucky that occasionally our suppliers put on some fun activities. ZipRecruiter took us out to play boules for the afternoon, and we had an incredible ski day with Talent.com.
I think chanting 'cheese, cheese, cheese' over a fondue pot with my colleagues and suppliers is probably something that will make me smile to look back on for a long time!
It's great to not only be part of the Talent Nexus team but also to be a member of our clients' teams.
‍4. What do you most love about working at Talent Nexus?'
Of course, the team and the people I work with are #1, but that would be the standard answer!
I've always loved being client-facing and we've got great clients here – both in terms of interesting projects and different industries, and just generally being fun to work with.
There's also a big location-convenience factor for a lot of people who work here. The office is less than ten minutes from my front door, and I can bring my lovely pup, Tino, into work with me.
Many of us live close by, and I'm sure we all agree we love not commuting into London! But it is great to be able to get into central London in just 20 minutes.
Plus, we offer flexible working so you can come in early and leave early, or if you need a lie in you have that option, too!
5. What opportunities have you had to develop your career at Talent Nexus?
Talent Nexus is definitely a place where you can grow and develop your career. There are lots of opportunities here to progress in the direction you choose.
I joined as an Account Manager but had a lot of learning to do about aggregators and the recruitment industry, so I was really a Junior Account Manager.
I became a Senior Account Manager, and now I'm an Account Director and also on the Leadership Team, which is something I really enjoy.
It's not just my job title that's changed either. I've had a lot of opportunities to develop my skills in advertising, content marketing, social media, and as a manager.‍
6. What are the biggest challenges you think the recruitment industry will face over the next five years?
There are a couple of things, but something that comes up with clients, again and again, is finding candidates – and I think this is only going to get harder in the future.
There are political and social issues that affect candidate sourcing, such as Brexit. Then, the ongoing need for skilled, technical roles, where candidates are hard to find.
Also, with roles like teaching and nursing, where the problem goes right back to young people wanting to go in this direction.
Employers need to shout about why they are the right place to work for these roles, and really work on their employer branding.
That's why we're so passionate about creating great video content, which is really effective for communicating EVPs and brand values.
If employer branding was left to recruiters rather than marketers, this can add to an already stretched recruiter's workload. We help take some of this burden away for our clients!
It's been an amazing five years and we're looking forward to an exciting 24 months ahead as we rapidly grow our team and develop the services we offer.
Want to join the team? Check out our latest opportunities here or email joinus@talentnexus.com
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