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Oliver James Associates featured in Recruitment International magazine

18 July 2016

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Defining our core: what's the value in business values?

Since its inception in 2002, Oliver James Associates has been a pioneer in Financial and Professional Services recruitment. Oliver Castle, Group Managing Director, spoke to Recruitment International magazing about how Oliver James' newly defined values are the driving force to achieve the company's vision of becoming the most valued and essential recruitment partner, globally...

Partnership. Adaptability. Respect. Excellence. Innovation. Passion. These are the six values that characterise us, our culture and brand essence. Over the past nine months, we have made significant steps to join together as a business to challenge, debate and define what our winning behaviours and key values are.


Our organic growth across the UK, Asia Pacific, USA and continental Europe presented several challenges from a brand perspective; we recognised that our company values had been diluted and became concerned that our message was not consistent to our partners globally. Our business was successfully growing but was this growth changing our business values? By organising a series of forums with employees from all levels within our organisation alongside clients and candidates, we were able to analyse and challenge the culture and values of our business; we didn’t just want these newly defined values to be what we thought partners wanted us to say, we wanted to be proud of them and able to translate them into everyday life.  

From a leadership perspective, it’s key for me that our actions back up our words, which is why we now consistently work to create connection and engagement across all levels of our organisation about these values. We recently implemented an internal and external engagement project to re-communicate who we are and what we do best. This was a key driver in generating awareness of and respect for these values so that we could strengthen our positive outlook alongside a sense of trust in our business and brand.

Our fantastic Learning and Development programme is an essential factor in developing our staff to their full potential so that they are passionate about our core values at work and in their everyday lives. It’s important to us that we grow an organisation that maintains these values at its core, alongside being agile with change and business processes to react and adapt to our partners’ needs.

We partner with approximately 850 Financial Services, Professional Services and Commerce & Industry businesses, recruiting roles up to C-Suite level. We are incredibly proud to be respected and valued by the industry and these newly defined values reinforce our commitment to delivering excellence every time to each of our partners alongside aiding our candidates’ decisions and career choices through honest, expert advice.

Partnerships for us have always been key; we work in candidate short markets where demand outstrips supply which is why developing and maintaining close relationships is embedded within our business culture. Our clients see us as an extension of their business supporting their endeavours by finding bespoke solutions to difficult roles; whilst our candidates look to us to find roles and organisations that are the best cultural and technical fit for their career progression.

We believe that the best way to constantly evolve and add value is to keep moving forward by looking ahead, adapting to change and offering a geographically mobile service.  Our appreciation of the pressures HR departments and hiring managers are under is exactly why we’re here, to aid the recruitment process and utilise our knowledge and expertise. We see innovation as key to achieving added value for our clients’ businesses and candidates’ careers; we’ve helped shape the careers of many of our candidates and seen them progress in their industry throughout the years becoming line managers, which not only gives us a wonderful sense of achievement but is also representative of our strong partnerships, expertise and unparalleled networks.

We always look to recruit consultants who have attributes that positively impact our values and ways of working so that we can achieve our vision of being the most valued and essential recruitment partner globally. Whether in the office, at client meetings or talking to partners and candidates, these six values are a part of our business culture and there to inspire confidence and loyalty in us.

To view the article in July's edition of Recruitment International, visit https://lnkd.in/eRsE6Zp

For further information or to discover more about opportunities with Oliver James Associates, visit www.ojassociates.com









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We received an average rating of 9.1 from feedback by our clients and candidates.

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