Source’s New Outfit

Having freelanced for Source over the years I was really excited by the opportunity to take on the brand refresh and rebrand project for Source & Lipton Fleming. Although I know Source well I thought it would help to get even more insight in to what the brand stood for before tackling the project, so I took the opportunity to ask the Directors of Source, Annika & Sarah some key questions. See their answers below to get an even better look in to the Source brand.

How long have you worked in recruitment and what do you love about it the most?

Annika :

I was fortunate to work with some great leaders during my early career in advertising. I learnt about the importance of the quality of the work you do and my parents taught me to always treat people with respect and do the right thing.

When I decided to change my own career, I couldn’t believe these principles didn’t seem to transcend into the recruitment world – despite being responsible for helping people build careers and grow businesses.

So, in 2004 my mission was born and Source was launched. I wanted to create a professional approach to recruitment that focusses on what is best for the client and what is best for the candidate and nothing else. Again touched by earlier days in my career, I wanted to create an environment for my team where they can thrive and be supported to achieve their own goals.  I am a big believer in goal setting and that we come to work to help facilitate them.  We have a real focus on this within the business, ensuring we are fully supporting everyone reach both their professional and personal goals. When we commit to bring someone into the fold, we give them our all to support them on their journey, whatever that maybe.  In return, we want people to uphold our values, work hard for our clients and candidates and be a good person!

Why am I still in love with recruitment? Well it has been quite a journey and whilst developing my own career, it has offered so much variety and challenges that there is no day the same and no day where I do not continue to learn and develop myself.  It is a people industry and I simply love people; I love being part of helping people get where they want to be or what they need. 

Sarah:

My journey in to recruitment started in 2006 after joining Source as a Receptionist. The first 18 months of my career at Source as Receptionist and Financial Administrator enabled me to really get to grips with the industry that the Recruiters served, even more so when I got involved in the finance team and was communicating regularly with freelancers and clients. Source has always been focused on supporting people to reach their potential and developing them as much as possible so when Annika took a step back from hands on recruitment to grow the business she worked closely to develop me in a fully-fledged recruitment consultant. My career developed from there and over the last 10 years I have managed 3 teams, fulfilled an Associate Director role and now sit on the Board as a Director, working solely alongside Annika who gave me my first introduction to Recruitment.

What do I love about Recruitment? Firstly, the strength of the relationships you build with amazing candidates and clients and the collaboration that happens in the teams at Source behind the scenes. Secondly, the impact that you have on people’s lives. We have the ability to personally impact on developing someone’s career, or growing someone’s business, the satisfaction and pride that comes with that is just phenomenal and the reason that most (good) Recruitment Consultants do their job.

Lastly, a slightly more personal one but as Directors of Source, myself and Annika both get the opportunity to work closely with our team in house to develop and nurture them to achieve both their personal and professional goals. Seeing each and every one of them blossom in to  consultative and quality led consultants and managers that add value to the industry is true success for us.

How has the industry changed in the time you have worked in the industry? 

Annika :

Having started my career working in the industry in which we specialise in, gave me that wonderful initial insight into the creative agency world. Being in recruitment, it gives you a fascinating bird’s eye view of the whole industry and seeing it develop and change over the years has been extraordinary. I don’t think there is a more interesting space to recruit for and work with such wonderfully talented people.

Sarah:

When I first started recruiting, the industry requirement was heavily focused around design and production for print and although this is still most definitely a thriving market the industry has expanded hugely in to a digitally led one. As a business we have ensured that we have grown and developed alongside the industry, with a focus around being agile so that we can mirror our clients and continue to deliver against all of our client’s requirements, those both old and new.

The market continues to change and we can only expect it to do so every day, even more brands are building teams internally and seeking advice around how to go about this so although we work with a number of big named agencies and smaller boutique independents, we also work with a number of start-ups and amazing client side brands.

So you are refreshing the Source brand identity and website, tell me a bit about that:

Annika :

A lot of Source’s success has been down to mirroring the market to enable us to continually support our clients and candidates.  Source and Lipton Fleming merged because of the trend of creative agencies wanting to bring media planning and buying back in house and media agencies wanting to set up their own creative offering.  Coming together meant that we could support our clients fully in their expanding recruitment requirements and also open up a whole new world of career opportunities for our candidates that would just not have been possible pre-merger.  The wonderful thing about the merger was how easy it was to come together, because both businesses were very aligned culturally, shared the same values and had exactly the same viewpoint on how to deliver the recruitment service.  With the brand refresh, it simply is a perfect opportunity to align ourselves as one business from a visual and name point of view. We will continue to service our clients and candidates in the same way both brands have always done. 

We have ambitious growth plans… the more that we grow as a business the more opportunities we can deliver to our candidates and talent delivery capability for our clients.  As we grow, we also enable our consultants to develop their careers further, some into managerial positions and some into more strategic market partners. Both routes can deliver opportunities to join Sarah and I on the Board.  So growth is a big focus for us as it delivers for everyone involved and ultimately continues to support the success of Source. Win, win, win, win!

Sarah :

Well let’s face it, we were definitely due a refresh, and well over due a new website so it made sense to do everything together – now over to you Karl to bring our visions to life.

What makes Source different to other recruitment agencies? 

Annika:

Crafted honestly, done passionately is our headline for the Home page of our new website and think it perfectly sums up what Source is all about and what makes us different to other recruitment businesses.  We are all passionate about the industries we serve, the careers we are developing for ourselves, passionate about learning and our journey of striving for excellence in everything that we do… but with this is delivering the service that is honest and this can only be done when you are focussed on the best interests of your clients and candidates and striving to drive value throughout the service you deliver.

Sarah:

I think I mentioned it earlier but success for us really is excellence and seeing people reach their goals, whether It be our candidates, clients or our staff. Both myself and Annika are well known for detail, quality and high standards and we believe that the processes that we have in place ensure our consultants not only deliver the best service to Source’s clients and candidates but also that they add value every step of the way. Not only is this important for our clients and candidates but also for the team internally, that’s why we strive to have the best resources and partners possible and have built an extremely collaborative and positive culture internally in which people thrive. Whether that comes from breakfast together every month, celebrating successes together every week, yoga on a Thursday or Personal Development Plans that give everyone a focus on hitting their potential and developing their career with us.

What is next for Source?

Annika:

We are working on numerous projects that we really believe in behind the scenes.  Each one is very much focussed on delivering more value to our clients and candidates and we cannot wait to share them with you.  They need a little more crafting, but we will be sure to keep you in the know, so watch this space!

Sarah :

We have certainly been kept busy for the last 18months, refining processes, growing the team, developing new areas of the business, however we won’t be putting our feet up, definitely not! Once the brand refresh and new website goes live we will be able to offer our candidates loads more functionality, making the registration process even more efficient. June sees us bring in a brand new database which will drive even more efficiency for the consultants in reaching out and engaging with the market quickly, oh and I’ve just launched a new team with 2 of our Top Consultants, servicing the Product space, a rapidly developing and growing market.

I hope you enjoyed the Blog that we created from a few questions from my research piece and I hope that you like the brand refresh and website.

Karl Blankley – Art Director & Designer

http://karlblankley.com/

“Source would like to take this opportunity to thank Karl for the way in which he tackled this project, with professionalism, creativity and unfaltering attention to detail. Both myself, Sarah and the whole of the Source team are extremely happy with the new logo, brand collateral and website and we can’t thank Karl enough, he has been an absolute pleasure to work with and we can’t recommend him enough.”