Trusted recruitment within the Three Counties
By Ian Mean, Business West Gloucestershire Director
“We aim to be the most trusted recruitment agency in the Three Counties”, says Ben Mannion, joint owner and Director of Hewett Recruitment with Laura Hewett. That’s quite a goal to achieve for Ben and Laura with the company first established by Laura’s mother, Louise Hewett, 43 years ago at Kidderminster in Worcestershire.
The firm was established in 1980 and covers the Industrial, Engineering, IT, Commercial and Finance sectors across Temp, Contract and Perm recruitment. Having developed an excellent reputation across Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Hewett has already established a strong base of Gloucestershire based clients in recent years. Looking ahead, Ben and Laura want to further establish the fi rm as part of the local business community, with an expanded team of consultants on the ground in the county.
Ben Mannion is clear about the company’s immediate goal: “Our vision is to replicate how we have grown our business in Worcestershire and Herefordshire right down the M5 corridor into Gloucestershire and Bristol. We want to link into the wider business network and we look forward to hosting and attending events and getting involved in giving back, in line with our values as a B Corp business”.
Hewett are a certified B Corp company and Laura tells me: “We have already helped to create the Three Counties B Corp group and firmly believe in the principle of doing business for good. B Corp had been a brilliant tool to formalise and certify all the community work that we already do as well as support our drive to become a more sustainable and environmentally aware business. It is great to be able to share our knowledge of the process and highlight the benefits it brings to businesses regarding recruitment and retention”.
I find Ben and Laura’s enthusiasm infectious. As ever, when you hire a specialist company like a recruitment agency, you always look for the differentiation factor – what makes them different from the rest?
I believe Hewett’s core values are their differentiation factor. They are simple but thought provoking:
• Never stop learning
• Love what we do
• Have grit
• Act with integrity
• Create value
I particularly like their grit factor - “We combine effort and perseverance with passion to deliver” – that’s a good business mantra.
Laura says: “Ben’s and my personal values are very much the same, and we also want similar things out of life. I believe these core business values do really differentiate us – particularly the integrity piece.
“We appreciate that people’s careers are a huge part of their lives and our role in recruitment, is to respect and support that. Our team go out to bring about proper working relationships with business – not just one-off business transactions. Ben and I want our clients to see recruitment as an opportunity, and to share our business values with them.”
*Hewett Recruitment will be talking about their journey to achieve B Corp on March 14 at a Business West event at Stroud Brewery – also a B Corp. Invitation details are on Eventbrite and companies looking to take the B Corp route are encouraged to attend.
