Opportunity Rich

Select Appointments’ franchise system lets creative business people build their own successful recruitment agencies

Select Appointments is a national recruitment agency franchise with an unrivalled back office support and training package that allows ambitious professionals to build successful businesses of their own in opportunity rich territories.

Expansion is not limited to the UK and Ireland either, as the company is currently looking for franchise partners across Europe, Canada, Australia and the Middle East.

Heritage

To give you an idea of its heritage, Select has been offering both temporary and permanent placements to a wide variety of white collar sectors since 1980 and the company opened its first franchised office in 1992.

By the late 1990s, Select had grown into a major recruitment player with a strong position not only in the UK, but also the US and continental Europe; at its peak, the company had somewhere in the region of 600 offices.

At that time the Select Group comprised Select Appointments, Parkhouse Recruitment, Calibre Recruitment and had also established the Select Hospitality and Select Capital divisions.

A subsequent 2008 buyout by Randstad NV saw the majority of Select’s offices rebranded, but the high performing franchised offices remained as the Select Appointments offices we recognise today.

In 2012 the Select Appointments franchise network was acquired by UK recruitment giant Staffline Group plc. Staffline has been providing staffing services to industry for over 30 years. It’s now one of the UK’s largest suppliers of temporary workforces, providing over 45,000 workers to more than 1,300 employers - every single day.

The Staffline portfolio of companies includes 17 businesses focused on temporary and permanent recruitment, welfare to work, skills training and business consultancy. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Staffline has strong financial credentials, with a market capitalization of over £400 million.

That is quite a powerful and rare level of expertise in both industries and is what undoubtedly makes Select such a desirable brand and enticing franchise opportunity to so many.

Ethos

The ethos behind the franchise model is actually pretty straightforward. Select has created a franchise system that lets creative business people from any background follow a proven structure that helps them build their own successful recruitment agencies.

They will recruit for both temporary and permanent positions across most white collar sectors, but often owners have at least one sector in which they have particular expertise. Often they will use their knowledge and connections in this sector to grow their businesses in the early days.

Thanks to Selects’ comprehensive training academy however, it’s not long before they’re confident in branching out to each and every sector that’s represented in their local area.

Suzie McCafferty is Select Appointments’ managing director.

She says: “Ask any of our owners what their competitive advantage is and they’ll tell you it’s the door opening power of such a well established brand, and perhaps most importantly, the fact our head office support team and back office systems take away all the stresses and strains of being a self-employed recruitment professional, ie dealing with payroll, invoicing, HR, legal issues, IT, marketing, etc.

“This is backed up when we talk to small independent recruiters about what their biggest stress is. They say it’s the headache of trying to manage all the necessary back office systems, while driving the business forward and managing their teams.”

It’s often what leads a lot of people to consider franchising in general - proper training and support from a great brand that allows them to get out there and build their business, free from the tedious administrative distractions unavoidable to the independent operator.

Impressive

Suzie adds: “We have opportunities all over the country for franchisees to use our proven methods to open their own offices, employ their own staff and there’s no limit to what they can achieve as independent business owners under the Select Appointments brand.

“Some of our most impressive franchisees, in terms of speed of growth and the impact they are having in their local markets, are among the newest to join us. Very few of them had any recruitment experience beforehand, so have stuck rigidly to our system and embraced all the training and local marketing we offer them.

“What separates us from the competition is our business model. Our business model doesn’t require you to have a high street retail office, with all the expensive associated costs, just somewhere comfortable, accessible to candidates and with the potential to accommodate a few more consultants and staff members when the time is right.

“We know from decades of experience that two consultants plus the owner makes the perfect start. You can concentrate on networking and marketing, while your consultants can hit the phones literally from day one, thanks to the incredible induction training and local database we provide you with.”

Find out how a Select Appointments franchise could help you to own your own successful business, with all the benefits that come from being part of the Staffline Group plc, a brand partner to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation and member of the British Franchise Association.

Leading by example

Caroline Deutsch became the Select franchisee for St Albans in 2015 after a career in sales and marketing.

She achieved a turnover increase from 2015 to 2016 of 71 per cent, with a gross profit increase of 60 per cent year on year. In just two years Caroline has established a network of around 1,000 clients and contacts as a result of getting out there and building relationsips with clients and potential candidates alike.

Repeat business accounted for 60 per cent of her gross profit in 2016 and this year she has seen an increase in candidate referrals of 91 per cent. Caroline says: “I’m convinced that a key factor in driving this success is that I have followed The Select Way - the Best Practice business model for success.

“I believe in leading by example and that drives the behaviours of the business, but the methodology and metrics are just as key to reaching our goals.”