15 Highlights From 15 Years In Recruitment: What We're Proud Of Achieving As A Tech Recruiter So Far

Time flies when you work in tech recruitment, but when our founders Chris and Dale sat down to plan what their recruitment business would look like in 2007, little did they know what the next 15 years would bring. As it’s our 15^th birthday, let’s step into a time machine and look back on what have been the standout moments and achievements that have taken us to where we are now, and what we’re looking forward to in the future! 

1. 2022 – Ranked high on Best Companies tables from Q1!

In 2022, we entered the esteemed ‘Best Companies’ tables which exists to celebrate the companies and organisations going the extra mile when it comes to employee engagement. We’re delighted to have placed in the following positions when we entered the Q1 rankings for employers across the country:

Best Small Companies to Work For In The UK – #6

Best Recruitment Companies to Work For – #7

Best Companies to Work for - East of England – #6

We were also thrilled to achieve an overall 3-star accreditation, representing the highest standard of workplace engagement (awarded to organisations with a score that meant we are considered ‘world-class’ levels of workplace engagement!)

The best part? It highlights any areas we can improve, so following the ranking, we have been able to see where we may need to allocate extra resources and time to ensure our team is the happiest as possible and content with how we operate.

2. 2019 – Opened our US Office & launched Acceler8 Talent rebrand

We took things stateside a few years ago, as our superstar recruiter Mat Ferdenzi took what he learned growing our hugely successful Machine Learning & AI team to Boston, Massachusetts.

In 2021, the specialist recruiter working closely with tech powerhouses and start-ups (including Google and Amazon) rebranded as Acceler8 Talent and now has ten employees successfully working in rapidly growing niches including hardware acceleration and quantum computing, and more.

3. 2020 – Launched our consultancy, Understanding Solutions

The pandemic was a challenging time for all, and it also brought with it some time for reflection about how we can provide the full offering for our partners. The answer came in the form of our consultancy, Understanding Solutions, which has gone from strength to strength providing squads of sought-after software professionals to clients within 72 hours for projects.

4. 2012 – Launched Understanding Recruitment NFP

Seeing the need to place data, digital and tech talent passionate about working in the Charity and Not-for-profit sectors, we launched Understanding Recruitment NFP in 2012. In a decade it has established itself as a go-to partner for the likes of Barnardo’s Children Charity, Cancer Research UK, and Enfield Council, with a team of eight recruiters dedicated to matching talent to causes they are passionate about.

5. Placed over 4,000 candidates with over 650 clients across the UK & the US!

We’re delighted to have placed over 4,000 individuals* with over 675 clients* across all of our teams in the UK (including Full-time, Contract, Understanding Solutions consultancy, and the US)… and every day it grows! With clients ranging from TikTok to Global Relay, and new languages exploding with popularity giving way to new roles and new talent to meet, we know no day will be the same, and that’s why we love what we do, and are so excited to be in the tech recruitment world.

6. Promoted 90 people, and saw around x4 managers get their roles internally!

We’ve been big on growing within the company since 2007, and have promoted over 90 people* who have joined us and gone above and beyond in their role – there’s perhaps no better example than Sam McBroom (who joined us early on his career and worked his way up to being a Director!) or Tom Rankin (who joined us as an apprentice and now heads up Understanding Solutions). We’ve in fact had over twenty team members get promoted within the business to become managers (four times as many as have joined us externally!).

We know recruiters are ambitious people, and we want to reward the hard work it takes to succeed in our world, so will lay out your potential career paths from Day 1 and regularly check in with your goals for the future.

7. Grew the team to 100 people worldwide!

In case you missed our most recent milestone, we recently grew to be a team of over 100 people across our UK and US office

We’re certainly not stopping at being a team of 100 on both sides of the pond, and therefore also have plans to grow our team.

8. Have the biggest Java recruitment team in the UK – 14 people!

Yes, you read that correctly our team of Java recruitment specialists became 14-people strong (and counting!) in 2022 making it the largest of its kind in the UK. Just as Java’s popularity shows no sign of slowing down – ranking second in a list of skills companies desire in job applicants in 2022, ascending from the No. 10 spot last year, according to IEEE Spectrum’s ranking of top programming languages, nor does our team of experts who are doing some brilliant work placing Java Developers in the job of their dreams!

9. Contracts team soars!

Small but mighty, our contracts team has had an incredible year – currently a team of seven they recently reached the highest ever number of contractors on their roster, at 87, and surpassed £1 million for the year, all whilst navigating post-IR35 market for contractors. We can’t wait to see what lies ahead for the team!

10. Further expansion into growing specialist verticals!

We always have one eye on growing verticals to join our ever-growing partnerships in Front End, Java, Python development, and more. That’s why we’re working in verticals growing in adoption among developers, such as Elixir, Rust, and Golang, to remain at the forefront of the industry.

11. 2022 – Launch of Understanding Recruitment USA

As part of our continued expansion to meet demand, we’ve been delighted to bring our expertise to the software development industry in the USA. Our newly launched Understanding Recruitment team, led by Brad Howell, focuses on sourcing the best JavaScript talent for our US clients.

12. 2018 – Celebrated our first decade in business & smashed the 50 employees milestone

It’s hard to believe, but only four years ago were we celebrating reaching halfway to our 100 as we became a team of 50 and turned 10 years old, showing how remarkable the past few years have been for our growth.

13. Taking our team on holiday across the globe!

Our thirteenth highlight is arguably one of the most fun parts of the recruiter role: the incentives! Over the years, we have been delighted to take target-beating members of our team on holiday all over the world to locations including Monaco, Las Vegas, Barbados (so good we went twice), Miami (so good we also went twice), New Orleans, and many other amazing places. This year, we’re thrilled to be taking every member of the team to Palma de Mallorca, regardless of department, to say a huge thank you for everyone’s hard work and resilience in recent years to come through even stronger as a company.

We can’t forget our ‘Road to Olympia’ trip too, and the fact we’ve seen some of the UK team swap St. Albans for Boston (and vice versa)and learn and experience lots from other team members!

14. Expansion of our St. Albans office!

2022 has also been a year of expansion with our office space, as we expand into a new space our ever-growing team can enjoy and create new memories in. We’ll soon be taking over a new space below the office that has served us well for many years, meaning the Understanding Recruitment will be based across two floors!

We’re delighted to continue to be based in leafy St. Albans, Hertfordshire in The Maltings, only 40 mins out of London via train for catching up with our clients.

15. Giving back and establishing our CSR committee!

Each year we fundraise for several different charities, but we recently decided to form a dedicated Corporate Responsibility committee to ensure we can maximise our fundraising for important causes. Our CSR committee joins our Wellbeing Committee and Diversity Committee, and other groups, set up to ensure we are doing all we can do.

See our three chosen charities for 2022/23 here!

The next 15 years and beyond!

Beyond new tech niches, new offices, and new teams, we’ve got big plans for our future in the next year and the years that follow. From 2022 to 2025 we hope to grow to a high-functioning sales team of 290 from the 100+ we are currently, and everyone who walks through UR’s doors to benefit from a collaborative, tight, and value-driven culture, with opportunities to thrive and internally and be part of a progressive, caring, and successful business.

(*Statistics accurate as of July 2022, and recorded from when we started collecting key data)