Understanding Recruitment becomes an Employee-Owned Business

Understanding Recruitment Group's employees are now the majority shareholders of the business thanks to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).

People are at the heart of everything we do and we wouldn't be where we are without our fantastic team! To celebrate our achievements and to reward our loyal employees, we have made the decision to sell 60% of the business to an Employee Ownership Trust.

This means that our employees now own 60% of the business and will share in the longer-term growth and financial success, ranging from six to seven-figure pay-outs.

This decision connects the long-term future of our employees with the long-term future of the Group, while also protecting and enhancing our unique culture that has been at the core of our success.

The Board of the Understanding Recruitment Group announced the completion of the sale of 60% of the business to an Employee Ownership Trust at our recent Strategy Day. The transaction is designed to allow employees to take a stake in the business and share in the longer-term growth and financial success, ranging from six to seven-figure pay-outs.

The Understanding Recruitment team is based in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, UK specialising in some of the most highly desirable niche technology sectors including Software Engineering, DevOps and Artificial Intelligence as well as our Understanding Solutions business, specialising in Statement of Work (SoW).

"Dale and I could not be prouder of the achievements and incredible performances we have witnessed especially over the past couple of years. The way the business rallied together and fought through the challenges of Covid was inspirational. It made us stronger and more resolute as an organisation and built a foundation for us to go on gaining an even deeper presence within our specialist markets across not only the UK and US but also more recently on a wider global basis." 

In the US (Boston) we operate under Acceler8 Talent, specialising in emerging tech roles across hardware acceleration, software engineering, AI & Machine Learning, and photonics.

The structure of the Board will remain unchanged with Chris Jackson as CEO and Dale Swords as COO.

Chris Jackson, CEO of Understanding Recruitment, said: “Today’s announcement is without a doubt the most significant and important one in our history. The Board has always been driven by creating an inclusive and rewarding culture and we feel strongly that the EOT will help further boost the already impressive growth performance (currently at over £5m EBITDA) and most importantly give all employees the opportunity to financially benefit from pay-outs ranging from six to seven-figures depending on their length of service and seniority. Dale and I could not be prouder of the achievements and incredible performances we have witnessed especially over the past couple of years. The way the business rallied together and fought through the challenges of Covid was inspirational. It made us stronger and more resolute as an organisation and built a foundation for us to go on gaining an even deeper presence within our specialist markets across not only the UK and US but also more recently on a wider global basis. I would like to thank Suzy Bolton (CFO) for being a key driver in making this happen along with the other Group Directors as well as Grant Thornton and Osborne Clarke.”