Recruitment consultancy Pure Resourcing Solutions is celebrating a decade in business which has seen it become the recruitment partner of choice for hundreds of leading businesses in the Eastern region.

Originally founded in 2002 by current directors Ian and Lynn Walters and Gill Buchanan, Pure Resourcing Solutions made a splash from the start with its bright branding and tailored, relationship-focussed approach. 

The trio, who all had a background working in recruitment for national companies, shared a vision to take the best elements of what they had learnt during their careers to create an independent, approachable and consultative company.

Having started out as just three people in a temporary office, Pure Resourcing Solutions now has offices in Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwich and Chelmsford and employs more than 50 people. It has worked with over 6,000 clients from FSTE 100 companies to professional service firms and public sector organisations.

Originally a specialist Accountancy recruitment business, Pure Resourcing Solutions has further expanded due to client demand in the last decade to also provide temporary and permanent recruitment services for Executive, Financial Services, Human Resources, professional Office Support and most recently Marketing.

Director Gill Buchanan said: “We founded the business on honesty, integrity and trust. These were values which were not always associated with the target driven, impersonal world of corporate recruitment consultants. From day one the candidate and client relationship has been at the core of everything we do. Offering such a tailored and personal approach was a new concept for recruitment 10 years ago and it helped us to stand out.I believe that remaining true to our original values and foundations has been the key to our success and continued expansion. Even in this difficult economic climate businesses continue to come back to us because they trust us to work in partnership with them.”

Since the company was established the experts at Pure Resourcing Solutions has worked with more than 30,000 candidates and has supported many of them throughout their careers and seen them go on to become clients themselves.

Director Ian Walters said: “It has been extremely satisfying to see how we have been involved in people’s careers over the last 10 years. People we originally placed in their first roles as they stepped on to the career ladder we have gone on to place in senior and board level positions. They have then chosen to work with us to recruit employees for their own teams.”

Despite the company now working with businesses which operate on a global level, and both the firm and some of its consultants having been nominated for national awards, Pure Resourcing Solutions remain committed to the Eastern region. This commitment was further strengthened with the launch of the Best Employers Eastern Region initiative in Spring 2012. The bi-annual campaign explores a company’s culture and values to identify and promote the Eastern Region’s Best Employers. 

Director Lynn Walters said: “Over the years we have weighed up whether to open a London office. But our heart is in Eastern region, this is our patch and we know it well. We have proved that we can still service London and further afield while maintaining our local approach.”

Looking back over the last decade the expert team at Pure Resourcing Solutions has witnessed a number of changes within the world of recruitment. One of the most prevalent has been the development of technology and online media channels.

Associate Director Caroline Batchelor, who was the first team member to join the Directors at Pure Resourcing Solutions, said:

“The speed and ability to share information has evolved rapidly. Ten years ago the majority of jobs adverts were placed in local papers and online job boards were in their infancy. Now we can publish a job as soon as the advert is produced and immediately send it out to a targeted selection of potential candidates, who can then access it at any time using smart phones, lap tops or tablets while on the move.”

David Culley, Associate Director, who joined the team in the first year, added: “Social media has also had a big impact on the world of recruitment. We have seen a rise in clients using Facebook to get a sense about potential candidates outside of work. LinkedIn is also an incredibly useful tool to find potential candidates and we now coach people in how to use it effectively to stand out from the crowd.”

The company celebrated its anniversary with a team trip to the exclusive Osea Island in Essex to reward the employees who have helped make the business a success and who have flourished in the company’s founding culture of autonomy and flexibility.

Looking ahead the Directors at Pure Resourcing Solutions are committed to continuing to provide ways to add value for the businesses it works in partnership with from additional services to events and seminars which reflect recruitment trends, employment laws and economic climate.

“We understand that in current economic position employers are increasingly concerned about the consequences of making a wrong choice when they recruit,” said Gill Buchanan. “This is where our additional services such as personality profiling and competency based interviews can provide a real added value to businesses to give them confidence when recruiting and to help them make informed decisions.”

Lynn Walters added: “We would like to thank all the businesses that have supported us in the last ten years, especially those who had faith in us and what we could deliver when we were first setting up. Ultimately our ambition is to continue to grow both the business and our employees and to continue to ensure that local companies have the best possible reservoir of talent to draw from, whether it is on a local, regional or national level.”