When Andrew and I decided to create Vero, we were very clear that we wanted to offer something different. There are lots of great recruitment businesses in Aberdeen with consultants who do a very good job. However for us, recruitment has always been about more than filling vacancies – it’s an opportunity to create memorable experiences for the people we support. Moving jobs is a big deal; it’s often highly emotional (for various reasons) and can quite literally change your life. Hiring into your team can also be incredibly stressful, especially when you’re losing a key member of your team and have pressing deadlines to consider.

As a recruiter, I’ve never been a ‘big biller’. I leave that to Andrew. I’ve always focused my attention on how someone felt, rather than simply the outcome. I would happily meet a candidate for a coffee after work who was interviewing with a company directly, or through another agency, to give them impartial advice. I thought nothing of giving someone a nudge in a competitor’s direction when they were advertising a role which looked perfect for them. To me, if I’ve been able to help someone (directly or indirectly) then I’ve done my job. This may sound mad to some of you reading this but it’s just the way I am. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve filled lots of jobs, but it was never my sole focus. This is why we created Vero.

Prior to our launch, we spent time speaking with previous candidates and clients to dissect what they did and didn’t enjoy about the recruitment process. One phrase kept popping up with both job seekers and employers - “we got there in the end”. Looking at it from afar, the outcomes were often the same (you had an individual filling a vacant role), but the experiences were invariably poles apart.

It would have been easy for us to start a recruitment business doing the same thing we always did. It worked and it made us money. But for us, creating Vero had to mean something more. That might sound a bit deep and profound, but for us it was really important. Having real and honest feedback from the people we support was invaluable in shaping a business which has been truly built from the outside in. We designed Vero with the end customers goals and objectives in mind; creating every step in the process to ensure that we add real value as well as ultimately delivering success.

We had both been through a massive shift-change in our attitudes, beliefs and general world view during our year off work and it was very clear that we had to do something with a greater purpose.

Andrew and I are both introverts at heart. We’re over-thinkers, we’re soft natured and, to coin a phrase my Nan would use, we’re ‘couthy’. We’ve never been sales people.

In fact, years ago, Andrew completed a personality test and the results were the polar opposite to what you would expect of a recruiter. According to the test, he should have been a nurse!

So let me pose a question to you: How do you want to feel?

Becca