What is it about recruiters and hit BBC show The Apprentice?
The new season once again features someone from the world of recruitment in the shape of Scarlett Allen-Horton. There have already been four previous winners from the recruitment sector, so she will have a hard act to follow. As recently as 2017, James White, a recruitment firm boss, was chosen by Lord Sugar as the show’s joint winner.
Scarlett, 32, is also billed as a recruitment company owner, where she is a senior partner for global transport engineering leadership search at Harper Fox Partners, based in the West Midlands
So will the words, ‘You’re Hired!’ be ringing in Scarlett’s ears at the show’s conclusion?
Many recruiters watching may just be hoping she reflects well on the industry as a whole and doesn’t go down the path of cheesy business mantras and delusional ambition.
But actually, she appears to be a candidate who has her head screwed on. She says that working hardest and smartest is the way to succeed and counts her problem-solving skills as one of her strengths. She even admits to a weakness of ‘struggling to accept help from others’ which shows she at least has a sense of self-awareness missing from many of the usual hopefuls.
Long-term fans of the show may remember that in 2008 Lee McQueen, and in 2012 Ricky Martin, both recruiters, won over Lord Sugar to take the show’s crown.
But is it any surprise that recruiters have been remarkably good at bowling over Lord Sugar?
Recruiters are, afterall, natural business people. They need to find opportunities to bring in revenue, they need to close deals, they need to build trust in clients and candidates, and, as Scarlett says, working hard and working smart are essential to success. Ultimately, they want to make money.
Recruiters understand this and that’s why many of them, once they have built several years’ experience as an employee, want to branch out and run their own agencies.
They are entrepreneurs at heart.
The Recruit Venture Group was set up precisely because there are many talented, ambitious recruiters out there who could easily run their own business, but are put off by the start-up costs, red tape and potential risks and pitfalls of launching an agency solo.
But by offering 100% of the finance needed for launch, risk free, by putting in place an industry-leading in-house back office solution and by providing all the business mentoring and planning support of a vastly experienced team, The Recruit Venture Group supports recruitment start-ups which are built to thrive.
Nearly 60 recruiters have now ditched their fixed salary and are running thriving agencies, under their own brands and with their own business strategies.
Paul Mizen, Managing Director of The Recruit Venture Group said “The best recruiters treat their desks like a business. It is these people who can earn more, build phenomenal personal wealth and have the ultimate career satisfaction if only they have the confidence to go for it and start their own enterprise. That’s what The Recruit Venture Group was founded for – to open the doors to entrepreneurship.”
So as we watch the fortunes of Scarlett in the pressure-cooker of Lord Sugar’s boardroom, consider that recruitment is more than just a pathway to being The Apprentice, but actually to becoming a thriving business leader.