In the past year Nottingham based Distinct Recruitment has seen year on year sales rising by 68 per cent and reinvestment increasing the business’ office square footage by over 100 per cent. The independently owned business, which started in 2016, has also further committed to its people-first model with an additional 10 staff, cementing Distinct as one of the region’s business success stories.
Founder and CEO James Calder attributes the firm’s growth, which specialises recruitment for accountancy practice, finance, HR, IT & tech, marketing, office support, supply chain and procurement, plus new jobs in data insights and analytics, to staying true to its people-centric values, investment in staff and collaborative approach.
In the East Midlands, Distinct has recently moved its head office to Nottingham’s historic Lace Market, increasing its working space to 5,500 sq ft and making a significant investment in the refurbishment of the offices. The firm has also expanded its locations, opening sites in Milton Keynes and London, and with an eye to international expansion, has put down roots across the pond, with new offices in New York and Boston. This has helped trigger an increase in the number of available vacancies across its recruiting sectors, such as for IT jobs, rising each month.
Comments Calder: “People are at the heart of Distinct and thanks to our continued reinvestment and culture, we have grown from a very small team in 2016 to 42 people today. We thrive on creating an environment that attracts and retains the best people in recruitment, promoting transparency around our growth strategy to ensure all our staff to feel involved. Our recent office expansion has only been made possible thanks to the ongoing dedication from our team.”
The business has built on its founding principles of being people focused, through reinvestment to help grow the team and support career paths. From its inception, Distinct set out to offer a different working environment and removed the financial pressure points from its business growth model to instead focus on the talent within the business.
Gradual reinvestment has supported this growth, with Distinct developing its team to adapt to the changing marketplace. This was recently recognised after winning the Small Business of the Year (up to 50 staff) at the East Midlands Business Masters 2020 Awards. One of these developments was having the foresight to grow its business offer by investing in video technology – long before video software became the norm over lockdown. Clients and candidates alike have embraced this change, allowing interviews to take place remotely and facilitating pre-job screening for those firms recruiting new staff.
CEO James Calder concludes: “Every decision we take is made with our people in mind as they are at the heart of everything we do. We want to attract and retain the best people and put plans in place so they can achieve their very best. We strive to harness an individual’s ambition in line with the ambition of the business, and transparency of our communications key to this.
“Each member of our team has been incredibly supportive of how we deliver our business plans and we are so proud of them thanks to their passion and delivery. Without our people, Distinct would not be the business it is today.”
