Paige
Sammy is super responsive and has successfully paired us with a great candidate – it’s been a delight to work together!!
Strong Growth for Ex-Julia Ross Recruiters’ Start-Up!
MAYDAY Recruitment, launched by three former Julia Ross recruiters, has grown to 12 staff in its first 18 months despite two of its co-founders taking parental leave in the same period.
After going their separate ways following Ross Human Directions’ acquisition by Chandler Macleod, Imogen Hermesmeier, Katrina Penman and Joanna Ward reconnected to start the white-collar recruitment business, focused on filling what they describe as a ‘care factor‘ gap in the market.
“We used to have such a high level of candidate care at Julia Ross, and that tended to subside a little over the years,” says Ward. “When it was in its prime, it was really renowned for the temp market and how [Ross] did things differently.”
MAYDAY plans to increase headcount to 20 by 2019, and the directors attribute the firm’s growth to their team, particularly general manager Lynne Johnston, also ex-Julia Ross, who came on board when both Ward and Penman went on maternity leave.
Rather than putting on the brakes, Hermesmeier says the leave “has made us grow faster than we would have. We would probably have taken a lot more on ourselves and tried to be more risk-averse… When [Ward and Penman] come back into the business they’re going to have different roles and will be very focused on growing the business”