Having had experience of working in the Channel Islands in a previous role, Andy Partlow, Director of the offshore arm of recruitment business Alexander Daniels, saw Jersey as an opportunity to grow the ambitious company even further. He helped set up a new office last year – a decision he believes provides some hugely exciting opportunities
What does Alexander Daniels do?
We’re a consultative recruitment business, established 10 years ago and working across a number of professional sectors, including financial services, accountancy, legal and HR, as well as energy.
Our head office is in Birmingham and over the past decade we’ve taken an increasingly international perspective, establishing offices in Spain, Germany, Scotland, the US and, most recently, the Channel Islands.
It’s growth that has been supported by firms and individuals who value our passion for the sectors we’re working in, as well as our proactive and consultative approach. That means we’re constantly working to make sure that businesses get the right people for the right roles, and that people are finding real fulfilment in their careers.
What made Jersey an attractive location to expand into?
In a previous role, I had worked in Guernsey and knew that island well, so when I moved to Alexander Daniels in 2015 to work in our Birmingham head office, we had a conversation and took the strategic decision to look at the Channel Islands.
I was then tasked with setting up our Guernsey office in 2016 and it’s a move that has proved hugely successful – to the extent that, in the space of a couple of years, we became a market leader.
That success prompted us to look at Jersey as well. It was seemingly an obvious move; we knew lots of pan-island firms that were working across the two jurisdictions and, as island economies, the two are comparable – but they are also quite different, including from a recruitment perspective.
Our opinion was that our knowledge of the key financial, legal and accountancy sectors in Jersey would stand us in good stead – and certainly from the people we spoke to across the island, it was clear that our proactive approach would be well received there too.
It felt like a natural fit, so in July 2018, we took the step to bolster our Channel Islands presence by establishing a new office in St Helier.
Was the move straightforward?
It helped that I had lived for a while in Guernsey previously and set up our other Channel Islands office there, so I knew a few people in the islands. Having said that, establishing an office anywhere from scratch is always a massive challenge, so to have such easy access to advice during the whole process was absolutely paramount.
The support from Locate Jersey was exceptional, and we got some fantastic guidance from other businesses and advisers, which really helped manage expectations internally and get us through the more bureaucratic processes involved in setting up an office.
Overall, we were really impressed with the ‘open for business’ mentality and proactive approach, which tallied with our own philosophy.
How is Jersey suited to the business?
Over the past 12 months or so, we’ve been really pleased with the fact that firms in Jersey have been more than happy to hear about our consultative approach. What we have found is that firms here are focused on quality – getting the best candidates to give them an edge, help them cut through and show what they are all about in what is a really competitive marketplace.
That’s meant that our approach, passion and commitment to working with them to find the best solution has, fortunately, genuinely resonated.
It’s also a really cosmopolitan community, which has added an exciting dynamic and naturally brings broad and different skill sets to the market, which is interesting from a recruitment perspective and positive for Jersey as whole.
How is the business evolving since it was launched and what are your ambitions?
We see the Channel Islands as mature markets. Certainly, our experience in Jersey over the past year or so has been that businesses here are, by and large, thriving, the economy is stable and businesses are very open, welcoming and place a huge value on their people – which is fantastic from our point of view.
I continue to be based in Birmingham, but visit the island regularly and, I have to say, it’s been a real pleasure working here. It gives us confidence in the future of our offshore arm.
Looking forward, our ambition is to become the largest and most successful recruitment business across the islands and we really want to make a positive impact on the local recruitment sector.
And from a Jersey perspective, the sophistication of businesses here, the focus on professionalism and progression among the workforce, the digital aspirations of firms and the optimism people share, give us every reason to be positive about our future on the island.
While we’ve only been here a relatively short time, we’ve built a good permanent team here and established ourselves well in the market. It’s a really exciting time to be working in our industry in Jersey and our focus now is on enhancing our visibility in the local community and building a strong platform to position us strongly for the coming years.
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This advertising feature was produced in partnership with Locate Jersey.
Visit www.locatejersey.com
• This advertising feature was first published in the November 2019-January 2020 edition of Businesslife magazine