Success Stories
We are proud of the achievements of our staff and we actively promote a culture of personal progression and achievement in our company.
Below are some examples of where employees have successfully climbed through the ranks and forged highly successful careers here at The Synergy Group.
Jo-Elle Warhurst – Team Manager, VMS Social Care, London
“I started my career as a Registered Psychologist working in Australia, completing psychometric assessments for graduate through to executive recruitment selection. When I moved to London I could not register as a Qualified Psychologist in the UK, so I chose to pursue a career in recruitment. I started out in Stratford working as a Domiciliary Care Coordinator, I then moved into the Qualified Social Work market as a Recruitment Consultant specialising in placing Australasian Qualified Social Workers. For the past 5 years I have worked for The Synergy Group, where I started out as a Senior Consultant working with UK experienced Qualified Social Workers after 2 years was promoted to Team Manager of the VMS Social Care Team, managing the largest team within the company placing Qualified and Unqualified Social Care staff within the Vendor Managed Services (VMS) in London and South England.
Working for The Synergy Group has been my most positive employment experience in the UK. I feel consistently reassured that whenever I am told that something is going to be done, it gets done! I do feel 100% supported by my director and have been given the freedom to introduce new techniques and strategies to improve the performance of my team and own billings. When you work at Synergy you have the freedom to treat your desk as your own business, I have found this autonomy motivates me to achieve my goals and those of my team.
I have recommended four experienced consultants to join Synergy and would not have done this if I felt the company wasn’t worth working for. I have also nominated three Qualified Social Workers that have been awarded Special Commendation with the REC for locum Social Worker of the year. This is testimony to the quality candidates that the Synergy Group attracts. I too was awarded REC Business Manager of the year in 2008 and a Principal Consultant in my team, Matt Larkin was a finalist REC Locum Recruitment Consultant of the year in 2009.
Joining the company was a pleasure as I felt that everyone made a conscientious effort to make me feel welcome, and I see this tradition continue with newcomers, which is very reassuring. I feel there is a sense of genuineness about the way Synergy does business, which resonates with me. I feel proud to know that I work for a company that is ethical and yet still competitive in the market. It is encouraging to call clients and receive a positive reception when I note which agency I am calling from.”
Ngaire Wallace, Principal Consultant, International Team, London
“I joined The Synergy Group in June 2007, just one month after landing at Heathrow airport equipped with a working visa and very little knowledge about the UK recruitment market. Hayley Cadman, Synergy’s HR Manager, found my CV on Monster and called me, just as I was leaving a second interview with a major competitor. After a small amount of cajoling, Hayley encouraged me to go straight from my previous interview to meet with Synergy, and I was ‘sold’ on the job almost as soon as I met Hayley and a Divisional Director.
I started working on the Technical Support team, part of Synergy’s Construction and Technical recruitment arm, a great place to be with various large construction and engineering projects in London, and excitement about the 2012 Olympics just beginning to kick off. I was promoted to Senior Consultant within 6 months and Principal Consultant in less than 1 year. Since that time, I have tried my hand within several other teams, eventually moving into recruitment of overseas Social Workers into permanent child protection roles within the UK. Now I am lucky enough to travel overseas with clients, and assist international workers with every aspect of their relocation into England, which naturally includes numerous social activities to help new arrivals network and settle into life in the UK.
Being a relatively small and very forward-thinking company, The Synergy Group are able to react quickly to changes in the market, such as moving staff from construction to focus on public sector recruitment following market challenges in 2008. For me, this has meant not only that I have been able to continue to run a successful desk despite having worked in areas that suffered during the recession, but also I have been able to learn and develop different skills. I have found that Synergy will always reward and ‘look after’ their staff, and they focus on an individual’s potential rather than previous experience alone.
Prior to joining Synergy, I worked in the Australian outback, as an in-house recruiter and HR officer for an international mining firm, and before that, with a boutique recruitment firm in New Zealand, recruiting telesales staff for a major telecommunications firm. Although I have enjoyed every position that I have held so far, I can honestly say that working for Synergy has been my best career move to date, and I would not hesitate to recommend them as an employer to anyone. Particularly, I have found all of the senior staff at Synergy, including the Directors down to earth and supportive. My fellow Synergy employees and managers have become my ‘home away from home’ in the UK, and my positive experience with Synergy is one of the major reasons that I have chosen to stay in London, and am now working towards (hopefully) obtaining a British passport.”
Toby Kendall, VMS Manager, London
I joined Synergy in 2005 after several years spent working in High Street branches of one of the largest multinational recruitment companies. Synergy was one of those companies I had previously come up against in my previous roles and were renowned for delivering an excellent service to clients and candidates, so when approached by a Rec2Rec, I was very interested in meeting them to find out why.
Three interviews, one test and five hours later, I was accepted to the role of Account Consultant within the Revenues & Benefits Team in a non-sales role, supplying staff to Local Authorities managed by neutral vendors. It was exactly the sort of role I was looking for and the difference between Synergy and my previous employers became apparent quite quickly – it was not just what Synergy did that made it stand out, but how it went about it’s business and the whole ethos behind the company.
It took me a while to find my feet, but with the support of my manager and colleagues I quickly developed a broad knowledge of Synergy’s business, my market and even some sales skills I never knew I had!
After two years on the Revenues & Benefits Team and with a change in the market, I moved onto the Housing Team where my billings went from strength to strength and within 18 months I achieved recognition of this with successive promotions to Senior and Principal Consultant. By now the market within many of the Local Authorities was changing and Synergy responded quickly, setting up a project team to re-assess the manner in which we recruited to the Vendor Managed Services. As a result, much of the company was restructured to meet the new challenges and I was lucky enough to secure a new role and a massive challenge managing a team of seven consultants recruiting to these Local Authorities across Housing, Revenues & Benefits and Environmental Health.
Overall my time at Synergy has re-defined my career path. Up until about three years ago I was still looking to get out of recruitment and re-train as a Town Planner – the company even agreed to let me work part time to help finance my studies – but after my successful move onto the Housing Team I left all thought of this behind and focused on my career and, supported by the Company, have reaped the rewards of this choice both financially and personally.
Contact Us
If you are dynamic and looking for a rewarding yet challenging new role, please email your CV to us or call Hayley Cadman on 020 7556 9332 in the strictest of confidence.