Case Study
Sector: Engineering
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Case Study
Engineering
Thomas Lee Recruitment was founded at the start of 2016 by Mark Hopkins who, after 16 years working across various recruitment agencies (all primarily focussing across the engineering & manufacturing market), felt he was ready to make the leap & launch his own agency. An agency born out of a genuine belief about what an effective recruitment service ought to look like. Focussing across the engineering & manufacturing market on a permanent basis, this is his story.
Client Name: Mark Hopkins
Company Name: Thomas Lee Recruitment
Sector: Engineering
Inception: 01 February 2016
Isotope Partnership: Traditional
A motivation that can commonly be found in the majority of conversations with ambitious recruiters eager to make the leap & create their own agencies in 2023 is around culture; namely the opportunity to create a vehicle that is a true reflection of their own character.
Back in the dark ages of 2015/6, it was less common.
Which is part of what made Mark, his goals, his ambitions & his viewpoint on what ABC Recruitment (he hadn’t put his creative thinking cap on just yet) was going to stand for so exciting to listen to & to be a part of.
It was never going to be solely about “the money” for Mark, although he was fully aware of the potential financial upside that launching his own agency could bring him. For him, it was always going to mean more than that. Having been fortunate enough to work for a wide variety of agencies over the years, from small boutique firms to large corporate conglomerates; he felt that he had the professional knowhow to create & develop a business that put both client & candidate at the forefront of everything that he did in a personal, pragmatic & effective manner.
After years of working for people, managing desks, managing teams & opening branches all on the backdrop of ensuring his billings remained at the consistent level he was known for within the engineering space; the planets aligned & the niggling thought in the back of his mind got louder, & louder, & louder until one day it wasn’t a case of “I could do this for myself” but rather “I have to do this for myself”.
Isotope have been lucky enough to know Mark & the journey of Thomas Lee Recruitment ever since it’s inception back in 2016, with key members of the Isotope team being lucky enough to be “around the table” when the business was born. His conversations with Isotope developed from some gentle frustrations with his (then) partners & his belief around what effective recruitment startup support really looked like for him & Thomas Lee Recruitment (yes, he finally got his creative thinking cap on!).
A role we have been very lucky to play in his business for the last few years now.
As businesses mature, so too does the nature of the support that is important to them & the recruiters within it; it’s a journey we see so often & a constant indication that the most effective recruitment startup support is a unique balance between the practical & holistic support all agencies require. With that in mind, here are just some of the areas of support Isotope are lucky enough to work with Thomas Lee Recruitment across:
Logo design
Business cards
Letterhead
Compliment slip
Email signature
Homepage design
Here are just some of the landmarks Thomas Lee have enjoyed since opening their doors.
Enhanced Recruitment Offering
Temp’, perm’ & retained!
Year on Year Success
Longevity breeds success
Targets smashed
In excess of 100% over target from 2021 to 2022
Personal brand superstar
You don’t know Mark Hopkins?!
As part of the on-going creative & marketing support provided to our clients, the creative team are on hand to ensure that both the visual & brand identity of our clients are constantly reflective of our client & their business. Check out just some of the more recent creative work, here:
If you’re reading this review, then you did what I did 5+ years ago. I wanted to start this recruitment agency. I have always wanted to start one. But how do i do this? what the future hold? Are these guys legit? Can I do it without them?
Then the bigger burning questions deep inside are, What about tax? How can I survive till my first invoice pays? How do I make it work? What about websites? Logos? Do I use Gmail? Business plan? CRM? The questions went on and on.
Then I called them.
5+ years I’ve known Max/Laura/Jordan. The first day I met them, still sticks in my head. Other than the red velvet muffins on the meeting room table, and the good coffee Max can make. They sat with me, talked me through everything, at my level of understanding – I’m not a web designer, or an accountant. I’m a recruiter, only thing I ran till then was a desk for various companies, and a team later on. That’s not running a business.
They spent hours with me. Weeks even. Going through everything, every detail, every tiny thing I needed to know, but reassured they had my back, and was solving/dealing with.
It didn’t stop there, for years these guys, worked with me. Some months would go by and we’d speak 2-3 times. Others, weekly, daily. I seeked help, advice, direction – they were there. Never faulted.
Money can’t pay for that. That comes from passion of their work, and belief they have in you.
This might not be the right solution for you, but at least ask them if it can be. I did that 5+ years ago.
And I haven’t looked back since.
Build it & they will come. When Mark isn’t laying the foundations of another effective recruitment project & building the hiring infrastructure for his clients, you can find him turning his hand to whole host of DIY jobs & projects. The latest? A little something he likes to call Project Outpost 43. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, why not pop over to Marks LinkedIn & see what all the fuss is about.
So there are a few things you might feel like doing right now. You might feel like re-reading the above? Perhaps you can resonate with this particular recruiter, perhaps they’re working in a comparable market to you & you’d like to re-read both their history & some of the support that has been important to them since their inception. Alternatively you might feel like reading another case study from the collection? Perhaps you’re interested in hearing other stories, other insights into what pulls recruiters to start their own agencies & compare that with your own thoughts & feelings around the topic. Or perhaps you just feel ready to make that first step for yourself? You’ve read a few of these case studies now & can see parts of “you” in every journey, you’ve looked at their history, you’ve reviewed what they had to say about Isotope & you might have even taken a sneak peak of them on LinkedIn. Whatever you feel like doing, what’s stopping you clicking that yellow button & exploring the idea a little further? 👇
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The recruitment market has changed dramatically since the inception of Thomas Lee Recruitment back at the start of 2016. The rise of social selling being one of the biggest to impact the way in which recruiters interact with both candidates & clients. Mark is a shining example of not only how to integrate social selling into your recruitment strategy but also the real positive impact it can have on you & your business. Mark Hopkins is known because of the great work of Thomas Lee Recruitment & Thomas Lee Recruitment is known because of the great work of Mark Hopkins. Isotope? We’re just pleased to be an active extension of both!