What’s so great about working at STR?

We started the second quarter with an exciting announcement: we had become official corporate partners to the Portsmouth, Fareham, Havant and Gosport-based charity, Motiv8! As a business that employs the vast majority of its staff from the Portsmouth area and its environs, and works with a lot of clients and suppliers based on the south coast, both the company and all our staff were excited to have the opportunity to give back. In fact, some of our more athletic employees immediately signed up for the Great South Run! For the more sedentary of us, we held a pub-style quiz one lunchtime to start the fund-raising ball rolling.

Another cause close to our hearts, particularly in Navis Consulting, our maritime brand, is the charity Sailor’s Society. In April, Holly Noonan, one of our Recruitment Consultants, ran the London Marathon, raising over £1,000. Before that, she also ran her journey into work (approximately 6 miles in 55 minutes!) and organised a bake sale on the same day to raise awareness of her marathon attempt (I’m honestly exhausted just writing that).

Finally, this month saw a group of lovely volunteers gather on the chilly shoreline at Port Solent for a litter pick. This was a joint venture, facilitated by our own Founder and Executive Director, Clive Hutchings, and the Environmental Manager for Whale Island and Horsea Island, who are both passionate about ensuring a clean, green future for our planet. This is an area of special interest, and we’re proud to be helping to maintain a healthy local environment. 

The beautiful month of May saw us celebrate the King’s coronation with an afternoon cream tea fit for royalty! Meanwhile, Talos, our Automation brand, celebrated their ‘Brand of the Year 2022’ win with a team trip to Team Sport’s E-karting track in Southampton, followed by a curry. We also announced the second year of our Summer Trading Hours scheme, an initiative designed specifically to increase our employees’ sense of wellbeing by shutting the office at 2pm Fridays and enabling employees to make the most of the (hopefully) warmer days and longer summer evenings.

June was a whirl, which saw us celebrate Pride month with a rainbow themed day (cupcakes compulsory of course) and hear from our members of the LGBTQIA+ community about their experiences in the world of work. For Men’s Health Week, we shared our boys’ top tips for looking after their health, and on Father’s Day, we spoke to the STR dads to see how they manage being fabulous fathers with working at STR.

Another wonderful team of volunteers were given a half day to take on a second litter pick in June and this time we were joined by our education partners at the University of Portsmouth. We rounded off the month with an exclusive interview with one of our incredible life science contacts on International Women in Engineering Day, to help encourage the next generation into the STEM industries to which we owe so much.

During July, our HR team completed their Mental Health First Aid training, to enable them to look after their flock even more effectively, and a new deal with LinkedIn meant that every single recruiter would have a Professional Recruiter Licence, enabling them to make the best use of the platform and perform their roles to the best of their ability. The company has invested heavily in recent years in its resources, with, for example, every work station consisting of 3 screens, which has been proven to enhance efficiency, productivity and quality of output.

Throughout the month of mid-summer, we saw some pretty awful weather, but did enjoy some great news – STR was shortlisted for two awards at the Recruiter Awards 2023: ‘Best Engineering Recruitment Agency’ and ‘Best Recruitment Agency Marketing Team’. We also celebrated the promotion of one of our longest-serving employees, Ross Sanderson, to Group Director of Solutions. STR truly loves to invest in and develop our staff to help them achieve their career goals.

August is often a quiet month in recruitment as many clients, candidates and consultants take a break for the summer holidays. On a personal level, the Board agreed to my request for a short sabbatical during this period to enable me to spend as much time as possible with my son before secondary school, something I couldn’t be more grateful for as we made some fantastic memories over the summer! Back in the office, further award shortlisting announcements came in during this month and the next. Namely, the Global Recruiter UK Awards: ‘Best Medium Recruitment Business’, ‘Best Specialist Recruitment Business’ and ‘Best Candidate Attraction Through Social Media’, and the REC Awards for ‘Diversity Initiative of the Year’, ‘Community Impact of the Year’, ‘Best Permanent Recruiter of the Year’ and, the ultimate accolade, ‘Best Company to Work For’. Could we take home the prize? We had to wait until November to find out…

In September, we were also incredibly proud to announce that Clive was invited to join the Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s Board. As a career-long proponent of the REC and passionate supporter of the recruitment industry, we knew Clive’s appointment would further the development of the sector for the better, and it’s great to have a representative from the STR Group at the highest levels.

The month also saw our inaugural doubles pool tournament, played in our wonderfully kitted-out kitchens, and another delicious Director’s Lunch for our most recent Employees of the Month and the Quarter at The Pig in Brockenhurst.

The last quarter of 2023 certainly didn’t see us slow down! October was absolutely stuffed to the brim with frolics, fundraising and FLIBS! We kicked off with a team holiday to Barcelona for our life science brand, Blackfield, as a reward for achieving their best ever year since the brand’s inception. We then focused on raising money and awareness for some of the causes closest to our hearts. With a Macmillan coffee morning, we raised £248 for Macmillan Cancer Support, we held a bake sale and our courageous colleagues completed the Great South Run, raising over £2,000 for Motiv8, and we then all Wore it Pink in support of Breast Cancer Now. During National Adoption Week, we heard from Clive about his experiences in adopting 4 wonderful children into his family to help raise awareness of adoption and its benefits.

Later in the month, our dynamic Navis duo, Hollie and Holly, attended the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) and gave us a run-down on their return of their incredible experiences. We also finally got round to our Annual (late-)Summer Party, held at the Alchemist in Gun Wharf, as we celebrated our results and hard work over the first half of the year with some marvellous munch and magical cocktails.

We rounded off October with the highly competitive Pumpkin Carving Competition – congrats Navis Consulting! – and finished in Chichester at Purchases restaurant for the Graduate Lunch, congratulating our most recent successful cohort of trainees.

Movember saw a number of the STR men proudly sprouting incredibly impressive facial hair to help tackle men’s health issues head-on, raising £327 and providing us all with some good laughs in the process! On a personal note, I was very grateful to be given the opportunity to highlight World Diabetes Day on the 14^th through a blog around coping with the condition and how my wonderful company and colleagues support me.

We also hosted two company-wide Sales Competition Days in November, which proved very popular with the consultants who enjoyed the friendly but competitive nature of the event, particularly the dress to impress element!

November is awards season in the recruitment industry, and we were incredibly excited to be attending the Global Recruiter Awards followed by the annual highlight, the glittering REC Awards ceremony, where we treated our top-performing employees of the previous quarter to a sparkling evening of entertainment in London. We were incredibly proud to be highly commended for the Global Recruiter’s ‘Best Medium Recruitment Business’ category, and beyond ecstatic to win the ultimate accolade of ‘Best Company to Work For’ at the REC Awards! We know what a great place STR is to work, but it’s wonderful to have official recognition from the industry and our peers.

At the end of the month, Darren Day was announced as our new CEO; an extremely popular choice with all members of staff, Darren has worked across and with all areas of the business over the last 7 years. His appointment really helps demonstrate STR’s dedication to developing its employees and providing opportunity, and Darren himself is a huge proponent of this ethos. The announcement and the award wins coincided nicely with our Group Christmas party, held last year at the Harbour Hotel in Southampton. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner, drinks and dancing well into the night with some of the best colleagues it’s possible to have in the recruitment industry (and possibly anywhere)!

As we prepared for the Christmas break, we decorated our offices and got into the spirit with Christmas Jumper Day (lots of Die Hard references because, yes, it IS a Christmas film). Then the company treated us to another luxurious hot chocolate day; a welcome diversion as the mercury dropped. This was swiftly followed by the incredibly competitive Gingerbread House Decorating Competition – we’ve never seen so many people so focused on one goal – with the Shared Services team for the win (sorry Talos, maybe next year)! Later in the month however, it was the Navis team celebrating, having won the Group’s Christmas quiz. Their prize included the Destination Portsmouth boardgame, in which you’ll be able to spot a certain Portsmouth-based international STEM recruitment company!

Continuing with its pledge to reward and recognise its top performers, the members of our Milestone Club, that is those that have achieved some incredible targets, enjoyed a day at Goodwood, trying out some supercars around the internationally famous track, and enjoying an exceptional dining experience.

At the beginning of the month, we set up the Gifting Tree in our kitchen. This is a slightly different type of Christmas tree, decorated with tags containing the age and gender of a child or young person to buy a present for who might not otherwise receive anything on Christmas Day. We’re proud to say that by the deadline, just before we shut down for the holidays, all the tags had gone and we’d collected a lovely pile of presents for the charity Fair Ways, a local children’s services charity, to distribute to their foster families. Thinking about it, this is probably the best representation out of everything in this blog of why STR is such a great place to work.

I’ve completely run out of space to explain why STR is such a great place to work! The ethos of the company drives its values, which our employees – my colleagues – uphold every day. The business provides learning and development opportunities, the best rewards and recognition, and a real sense of being part of one big team. My colleagues are motivated, tenacious, generous and kind, and I’m proud to say that I’m one of them.

So how on earth can we top last year? I have no idea, but somehow, I know STR will do it!