Aspire - Work With Us

| achieving more together www.weareaspire.com

Work With UsWelcome to AspireOur vision is to be a global network of leading specialist recruiters

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Introduction from the Chairman“Only when all parties are truly committed do you get the best result”

This sums up what we call ‘More Together’ the words that define

our values as an organisation and if you join us you will have

demonstrated these during the selection process and expand

them further as you develop your career with us.

We are part of a sector that generates over £125b per year

globally and annually over £22b in the UK and supplies over

1.5 million temporary workers on a daily basis. Without the

recruitment industry the economy would collapse like a pack of

cards.

Aspire’s vision is to be a ‘global network of leading specialist recruiters’. Initially established as

Phee Farrer Jones in 1992 we rebranded to Aspire in May 2014, joining together our five brands

PFJ, The Graduate Recruitment Company, Periscope, RPCushing and Aspire Global Network Asia.

We now employ over 100 people across two continents.

We have a work environment that reflects the markets we serve, strong brands, a state of the art

CRM and some of the best training and development programmes you can find.

As always, we are only as good as our people which is why we focus on recruiting and selecting

the best possible talent and to provide a genuine career path. What sets us apart from the

crowd is our bespoke career development programme - Aspire. So good we named the company

after it! Whatever your role, you can develop your career according to your ambition, skills and

competencies. As a result we hold the Investors in People Gold Award.

We are a Sunday Times Best 100 Company to Work For, are accredited with the international

quality standard ISO 9001 and are winners of multiple recruitment awards.

We have a lot of flexibility towards work and also try and make sure that it is not all about

recruitment which is why we have the Ministry of Fun, an internal group tasked with putting on

monthly events enabling people to socialise out of the office.

But it’s not all about us. Chase Hospice is a cause close to our hearts, and an employee ran the

London marathon to raise money for this fantastic establishment. We also hold bi-monthly bake

off’s, have staffed their shops on a Saturday for their Apprentice Challenge event and donated

items to sell. At Christmas time, we collect gifts for Barnardo’s children as well as delivering food

packs to the homeless in conjunction with Feed the Homeless.

In a crowded market I believe we have something genuinely special and different to offer.

Paul Farrer, Chairman, Aspire


About AspireAspire specialises in recruiting for the media & marketing communications industry.

We draw on heritage and experience spanning more than two decades and recruit a wide range of roles and disciplines from graduate entry to Director level. Our clients include marketing services agencies, media owners, not for profit, client side and corporate organisations seeking media and marketing communications talent. The scope of disciplines we specialise in ranges from sales to content, technology to design, marketing to research and many others.

Established since 1992 and previously trading as a number of specialist recruitment brands – pfj (Phee Farrer Jones), The Graduate Recruitment Company, RP Cushing, Periscope and Aspire Global Network Asia – we unified in 2014 under one brand: Aspire.

• We have been involved in media recruitment since 1992

• We have been involved in graduate recruitment since 1993

• We have been involved in creative and design recruitment since 1998

• We have been involved in digital recruitment since 1999

• We have been involved in market research recruitment since 2000

• We have been operating in Manchester and North West since 2001

• We have been operating in Asia since 2011

We employ around 100 people based in four locations; London, Manchester, Singapore & Hong Kong and are therefore able to satisfy the needs of our clients and aspirations of our candidates and our people both locally and on an international level.

We are a ‘high touch’ recruitment business meeting and interviewing over 11,100 candidates a year of which 64% come to us via our own sources and channels enabling a unique supply of talent.Over the last 22 years we have established a clean and coded database of over 175,000 specialist media and marketing communications related candidates. Our clients brief us on over 5,000 permanent job opportunities a year and we boast a 96% success rate of placing the right people in the right job.

We have over 180 specialist interim candidates working for our clients every day.

We are a Sunday Times Top 100 Company to Work For, an Investors in People Gold Award Company and ISO 9001 Accredited Company – we are Aspire.

Achieving More Together

More Together is a set of values that drive how we work at Aspire.

Commitment at all these levels engenders better relationships with our clients, our staff and our candidates.

The 4 behaviours:

FlexibilityConsider the options, look for solutions, be adaptable and embrace change

AccountabilityDo what you say you will do. Be honest about what you can and can’t do. Take responsibility for your actions. Take a consultative approach

PerformanceSatisfy the needs of your customers, work to a fast pace, be commercially aware of your decisions

CommunicationListen to and inform your stakeholders (clients, candidates and colleagues)


Achieving More Together

Bonus Scheme - you won’t earn less than 30%. Guaranteed.As a recruitment consultant we know that money is important to you. With the help of our Non Executive Director John O’Sullivan and much benchmarking with fellow recruiters, we feel we have come up with a generous and regularly rewarding scheme.

In addition to this, the top biller each quarter receives an extra £500 bonus.

In the last year, Aspire has paid their employees £1.25 million in bonuses.

Aspire spends on average £7,500 in addition per head on benefits.

Our financial year runs from May 1st to April 30th.

Salaries range from £22,000 to £50,000 basic based on competency, proven previous billings and strong track records.

Monthly Bonus

Once you hit £7,200 you can calculate your bonus as follows:

Revenue Bonus Amount:

First £7,200 5% = £360 £7,201 - 15,500 10% = £830 £15,501 - 20,500 15% = £750 £20,501 - 25,500 20% = £1000 £25,001 + 25% = uncapped

Basically you earn the percentage in each band and then add it up. For example, if you invoiced £18,000 in a month the scheme would work as follows:

First £7,200 5% of 8,000 = £360 £7,201 - 15,500 10% of 7,500 + £830 £15,501 - 18,000 15% of 2,500 + £375 Total Bonus = £1,565

On top of this a 6 month reconciliation (in October) will offer a guaranteed remuneration of 30% OTE of your billings. A 12 month reconciliation will be applied in April which is also guaranteed.

My Reconciliation

We will guarantee you will not earn less than the following amounts:

NDR levels OTEUp to £140,000 30% £42,000 £140,001 - £150,000 31% £43,400.31 - £46,500£150,001 - £160,000 32% £48,000.32 - £51,200£160,001 - £220,000 33% £52,800.33 - £72,600 £220,001 - £249,000 34% £74,800.34 - £84,660 >£250,000 35% £87,500.00


Benefits

High 5Every quarter Paul Farrer, Chairman, takes out the 5 highest billers as a percentage over target, plus 2 others who are over target and have displayed More Together values. Venues are top London restaurants such as Sketch, Nobu and Maze. As an added bonus, the High 5 club don’t have to get into the office until midday the next day!

Mobile phoneEach consultant is given a smart phone for work purposes from their first day.

Holiday leave (runs January to December)Minimum 23.5 days (of which 3.5 days must be taken at Christmas as agreed in the business). After one year’s service this rises to 25 days and after 2 years it is increased to 28.5 days.

Flexible WorkingAspire offers all staff the chance to manage their own hours through flexible working. If you start at 8am you can finish at 5pm – or have a lie in, start at 9.30am and finish at 6.30pm. At Executive Consultant and Manager level there is the option to work some days from home.

Duvet daysYou can take one duvet day per quarter, which will be taken from your holiday allowance. You must tell your manager before 8.30am on the day you intend to take off.

SabbaticalsAfter 4 year’s service you will have the opportunity to take a career break for up to 3 months, at 50% pay.

Relaxed Dress Code Our sector is not a suited and booted environment so we have a dress code to match.

Travelcard loanOn passing your probation you’re entitled to an interest free loan to pay for an annual travel card, deducted from your pay in equal instalments.

Pension planAfter 12 month’s service you will qualify for a contributory pension plan – if you contribute, Aspire’s annual contribution will be:

Grade A: 3%Grade B and C: 5%Grade D and E: 8%

Life Assurance4x base salary – entitled from the first day of employment.


Benefits

Private health cover

Grade A After 2 years Individual

Grade B After 12 months Individual

Grade C After passing probation Individual

Grade D and above After passing probation Individual and Family option

Free Flu JabsWe provide a free vaccination service every year for those who would like to help protect themselves against flu.

Free Breakfast and FruitIn addition to our own café style kitchen where you have access to free hot and cold drinks all day, we also offer free breakfast (cereals & toast) and free fruit.

Voucher schemeFor those employees who have children, Aspire is in partnership with the childcare voucher scheme - Edenred www.edenred.co.uk. This means that all employees can pay their childcare provision via a voucher scheme. Aspire gives an additional contribution to working parents by giving a pro rata contribution of up to £243 per child.

MassageEvery employee is entitled to a free monthly 20 minute back and shoulder massage in our offices.

Bike to Work schemeYou can purchase a bike tax and NI free. All you need to do is go to a cycle shop that is part of the scheme, choose your bike and helmet etc and then they will invoice Aspire. You will then repay the cost of the bike over 12 months with an interest free loan.

Prizes and AwardsWe have Annual top biller prizes, Quarterly Prizes for top biller, Monthly Cups, Millionaires Club and various incentives running throughout the year.

Club Wembley Whatever the entertainment from sport to music, there are opportunities to attend in our own Club Wembley seats.

No Tax on IncentivesMany companies pass the tax on incentives to their employees. At Aspire the tax is paid for us, not by us.


Benefits

Long Service AwardsWe reward staff members with long service awards. At 5 years of service you will receive a £500 cash reward and at 10 years you will receive a £1,000 cash reward.

Boardroom BucksIt is the opportunity for anyone in the business to get an Aspire bursary towards something to do with your own personal growth. It is held twice a year – March and September and in a year there is £2,500 or equivalent up for grabs.

Healthshield Annual Cash back benefit scheme

Benefit Amount Annually

Dental £50

Optical £50

Physio, chiropractic, osteopathy, acupuncture, homeopathy

£150

Specialist consultation £200

Chiropody £50

Health and wellbeing £70

Health screening £100

ShowersFor those that cycle or run in or for any other reason we have showers available for all staff.

Ministry of Fun Our employee group responsible for putting on events throughout the year that are free to attend and enjoy.

Millionaires Club All those that accumulate £1million in billings receive a special trophy.

Managers Club An annual all expenses paid night out for the best performing managers over target.

Give as You Earn scheme This is brilliant for those that have a standing order or a direct debit to a charity. The scheme enables you to pay from your gross salary pre tax.


Discounted Gym Membership Join our rolling monthly gym membership scheme, provided by LA Fitness at a competitive rate. Hand pick one of the membership types to suit your needs and try before you buy with one of our free gym passes.

Wellbeing MonthsAspire takes an active interest in the well being of our employees – happy and healthy staff with a good work life balance are more productive.

As well as the monthly massage, Healthshield membership and free daily fruit for all of our employees, we also run quarterly Wellbeing months. This involves fresh fruit juice or smoothies for breakfast and healthy afternoon snacks provided.

We have an on site reflexologist for subsidised appointments, as well as a doctor for full health MOTs. Weather permitting, we also hold outdoor activities such as running club, rounders in the park and boot camp sessions.

80% of employees rated our last Wellbeing week as being either ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’.

A ‘Wellbeing’ committee meet monthly to discuss other wellbeing initiatives.


Ministry of FunThe Ministry of Fun is Aspire’s social committee who organise regular company events for the whole company to enjoy.

Recent events that the Ministry of Fun have put on include our Brazilian themed company conference party, summer rounders in the park, high school prom themed annual company party and Las Vegas themed Christmas party. The committee is changed on an annual basis so anyone that wishes to be can get involved!

High school prom themedcompany party

Brazilian themed company conference party

Las Vegas themed Christmas party


“A clear learning and development strategy based around the ‘aspire’ performance management and development process; this process provides a clear and structured development plan for individuals.”

“People across the organisation talk very positively about their experiences of the ‘Aspire’ process and how it has helped to improve both their performance and develop their skills and knowledge.” IIP Gold Report


Your AspireAspire is a bespoke career progression programme, based on both performance and competency, in the form of six monthly appraisals.

Aspire shows you where you fit into the business and gives you clear objectives to progress your career here with us. Aspire will assist you with your personal development plan and it really gives you the choice of where your career goes.

At Aspire there are three paths to choose from, each enabling you to move up the career ladder. We invest heavily in our most committed staff to make this happen.

Aspire to consultAt Aspire we recognise that not all successful fee earners want to become managers but they do want to enhance their career. With the ‘Aspire to consult’ route you can move through the ranks as a successful biller to director level, developing your key account management skills.

Aspire to manageYou have been a successful biller and now you want to develop and nurture a team. Again at Aspire you can work towards becoming a director on this route.

Aspire to supportYou are in a support or functional role but are just as interested in progressing your career with us. With this route you can explore your options and again work towards becoming a director.

You will be given a full introduction to Aspire once you have passed your probation with us.

TrainingAspire has held the Investors in People Award since 2000 and were awarded a Gold award in 2012. This is because we take our training and development extremely seriously.

The more skilled our people, the better our performance. The better our development plans, the easier it is to retain talent. All our management staff have been trained to train which enables us to deliver training across the business on a continuous basis as the demand arises. We also use external trainers for developing our skills in areas that are new to us. Recently, our external trainer Jeremy Snell has given training on LinkedIn and Twitter, and the whole business has participated in NLP training.

Upon joining Aspire, you will have a one to two week induction course where we will demonstrate to you the key skills to do the job. There is a lot to learn and it lays down the foundations for the future. After induction training you will receive ongoing training and development, delivered as and when requested. Needless to say those that put the training into practice seem to do the best. All our training is evaluated by each delegate and the delegates are evaluated by the trainer. This way we can constantly improve the quality of the training we deliver.

Early on in your career with us you will be given a clear set of objectives to achieve in your initial three months. This enables you to keep track of your own progress and is used as a reference for discussion in your weekly one to one sessions with your line manager. Out of those meetings, training and development issues will be raised that we can then address. We also have morning meetings for each team, and company wide meetings on a Friday afternoon.

Consultants are also given the opportunity to develop themselves and can access further training modules on the intranet. We also hold optional Modelling Excellence Masterclass sessions, run by our own top consultants.

“There are clear strategies in place to ensure that staff across the organisation are equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and behaviours they require to deliver the organisation’s aims and objectives.”

“People believe that the company’s flexible approaches to learning anddevelopment has helped them individually and as a team as a whole.” IIP Gold Report


Testimonials“Our bespoke offices at New Cavendish Street are truly inspiring and provide a fantastic high-specification working environment for all employees in the business. We’ve created a bright and airy office space that has been warmly appreciated by each and every team, as the integration between management, fee-earners and support staff has also enabled an open and flexible team culture to flourish. We are able to provide extremely well equipped interviewing and training facilities for candidates and clients alike, which can be tailored to specific requirements at short notice. In addition to our spacious designer kitchen, integrated shower rooms and superb break-out areas we’ve also invested in specially commissioned IT systems that have been tailored with our current and future growth in mind. Did I mention the free breakfasts and flexible working hours too?!” James Dawes

“I started at Aspire on the Graduate team in February 2010 as a consultant having done a year in media sales and not having any idea what recruitment would have in store for me! In less than three years I have had three promotions and increased my basic salary by 50%. I am now Senior Manager of the Aspire Graduates digital team and Account Director of two major media organisations for the whole of Aspire. These promotions have come about the because of the ‘aspire’ programme or personal development plan which every member of staff in the business goes through- even our Chairman Paul Farrer!” Clare Benson



Corporate Social Responsibility

We are proud to give back.

Here at Aspire, we know we can achieve more when we work together. Not just for our clients and candidates – but for the communities in which we operate too. That’s why every single one of us is committed to reducing our impact on the environment and making sure we do our bit to support our communities around the globe. Here’s how:

EnvironmentWe’re passionate about reducing our impact on the environment. Day-to-day, we take active steps to improve our carbon footprint. For instance, all of our offices have recycling facilities to reduce waste, not to mention video conferencing equipment to minimise unnecessary travel. Wherever possible, our people are actively encouraged to take public transport. And our technology is set up to turn off at night.

On top of all that, we’re proud to be active members of the excellent Trees for Cities programme (www.treesforcities.org), which sees us plant a tree for every 10 placements we make.

CommunityIt gives us great pride to support a number of brilliant charities. Chase Hospice is a cause close to our hearts, and an employee ran the London marathon to raise money for this fantastic establishment. We also hold bi-monthly bake off’s, have staffed their shops on a Saturday for their Apprentice Challenge event and donated items to sell. At Christmas time, we collect gifts for Barnardo’s children as well as delivering food packs to the homeless in conjunction with Feed the Homeless. But it’s not just special occasions that see us playing our part to raise money for good causes – we also take part in just about every charity day going, from Wear it Pink to Red Nose Day. And we have plenty of fun doing it!

Outside of the UK, we organise the payroll for the Village education project in Tanzania.


Our Recruitment ProcessThe recruitment process to join Aspire is as streamlined as we can make it when allowing for the element of thoroughness that career decisions deserve. After an initial conversation where you declare an interest in Aspire, you will be able to assess us and we can assess you in a 2-3 stage process. The first interview will be with a director. Your second interview will be with an Aspire manager and director and will include a presentation, role plays and a Q&A.

We may then ask you to do some work shadowing or have drinks with the team.

Best of luck!

Date post:	28-Nov-2014
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