21 years in recruitment and still going from strength to strength

Today IntaPeople celebrates 21 years in the recruitment industry despite initial scepticism from peers and potential clients when the business started in 1994. Since its inception IntaPeople has contributed approximately £70,000,000 to the Welsh economy and has achieved numerous awards and accolades.

Based in Cardiff with a second office in London IntaPeople is one of the largest specialist IT, technical and engineering recruitment agencies in Wales, with a net turnover of approximately £8.6m in 2015. Established in 1994, IntaPeople’s staff are experts in sourcing high quality candidates for a wide range of permanent, contract and temporary positions across the UK and Europe.

IntaPeople, the early years

In 1994 Directors Phil Handley and Stephen Riley identified a gap in the market when making a return to Wales from working abroad. After struggling with recruitment agencies who didn’t take the time to fully understand their requirements they decided to go it alone and set up IntaPeople initially to help IT and engineering professionals find work in Wales.

In the beginning they faced scepticism from peers and potential clients with one contact saying “if you are still here in three months’ time call me again. Companies like yours never last long.” However, this just fuelled their desire to succeed, Phil Handley said: “I thought, if I do nothing else in life I’ll call him in three months. Three months passed and IntaPeople was still going so I called him back and subsequently made several placements with them over the years.”

How has the market changed?

Since 1994 the IT, technical and engineering recruitment industry has changed dramatically. Phil added: “Technology is constantly changing and many of the popular roles we currently recruit for such as mobile developers and data analysts simply didn’t exist 21 years ago. We are continually striving to keep up with changes in the industry.”

IntaPeople’s key to success

Not many businesses are still going from strength to strength five years on, let alone after 21 years in business. Phil said: “We have seen many competitors come and go over the years, the main reason we have survived a number of recessions is our commitment to building lasting relationships.

“Our biggest asset is our specialist recruitment team who deliver quality customer service throughout every stage of the recruitment process. We strive to always deliver an honest and superior service, and both client and candidate satisfaction remains our driving force.”

As a long-standing member of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) IntaPeople operates ethically, to the highest standards and promotes good recruitment practice. They are constantly striving to improve processes, procedures and customer service to achieve professional excellence.

Achievements and awards

– Over 21 years IntaPeople has worked on approximately 27,500 IT, technical and engineering vacancies, throughout Wales, the UK and Europe.
– IntaPeople has helped 600 client companies with their growth plans and staffing needs by placing circa 6,100 key professionals in new roles. These range from European IT Director, Head of IT, Programme and Project Managers and Software Developers, to Data Centre/Storage Consultants, Infrastructure Support and Network Security Consultants, as well as Design Engineers, Structural Engineers, Draughtsmen and Production/Mechanical Engineers.
– The 6,100 placements can be broken down by region as follows:

Wales: 52%
Rest of UK: 41%
EU/Global: 7%

– Consequently IntaPeople has contributed approximately £70,000,000 to the Welsh economy
– In 2000 IntaPeople was named the fastest growing company in Wales
– For three years in succession (2008, 2009 and 2010) IntaPeople was a finalist in the Wales Fast Growth 50 awards achieving the ‘Sustainability Award’ for being one of only a handful of companies to ever achieve a ‘top 50 listing’ for 3 years in a row.

21 years later and IntaPeople is continuing to go from strength to strength. Phil said: “I just wanted to say thank you to all current and past employees, to our clients, and to the freelance contractors and permanent candidates that we’ve worked with since 1994. You’ve helped us become the business that we are today.”