In nine years, Stanton House has grown from a small office in London to an international recruitment business operating across the UK and Asia, it is incredible to look back and see how far we have come not just in terms of a business but also our people and our culture.
I set up the Reading office with Kevin Culverhouse in 2011 to focus on Qualified Accounting and Finance recruitment. Fast-forward to 2019 and we now offer Human Resources, Cyber Security, Interim and Permanent Finance and Finance Transformation recruitment and our first hire; Justin Hunting, has progressed from a graduate Associate Consultant to the Director of Stanton House Hong Kong.
We knew it was going to be different and today it is remarkable to see a thriving business working together but in a completely unique way.
All of our offices have one purpose which is to create consistently exceptional customer experiences but despite working towards the same goal, each of our regions has its own personality and uniqueness. From City Life in London to history in Edinburgh and adventure in Hong Kong, we have naturally adjusted our offering to match the requirements of the talent in each region and what is truly interesting is exploring how those differences impact our business.
Take daily routines as an example, in London our consultants will almost always take the underground to work. They are used to sitting; or mostly standing, on the train, reading a newspaper and setting themselves up for the day ahead while in Reading, everything and anything is a drive away and our consultants will listen to the radio or a podcast in the car on their way to work and come in often discussing the mornings debate. In Edinburgh it’s also a different story as the majority of the workforce can take a brisk walk to the office cutting through the city centre.
From a business point of view, it is great to have diversity – not just of gender, ethnicity and hierarchy - but also this range of day-to-day cultural differences. It also changes the way we interact with our network as in London we will always let a person know of the nearest tube stations or coffee shops while in Reading, car-parking arrangements can be vital!
A charity football match last Friday really put all of this into perspective. Three offices came together in Reading to play a friendly yet fiercely competitive game for our charity partner, EducAid and it was an incredible evening. Everyone put on a bib or sat on the side-lines and cheered on and looking on, you’d never know we didn’t see each other day in, day out.
We have made Stanton House Reading a high-growth and enjoyable place to work with an exceptional workforce and impeccable network but what’s even greater is the ability to look at the different office cultures we have created across the world and understand how they make our business great.
