IGA Talent Solutions would like to welcome Oliver Howley to the Contract Team as Senior Account Manager.
Oliver has over 9 years recruitment experience across a broad range of industries and brings a wealth of knowledge to the team.
Katie Thompson (She/Her), Talent Sourcing Manager at IGA caught up with Oliver to find out more about his background and how he has found his first month working at IGA. You can read more in the article below.
What areas of recruitment have you previously specialised in?
I’ve worked in Legal, Accountancy & Finance, Tax, Audit, Actuarial, and other areas of Advisory & Consulting. I also worked for several years in Medical Tech, which was absolutely fascinating. In that world I hired across just about all business functions from R&D to Science & Clinical experts, then through the product lifecycle by hiring Regulatory Affairs & Quality, through to Operations, Project/Programme Management, Sales, Marketing & Field Service. I’ve supported VP, C & D level leadership hirings and partnered with clients globally – I think it’s 15 countries I’ve made hires into for customers. So I suppose I’m a bit of a Swiss Army Knife in this respect!
What attracted you to join IGA Talent Solutions? What is different about IGA that sets it apart from other recruitment agencies?
A number of reasons. Primarily the vision of Peter Knowles & James Craven, with whom I’ve worked before in my earlier years. It’s such a joy to be linking back up with them. They are not only super smart and impressive but their energy and positivity is infectious. The total freedom and flexibility over how, when and where we work is nice. It’s reflective of a trusting leadership and a responsible team. That supports a healthy culture and aids in helping attract more new team-mates!
As a business, IGA is a business brimming with ideas, agility and high professional experience & maturity. You just have to look around you within the various teams and, without exception, you will find highly experienced professionals with an abundance of knowledge of their clients and markets. The teams can position themselves as genuine thought leaders and act as a mature, responsible, valuable asset to clients as a consulting business that provides excellent service as well as celebrating high achievement.
You have joined IGA as Senior Account Manager within the Contract Team, what do you think are the biggest challenges that your clients face within the contract market at the moment? How can you support your clients with these challenges and what solutions can you offer?
Put simply the battle to secure Talent is incredibly fierce and these market conditions will continue for a while. IGA has several strategies in place in collaboration with our clients which enables them to become more agile and expand the potential talent pool. An additional challenge that many businesses are adapting to is a shift in the desires of Talent in the labour market. In a fast-moving market such as Contract & Interim, where flexible labour and talent is needed, it is completely apparent that contractors’ desires to work 60%-100% remotely ranks highly on their hierarchy of needs. We help our clients tune-in and plug-in to the voice of the market to remain Tier 1 employers of choice for contractors.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you like to do in your spare time.
I love to get out and about with my little dog, Ruby (see photo). She’s a Jackapoo (Jack Russell Toy Poodle cross) but she evidently didn’t order the poodle-y coat that her siblings had! She enjoys a good camping trip with my girlfriend and I.
Cooking is something I enjoy a lot, and I will get involved in pretty much any sport – I’m a season ticket holder at Sheffield United… for my sins. Last year I bought my first home at Christmas time, so a fair bit of time and energy goes into that for the time being.
This year I’ve completed a couple of Half Marathons so far and maybe, just maybe have half an eye on my first ever full Marathon in 2023… a petrifying prospect right now.
