ResourceBank was established in 1995 by Managing Director Richard Pearson, previously one of the top practitioners of search and selection in the UK with Whitehead Mann PLC.

Having been asked by a client for a more creative approach to managing recruitment, his innovative database solution was turned down by Whitehead Mann, so he decided to develop it himself and ResourceBank was launched.

Starting with just Richard and Trish, his PA, and by borrowing space in a friend’s office in Telford.

An HR director who had previously worked with Richard moved to the multi-national company behind the popular Budweiser beer.

ResourceBank successfully bid for the new contract and saw its profile rocket.

This was, in part, down to a full page company ad in the Sunday Times taken out on behalf of Budweiser which featured the ResourceBank branding.

The investment proved to be worthwhile for both parties and got people talking.

Other industry-leading clients including Trebor Bassett, Gillette, Enterprise Ireland and many more. ResourceBank had well and truly arrived.

By 1999 ResourceBank had hit it's first million pound turnover milestone and had won contracts with household names such as L’Oreal, Virgin, Kimberly Clark, Heineken and Halfords.

ResourceBank moved to a dedicated office in Telford and over the years, the business has expanded at this location to purchase the whole building (now RBR House).

In 2001, there was further company expansion with the opening of a small office in Marlow which relocated to the centre of Henley-on-Thames in 2004.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing for the company, however, and 2002 was a particularly challenging year as the recession hit.

However, when Magnet Kitchens approached the business about RPO, the hard work and experience that the company had gained came to fruition. Similar work quickly for other companies quickly followed, cementing ResourceBank’s new position as an RPO company offering long term long-term, strategic recruitment partnerships, rather than one-off projects.

The following year, an exciting opportunity with Flagship Training was presented. The Ministry of Defence was outsourcing its training for the Royal Navy but there were huge challenges staffing the naval training bases.

2007 was the year that our relationship with World Duty Free began. Heathrow’s Terminal Five was opening in March 2008 and our role was to recruit the 150-strong team with just 12 weeks’ notice. While the launch day teething troubles with the baggage handling are well-documented, World Duty Free was fully staffed (and ironically the new recruits were sent to other terminals to provide support the additional volume there).

Our fantastic partnership with this client continues to this day with ResourceBank providing recruitment for head office, warehousing and retail staff, something we’re really proud of.

2007 was also the year that we first worked with Aliaxis and again this partnership continues to this day and we support all of Aliaxis UK operations with recruitment.

In 2010, our highly successful exit interview services were launched, and we are now the largest provider of independent exit interviews in the UK.  The service has been extended to cover recent joiner interviews and annual engagement surveys.

Just two years later, the team conducted a full staff assessment with Balfour Beatty for a major restructure which incorporated around 2,500 people.

ResourceBank ran assessment centres and provided valuable feedback, helping the company to find solutions and take forward those who embraced a new vision.

In 2016, ResourceBank’s international profile was given a significant boost with global client Coats, the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturing business.

Our team works with Coats clients across the world. From tackling tricky time zones to understanding cultural differences, we are very creative in our approaches and tailor them to meet whatever demand is required. We have recruited for Coats in the UK, USA, Turkey, Germany, Spain, Korea, China, Honduras, Mexico, Pakistan, Sweden and Romania.

Closer to home, our Maccesfield office opened in 2017.

As a business we continue to diversify, with the new ApprenticeLink service launched in 2018 to support businesses and training needs, and a dedicated healthcare service, blending management consultancy and recruitment for the NHS and private services launched last year.

What started out as an executive search company has expanded to an HR partnering organisation, working with specialist clients and providing a range of different RPOs.

The first two months of 2020 were the busiest we have ever seen.  We hit record turnover and were providing a full range of HR partnering services to the largest number of clients we have ever had.   We were shortlisted for the Best Outsourced Recruitment business in the 2020 Recruiter Awards and we had decided to mark our 25^th year by funding the building of a new school in Nepal.

Then the Covid-19 pandemic struck and this had quite a sizeable impact on our major clients including World Duty Free, Northgate Vehicle Hire and Wolseley.  We re-deployed our recruitment teams to support the care sector and within 2 months we had processed over 5,000 applications for 6 separate care home groups.  We also provided emergency engagement pulse surveys, supported clients with HR projects and our ApprenticeLink service has quadrupled in size supporting organisations with training projects.

All of our staff have been retained although it’s a sign of the times that we are now supporting with outplacement projects as much as recruitment.  We remain committed to the funding of the school in Nepal and all of our staff have been taking part in a “25 Good things” campaign to support the community this year.

2020 has not panned out how we originally planned, but as a business we have adapted, focused on providing services to support our clients through the crisis and we are now providing a true HR partnering service.  We have come a long way since 1995.