13 Years at RedCat: Neil Rogers, Head of Content and Editorial Recruitment

This month I am celebrating my 13th year working at RedCat.  A lot has changed in the 13 years since I have been here, including myself. When I joined I was a single 24-year-old Essex boy with a perma-tan, very spiky hair and an aversion to commitment, kids and cats. Now at 37 the tan has faded; the hair is flat and I live in Hertfordshire with my wife, two children and our cat Ernie!

RedCat too has changed over the years. I have seen the company grow from a tiny office with just a four strong team, based in a small market town in Essex, to a line up of over 20 staff based out of our trendy Shoreditch offices.

We now have teams working across; Content, Agency, UX, Design, Development, Big Data, Product, Marketing, Analytics and Ecommerce and we are not stopping there! With some exciting growth plans, we are really moving forward and will continue to grow the business.

One thing that hasn’t changed over the years are our core values:

Honesty, Integrity & Transparency

These are adhered to throughout the business and whenever hiring new RedCat’ers this is something we screen for intensively. We have a real eclectic mix of personnel working at RedCat, but I can honestly say they are all great people without inflated egos and who understand and implement our values on a daily basis.

Thirteen years in recruitment is a long time and isn’t without its challenges. It can be tough at times, to say the least, but the rewards can also be absolutely amazing!

RedCat offers one of the best commission structures on the market along with some fantastic incentives. For example, at the moment we are currently all working towards a company incentive to Vegas. If I qualify, this will be my 4th visit and I have also had the pleasure of visiting New York… All courtesy of RedCat!

Over the years I have learnt some valuable lessons and whenever I hire someone new to the team I make sure they follow these simple rules:

Be honest:

Ok, this sounds like an obvious one, but so often I hear horror stories about recruiters being dishonest or acting in an untoward manner. It is so important that you are honest, whether it be giving tough feedback to a candidate or telling a client you are unable to fill a role. In the long run, it will help build out long term relationship of trust between you and your clients/candidates.

Ask the stupid questions:

When taking a brief, it can be all too easy not to ask a question that you may deem stupid or obvious, but it is vital that when you come out of the meeting/off the call that you have a true understanding of exactly what the role is and the type of candidate you are looking for. If there is uncertainty, or you end up working a role without a real idea of what you are looking for, it can waste a lot of time, hard work and effort.

Try to add value:

If you are trying to find the short-list for your urgent role or trying to win your next account it is easy to fall into the trap of rushing through calls – this is to be avoided! Take time to understand your candidates/clients and try and add value where you can. This can be from offering advice on CV’s for candidates or market insight/salary surveys to clients. Regardless of how busy you are, try not to rush through calls and be sure to maximise every opportunity.

Plan your day:

This is a very simple piece of advice but a vital one. It is so important that you sit down and plan your day the night before. Break your day up into segments making sure you build in time for lunch. Set yourself goals/targets making sure you keep them SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Time-Based. You might not be able to send a shortlist or win a new a role every day so set yourself softer targets that are attainable and leave you with a sense of achievement.

Stay Positive/Keep Resilient:

As mentioned earlier, recruitment can be tough. You will have times that you feel completely deflated and all you want to do it crawl under your desk and take the fetal position! This is where you need to dig deep and work through it. If you are feeling down speak to your colleagues or manager, talk it through so when you get back on the phone you are in a positive head space. If you are speaking to a candidate about a job and you sound like ‘droopy dog’ there is a very strong chance the candidate will not be interested in the role!

This is just a snapshot of some of the advice on offer to new starters on my team. If you would like to find out more information or discuss any of the above – or if you are interested in joining the team, please drop me a line!

Written by Neil Rogers, Head of Content and Editorial

LinkedIn: Neil Rogers /   RedCat Digital

Twitter: @Neil_RedCat  / RedCat Digital

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