About us
Multi Award Winning Recruitment Agency
Financial Times UK's Leading Recruiter 2024
Ashdown has been named one of the top IT and Tech recruiters in the UK in the FT Leading Recruiters UK ratings 2024.
In a survey of 7,000 UK recruitment agencies Ashdown was rated in the top 2% for Tech and IT recruitment. Over 1,500 HR and recruitment professionals and candidates who had recently been through the recruitment process rated their experience with recruiters, and Ashdown was awarded one of the top ratings nationwide.
Investors in People Gold
Ashdown Group has acheived Investors in People We Invest in People, Gold Accreditation. We are very proud of this achievement, it means that every single person at Ashdown Group is involved in supporting each other and doing their best to make work better.
Ashdown Group were also announced winner of the ‘Best Newcomer’ category at the Investors in People Awards 2022.
Paul Devoy, CEO, Investors in People, said “The Investors in People Awards 2022 marks a celebration of exemplary leaders and organisations who have transformed themselves into a force for good, despite the challenges."
Best Company to Work For
Ashdown Group were awarded ‘Best Company to work for’ at the 2021 Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) Awards.
As the only recruitment sector awards hosted and awarded by the REC, winning one of their awards is the most impressive recognition a company can achieve in the industry.
Established in 1999 the Ashdown Group set a mission to deliver value, service, transparency and quality advice to all. Over 20 years later these core values are still at the heart of everything we do.
Specialists at providing contractor recruitment and permanent IT, Marketing, HR and Accountancy recruitment and Executive Search across the UK, working with businesses of all sizes, from Small to Medium Enterprises to large international corporations, we have partnered with thousands of firms across all industry sectors.
Our Values
Integrity: We will always do what is right; transparency, honesty, inclusivity and respect are at the core of everything we do.
Collaboration: Working intelligently together we are able to achieve more.
Energy: We are passionate about what we do and are driven to exceed expectations.
Generosity of Spirit: Always choosing to be kind, supportive and willing to share.
The Ashdown Story
Rollback 25 years, business managers were choosing their own recruitment suppliers, nothing was centralised, there were no internal recruitment teams, HR teams heard of hires when the hire had been made, companies were being charged astronomical amounts for a basic service.
There was clearly a space in the market for an honest, quality recruitment partner with fair terms, reasonable charging structure and success that was guaranteed for the long term - Ashdown Group occupied this space. No ‘cold calling’, marketing fair and reasonable fees and a 100% rebate appealed enormously and within a short space of time, Ashdown had grown from the two founders to a team of 38 supporting thousands of companies across the UK with some of the largest company names joining the fold.
As early adopters of technology innovation in the recruitment market, we were able to maintain high standards of quality, deliver rapid results for our customers and maintain our competitive fee structure.
How we’ve evolved
The speed of change in the UK recruitment space has been dramatic, recruitment for larger firms went ‘in house’, HR teams defined the recruitment process, hiring and employment legislation changed annually. By maintaining our innovative approach, using advanced recruitment technology solutions and delivering our policy of a close working partnership with every one of our customers, we have been able to maintain our position as leaders in the specialist recruitment sector.
Our market changed, we extended our working relationship to work in partnership with HR teams, recruitment teams, business stakeholders and delivered rapid results in a fast moving employment market.
But our customers still needed exactly what we have always delivered, support, advice, employment market guidance, a team that cares about their customer's success as well as their own. The market changed, the people changed, the laws changed but our fundamental core service and values remained the same.
Partnering with great organisations
Building the best
We understand that hiring the best people is the most important task. So we hired the best people to build our own team and those of our customers. Since inception, we've known that we are only as good as the team we develop.
Our consultants are highly skilled at providing a tailored recruitment service to meet your individual needs. We understand that every requirement is different and deliver our services accordingly, taking pride in our ability to precisely match the best candidates to great companies.
Working closely with our network, using a collaborative approach, focusing on open communication has resulted in 85% of our vacancies coming from returning customers, many exclusively choosing to work with us.
The majority of our consultants are degree qualified with commercial backgrounds in Business Management, Marketing, IT, or HR and have been with the business for an average tenure of 8 years.
We have achieved the highest online rating of any recruiter, receiving 5 stars and hundreds of reviews by consistently offering outstanding quality service to our customers and candidates.
Looking to hire?
More than 20,000 people register with the Ashdown Group every month. We have access to hundreds of high-calibre professionals living within an easy commute of your business.
Membership and Partners
The Ashdown Group are accredited, audited members of:
Approved Crown Commercial Service Suppliers. Ashdown Group can work with any government or public sector employer in the UK.
We take our legal counsel from Osborne Clarke, the UK leader in employment and recruitment specific law.