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Join Talent: Angus recruitment firm adds 50 staff and opens new office

Joint Talent founder Katrina Hutchinson-O'Neill
Katrina Hutchinson-O'Neill.

An Angus woman’s recruitment agency has “punched above its weight” this year – as it grew to more than 250 employees.

Join Talent was founded by Katrina Hutchinson-O’Neill in 2019 and the firm now has staff across 21 countries.

Its expansion this year saw Katrina add 50 staff and open a new office in Austin, Texas.

The firm has won a number of contracts for high profile clients.

Katrina said: “The biggest change for us this year has been the mix of clients we’ve been winning. We’ve moved up the totem pole.

“We’re competing with huge organisations that are decades old and have 2,000 to 5,000 employees and we’re winning.

“We’re punching above our weight but that’s testament to the quality of our team and the work they do.

“We’ve won a huge amount of business with some international companies – we’re not allowed to name them.”

Angus firm ‘protected’ from downturn

She said the firm had performed well despite a downturn in the some sectors this year.

Katrina added: “We expected there to be a downturn this year and it hit the start-up and scale-up world in June.

“It was like a light switch – things went from 100 miles an hour to stop.

“We were protected from that to quite a large extent of the breadth of the customer base we’ve got.”

Join Talent founder Katrina Hutchinson-O'Neill.
Join Talent founder Katrina Hutchinson-O’Neill.

Last year, Katrina, who lives in Brechin, outlined plans to double the Join Talent headcount to 400.

But that has been pushed back to the end of 2023 because the firm saw its growth slow in 2022.

“It’s still 100% the plan, we’re just taking longer to do it,” she said.

“Our growth curve has gone from double-digit percentage growth every month to single figure growth.

“I think that’s a better place for the business to be because it’s more sustainable.”

Continued growth forecast for Join Talent

She said the firm’s American office had played a major role in winning some of the big contracts. Join Talent will soon open offices in the UAE.

“The office in Texas has gone really well so far,” the

“We’re able to bid for and win business because most of the big companies need US coverage.”

Katrina Hutchinson-O'Neill with some of the team of Angus recruitment firm Join Talent.
Katrina Hutchinson-O’Neill with some of the team of Angus recruitment firm Join Talent.

Looking forward to the year ahead, Katrina believes Join Talent will continue to grow.

She said a “sizeable number of quite big clients” have signed up Join Talent to look after their recruitment.

“These companies have signed us up and said they don’t have work for us at the moment, but they know they’re going to,” she said.

“When that happens, they’ll need to move quickly.

“These holding clients are something we’ve never had before and it’s a real vote of confidence.”

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