Growth is on the cards for healthcare recruitment firm

A Lancashire-based healthcare recruitment firm has created seven new jobs since it started trading at the start of the year and predicts further growth in the coming months.

New Life Healthcare Recruitment, based in Whalley, launched in January and since then has gone from strength to strength.

The business specialises in recruiting doctors, nurses and care workers for private sector organisations across the UK. New Life sources candidates from all over the world including Italy, Spain, Romania, India, UAE and Pakistan, using its multi-lingual recruiters.

The firm has been supported by Boost Business Lancashire’s Growth Mentoring programme, which provides support to SME business owners in areas such as business planning, finance, sales, marketing and HR.

Boost is the name for the Lancashire Business Growth Hub. It is led by the Lancashire LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) and Lancashire County Council and supported by funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Growth Mentoring is a fully funded programme delivered by Community and Business Partners and Orvia. The overall aim is to accelerate the growth of SMEs to stimulate new investment and job creation by identifying and removing the barriers to their growth.

Managing director of New Life Healthcare Recruitment, Zoe Hall, has worked in recruitment for around 20 years and late last year she decided it was time to set up on her own.

While experienced in most areas of recruitment, the main thing Zoe needed support with was marketing.

The business has received mentoring support in this area from Boost and Co member Anne Williamson of Lucrative Marketing, including support to create a structured marketing plan, develop a consistent brand identity and help to analyse marketing data to benefit the business.

Zoe said: “The results are really starting to show, we have a structured approach to our social media marketing and we have adapted our ongoing marketing campaigns following the advice we received. The business has already attracted new corporate customers as a result of these methods.

“The turnover of the business will undoubtedly be positively impacted by the strategy we have implemented.

“The support we received was really valuable, especially to a fast growing, new business like mine where there are fresh challenges to face each day. This help and guidance has been instrumental to a fledgling business in helping our growth plans and has also provided an added support network at a time when it was needed most.”

The company also received support in the first phase of Boost by attending a start-up boot camp.

Jaydee Davis, operations manager at Community and Business Partners, said: “New Life is an example of a business which has really benefited from being mentored by somebody with expert knowledge. Our mentor spent time within the business, understanding what was working and what needed developing to help it grow and together with Zoe and the team plans were put in place which has ultimately helped this new firm grow and help it reach its potential.

“Two more members of staff are due to start in September, bringing the headcount, including Zoe, to 10, which is excellent and we’re confident this growth will continue.”

Boost Business Lancashire has received £3.8m of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.

The Department for Communities and Local Government is the Managing Authority for ERDF. Established by the European Union ERDF funds help local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations.

For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding