REC Corporate Membership Case Study: Ashdown Group

This is a guest case study from Ashdown Group, who have been REC Corporate Members since 1999.

Why did you become an REC member?

We joined the REC in 1999 to gain legal and compliance advice upon start up. A year later we launched the Ashdown contractor side of the business and at the time wanted to follow a defined workflow that kept our offering compliant, professional and protected from risk.

What are some of the key features of membership you find useful?

Over the years, and before we took advice from specialist law firms, Ashdown relied on the REC as a source of support, advice and compliant documentation. The REC have kept us up-to-date on industry trends and market insights which enable us to measure our performance against the rest of the industry.

Most recently, as we’ve expanded our team, we’ve taken advantage of the excellent REC training courses for all levels (entry up to senior leadership) and found them to be of great value in supporting our development goals.

Describe an occasion where REC rose above your expectations to support your business

The training offered to Ashdown by the REC has been invaluable; it has helped transform our business and is something we continue to utilise every year.  Our team have really enjoyed the courses, the feedback is always really great and it has enhanced the capability of our entire sales team. It is really useful for us as a business to ensure our employees are being offered a standardised and coherent approach to their learning. 

Describe an occasion where Ashdown rose above a challenge to support your clients, candidates or external stakeholders

Ashdown works in partnership with VoiceAbility, an independent charity and one of the UK’s largest providers of advocacy and involvement services, supporting people to be heard in decisions about their health, care and well-being for almost 40 years. VoiceAbility are an independent charity and one of the UK’s largest providers of advocacy and involvement services, working with over 26,000 people in 2021. However, their ambitions are to have a much broader impact with many more people.

Ashdown have been working to recruit key people into the organisation to help create the growth platform to enable VoiceAbility’s ambitions to be realised. Ashdown have supported the charity to recruit four new director-level positions as well as establishing a new project management function.

According to Richard Jones, Chief Financial Officer at VoiceAbility, ‘Ashdown have taken the time and care to understand not only the roles and the skill sets required, but also to ensure that the successful candidates had the right motivations and cultural fit to enable us to strive to make an even bigger difference for their clients.’

How would you summarise REC membership in one line to a peer or client?

An invaluable membership that has supported us through our most challenging period – but has also been central to our growth as a business. 

About Ashdown Group

Recruitment expertise you can trust. Established in 1999 the Ashdown Group set a mission to deliver value, service, transparency and quality advice to all. 23 years on these core values are still at the heart of everything we do. Our purpose is to become the first-choice adviser on hiring people in IT, Marketing, HR, Accountancy and Executive. Follow Ashdown Group on Twitter. 

If you'd like to submit a member case study, please get in touch with the Marketing team at marketing@rec.uk.com.