Jobtrain - the story (so far)

It's Jobtrain's 25th Anniversary this year, so we asked our CEO and Founder - Chris Keeling - to tell us the story of how Jobtrain came to be 👇💡

One question I am often asked is “How did Jobtrain come about”? What I think people really want to know is:

“How did someone like you come up with a business like this?!"

I have to admit, it’s not a natural progression at first glance. I didn’t consider myself a ‘techy’ and I still haven’t written a line of code. The internet was not a ‘thing’ when I was at school, so careers in IT were not heavily promoted. But then again, neither was HR – and yet that is where it really started.

The early seeds of Jobtrain

Many, many years ago I graduated in Business Studies and secured my first job at Land Rover – at the plant in Solihull, as their HR Graduate Trainee (Personnel in those days)! Great experience, but after just a few months in the role I was given the job of hiring the following years’ Graduates. 20 were needed across multiple disciplines. To ‘help’ me, I was shown into a Portakabin where there were tables stacked full of Application Forms, all on paper and handwritten in those days. There must have been 4000-5000 of them – and I had to find the best 20.

It was a challenge and very time-consuming. But it sowed a seed that will later come to fruition.

Fast forward about 10 years and my HR experience had exhausted itself – it’s what working in the NHS and hospitality can do for you! I then joined an Executive Search outfit, Torres and Partners, where I met Alison. Ali and I formed a partnership at both a business and a personal level (we married some 10 years later) and we led a buyout of the business in 2003.

The start of Jobtrain

Prior to that though (in 1999), I had a weekend away with a friend who I knew from Uni days. We both had kids the same age and whilst they were sleeping in a tent, we (being responsible parents) sat outside drinking beer! My mate told me about a book he had read: ‘The Killer App’ – which was apparently how you can disrupt an established way of doing things through technology. So we sat drinking our beer and trying to think of ways we could disrupt. We failed. But had a good night anyway.

A couple of months later the thought was still germinating and I reflected on the Land Rover experience and wondered if there was a better way to connect candidates to employers and to allow employers to better see the most suitable candidates. This thought was the germ of what became Jobtrain – in short, it was a play on the Pareto principal: to spend 80% of your time on the 20% of candidates who most meet your needs.

I then thought we could use selective questions that candidates could answer as part of their application that would help us identify the best people. Effectively ‘Killer Questions’ – but at this stage that wasn’t something that was used and indeed, the phrase ‘ATS’ didn’t exist. What we were creating was an Online Application System.

Alison and I used to drive to London together pretty regularly (we had an office in Richmond on Thames) and on one of these trips we discussed and finessed the idea and came up with what we thought was a pretty good proposition. We then pitched the idea to Roy and Linda, our eponymous business owners (of the Executive Search Company) and, if we are being honest, it was probably a case of the blind leading the blind. Neither of us knew too much about the internet (this was late 1990’s) but to their credit, the owners allowed us to run with the idea.

Coincidentally, a month later Kellogg’s, with whom we had a great relationship with in Manchester, gave Alison and I a call and asked us to go in to chat with them as they had a problem/challenge they wished to discuss. They were trying to find IS Business Analysts – people who were Grads+2 who knew something about IT, but who also knew about business processes and supply chain. They had tried advertising, but either found very techy people applying who knew nothing about other functions. Or they had good business graduates who knew little about IT.

At this stage, Ali and I seized the moment to pitch the notion that we had been nurturing! We spoke about the idea we had, about how we can sift candidates better and how it would work so much more efficiently because candidates applied via a website.

The HR team at Kellogg’s were open-minded but understandably cautious. We would have to advertise in the print press (no job boards in those days – they were still in the womb). There would be no telephone number! No postal address! “But how will people get in touch” we were asked, repeatedly.

Despite their reservations and their ever-lasting credit, the team decided to give it a go. Not an easy thing to agree to when the advert alone cost £10,000 in those days! We then spent a couple of hours with the relevant line managers and created some fantastic questions that we felt would help the sifting process.

The following week the advert appeared – and just 3 weeks later the business had appointed to all 5 vacancies. Jobtrain was born!

Overcoming early challenges

The only problem – and not an insignificant one, was that there was a lack of technology behind the scenes. Many of the processes that are now done in seconds by clever software, were being undertaken manually by Ali and myself. This led to many late nights and much fraught activity – but we had a proof of concept and it worked!

The evolution of Jobtrain technology

Realising we had to build something more, we then hired a young developer who had experience working in the USA and had coded in the right language (we took advice before anyone asks!) And that was when Ejaz joined the business. Today Ejaz is our Chief Development Officer and has written all 7 iterations of the code in his time.

But let’s not forget, we now had a product that was based on internet technology – and this was in 1999/2000. Google wasn’t founded until late 1998 and there was very little understanding or appreciation of the internet at that time. Indeed, the term ‘internet’ wasn’t even used and the talk was about the ‘World Wide Web’, or ‘The Information Super Highway’.

Given this landscape, imagine the challenge of trying to sell the solution/system to the corporate world? To help on this journey, we hired employee number 4 – Giles. Today, Giles is our Director of Strategic Development, but in those early days, he was tasked with leading the sales activity.

He did a brilliant job in ‘packaging’ the solution so we could demonstrate it to clients. This was important as many either didn’t have the internet or weren’t allowed to use it without prior permission!

In fact, Giles and I once drove down to meet a large public sector client some 200 miles away. There were about 15 people in the room and we set up for our demo. We were no more than 2 minutes in when the host asked us “does this system need the internet then?” We were surprised as we had a few conversations over the phone before arranging the meeting – but we nevertheless confirmed that it does indeed work over the internet. The meeting was then curtailed as the organisation simply did not allow any employees to access the internet at work! Oh, how times have changed!

The early successes and building credibility

Given the challenge of establishing yourself in a market that was so much in its infancy, we again turned to the Torres Exec Search business. We were working with clients such as Avon Cosmetics, Red Bull, Damovo (Ericsson) in supporting their senior, executive recruitment. However, these companies also faced challenges at entry-level roles and we worked with each of them, using the Jobtrain technology, to deliver cost-effective and highly successful campaigns.

This gave us critical reference points and credibility and ultimately allowed us to sell Jobtrain to clients with whom we had no history of engagement.

Amongst the first of these was Black and Decker. We were thrilled to secure this client and the task was to use the Jobtrain platform to hire their graduate intake. This sounds easy, but they posed many challenges – scoring assessment forms against pre-determined ‘norms’, automating processes, generating sophisticated reports etc. This was fantastic learning and was the spark that made us realise that, unlike recruitment (which was a very process-driven business), we were now in a place where innovation was going to be the mainstay.

Incidentally – one of the first graduates who was successful in applying via Jobtrain is still with Black and Decker and is their Licensing Director for Europe, ANZ and MEA. Just goes to show that the application process worked well!

Expanding the team and growing the business

From this point on, it was a constant process of trekking round generating sales, re-investing into the technology and innovation and slowly building up the team.

We hired our first, dedicated Account Manager in 2009 – and Clare is now the Director of People and Client Services! We also hired a Systems/IT expert. He was previously responsible for the systems within Torres, but Charlie ultimately became the CTO we have today.

Working with the NHS: a proud milestone

I love the fact we work with so many diverse organisations – from housing to engineering and from fashion retail to the care sector. I have to say though that perhaps the client base I am most proud of is the NHS. Earlier in my career I spent 7 years working in HR in the NHS and found it challenging, inspiring, frustrating and fantastic for my own development. But I worked with some great people and always wanted to have the opportunity to repay the opportunities afforded to me then by delivering something back. So when we won the contract to supply the whole of NHS Scotland with Jobtrain I was obviously delighted. We have now built upon that and work with Trusts in England and with other parts of the NHS (along with NHSE) to deliver efficiency and great results in support of their recruitment activity.

I just wish Land Rover would work with us as well!!

Building a positive company culture

Now at this stage, you may have noticed, that we have developed a habit of hiring people who stay with us for a long time. They don’t stay in the same role often – but they develop their careers, their knowledge and their abilities in line with the company’s growth. This was a product of a very conscious step to create a company with a positive culture.

Both Alison and I had worked in businesses that were great in shaping our careers, but they also afforded us the misfortune of working with people and some companies that we felt we simply didn’t like! They appeared to promote negative qualities (greed, bigotry, presenteeism, nepotism, in-fighting etc). Fascinating to experience, but nothing that we wanted to replicate. Instead, we set out to build a business that very simply wanted to treat people the way that we would like to be treated. And that didn’t matter whether those people were colleagues, clients or candidates.

The Jobtrain Foundation: giving back to the community

About 5 years ago, we extended that philosophy and, as a business, we created the Jobtrain Foundation. This is funded by us contributing 1% of our revenue (not our profit – our actual revenue) to the Foundation that then supports many local causes. This has included building a sensory garden for a school in a deprived area of Stockport; working with the BookTrust in providing thousands of books for Primary School children; and sponsoring a local kids' football team, along with a women’s cricket team.

We have taken part in activities to raise money for Breast Cancer awareness, for Macmillan Cancer Support and for Alzheimer’s. And significantly, we have heavily supported groups in Manchester who work closely with the homeless – providing food, shelter and clothing. We have provided these groups with storage facilities, supported the running costs and even bought them with a van to help collect goods/donations and deliver help to the community.

All of that is made possible with the support of the whole Jobtrain team and is something that helps define us today.

Looking to the future

The future? I know people always advise you when you are younger that you should have a five-year plan in order to help fuel ambition. However, I don’t think I have ever had a five-year plan! For anything!

Instead, we have a strategic mindset in looking at the business but blend this with the need to achieve something in the short term. To be honest, there is a buzz and a pleasure obtained from working in a business that is constantly innovating and growing. There is real pleasure in having people join the company and then develop into something so much more. And I should emphasise that this doesn’t mean that you have to have designs on being a Director to be seen as ‘successful’ here. I think the goal is to encourage and allow people to simply be the best version of themselves – whatever that is.

As for me (and Alison) – well, 25 years seems to have absolutely flown by. I’ve enjoyed every minute of the ride (almost!) and who knows where we will be in 5 years’ time!