Serving the Teesside Business Community | 71
Baxter boss Andrew Harrow (right) pays
tribute to the “ridiculous skills” of senior
software engineer Matthew Stott and
marketing officer Katherine Sykes.
Baxter Personnel MD
Andrew Harrow believes
his firm’s new online
tool, Cactus, is a game-
changer.
April and MD Andrew is delighted with the
finished product.
“AI and automation in recruitment is
massive in the United States, whereas the
UK is generally a bit behind in this sort of
thing, although we are catching up all the
time,” Andrew explains.
“We are really excited with what we
offer with Cactus. I hate to use the phrase
‘disruptive technology’, but we genuinely
cannot find anyone else in the UK doing it to
the same level of automation as we are.
“In terms of going out and finding passive
candidates online, looking at job boards and
LinkedIn, I look around regularly and can’t
see anyone else going as far as or to the
same level we are.
“There are people who say they auto-
filter applications, but that’s not new,
document management software can do
that.
“But going out and proactively
approaching people who are not necessarily
active in a job search – passive candidates
– is an area we have been trying to tap into
for years.
“The problem that the industry has had
for a long time is that you don’t have every
CV in the country – you are relying on
people applying for jobs.
“A big part of Cactus and where you are
really winning with it is that 80% of people
who end up getting jobs are out of the
passive market, rather than people applying
for jobs.”
Andrew says that there are countless
benefits of Cactus, both for his firm and
customers.
He explains: “This system makes
our business a lot more productive and
efficient, because we don’t have that dead
time with ringing people and them not
ringing back, and all of the management
that goes into it.
“It takes the system less than 10
seconds to arrange an interview. We have
turned ourselves into a 24/7 business
without increasing any heads or hours, and
Cactus is the full package for our clients.
“Commercially, the clients who are
buying the product for a one-off £249 fee
instead of something they were paying
between £2,000-£4,000 for before think it’s
the best thing since sliced bread.
“For example, we had local clients in
County Durham who were looking for a
site manager, and literally overnight Cactus
found them five people with the experience
that they wanted.
“I believe they interviewed three of them,
and that cost them their fixed fee of £249,
versus what it would have been before –
20% out of a £45,000-a-year site manager
is a big fee.
“They were absolutely over the moon
with it.”
Andrew admits Cactus represents a
daring new direction for Baxter Personnel in
several areas, including its price point.
“It’s a very brave thing to do because
it is completely overhauling the way our
business was run and built in terms of
fees,” he says.
Andrew explains that Cactus was
designed to complement Baxter Personnel’s
current and ongoing temporary and RPO
models, while breaking the boundaries of
permanent recruitment.
“It’s changed our product offering
completely, we believe in Cactus so much
that we don’t charge contingency fees any
more, and as a business you have got to
keep up with the times,” he adds.
“Cactus offers clients looking to fill
permanent vacancies a new, cheaper and
easy to use solution.
“Not only are we keeping up with
the times, we believe we are ahead
of them and that our algorithms are
groundbreaking.”
Since its launch, Andrew is pleased with
initial client take-up and response.
“It’s way ahead of where we wanted it to
be at the moment,” he says.
“We’ve dealt with numerous companies
we’ve never dealt with before, and people
are asking if it’s too good to be true.
“We’ve got a lot of testimonials from
companies like Aldi and Harrington’s Pet
Food who are very happy with it.”
Cactus is designed and marketed by
what Andrew describes as a “dream team”
of senior software engineer Matthew
Stott, a Teesside University graduate in
web development, and marketing officer
Katherine Sykes, who has a Masters
in marketing from the University of
Sunderland.
“Without them none of it would be
possible,” he says. “Their skills are ridiculous.”
Baxter Personnel employs 32 staff across
its branches, which include Morton Palms
Business Park in Darlington, Cardiff, London
and Middlesbrough. Its numerous Teesside
clients include Middlesbrough Football Club
and Cornerstone Business Solutions.
Find out more about Baxter Personnel, and its Cactus online tool,
at cactus.baxterpersonnel.co.uk