020 7580 7333

Yellow Cat do the ground work and always send us someone that fits with our company culture.

Arnold KLP: AM, PA to Senior Directors

I have worked with Yellow Cat over the last two and half years and I highly recommend them. They are an effective and efficient organisation who are extremely reliable, honest and resourceful. They have always worked to and met our deadlines and have always been able to provide high quality candidates for interview.

ITV: AB, Operational Support Manager

We have used Yellow Cat a few times for our recruitment requirements and have always found them to be
highly responsive.

20th Century Fox: JS, Resourcing Manager

We have worked successfully with Yellow Cat for several years now for both temporary and permanent placements. They are a professional personable outfit who are able to provide strong industry relevant candidates.

MRM London: CH, Human Resources Manager

I have worked with Yellow Cat Recruitment many times in the past and have always found them to be extremely approachable, professional and determined to find me the best person for the job, no matter how short the booking. They always gives complete confidence and are a pleasure to work with.

Pathe: KL, PA to Senior Director.

I have worked with Yellow Cat for a number of years and would recommend Yellow Cat without hesitation. Jonny has built a fantastic team and everyone at Yellow Cat is professional, knowledgeable and helpful. I appreciate their openness and honesty which has helped to build a strong and long lasting working relationship.

Publicis: BA, Group HR Manager

We have worked with Yellow Cat for a number of years and have employed some great staff through them. They are such a nice bunch of people that you forget its work; they get the brief quickly and work really hard to produce the right results. Yellow Cat form good relationships with their clients which is key to why we use them!

Clinic: JM, HR Manager

I have nothing but praise for the Yellow Cat team. They have efficiently provided an excellent stream of potential candidates for various positions and we have recruited several first class people. I highly recommend Yellow Cat.

Probability: RR, Director

Working with Yellow Cat was a pleasure. All the candidates put forward matched our brief and the whole process was very simple from start to finish. We would not hesitate to recommend Yellow Cat as a resource for anyone looking to recruit in the media industry.

PR4: CW, Managing Director

My requirements/requests are always with a tight deadline. Yellow Cat always comes up on top. Not only do they find me someone but they are always the right type of person needed for Evos. I know I can count on Yellow Cats at all times no matter what I need or the deadline I have. Thanks guys!

Evolutions Post Production: KL, Client Services Manager

I have been working with Yellow Cat since 2006 and they have always proved to be highly professional. They understand my needs and send me candidates that are relevant for the role. I am impressed with their approach in a market that is very competitive. They care about building long term relationships.

Tribe Marketing: ML, Director

Yellow Cat really cares about getting it right and understands our industry. To their credit we've simply kept many of their excellent freelances for permanent positions. The relationship works and makes our life easier. Thanks for all your excellent help, as ever.

Smoke & Mirrors: EI, Facilities Director

Reliable, professional and friendly are three words I would use to describe Yellow Cat Recruitment. Whether it is last minute temp bookings or permanent roles, Yellow Cat provides top class individuals for our needs. YCR is my first choice of recruitment agency and definitely gets my recommendation.

Virgin Media: JF, Office Services

We're always very happy with the quick and professional service given by Yellow Cats. We often put them under a lot of pressure by needing temporary staffing solutions ASAP, but they never fail to deliver!

Monsoon Accessorize: LB, Resourcing Coordinator

Main site content

News

Square peg, round hole

15 April 2011

Finding a unique selling point can be hard, especially when your business operates in a very busy sector. Jonny Breeze found that having a unique selling point and strong team of staff helped his company, Yellow Cat Recruitment, to survive the recession – and become even stronger.

Yellow Cat Recruitment is a London-based recruitment agency specialising in media and creative, marketing and PR, TV and film and business support vacancies. The company works with both large and small businesses, providing support for them and placing new staff into both temporary and permanent roles.

Jonny Breeze, managing director, knew from a young age that he wanted to run his own business, although he wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to do. He ended up in the recruitment sector by chance – a housemate of his was working for a recruitment agency and got him some temp work there. He found that he loved the job, particularly “the buzz of helping both clients and candidates and seeing the rewards both personally and financially.”

He found that the agency he was temping for wasn’t doing things how he would have, given the chance, so he decided to set up his own business. On top of his recruitment experience, Jonny had also worked in media, events, marketing and TV, so he decided to combine his experience and specialise in recruiting for those sectors.

Yellow Cat Recruitment now has a team of six – himself, four consultants and an administrator – and a consultant is assigned to each industry sector. He has found that each consultant can now concentrate on their niche in order to meet targets and push their division forwards, which will enable to company to grow further within these areas.

Issues in the business

While Jonny feels he hasn’t made any major mistakes in starting his own business, he says that there have been a few errors in judgement when hiring the right individual for his business – sometimes the wrong person ends up in the wrong role. However, over time he has worked out what type of personality thrives in Yellow Cat and now has a team full of driven, enthusiastic individuals

While the recession was difficult for business and stunted plans for growth, Yellow Cat has a team of long-serving employees, which allowed it to remain consistent throughout a tough period.

Finding a unique selling point

Yellow Cat Recruitment differs from most recruitment agencies in their method of trying to understand each candidate’s character. Candidates go through a vetting process consisting of a telephone interview, a face-to-face meeting and software testing where appropriate. Candidates for more senior positions also undertake neurolinguistic meta-programming questioning – a method designed to allow Yellow Cat to better understand the motivation and character of individuals. Jonny’s brother studied psychology at university and recommended the method to him –it has succeeded in allowing them to see what roles candidates are ideally suited to.

Marketing

In marketing the company, Jonny says: “The landscape for recruitment has dramatically changed. Yellow Cat has been going since 2006 and if you’d asked me in the first couple of years; it was very much about placing adverts on job boards, getting brand exposure through this, networking with various individuals and using word of mouth contacts. Now the social media side has become pretty massive. We’re incorporating it into sourcing and headhunting candidates. It’s definitely changed – placing an ad and expecting candidates to respond is still strong but there are other areas of sourcing candidates that are becoming more prominent.”

The company is increasingly making use of social media and find LinkedIn particularly effective, describing it as “Facebook for business”. In fact, they now find that up to 40 percent of their candidates are found via social media sites – up from fewer than five percent only two years ago.

As for the companies with whom Yellow Cat places candidates, Jonny says that he has been fortunate with the people he knows. “Most of our clients come from people I know in the companies who refer them – networking with friends who have worked there and introducing me to relevant people. After getting a few big name clients, others follow” – although he also stresses the need to pitch the company correctly to prospective clients. The company also works with SMEs, often acting as recruitment partners as they sometimes don’t have human resources capabilities. Yellow Cat aims to help SMEs by understanding their growth plans and current positions and ensuring that they recruit the right individuals.

Future plans

Jonny now sees himself as a businessman and has lots of ideas for new ventures, although nothing is set in stone yet. He intends to grow Yellow Cat over the next year, predicting that it will grow from a team of six to ten staff. He feels that it has taken him a few years to develop a business model that can grow with the company, and as such intends to develop the company accordingly.

Advice

In running his own business, Jonny says that the best part is the freedom it affords him. “I can take time out when I need to, which is great. I’m a very passionate and determined individual and it’s allowed me to develop something on my own that I’ve built so I’ve got the job satisfaction I don’t think I’d necessarily get in working for someone”. However, he has found that covering all the areas of running a company has taken some of his focus away from concentrating solely on recruitment – something potential business owners should always consider.

He would advise any entrepreneurs to ensure that they have a business plan and ensure it will actually work by looking at the market sector they want to enter and target market segments, although he warns entrepreneurs that a business is unlikely to take off straight away – “My first day I had literally one call and thought ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’. You’ve got to be realistic – don’t expect it to take off overnight.”