Paul Smith, CEO, Celebrates 1 Year with NA Group
Today, we celebrate the one-year work anniversary of our CEO, Paul Smith. We sat down with Paul this week to discuss his journey with our Group and his vision for the future of NA Group.
Reflecting on your first year, what three key things have you learned about our Group?
Firstly, I have been incredibly impressed by how many fantastic, talented, and dedicated people we have here in our Group that go above and beyond as a matter of course. Secondly, we have really iconic brands such as Ashley Kate HR, Stafforce and Nicholas Associates that maintain their individual specialisms within a Group environment, which effectively gives them the best of both worlds, great systems and compliance coupled with their own unique and bespoke method of operation and delivery. Thirdly, the commitment that the business has to society doesn’t stop at simply finding people jobs or enhancing careers. NAG really gives back with its CSR work, supporting local, national, and global initiatives that empower people to be their best.
With the exciting recent addition of COO Kelly Kendall, what do you believe this appointment will bring to NA Group?
One of the only downsides to having a house of brands is that you can become ‘siloed’ within those brands, potentially meaning that cross-sale opportunities are missed. Kelly joins us with experience of operating successfully at a senior level across multi-sector recruitment businesses; she is able to identify the opportunities and unite brands to deliver multi-layered opportunities for the Group as a whole. Kelly has a rare ability to think both operationally and strategically, which brings a different dynamic to an already talented senior team.
In your experience, what trends do you foresee shaping the future of recruitment, and how is Nicholas Associates Group positioning itself to keep up with these opportunities?
If I was to narrow this down to one topic, it’s technology. In the past, the company has been an ‘adopter’; now, we need to be an innovator in this space, and this journey has already begun. In 2024, we are investing over half a million pounds in new systems, which will not only improve our own efficiencies but will deliver new ideas and improvements for our clients and provide smoother interactions for our candidates. In the current world, you can’t talk about technology without mentioning AI. We are already harnessing the power of AI across our Group, and we will continue to do so, but we must not forget that we are a ‘people’ business, so we look to AI to improve and enhance what our people can do.
What are your key priorities and strategic goals for Nicholas Associates Group in the coming year?
Our strapline in 2024 is to become Bigger, Better, Stronger. We are evolving as a business, which will come with some ‘growing pains.’ Just ask our teams, who are working tirelessly right now to implement our new front-end systems! However, I am continually blown away by the commitment of all of our colleagues as they coalesce behind new ideas and the improvements we want to make to our business. It was Henry Ford who said, “The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all but goes on making [their] own business better all the time”, and that is our overarching goal this year to concentrate on improving what we do for our people, our candidates, our communities and our clients.
What legacy do you envision for the Group in the years to come?
At NA Group, we have long talked about enabling people to ‘be their best’, and this still holds true today. I can think of no better legacy than we actually achieved our aim and successfully supported people connected with our Group to become the best best versions of themselves.
As we wrap up this interview, it is clear that exciting times are ahead for our Group. We look forward to new challenges and working together as a strong team to realise our vision of being the UK’s market-leading partner of choice for talent management solutions from apprentice to boardroom.
