A North East recruitment agency has developed a reputation for quality, timeliness and industry expertise with one of the UK’s biggest housing developers and is building on that success by expanding its regional footprint into Sunderland.
Sara Eke founded her business, Sara Eke Recruitment in Tynemouth in 2004 before moving north to Rock Northumberland in 2009. The agency works with clients from the Scottish Borders to Teesside with the majority of it’s work coming from Northumberland and North and South Tyneside. Now however, the Sunderland area is on Sara’s regional map after one of her very first clients opened a new housing development at Mill Lane in Whitburn.
Avant Homes, based at the Sunderland Enterprise Park are one of the UK’s leading privately owned house builders and they are currently working on a large number of North East housing developments from Cramlington in the north to Yarm in the south.
The relationship with Avant Homes and Sara goes back to the very foundations of her business in 2004 when she placed a Part Time Receptionist into position. Since then, she has supplied a further 14 permanent members of staff in a variety of administrative, customer service and secretarial roles ranging from Office Junior to Personal Assistant to the Managing Director. In 2008, she provided them with temporary staff resulting in 17 people being employed, three of which became permanent employees.
“Avant Homes are a great company to work with,” said Sara. “It’s great to know the business so well and that helps so much when we are sourcing staff for them.
“We supplied two Director level PAs 10 years ago; one is now the longest serving member of their rapidly expanding office support team and when the other retired last year we sourced and placed her successor.
“Just like new home buyers often tailor the property to their taste by choosing their own fixtures and fittings, we spend a lot of time selecting the right person for the right job at the right time. We feel that we are a part of their organisation and that’s what makes our relationship work so well.”
MD of Avant Homes, Scott Varley agreed, “Sara has been a great help over the years and has provided great staff, some of whom have gone on to become integral parts of our business. We look forward to working with her in the future.”
Sara Eke Recruitment specialises in handling vacancies for permanent and temporary positions in a number of categories including Office Support, Marketing, Human Resources, Customer Service, Manufacturing, Sales, Management, Finance, Technical and Legal. In the last 12 years, Sara has placed more than 450 people into permanent jobs with total salaries in excess of £8.1 million. In addition to providing candidates for permanent jobs and temporary roles ranging from cover for sickness, holidays, longer term posts and maternity leave, Sara also offers a CV service for those looking for employment.