Celebrating One Year with Luke!
This month marks one year since Luke Dart joined the Nicholas Associates Group. Luke began his journey in recruitment with the Stafforce Cumbria team, where he developed a strong understanding of the importance of relationships, candidate care, and adapting approaches to suit different clients and individuals. Those early experiences have since informed his move into the Candidate Manager role, where he now focuses on supporting and improving candidate experience across the Group.
To mark his first year with the business, we caught up with Luke to reflect on his time in recruitment, his transition into the marketing team, and what he’s looking to develop next in his role.
You began your journey with us in recruitment working with our Stafforce Cumbria team, what have you enjoyed most about your first year with the business overall?
I loved getting to begin my Nicholas Associates Group journey with the team in Carlisle. The best part of that role was developing some genuine relationships with the team, and seeing how they truly put their candidates and clients at the centre of everything. It was impressive to see how they are trusted by the clients they work with, not just being seen as an external agency, but instead as a genuine part of their organisations. Seeing how the team would alter their style to ensure that each client and candidate they’re dealing with can have the most positive experience possible is certainly something I will take forward into my new role. Also, being part of a team with such a breadth of experience certainly showed me how important it is to become an expert in my field! Having never worked in industrial recruitment previously, I certainly learnt a thing or two from my colleagues there.
What key skills or experiences from recruitment have you brought with you into your new role as Candidate Manager?
The number one transferable skill here is having the candidate at the centre of everything. Yes, my recruitment role in Cumbria was a sales position, but before any of that, it was always key to remember that the reason for doing what we do was to match great candidates with great job opportunities, hopefully kick-starting or reinvigorating their careers. Moving into my new role, I continue to ensure that the experience of our candidates across the Nicholas Associates Group is central to my decision-making.
What excites you most about joining the marketing team and stepping into this new role?
I think the number one part of the role that I’m excited for is to develop something brand new for Nicholas Associates Group. The Candidate Manager position can truly be a force for good across the business, and I am really excited to be at the forefront of that. Utilising the data that is available to us, and ensuring that our practice across the group continues to be industry-leading through striving for improvement, is exciting – I look forward to working with the whole group to begin that process.
How do you hope your role will positively impact candidate experience and attraction across the Group?
Although I’m aware that all our recruitment teams have candidate experience at the forefront of their work every day, it’s important to be agile with regard to the changing needs of our workforce. Having the chance to look across the entire Group, I will be able to see what works well and what doesn’t work so well, and share this information to ensure that everyone’s practice is constantly evolving to match the changing requirements of today’s workforce. It will give our local recruitment experts an added edge – they get to continue working as a trusted local partner, but whilst also utilising the huge breadth of knowledge we have across our Group to shape the way they work.
Looking ahead, what are you most looking forward to learning or developing in the next stage of your career?
I look forward to upskilling myself on all the fantastic resources we have available to us. We are lucky to have access to some of the best tools to aid our recruitment teams, but it’s important that we utilise them to their full potential. I am looking forward to continuing my learning, to enable me to pass on the tips and tricks along the way.
As Luke reaches his one-year anniversary with Nicholas Associates Group, his progression reflects a thoughtful approach to learning and development. His experience on the recruitment side of the business, combined with his focus on continuous improvement, has already contributed positively to how we think about candidate experience at a Group level. We look forward to seeing Luke continue to grow in his role and support the ongoing evolution of our candidate journey.
