We’re getting ready to celebrate our 21st birthday in 2023!
We’re hoping to celebrate throughout the year – and to get the ball rolling we thought we’d share 21 facts about HarknessKennett that you may not know:
1. Our founding partners, James Harkness & Lisa Betteridge first worked together at WPP’s first startup company, Banner McBride in 1997
2. We were incorporated on 11 October 2002 and our first client was INVESCO Continental Europe
3. Nicky joined us in February 2003 and is now our longest-serving team member. Tanya joined our resourcing team in 2015
4. In 2004 we placed our first-ever interim, Sarah Jane Hale, at Vodafone Group, and we’re still working with Sarah today
5. We’ve received over 3,200 CVs from our extensive network of communicators and have placed talented comms pros into over 370 roles – including interim, fixed term contracts and permanent hires
6. We’ve worked in 27 countries, delivering 206 projects for our clients: everything from measurement in Vanuatu to training in Croydon
7. Our largest client has been Compass Group with 500,000 employees and our smallest is Woking Homes with less than 50 people
8. We’ve supported 44 charities with donations and sponsored the training of Canine Partners dogs Wisley in 2013 and Zavi in 2016
9. Every year we’ve worked with at least one charity to whom we’ve provided discounted rates
10. We’ve signed over 25,000 Christmas cards prior to switching to environmentally friendly ecards in 2016
11. We’ve contributed to our wider profession through supporting CIPR and IABC, judging, speaking and attending events
12. We started running networking sessions in 2013, designed to facilitate peer-to-peer networking and knowledge sharing. Since then, we’ve run 31 sessions, 5 of which were online during the pandemic, with over 600 attendees in total
13. Our alumni of HarknessKennett colleagues have gone on to successful careers in law firms, agencies, educational establishments, automotive and swimming pool companies!
14. Our team has raised over 20 children and been carers for parents in ill health
15. In the past 21 years between us we’ve owned over 100 dogs, cats, chickens, hamsters and fish
16. In our spare time we’ve sung in choirs, played in bands, supported youth groups, volunteered at vaccination centres, supported local food banks and as acted as trustees to charities
17. In December 2017, needing a more agile way of working, we moved to remote working – just over two years ahead of the pandemic; who knew we were so far ahead of the curve?!
18. With a focus on long-lasting business relationships, we’re delighted to still be working with many of the same clients and candidates that we were 10, 15 – even 20 years ago!
19. Our record for working with one individual in the most different client organisations is four – spanning everything from government departments to engineering and transport
20. We’ve successfully traded through three economic downturns, seven prime ministers and a pandemic
21. 88% of our work comes from repeat business and word of mouth referral – a stat that we take huge pride in!
Published by Nicky
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