The IT factor

In 2017, Richard Vaughan, Tony Pervan, Jane Anderson, and Mark Warren shared a vision to transform the recruitment landscape and provide candidates and employers with an unrivalled recruitment and talent acquisition experience. The four co-founders had previously been in the tech recruitment space and made the decision to create their own business that would be driven by a mission to create meaningful experiences for their people, partners and community. In Managing Director, Richard Vaughan’s words, “we’re people people.” From there, specialist IT and tech recruitment company, Younity, was born.

In just six years, its impressive journey from start-up, to one of New Zealand’s fastest growing companies with now close to 30 passionate professionals, has landed Younity at the top of the 2023 Master of Growth index in the Deloitte Fast 50 programme.

At its core, Younity is a team driven by their commitment to people with ambitions to be the best at what they do. In the world of tech recruitment, the pace of change is fast, the needs of employers are always shifting, and candidate expectations are ever evolving.

With rapid technological advancement and the advent of new tools, it could be tempting for any business to shift their focus to productivity and efficiency tech tools as the answer to this constant change. But when you’re operating in a highly competitive and deeply personal industry like recruitment, conversations about jobs, lives and livelihoods must also be personal and tailored. “While chatbots can be a great tool to help candidates get sorted with general queries, we believe the real value we add is our people. When you’re talking about someone’s career and aspirations, it has to be done via one-to-one interaction. From a connection perspective, there’s no way to replace person-to-person contact.”

Richard highlights Younity’s collaborative approach to recruitment as one of their greatest strengths. “We’re not a collection of individual recruiters. And our candidates feel more connected to us because we work as a team, not as individuals.” Younity’s approach to recruitment is simple: recruiters work together to identify the best candidates for the right roles in collaboration with each other. This method ensures that the needs of candidates, as well as employers, are prioritised and kept as the central focus. In Richard’s words, it’s a “win win win scenario.”

But wins can be hard to come by in the current climate. Younity has faced the same challenges as so many others pertaining to talent shortages and a slowdown in new roles from clients. Richard notes, “there are always ebbs and flows,” but Younity’s secret sauce is the strength of their relationships and their expansive networks. “Our clients trust us because they know we’ll do what we say we’re going to do.” That means understanding their needs and requirements and connecting them with bright tech talent who can help them to achieve their goals.

Richard says the strength of their networks is a result of the layered approach to building their team of recruiters. “When we started, we had highly experienced, seasoned recruiters. But as we evolved, it was important to make the business sustainable and scalable.” To do this, Younity onboarded intermediate recruiters, and juniors with little to no prior experience in recruitment. This creates depth in the team and also facilitates a steady and healthy pipeline of keen, but inexperienced recruiters to be coached and supported through the journey. At Younity, this coaching and upskilling is tailored to each individual to help build the necessary expertise required.

This method of introducing layers of experience to the recruitment team has no doubt contributed to Younity’s fast growth, as well as its focus on tech as a specialism. “We chose technology because we knew it would continue to grow year on year, as it overarches everything,” says Richard.

With so much change on the horizon, Younity is considering what’s next for the business. Already one of the fastest-growing businesses in New Zealand, they’re showing no signs of slowing. Richard hints at some exciting expansions across the country and their service offerings and even introducing some new products. “We don’t necessarily want to be the biggest, but we want to be the best,” says Richard.

Younity – ranked 1st on the 2023 Deloitte Master of Growth index

Take a look at our Fast 50 e-zine, Insights from Innovators, for more fast growth stories from the Deloitte Fast 50 programme, here.