• Over half of UK tech workers say AI decisions at their company are made by leaders without the right expertise
• 78% of C-suite executives admit to using AI for work they are not trained to do
• 93% of C-level leaders say they have made AI-informed decisions based on inaccurate data, with 40% experiencing serious business impact as a result

UK businesses racing to adopt AI in the workplace are being put at risk – not by junior staff or immature technology, but by their own senior leadership, according to our new research.

Our survey of more than 2,000 UK tech workers finds that the riskiest users of AI are the very executives responsible for governance – combining high usage, weak oversight, and a willingness to override expertise.

Senior leaders hold the most decision-making power – but not always the AI expertise

More than half (52%) of all tech workers report that AI decisions have been made without the right expertise – and this isn’t just frontline cynicism. 65% of C-suite executives acknowledge that such decisions occur at the most senior level.

And the executives responsible for AI governance are also the most likely to engage in high-risk behaviours.

The survey uncovers a worrying pattern:

• 93% of C-level executives say they have made decisions based on AI outputs generated from inaccurate data
• Nearly three-quarters (73%) of C-suite executives admit to uploading confidential company data into AI tools – almost double the rate of entry-level staff* (42%) and far higher than intermediate-level employees (35%). Directors are slightly higher at 74%
• 78% of C-suite executives rely on AI for work they are not trained to do, compared with fewer than half of junior and mid-level staff

These high-stakes decisions carry tangible consequences: 40% of C-suite executives report serious business impacts from AI errors, compared with 32% of entry-level staff* and just 11% of intermediate employees.

Ollie Whiting, our CEO, comments: “The people with the greatest autonomy over AI are also the ones most exposed to its risks. Concentrated at the top of organisations, this risk is often hidden behind confidence and speed, while gaps in governance, skills, and accountability widen beneath the surface. Organisations must ensure leaders have the right expertise before these decisions cause real business impact”

The seniority blind spot around AI and compliance

The research shows a clear trend: greater responsibility, autonomy, and time pressure at senior levels translates into greater exposure to AI risk. C-suite executives and directors use AI more intensively, for higher-stakes decisions, and operate with less oversight than their teams.

Interestingly, entry-level staff* – while less likely to engage in risky AI behaviours – report higher rates of serious business impact (32%) than middle management (17%) or intermediate staff (11%). When errors happen at the front line, consequences can still be severe.

Confidence vs competence: the AI trust gap

While seven in ten (70%) C-suite executives describe themselves as ‘very confident’ in their AI expertise, that confidence is not widely shared across the workforce:

• Directors: 48% very confident in C-suite AI capability
• Senior management: 50% very confident
• Middle management: 36% very confident
• Entry-level staff*: 33% very confident
• Intermediate staff: 27% very confident

Yet, despite this self-assurance, 65% of C-suite executives admit AI decisions are still made without the right expertise, and 80% say a dedicated AI specialist is needed at board level. Leaders are simultaneously confident in their own ability and aware of gaps that require specialist support.

“The disconnect between confidence and competence is undermining trust and adoption of AI across organisations,” explains Ollie. 

“When employees don’t believe leadership understands AI, they are less likely to embrace AI initiatives, flag problems early, or trust AI-driven decisions being made at a high level. Boards can no longer assume seniority equates to capability – governance, expertise, and scrutiny are essential.” 

What business leaders can do to accelerate AI enablement

Unchecked overconfidence at the top is putting organisations at serious risk. Closing the awareness gap and leveraging AI for business transformation requires recognising that senior leaders such as C-level executives and directors may need additional support, while specialist expertise is also lacking across the broader workforce.

Our survey also found that half (50%) of tech workers expect AI to lead to job losses at their company within three years, signalling a workforce bracing for disruption.

Ollie adds: “Even the most experienced experts are still learning about AI – and those in the C-suite scrutinising their own confidence, competence, and AI-related decision making thoroughly are going to win long-term. Organisations need to be willing to look beyond the headlines, confront uncomfortable realities, and take action before those risks compound. 

“Our purpose at La Fosse is to deliver the future-proof technology talent organisations need to succeed. We work closely with leaders under pressure to move quickly and stay competitive, and understand the enormous opportunity AI presents.”  

“We work with organisations to identify where AI decisions are being made using inaccurate data, at the wrong pace, or without the right expertise, and where teams need reskilling rather than redundancies, to ensure leaders have the capability they need before those decisions make real business impact.” 

Download our ‘AI in the Workforce’ report here

Want to learn more about AI risk management and how to implement AI safely and effectively into your business? Get in touch today to see how we can support with AI transformation and executive recruitment of high-impact tech leaders.

Methodology

The research was conducted by Censuswide, among a sample of 2020 Employees in the UK working in tech (Aged 18+). The data was collected between 16.12.2025 – 23.12.2025. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct and ESOMAR principles. Censuswide is also a member of the British Polling Council.

Respondents span all seniority levels: C-suite executives: 545 (27%), directors: 388 (19%), senior management: 550 (27%), middle management: 304 (15%), intermediate level: 191 (9%), and entry level: >50 (2%).

*Please note comments on entry-level executives throughout indicate directional trends due to a reduced sample size.

The post AI in the C-Suite | New survey reveals confidence vs capability gap appeared first on La Fosse.

Keep reading below, or read the full article here.

Employee innovation

“As Boris Johnson arrived at Downing Street he brought with him a whole raft of speculation as to what his first new cabinet would look like. As the next incumbent of Number 10 following a Prime Minister who seemed unable to unify her team and a government which failed to reach a conclusion on the issue which dominated its existence, Johnson needed to make an impact, be clear about the course ahead and get a team together who would deliver – and perhaps more importantly, who would agree how to deliver.

For recruitment managers inheriting a new or existing team, the temptation to destroy what’s there and reinvent everything in their own successful image must be resisted. Everyone has an idea of what success looks like, yet in recruitment creating and maintaining a well-balanced successful team is not that easy. Inter-personnel dynamics may not be immediately apparent, the strengths and weaknesses of a team may in fact be carefully nuanced, ultimately complimenting the unique talents and desires of each team member. Put simply, if it ain’t bust why fix it?

As Matt Weston, managing director, Robert Half UK notes, the current operating environment means making the right decisions have never been more important for SMEs. This brings added stress for leaders who need their teams to succeed against the odds. The company’s own research found in the next two years companies view their biggest challenges as economic uncertainty (45 per cent), ongoing digitalisation efforts (41 per cent) and increased competition (37 per cent).

“While it can be easy to focus inwards, it’s important to also shift a part of that focus to current market conditions and shifts in the industry,” says Weston. “To avoid becoming stagnant, businesses are looking to their leaders to help steer the organisation with confidence.”

For Weston the answer lies in a blended approach – being innovative with regard to the business and the structure of the team, coupled with a willingness to learn from existing employees and best practices. This, says Weston will help the team “feel part of the decision-making process as you try to instil long-term change.”

“It is important that when looking to make significant changes, you take into account existing staff and proactively encourage them to participate and offer up ideas towards the various changes to the business,” he adds. “This will prevent employees from feeling left out, while also enabling you to learn and gain new perspectives on the business and the structures of teams.”

Mike Taylor, managing consultant – engineering at Heat Recruitment also emphasises the importance of assessing the attributes of the existing team before instigating change: “Some things you should take note of are the strengths, weaknesses and primarily, individual personalities and ways of working. Everybody is different and there is no one-size-fits-all,” he says.

More than popularity

“I like to think of success as the positive relationships you make,” continues Taylor. “This could be Boris Johnson’s downfall in the first instance – after all, he didn’t walk into his position as a popular bloke. It’s not really about popularity though, it’s about building relationships up over time as you help and support your team to learn and develop.”

Taylor advocates analysing limitations rather than simply dismissing them weaknesses arguing that such facets will indicate where growth and development are required. A nurturing and investment led approach – rather than slash and burn – will improve longevity and trust.

“I believe that ‘fine-tuning’ or developing people, rather than making big or bold changes, will lead to a greater positive change in the long term,” says Taylor.

“Leadership isn’t about domination – it’s important to manage by motivation, not by control,” says Anke Janssen, group managing director of markets at Carmichael Fisher. “Leading is actually about connecting with your team and ensuring they are part of the wider process. Be clear that you have no hidden agenda. Innovation breeds from your people, and I make it a significant part of my remit to communicate any changes or developments that could affect the team. Ensuring the clarity of your expectations will create a good buy-in from the team, which will in turn, raise team spirit.”

Alongside this compassion and consideration, however, Janssen says leaders must show an amount of toughness. “My leadership style certainly isn’t soft,” she says. “The most important attribute a leader can have is decisiveness. When push comes to shove and important decisions have to be made, it’s vital to be concrete with your decisions. Buy-in from your team is important, and nobody is going to support your decisions when approached with unease or hesitation.”

Building rapport

Jon Price, a senior manager at La Fosse Associate joined the business 18 months ago and was tasked with leading a new financial services team, made up mostly of existing La Fosse staff. “Your first priority should be to build trust and rapport with your new team – and as La Fosse is very much a values-driven business, I quickly realised this when I joined the team,” he says. “This doesn’t mean letting them get away with anything they shouldn’t – in fact, it’s important to set standards from the beginning – but if you’re going to achieve whatever it is you’ve set out to do, you’ll need buy-in from your team. Personally, I found building relationships with the existing management team particularly beneficial, as I could draw on their expert knowledge of the business while bringing my own fresh perspective to the table.”

Price maintains that the biggest mistake anyone can make when joining a new business in a leadership position is to come in and aggressively begin making changes. “Not only does this mean that you won’t have had time to understand the business and its processes properly, but you’ll also risk alienating your new team in the process,” he says.

Moving to a new leadership position is a huge challenge,” says Price, “it means creating a new culture for your team. But the biggest thing I learned is that this is much better achieved if as a leader you can shape rather than dictate the culture. Care, collaboration and communication are all important things to consider whilst driving high performance.”

Indeed, culture and the general business environment created by a leader does seem to be instrumental in delivering a new effective team. As Robert Half’s Matt Weston notes, being successful goes beyond organising and monitoring productivity and is instead about inspiring and motivating the workforce, both through encouraging an open exchange of ideas within the team, and through ensuring that they have the right blend of skills and experience in place.

“Improving a business has to start from the top,” says Weston. “This involves creating a clear vision for the direction of the business, as well as having a recruitment process that allows you to hire people with the right skills, experience and drive to help you execute this vision.

“A positive and open minded attitude to everything around you, from the people you work with to new forms of technology and working practices, will set you up for long-term success,” he concludes.

“New leaders should accept that their goals may take a while to be realised,” says Jon Price. “It’s natural to want to get some quick successes under your belt, but in the long term it is much better to focus on getting the team on track first. Be patient and concede that your personal goals won’t always come first from now on.”

Whether Boris Johnson has the patience, or will be afforded the luxury of time to be patient for results has yet to be seen.”

For more information, get in touch with jon.price@lafosse.com.

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Simon La Fosse, executive chairman and founder of La Fosse, speaks to Becky Wilson about the company’s wins at RI’s Awards in 2018, and why its people are key to its success

La Fosse made the decision to set up on his own back in 2007 following a 14-year career at Harvey Nash. Following this, he says that he wanted the opportunity to start his own business. “I wanted to focus on the people, everyone from clients, to candidates and my own staff,” he shares. “As I developed my own career, I just found that by treating people well I tended to get a better reputation, I tended to get more business referred to me, and I tended to enjoy my job more. It just seemed to make sense as a good business model for me.” He therefore decided to create a company with care at the heart of everything it does.

This philosophy has certainly worked for La Fosse. Today, the technology-focused recruitment business has 220 people working across five offices (London, Leeds, New York, Los Angeles and Toronto) and has a turnover in excess of £100 million. The company’s average growth rate stands at around 35 per cent per annum, in terms of headcount, turnover and profitability. It is this continued expansion that helped the company win two RI Awards in 2018: Growth Company of the Year and Best Recruitment Company to Work for £100 Million +.

La Fosse is positive about the current opportunities for the company and describes them as being “as good as we could hope for really”. He acknowledges challenges in the form of Brexit, IR35, and the threat of recession, but explains, “There will always be things on the horizon, but they’re facing every business and I just think we’ve got critical mass and are well positioned to simply continue doing what we’re doing.”

Understanding the market

There also remain global skills shortages in the technology sector, which is something that La Fosse doesn’t see changing any time soon. To tackle these shortages, La Fosse Associates is continually developing its network and brand; he highlights that candidates in tech have choice, so companies have to provide reasons why a candidate should choose them. There is also emphasis on understanding the market really well: “We’ve got really strong vertical specialisations. We know our markets, whether it’s cybersecurity, or our other specialisations, we’ve got real experts who know the market and the people, so they have better access than a lot of our competition.”

As part of the criteria for the Growth Company of the Year Award, RI’s judges are looking for exceptional growth over a number of years. This is something that La Fosse Associates has been able to achieve, by expanding at over 30 per cent per annum. La Fosse doesn’t believe it was this growth alone that led to success at the Awards, and stresses the link to the Best Recruitment Company to Work For Award the business also attained. “If you’ve got people that are genuinely enjoying what they’re doing, then they’re motivated, they work harder, and they treat their candidates and their clients better,” he says. “It’s a virtuous circle as that in turn allows us to attract a higher calibre of person.” Having strong continual growth provides the company with a variety of benefits, including good profits, which can be reinvested back into its growth. It also provides employees with opportunities for career growth and continual development.

​
Celebrating success

La Fosse describes the wins at the Awards as good PR and adds that, “It’s great to get independent acknowledgement and be able to go back to the company and show that the work we’re doing is independently verified. It helps attract clients, it gives us credibility with candidates and it helps to attract people to the organisation to come and work with us.” After winning Best Recruitment Company to Work For last year, it’s clear La Fosse Associates is committed to putting its employees first. La Fosse explains, “I think fundamentally it’s about making sure you’re a good business, so making sure you’re a business where people enjoy working there, and if you can do that first, then the rest falls into place.”

Following the company’s growth over recent years, he suggests that the business’ attraction and retention schemes have become more sophisticated and structured. The company has a team of five internal recruiters, enabling its consultants and managers to focus solely on their role. He also considers that the company’s size now has an impact on the number of people applying to work at La Fosse Associates, as they hear about its culture and growth from a variety of sources.

Considering the company’s top three attraction and retention schemes, La Fosse suggests the first is its co-ownership model. When he started the business, he committed to giving away 40 per cent of the company to the people that work there. Irrespective of their role or seniority in the company, every single person has a stake in the business. He adds, “I think the second one is that care for the people we have working here is at the heart of what we do, and that just shines through.” Finally, he thinks the company’s growth is a factor, as it gives people’s careers the opportunity to develop. When asked about the culture at La Fosse Associates, he describes it as collaborative, ambitious and caring.

Committed teams

La Fosse has a 70 per cent associate hiring model, which means they hire a significant number of recent graduates. Contrary to the negative press often surrounding younger generations, La Fosse hasn’t had this experience: “The people that either we choose or the people that are attracted to working here are people who are ambitious and focused on working out what they can contribute in order to be successful.”When discussing the importance of his team as a whole, La Fosse says, “They’re everything, they’re the only thing. Without them, we would not have achieved a thing. I think that’s your only differentiator really, the quality and the values which your people have.” The Award wins the business has achieved help to gain that vital recognition, which motivates staff and attract new employees.

As well as growing the business and looking after staff, La Fosse Associates also gives back to the community with its corporate social responsibility (CSR) work. Since the launch of the company, it has supported a school in Malawi, and now provides around a third of their annual budget. It has also recently started supporting a social entrepreneur who has set up an online tutoring platform to support disadvantaged young people into Oxford or Cambridge university. So far, of the 180 young people that have received support from the platform, 50 have gone on to study at one of these two universities.
Reflecting on the CSR work the business does, Simon shares, “I think it’s significant, but we don’t make enough of a big deal about it, it’s just a part of something we’ve always done. I think charitable donations and those kinds of things you do in a quiet way because they’re the right thing to do; if you shout about it too much, it somehow takes away from the integrity of what you’re doing.”​

US expansion

La Fosse made the decision to launch an office on the West Coast of America, in Los Angeles, three years ago and in the second half of last year opened an office in New York. The company has also just opened an office in Toronto. La Fosse reveals that launching in a new location is akin to beginning again as a start-up, as the business has no reputation or infrastructure in place. He shares that having a strong leader – Johnnie Greenwood – in the new location is vital, highlighting, “I think there are two things that are important: one is having somebody you can trust to promote the culture and values, and secondly having someone we trust in terms of being an entrepreneur and a business leader.”
La Fosse considers the US market to be slightly behind the UK’s in terms of market saturation and the quality of the industry. He says, “For us, it’s an opportunity, despite the fact we’re not really known nearly as well over there, to take quite a successful model and apply it in a market that’s a little underdeveloped.” La Fosse Associates is yet to expand anywhere else across the globe, but he suggests a possible location for the future could be Germany, as the company already carries out quite a lot of business in Continental Europe.

Recruitment’s reputation

As a recruitment company operating in the technology sector, La Fosse is well aware of the opportunities and possible challenges posed by developments in this area. He shares that there’s, “no point panicking or sticking your head in the sand”. Reflecting on technology changes including the introduction of job boards and LinkedIn, he says, “Undoubtedly, I think technology has already disrupted the industry and I think it will continue to disrupt it. In the next five or ten years’ time, the better applications of technology will be around AI and automation in some shape or form, which I think is a net beneficiary to the recruitment industry because it makes the process more efficient.” Longer term, he reveals he is unsure what impact technology will have on the industry, but he welcomes the changes that enable recruiters to work more effectively.

The recruitment industry helps to find people their dream roles and careers, but can sometimes suffer from negative press. La Fosse tells me that he thinks this isn’t about the people employed in the sector, but the industry itself: “I think the way the industry is managed is to look at short term business goals, so in my view, they think too much about driving revenue, less about what is fundamentally making a good and sustainable business. I believe a business that treats people well is the kind of business that people want to work with, whether they’re clients, candidates or the people in the organisation.”

Part of La Fosse’s mission is to improve levels of candidate care across the industry, and he hopes that the company’s execution of this model will lead to more companies deciding to operate in this way. He explains, “If other companies follow this model, then that’s going to be good for us because it gives the recruitment industry a better reputation. At the end of the day, the industry does a massively important job; it’s the glue that helps the economy perform and what’s more important than helping people develop their careers?”

Train to retain

Looking to the year ahead, La Fosse is set to launch a training business to help ease the skills shortages in the technology sector. La Fosse reveals that many employers are nervous around training graduates who may then leave the business. To help, La Fosse Associates will train graduates and school leavers in technology for free, and then place them in roles with its clients. La Fosse is “excited” about the venture, which is, “Doing some good for the industry and increasing the skills base out there.” He is a real enthusiast around the idea of preparing people early and properly for the world of work they’re going into today and stresses the importance of young people gaining an education that is going to be beneficial to them throughout their career.

Reflecting on his career in recruitment to date, La Fosse highlights that the people remain the key thing he enjoys about working in the sector. “I find people endlessly fascinating because their motivations are uniquely different,” he reveals, “I’m just interested in people, whether they’re my clients, my candidates or the people in the company.” He adds that he also enjoys seeing people grow and progress in the company and is committed to doing what he can to retain good members of staff: “If you’re good at what you do and we’ve trained you, it would be a tragedy to lose you, so we’ll continue to work really hard to understand how we can help you do exactly what you want to do and be as engaged as you want to be.” With this focus on its people and future expansion, it seems La Fosse Associates has its sights firmly set on continued growth and success in the years ahead.

If you’re interested in joining an award-winning it recruitment agency with a world-class team, don’t hesitate to get in touch with karina.oluwo@lafosse.com.

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“GoldSand Digital is delighted to welcome Ollie Whiting to the Guest Editor hot seat for this third edition of Connect. As Director of Permanent and Regional Recruitment at La Fosse Associates, Ollie has supported much of the content idea generation in this edition and has below, given his thoughts on the topics covered.

It’s often said that people are the heart of any organisation, crucial to growth and success. Within the world of recruitment, people arguably matter more than most.

There’s no denying that recruitment is a hugely competitive industry, and it’s a recruitment organisation’s team that is its differentiator. Building a strong team can make all the difference to growth, and it’s this that’s inspired this third edition of CONNECT.

I joined La Fosse in December 2015, following six-and-a-half years at a global talent acquisition specialist, and one of the particularly primary attractions was the fact that I knew it was a values-led organisation – and that’s down to our founder, Simon La Fosse.

After spending 15 years helping to build a technology recruitment firm and taking it to market, he took a step back and saw an industry that, by and large, seemed to just treat people as commodities. He believed that we could do better, and built an organisation around that ethos.

Since I first stepped foot in the door, there’s one word that really shines above all others – culture. That’s testament to the people who work here – after all, for any growing organisation, holding onto its core values can be hugely challenging. It’s that topic which is explored in our first feature: How does a growing organisation keep sight of its culture?

Excitingly, we speak with David Buttress, former CEO of global food delivery service Just Eat, to hear his take. Having co-founded the food giant with one other in a basement, before overseeing its growth into a global business with, at the time of his departure, over 2,100 employees, Buttress should know.

What lessons can the recruitment industry learn?

Finally, Chris Cranshaw, Marketing & Bid Director at Digital Gurus, offers his views, specifically with regard to Corporate Social Responsibility. Consumers now consider more than quality goods and services when choosing a brand, and positive press can make all the difference when it comes to attracting and retaining the best employees.”

For more information and to move forward with your IT and tech recruitment plans, get in touch with Ollie.Whiting@lafosse.com.

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Supported by insights and stories from interviews with leading thinkers from businesses who exemplify such behaviours, including Simon La Fosse, Humane Capital argues for a radical reassessment of current business models. See below for an extract from the novel.

As described by Simon La Fosse, the approach to establishing Level 4 leadership is to keep matters simple, with a tight focus on hiring people with the right mindset:

One of the basic premises of management and leadership used to be that you had to spend a lot of time telling people what to do, whereas if you have highly capable people with the right values and mindsets you don’t really need to tell them what to do in the same way. You need to give them a framework within which to operate and a collective sense of how we like to do stuff and, after that, you let them get on with it.

We do not recruit people who are good enough. We recruit people who are exceptional. Undesirable behaviour tends to stem from having the wrong values and that is a key consideration in the hiring process, and a key factor when monitoring performance. The critical thing in my view, the difference between outperforming a competitor and the difference between success and failure, is the quality of [your] people.

Treat people like human beings

Simon reports that many people who have been through recruitment agencies do not feel that they were treated well. La Fosse’s success is underpinned by the business opportunities that flow from the concept of radically improving the candidate’s experience in the recruitment process. This means treating all individual’s well, not just those whom the agency successfully places.

Create an environment that is a pleasure to work in

The other key piece of advice is to treat the people you work alongside with the same level of care and respect.

If we extend the same value system to our colleagues, we will then enjoy working there even more and, if you think about it, you work five days out of seven so you spend more time with your colleagues than you do with your family. When you realize that, you realize the importance of creating a working environment where it’s a pleasure to work.

Remove the divide between management and workers

There has been a conscious effort to reduce the difference in status and the difference in treatment between managers and workers. He added:

One of the reasons for the divide, certainly in the recruitment industry, is that, typically, the senior people in the organization hold a disproportionate amount of the equity, with the result that they are building capital value in addition to the money they were taking out of the company in the form of salaries and dividends. This situation continues to the point when the company is floated on the stock market and it is those senior people who benefit disproportionately from the value that has been created. There is not much left over or handed out to the ninety per cent of the organization that was driving the value.

I just thought,‘What’s an appropriate and a fair amount for me to take as the risk-taker, as the person that started it?’ It felt like sixty per cent, which left forty per cent for other people.’

Provide share options for people who join

He informed all members of staff that the plan was to share forty per cent of the wealth that was created by the people who helped build the company:

That fundamentally created a different perspective, one where people were not working just for themselves. They were now working toward the common good and that, I think, has been a significant part of our success and will continue to drive the business forward. Importantly, it hasn’t just gone to only those people who joined me at the start of the business, share options are available to all people when they join. It is no longer them and us, we’re all in it together and it feels fundamentally fairer. The consequence of that is we get a lot more discretionary effort, a lot more loyalty and people really caring about the brand and the reputation of the company.

The thing that has developed over time is a clear sense of purpose and an understanding that we stand for something different, and that, collectively, we are developing a business that treats people in a fundamentally different way to previously accepted business practices. What really excites us is that by doing [as we are doing] and achieving commercial success, others will follow [our lead] and change the dynamics of the recruitment industry. This will then have the effect of improving the treatment of hundreds of thousands of people who, when they are looking for a job, are at a vulnerable point in their lives.

The results from starting the company at Level 4

One tangible result of moving towards Level 4 has been a succession of ‘Best Company to Work For’ nominations; an accolade that adds greatly to our employer brand. We have achieved a top 40 position ( out of over 900 entrants) for the last six years in a row. Other rewards include low staff turnover, with higher levels of motivation and discretionary effort. There is an understanding that people take the initiative as opposed to just following process, knowing that that is the right thing to do for our organisation. At the time of the interview, annual growth was thirty per cent, making it one of the 100 fastest growing companies in the UK for three consecutive years. If we did not start at Level 4, I think we probably would have gone out of business. Recruitment businesses are very sensitive to downturns in the economy and within a year of setting up the business we went into one of the greatest downturns the British economy has ever seen. We grew through that, and that was when I think we realised we were onto something.

Operating at Level 4 is priceless

I think it [operating at Level 4] is priceless for two reasons: firstly (and I think this is the least important reason) it’s given us a commercially successful business and, secondly, which is much more important for me, is that it, Level 4, has created a business that I fundamentally enjoy working in.

I believe that the vast majority of the people working here believe so too. You spend most of your life at work so if you can make sure that you work in the kind of environment you want to be in, then we’ve made a difference to your life.

Making a social and environmental impact

The company’s sense of responsibility extends to society and to the wider environment. It commits to tree planting, to ensuring a carbon-neutral footprint and to maintaining a commitment to donate a chunk of annual profits to charity. This provides about one third of the annual budget of a school in Malawi. Another charity is an inner-city school where many of the children have grown up in an environment where no one in their affinity is employed. The company works with the school, coaches the pupils, gives the interview practice and so on to assist the pupil’s chances of gaining future employment.

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In 2007, Simon La Fosse left the recruitment company he helped to build to start La Fosse, a co-owned technology recruitment firm operating at all levels on a permanent, contract, interim, and executive search basis. Ten years later, the company has grown to 150 employees, opened multiple offices, and won numerous awards – in 2017, it was named as one of the top 50 Fastest Growing Recruitment Companies in the UK (Recruiter Fast 50) and was ranked as Top 15 Best Company to Work For in the UK (The Sunday Times) for the last four years. We caught up with Simon to look back on the last ten years, and what could come in the future.

search-consult: How has the Executive Search industry changed in the last ten years?

Simon La Fosse: I don’t think it has changed much, to be honest with you. More people are coming into the industry with a good attitude, but some of the big old companies are still quite complacent. Overall, I feel that the industry is changing for the better. I think it’s becoming much more aware of its responsibilities to candidates, and that it needs to be more flexible to what the client wants as opposed to simply delivering a product.

s-c: What are your views on the rise of in-house executive search?

SLF: I think it should be of concern for the search firms that are not very good, because it challenges them, and because the searches that go to in-house teams tend to be for easier-to-fill positions. We get the more challenging search work that demands a more rigorous methodology, a more comprehensive network that an in-house team can necessarily have. So if you are good at what you do, it’s not an issue. If you are not so good, then I would be worried for you.

s-c: Looking back at the last ten years, what are you most proud of at La Fosse Associates?

SLF: I think maintaining our culture as we’ve grown. We define our culture as one that tries to do the right thing for people, whether they’re candidates, clients, or colleagues. We should be very proud of maintaining that very consistently from the day we started until today.

s-c: La Fosse has been recognised for the last four years as one the fifteen best companies to work for in the UK. How is your business model different to others in the Search industry?

SLF: Our business model is more the exception than the norm at the moment. However, we’re seeing that businesses that have started more recently than us also get it, they understand that it makes sense to treat everybody well. The goodwill and the brand that you build are so valuable in terms of referred business, and people are just happy to engage with you.

One of our longer-term purposes is to play a role in leading by example, to help the recruitment industry to treat people better. And the most effective way to do that is to say that it’s been quite successful for us, and others can draw their own conclusions from that. We don’t just think it’s the right way to behave, we think it’s the most effective business model out there as well. It helps with motivation and productivity.

About twenty years ago, Jack Welch, the CEO of GE, said in an interview that what was important was not making things, that there was only one thing that mattered and that was their people. And he wasn’t just saying that; everything that GE did was about investing in their people and being a good place for them to be. There are so many examples of this being a very effective business model – for instance, look at John Lewis. You get a very different reception when you go there, compared to when you go to Tesco or somewhere else. And that’s because they treat their people well – part of it is co-ownership, which we do also. And all of these things help you build a business in the short term but also help you through the tough times as well.

Having said that, I think the longer we stand out quite different from the rest of the industry, the better it is for us in terms of being able to win business and, as far as we think anyway, position ourselves better in the search industry.

s-c: What has been the impact of technology in the last ten years?

SLF: For me, it’s not so much about technology directly impacting us, it’s how you use good technology to your advantage. For us, with an executive search system like FileFinder, the critical thing is to use it well and make sure that we record everything as well as we should. We’re not by any means perfect at that, but I think we’ve learned more than anything that there is no shortcut to that.

In the future, I think that there will be new challenges to the way we are doing business that is driven by technology. There are disruptive models that we have yet to see fully the impact of, and I think that is around a more effective matching of the marketplace in terms of the jobs out there and the candidates that are interested in those jobs.

I think we are now at the start of that journey, and the question that comes next is: does that displace us? And I don’t think it does; I have yet to see a technology or business model in recruitment that doesn’t involve people at some point in the process.

So, a better matching system would certainly cut out a lot of the manual work, but if we can pass that on to our clients in terms of cost savings, then our model becomes a more effective one for clients to use.

s-c: Where is the industry going next, and what should technology do to support that new direction?

SLF: I think it’s clear that tech is starting to enable more of the process to be automated. So any tech provider needs to be at the forefront of this if they want to become or remain a major player. A.I. and machine learning are easy phrases to throw around but I believe both will have a significant impact on our industry in the next few years.

We’re also finding that clients are increasingly interested in the value we can add from a human capital consulting perspective. So any technology that supports our efforts in this space will not only make us more effective but should also offer us a competitive advantage.

Lastly, as we increasingly find ourselves working remotely or internationally, cloud-based solutions that offer good security, reliability, and a common interface are pretty essential.

Original interview here.

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