Celebrating People

Trinnovo’s culture of encouragement and collaboration resonates with its staff

Trinnovo Group is an international recruitment company, combining three specialized recruitment brands: Trust in Soda (Society of Digital Advocates, which provides digital and tech services), BioTalent (life-sciences) and Broadgate Search (business enablement and protection), plus its social enterprise, Ex-Military Careers. Headquartered in London, the company has additional offices in England, Ireland, Switzerland and the US (Los Angeles and Boston) and does business with tech-enabled companies all over the world.

“We genuinely put people first,” says Trinnovo Group CEO James Cox. “We try to disrupt the recruitment industry by creating a culture no one wants to leave and, at the same time, empowering our people to be themselves.”

Since its founding in 2018, Trinnovo Group has seen rapid growth — despite operating in a global pandemic for half its life. The secret to its success comes down to its people-first culture, empowerment and what they call the “diversity mindset.”

A Culture to Thrive In

Trinnovo Group offers a fun and casual work environment, generous time off, flexible work schedules and perks like subsidized gym memberships. The company supports well-being and work-life balance, including people policies designed to help attract and retain female employees.

“It’s easy to say, ‘people first,’ but we are in an industry where it’s easy for that not to be the case because you have targets and numbers to hit,” says Oliver Perry, associate director of sales for European operations across Ireland and Germany. “But you have to make sure you create a people-first culture because you’re motivating more than just salespeople. We have leaders and teams who are not creating revenue, so there is a residual benefit of making sure they stay longer and stay motivated.”

When Perry first started with Trinnovo Group in 2019, he found a place of encouragement. “I felt like if you wanted to do something, they would back you and support you in doing it. It became a place where you could try things and be innovative,” he says.

When Covid hit, rather than stripping back their operations, Trinnovo Group actually hired more people, Perry says, expecting  to grow through the pandemic and come out stronger. “That mindset makes it a better place to work. The whole group broke every record they set in the last few years. They really take the people-first culture seriously.”

“For me, the culture generates an enthusiastic and thriving environment,” says Natasha Cole, a principal consultant who, in 2018, was the first trainee to join BioTalent. “We celebrate successes. We encourage collaboration by getting to know other consultants, what they do, what they specialize in.”

Cole worked on site until Covid hit in spring of 2020. Since then, she’s worked at home full-time. “I’ve got more flexibility, and that creates a positive culture. You can work where you want to work,” Cole says. To keep people from feeling isolated, the leaders make it a priority to have regular catchups, activities and competitions that place staff into global teams to work together to achieve a goal. Staff also partake in Trinnovo Talks, where they meet virtually, separate into breakout rooms, and talk about anything they want that’s not work-related.

In addition to health competitions such as Trinnovo Tigers, the company encourages people to take two paid volunteer days per year. People can also get involved in the diversity innovation team representing one of their demographic pillars: LGBTQIA+, ethnicity, gender, accessibility, mental health, veterans, and socio-economic. Employees at all levels work together toward an impact that isn’t sales. It goes back to the fact that there are things that are important to people are often disregarded, Perry says. “Regarding them gives people a chance to feel valued at work outside their day job. They are passionate about what they want to achieve, which adds value to the job and extra motivation.”

Another method of ensuring engagement is the Innovation inbox. Cox says, “Anyone can write to the Innovation inbox. If the idea is accepted, whoever had the idea can project-lead it. We have two or three ideas a week to that inbox.”

“Recruitment is a black and white job, so you can teach people to follow the system. The rest is making sure they’re happy to come to work,” Perry explained. “Making people happy to come to work sounds simple. Hire the right people with a good attitude, make them happy to come to work, and the rest should fall into place.”

Empowered for Growth

About 75% of new employees go through a three- to six-month training called Trinnovo Academy. Cole says, “When I was a trainee, I went through a fantastic three-month training program. It’s on-the-desk training where you get feedback, you’re given confidence and encouraged to collaborate. We’d prefer you make a mistake and try than stay safe. That’s where you really succeed,” she says.

Once trainees are ready, they can map out their career path with their manager. “Our people are all on a Career Pathway, both within sales and corporate operations. Employees choose where they want their career to go — whether it’s candidate engagement, 360 recruitment or a horizontal move — and have a clear set of criteria for growth with opportunities to move up every six months. “Since we rolled that out, it’s had a massive impact on retention. People feel empowered, they see what they have to do to grow.”

Cole agrees that Trinnovo Group prefers to promote leaders from within. “We are passionate about organic growth,” she says.  so instead of hiring people at higher levels, most of the company’s hires have been from trainees who grow to manager or director level. “It’s clearly laid out what you need to do to get where you want to get. You can become a director in about five years. You have a lot of control over where you want to get to,” Cole says.

“Every time I’m in touch with someone, I’m helping them reach their goals,” Perry says. “No one feels it’s all down to them, and if they don’t reach their goals they fail. As a leader, I try to be a good human being. Make sure your relationship is as personal as it can be.”

Diversity Mindset

Trinnovo Group’s mission is to be the fastest organically growing and most impactful recruitment business on the planet, and DE&I is at the forefront Cox says. “We set diversity goals to hire people from different backgrounds and we train managers to lead from the front. Diversity is at the heart of everything we do, through hiring to thought leadership.”

And the efforts are paying off. “It’s such a diverse range of people, diverse all the way up to leadership, diverse management styles,” Cole says. “They manage to get the best out of a group of characters.”

Trinnovo Group also encourages diversity and inclusion outside the workplace. Since the company’s inception, it has been part of a nonprofit service to help ex-military transition into the workforce. It’s run by Trinnovo’s 50-member volunteer Diversity and Innovation team. Ex-Military Careers provides a job board and job search platform plus tailored career advice and insight published on their website and on-line community.

“Inclusion is more important than diversity,” Perry says. “It’s all about ensuring that whoever is on the team has the same chance to be involved and to succeed. Our volunteer groups create a platform where people feel it’s a safe space to be included and discuss important issues.”

Having a diverse workforce and consultant pool not only represents their communities better — it empowers Trinnovo Group to achieve its mission to build diversity, create inclusion and encourage workplace innovation.