So far, 2022 has been the year of ambition for Heat…
From regional expansion and team growth to the introduction of new specialist divisions, our focus on raising the bar has been felt across all levels of the business. In order to achieve this, we have strengthened many areas of the business by bringing in experts in their field to guide our teams to achieve their potential. To this end, we are thrilled to be welcoming Colin Lloyd to Heat as our new Director for Insurance and Financial Services.
“It’s with great delight and excitement that we welcome Colin to Heat. Colin has a boundless wealth of knowledge in developing people in order to ensure they achieve the highest levels that they can and, having worked for many global leading companies in the Insurance, Financial Services, and Recruitment Sectors, we are very keen to see him in action at Heat as we continue our high growth and high-performance journey.” – Steve Preston, CEO.
In order to find out a little more about Colin and the expertise he will be bringing to our divisions, we sat down to ask him a few questions.
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND?
Initially, I worked in general insurance sales before eventually switching to recruiting within the sector. I got involved with recruitment as I was approached by a past colleague who told me she thought I’d have a knack for it. I was looking for a new challenge at the time, as I was finding the pace of working in Insurance a little slow in pace for me. Recruitment sounded like it would suit me better, in terms of the rapid pace of deals and the gratification you could get from that: it sounded like an exciting new career path for me, so I went for it. I started in the industry as a trainee, which meant taking a massive drop in salary, but eventually worked my way up into management. From there, I then moved to Reed and worked up to the Director level. My main sectors were Insurance and Financial Services, actuarial and banking, then later adding in HR and Sales at a later date.
After working in the recruitment sector for a significant period, I then started my own career coaching business which I absolutely loved. I saw a lot of success in this venture, as the business grew from start-up to profit, but ultimately, I found that I missed working with people! I was only ever conversing with clients or potential clients, and I found myself really missing having colleagues to bounce off when times were challenging, or a team to share successes with. So, in 2017, I made the move back into recruitment and went on to become divisional manager at Search before eventually moving back into career coaching.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO JOIN HEAT?
Having worked for a range of both larger and smaller companies, I’ve found that what draws me to a company is its sense of ambition. Ambition is something that Heat has plenty of and, being an independent agency, there’s the ability to make changes and implement new ways of working rapidly. This, coupled with the desire to get bigger and better and break into new markets, makes it a very exciting time to be joining the business.
WHAT PLANS DO YOU HAVE TO DRIVE OUR FINANCIAL SERVICES AND INSURANCE RECRUITMENT ACROSS THE UK?
Having met with the individual team members and having seen the recent team presentations of where we currently are, there’s definitely going to be a big focus on expanding the markets we’re already in and the reach that we have. Geographically, there are some regions we could increase our representation within, as well as working on expanding our offering to ensure we’re able to deliver on the needs of all of our clients and continue to provide the level of service that Heat is known for.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES IN THE SECTOR CURRENTLY?
Undoubtedly the biggest challenge in the sector right now is finding talent. It’s an extremely buoyant market currently, and there are a lot of vacancies out there, but finding good people is proving extremely difficult and then getting them through the process is even harder. After the impact of the virus and the long-term impact of much of the workforce being put onto furlough, it feels like the employment market has blown up, and this hasn’t really slowed down at all. But equally, it’s going to be important to keep a weather eye out for the wider financial market and what is going on in the wider world that is likely to have an impact on the sector. The war in Europe, the changing of government, and the cost-of-living crisis, all of this will percolate into the recruitment industry in one way or another. We need to ensure we’re being agile, and ready for things to change. No one knows what’s next, and it’s impossible to predict at the moment, but there will undoubtedly be impacts to contend with in our industries.