The Leeds recruitment boss rethinking employee benefits

“Recruitment is an industry that has a lot of stigma and stereotype attached to it,” said Mr Sohel.

“When you say you’re a recruiter you see people’s eyes roll.

“I think that recruitment needs a fresh approach, it’s an industry that’s slow to react to change, so I wanted to create a business that actually drove positive, meaningful change in the sector.”

He added: “When people talk about working in recruitment for Pivot, I want them to actually have a positive story to tell.”

Originally from Leeds, Mr Sohel’s career in recruitment started when he came back after studying Law and Economics at Leicester University, and entered the industry almost by chance.

“Very few people go looking for a job in recruitment, or know what recruitment is, but they just fall into it,” he said.

Mr Sohel worked for a number of firms, starting as a consultant, then later stepping up to manage a small team of consultants.

In August 2020, he formed Pivot Search.

To form their employee benefits, staff at Pivot were gathered for a sit-down meal, in which they could discuss what would be most useful to their lives.

One area Pivot is keen to help their staff is with mental health.

All staff at Pivot receive access to workplace counselling services, which are free to use, and which they can decide if the management are made aware of or not.

Speaking of this in relation to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis which has left people increasingly worried about their bills, Mr Sohel said: “I think a really important thing is that yes, you’ve got the money side of it, but the cost-of-living crisis has a real wellbeing and mental health burden on people too.

“It’s in the media a lot, it’s constantly being talked about, and I think you’d be naive to think that people aren’t thinking about it.”

In addition to mental health support, Pivot will be offering all employees private health care and life insurance in the new year.

The company is also set to introduce a progressive system of parental leave, which rethinks maternity and paternity as being split between a primary and secondary parent, with either parent able to take either role.

The system will allow for six months fully paid leave for primary and secondary parents, with primary parents able to take this as one block, and secondary able to take leave any time over the first two years of a child’s life.

Employees will also receive 66% pay for the subsequent three months of leave, and 33% for the final three months.

One of Pivot’s top priorities is also making sure that employees are never reliant on commission to earn a living wage.

“A lot of companies offer a great earning model but it’s reliant on lower bases and higher commission,” said Mr Sohel.

“You can have as good a commissioning structure as you want on paper, but if people can’t achieve it it’s just a fallacy.

“We want to make sure our earning structure is both strong and achievable.

“We don’t do leaderboards, and we don’t sit and play people off against each other like I’ve seen in my early days.”

Mr Sohel is also trying to give employees smaller benefits which help alleviate stress.

The company has adopted a ‘work from anywhere at any time’ stance, wherein employees can choose both their hours of work, and where they want to do them.

“There’s no burden that you have to be in the office at any time,” said Mr Sohel.

“It’s a small thing but it reduces commuter costs. That structure promotes a stronger work-life balance, because people are able to do things when they want to do them. In situations like this it’s not all about big changes, it’s also about what little things you can do to support people”

Employees are eligible for one free breakfast every week, courtesy of the company. Five emergency days off are also available to employees for what Mr Sohel calls “life admin”, for issues that arise from things such as moving house or child care. Pivot also offers free financial advice for their employees.

Pivot have recently been shortlisted in the 2022 Yorkshire Business Masters awards under the Start-up category, and are finalists in the 2022 Culture Pioneer awards under the Brand Award category.