TH E B IG STO RY FALCON GREEN
to the office, where they are questioned about their experience and their documentation is checked before they are allowed to go on site. “They really trust us, and we get an amazing number of referrals, the phone is literally ringing all the time with ‘I heard you are really good to work for, can I register?’,” says O’Connell. The three directors – all originally from County Cork, Ireland, and all graduates in either business or law – got into recruitment through a mixture of both traditional and unusual routes. O’Connell, who briefly worked at Merrill Lynch, and Sweeney admit to falling into it after working on construction sites in London and New York respectively during their younger days. Nestor, who worked in accountancy before moving into pubs and nightclubs and renting out golf carts, knew O’Connell back in Cork, and says he was “delighted to jump on board” when approached by him in 2012. O’Connell and Sweeney first met when both men worked for a construction recruitment company in London in the late ‘noughties’ – although O’Connell says he does not wish to endorse the company concerned by identifying it – before setting up Falcon Green. “We were just coming out of recession, and people told me it was crazy to set up a company in that economic climate, but we have gone from strength to strength,” O’Connell says. With the company sitting proudly at the top of this year’s FAST 50 that cannot be doubted. However, the three directors say this is just the start, and they have ambitious plans to kick on. Not only do they want to continue to develop the seven existing business units to full maturity, they also want to add a new business unit each year until 2022, and have set a target of
Jack O’Connell
30 RECRUITER
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£50m turnover by 2022. With 90% of its business coming from the temp market, the company has identified white-collar perm recruitment as a particular growth area, and have already put a team in place to drive that growth. Despite the construction sector’s long history of ups followed by downs, as well as the potential threat that workers, many of whom come from countries in Eastern Europe, will no longer be free to come to the UK after Brexit, the three men are relentlessly upbeat about the future. “The UK and London in particular will always have investors, such as Americans, Chinese and people from the Middle East, so you are always going to have those income streams coming in,” says Nestor. That said, O’Connell accepts the sector needs to do more to get youngsters interested in construction. With this in mind, they are actively considering going into schools themselves. The company also plans to invest more in technology. And following a successful digital marketing campaign that resulted in 2,000 workers registering with Falcon Green, plans are also well advanced for the launch of a new app. This will provide candidates with up-to-date information, as well as news from Falcon Green (for example, about the company’s employee of the month), and “get them more vested in our business and our philosophy”, explains O’Connell. As the fastest-growing recruiter in the UK Falcon Green is already flying high. But if things go to plan, just like the company that inspires them, Richard Branson’s Virgin, with its plans for manned spaceflights, the company and its three directors could be about to go into orbit. ●
Joseph Sweeney
Kieran Nestor
FEBRUARY 2017
12/01/2017 12:34