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Summer Series 2026 - How did H People grow revenue to $15m in two years?
118 Plays9 days ago
RNA Episode 144: Ross interviews Jory and Sam, the co-founders of one of Australia's fastest growing businesses , let alone recruitment agencies, to discover how they have done it.
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Transcript
Introduction of Jory and Sam from H People
00:00:09
Speaker
Welcome to ah RNA Summer Edition. This is Ross Klenit and today we have special guests. We have Jory and Sam from h People and I'm going to let them introduce them themselves. So Jory, I'll start with
Jory's Professional Journey and H People Inception
00:00:23
Speaker
you. Perhaps if you could introduce yourself by saying, what your background was prior to starting HPo and we'll get on to HPo in a minute.
00:00:31
Speaker
Awesome. Lovely to be here, Ross. Appreciate you having us on. um So before setting up at HPo, previously worked at Hayes for a number of years. So did there for about three or so years in their industrial and and logistics division as well. um Moved across to a boutique company um and then ah When in that boutique company, Sam and I were helping set up their blue collar division. So prior to starting the business, I had about five or six years of industry experience, plus a couple more in the recruitment space. And then after a couple years at the last boutique that we were at, we thought, why not ah have a nudge ourselves? And that's sort how how it initially started in June of 2023.
00:01:14
Speaker
Great. So where did you go to school and were you a good student? Very good student? Not very good student? to Tell us. I would say I was an average student. average student yeah I went to ah a school called Hills College um out in Jimboomba. It was a private school that actually used to specialize in golf. So played ah played a lot of golf as ah as a junior. Probably played a little bit too much golf as opposed to sitting in the actual classroom and doing a bit of work.
00:01:43
Speaker
um after that after finished school i went to uni went to griffith griffith uni and then transitioned to qut university to do uh to do health management uh a number of years and um when you're working in a medical records department for so long um you start to get a bit of a feel that you need to start getting around more people and a bit more interaction and um I think like most people, um and that was where I my first opportunity is started applying for a couple of jobs and then had an opportunity with Hayes. And that was my first exposure into the recruitment space. Right.
00:02:13
Speaker
Brilliant. Okay. Excellent. Thanks, Jory. All right,
Sam's Background and Shift to Recruitment
00:02:16
Speaker
Sam. So what's your background prior to leading into H people? And you might as well start with where you went to school and what sort student were you? No, thanks for having us on, Ross. I guess to start from the very beginning, i am I'm a Londoner, born in born in London, went to school in in northwest London. and When I was 13, moved into the the country a little further up north. So we moved closer to ah a city called Oxford. Once I finished high school, as most people had no idea what I wanted to do, everyone was sort of being told you need to go to university. So I actually enrolled in a arts university and got ah a degree in cabinet making and furniture design of all things because I quite enjoyed
00:03:00
Speaker
I guess, making things when I was at school and it just seemed like a path that I wanted to go down. But um when i when I sort of graduated from university, and my mum said, look, it's probably a good time for you to go and explore a bit more of the world.
00:03:13
Speaker
and Because once you get yourself into a career, um settle down with a wife and kids and those sorts of things, you sort of leave that opportunity or that opportunity sort of leaves you until maybe later in life. So I plucked up the courage and packed ah packed a backpack and bought a one-way ticket to Australia.
00:03:30
Speaker
um I landed in Sydney um and I met a lot of people when I first got here and within you know within a couple of weeks of being here, I land i landed on the 6th of July 2012. I sort of realized that this is a place and a country that I really could see myself living in long term.
00:03:48
Speaker
and So went and did a bit of farm work, which sort of opened up three or two or three working holiday year visas for myself and I needed to get myself some sort of work. So um I got, I mean, who's going to hire a backpacker that can only work for one company for six months at a time. so I actually approached a recruitment agency um and they helped me get a couple of opportunities working in warehouses. So fast forward, I guess, six or seven years, I started working for a global a global business called Seeker, Seeker Australia. and I worked myself up to warehouse team leader, warehouse manager, warehouse and logistics manager, managing multiple sites, using multiple recruitment companies you know to build my teams in different states.
00:04:30
Speaker
with With operations, you sort of reach a point where you're waiting to fill a dead man's shoes or you need to move companies to get yourself up another level. And I tried to sort of move a little bit internally into sales roles. But um because like the warehouses were running so smoothly, I kept getting knocked back.
00:04:49
Speaker
And I could sort of see that there probably wasn't going to be any sort of future for me doing anything different to what I was doing in the business that I was working in. So that's where I sort of started to think about other career paths and opportunities that I could maybe look at. um And then obviously, I started thinking about recruitment because I knew a lot about the logistics industry. I knew how recruitment companies worked. I'd worked with your big ones. um I'd worked with, I guess, more smaller boutique agencies. And that's where I sort of made a decision that I was going to really make a go of this, try and make a career of it. And um I applied for a job at Hayes Recruitment. Funny little backstory there. When Jory decided to leave Hayes Recruitment and get into you know ah another role, I was actually the person that filled his seat in the Mount Gravatt Hayes office. Oh, okay. hundred Yeah, so I spent about 12 months working and at Hayes Recruitment. Yeah, and that sort of led us on to, I guess, where I earned my stripes.
00:05:43
Speaker
So...
Business Partnership and Growth Strategies
00:05:45
Speaker
In starting age people, it's kind of like a marriage when you go into partnership with somebody. So what was it about Jory that made you confident that he was someone that you want to be married to from a business point of view? Like what's his one or two strengths that had you be confident that he's the one?
00:06:05
Speaker
Well, I guess it sort of starts from when I when i entered the Hayes the hays office, I actually never ever met met or knew Jory, but everyone in the office said you would have got on with him like a house on fire, I guess. of Similar ages. um They just thought that we'd get on well. And then when I started working um at my the company pre prior to H People, It sort of grew to a point where I was working a lot of hours and there was a lot of opportunity for more. So that's where sort of Jory applied for the position. That was the first time I ever met him. I guess like that was the first time we worked together, but Jory was sort of same level as me. So I was the logistics division manager and Jory was the manufacturing division manager. So we sort of, we we didn't directly work with each other, but worked alongside each other. So I sort of saw how we operated. um You know, I guess, you know, when when you're entering into a business, marriage trust is probably one of the the main things that you need to think about.
00:07:00
Speaker
you know And have having worked with him for two and a half years already and seeing how he operates and becoming sort of what you know my my best friend, i you know I just knew that he was somebody that I could see myself working with you know definitely for the rest of my life. So definitely wouldn't change it for the world. And you know yeah I'd recommend going into business with somebody, but make sure they are as trustworthy as they come. Right.
00:07:23
Speaker
Great. And Jory, what was it about Sam that had you be confident that he was the one to commit to in terms of a business? Oh, I think across the board, if you ever spoke to anyone that has worked alongside Sam or in a business with him, he's the hardest working person in the room.
00:07:41
Speaker
Always the optimist as well. um A good sort of balancer, like amazing in sales. and just an overall good person. um So across the board, like I knew that when we went into the business and started H People that I just knew it wasn't going to fail. Like we're both going to be working at it as hard as possible and Sam, someone that had 100% of my trust throughout that whole period the the whole process of getting the the business up and running and off the ground. And when you got someone that's going to work as hard as he does, i think it's really hard to fail. Brilliant.
00:08:12
Speaker
And so, Jory, did you start with this sort of one-year, three-year, five-year type of business plan, or was it really, let's just get underway, see how it goes, and we'll work it out as we go along?
00:08:25
Speaker
We actually did have a bit we did have a business plan before we started. I can't remember the exact numbers of whatever they were, but I think three months into the actual like three months into the business, I think we're at about nine months of what our expected business plan was going to be. So we're tracking way further ahead, which is obviously really great. So then after the first year, that business plan was up to shit because it was no longer relevant. Yeah.
00:08:50
Speaker
But we we did spend a lot of time working out what the next one, three, five years would be. After after year one, i don't think that where we are now that we would have anticipated where we were in year one. And when we started the business, i don't think we would have thought we were um like six or 12 months down the track. so I think it's constantly evolving um year on year. And I'm looking forward to 2026 for sure, where we can again, sit down and have a bit of a session about what is the next six, 12 months and what's the growth strategy that we're looking for now in the business, because we're still growing, which is very exciting. And um I think if you asked me that question two and a half years ago, before we started or three years ago, i don't think that I would have expected us to have 20 odd staff in the business at all.
00:09:31
Speaker
Great. And so, Sam, just for the listeners, what specific recruitment does HP people do and how has that evolved or not since you first opened your doors?
Focus on Industrial Sectors and Offshore Support
00:09:44
Speaker
So we we specialize in the industrial sectors. So when we launched the business in June 2023, our main specialisms were logistics, which I was sort of leading leading the front on the logistics industry and Jory was leading leading the front on the manufacturing industry. As the business has evolved, um there's been a lot of opportunity come our way to separate blue collar and white collar divisions, which is something we sort of did probably about a year a year or so in.
00:10:14
Speaker
um So what um what we like to do is sort of hire hi staff to look after specific ah desks or or divisions for us. And then we grow them divisions or desks to a certain point, which allows us to break out or open up into a new area. So recently, um about three or four months ago, we we took on a guy by the name of Josh Hooper, who has ah a very strong background in in civil and construction, the industrial space across Brisbane. So he started a brand new division focused on on civil construction now, which has, I guess, opened up even more opportunity for the business.
00:10:50
Speaker
And given that the last couple of years by financial measures, it's been pretty tough for the recruitment industry. And yet HPPL has gone from ah five figures to eight figures in terms of turnover. So, Jury, what is it that you're doing right? What is it that your customers are responding to that's having you leapfrog the competition in such a comprehensive way?
00:11:16
Speaker
I think a big driver of our success has been the ability of how quickly we quickly we can respond to a client's request for a worker. um I'd say 70% of our businesses are temp contractors.
00:11:29
Speaker
um And the reason that we've been able to act a lot quicker is because we've invested heavily in offshore workers that have been able to support our consultants. And that means that if you've got a consultant that's got an offshore worker working with them, they've essentially got 80 hours of output to achieve the same goal as someone that's got 40 hours or or something in that week. So that's really been a big driver for us. And then when we've got to a certain point, a certain metric that we're looking for another headcount, we've acted on that fairly fairly quickly um and then we sort of doubled down so we' constantly looked to reinvest as much money back into the business uh to look at future growth um and then when we've like if you've got a ah team of say 16 consult like this 16 um head consulting into um to businesses the speed of response is so much quicker as opposed to another business that might only have three or four uh which is pretty typical uh for an agency in and around the sort of Brisbane areas that supply into our industry.
00:12:26
Speaker
if So Sam, tell me a bit about the journey to offshore. Was it something you'd had experience with previously, something that people had told you about? How did you come across it and at what point did you realise it was going to be the foundation of your growth strategy?
00:12:45
Speaker
So I've been working with offshore support for probably around about five years or so now. So I was introduced to it at the previous business that I worked at. um At the previous business, i I started the whole new division um essentially solo by myself and grew that to a point where I needed additional support, um whether that be onshore or offshore. so the business asked me whether I would be open to working with somebody from the Philippines. And I said, of course, I didn't really have any um any training or nobody sort of mentored me into finding out the best way and how to work with them. ah I did speak to a few other people that sort of tend to, I guess, delicate specific tasks within the business like they might
00:13:26
Speaker
ask a remote professional to just do CV formatting or just do one or two parts of the the recruitment process. But um what I found, um I guess, over the first year or so working working with with offshore in the Philippines is that um when you when you when you partner with them um to achieve shared targets, you basically look at the desk as a whole.
00:13:48
Speaker
um you have a financial target that you're you're looking to achieve, be that 40,000 every four weeks. If you can work with an offshore remote professional to achieve that rather than them just sitting you know behind a screen in their home in the Philippines doing a task or two, um you know the engagement that that I found we got out of our team was incredible. And I guess as I grew my team at the previous business and we've done today, we've essentially just, I guess, refined exactly what we get them to do and and we scale that every time we hire now. So every you know we'd never have an onshore consultant working without an offshore remote professional because we just see such a return on investment, mainly through the time that the consultant can get back to focus on, I guess, higher revenue generating tasks like you know We do a lot of door knocking in our industry. So having the ability to spend the morning you know actually physically introducing yourself to new clients while you know that your remote professional offshore is you know looking for the candidates that you need to fill your roles and interview that afternoon to continue the you know the growth and to look after your clients whilst while still um you know growing growing your desk.
00:15:01
Speaker
So Jory, is there a particular example of a client, you don't have to name them, but one client where this combination of the um onshore and offshore resource just had an immediate impact and had had that client go, wow, I'm going to give you guys all of my work or you had that sort of immediate response that, you know, if you needed any further justification for going down that path, um that example was it.
00:15:29
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I've got a very, like there's there's several companies that I can think of, but I've got a very relevant experience only a couple of months ago. Very large food manufacturing company um on the Gold Coast. um Usually goes out to say tier one agencies and then been working on this business for a number of years to try to get an opportunity to their production side. um They're on a twenty four six operation 400, 500 people in the plant.
00:15:57
Speaker
um And then we're going up against other other other recruitment companies. And then the fact that we've gone in there and I've said, well, this is what we'll be able to deliver. um And then the the consultants looking after the account and the the remote professional being able to to deliver up to, I think there to 20 odd staff in there. And that's only been over a couple of weeks. um in that sort of industry there can be a little bit of turnover in the blue collar space but to get 20 people into that business at such a quick rate um because they're obviously quite large we've now they've got a panel of three agencies and now all of the work is coming through to us solely it's not going through it to anyone else and i imagine if we weren't delivering then they'll start to segment that out and maybe we wouldn't get a particular shift but i think that's showing that um the consultant is still doing that that bd activity still growing the desk and we've got a remote professional that is
00:16:46
Speaker
being able to plug in so many interviews every single day and we've been able to have that speed um to get people into a a place that is moving moving pretty quickly so that's a very relevant very recent um example that i can sort of think of off the top of my head but there's several uh there's several people might i've got I've got quite a ah good one, I guess. for For our candidate managers, we sort of split up their their responsibilities and duties into four key pillars, which would be candidate sourcing, candidate engagement, and administration and business development. So one of the tasks that some of our remote professionals do is soft business development. So they'll check seek, they'll see who's privately advertising. And then they'll send a personalized email and then put that client into a um into a sort of like an email campaign. And we've we've actually brought on multiple clients where we've actually had responses to these that from ah from a remote professional's outbound email while the consultant is also doing business development. so I guess that's quite a good example of client attraction um from you know assistance and tasks that we can get a remote professional to do.
Wingman Recruitment and Global Vision
00:17:53
Speaker
And so at what point was this working so well that you decided, hey, Jory, let's set up our own remote professional business, which ultimately became Wingman Recruitment?
00:18:05
Speaker
Yeah. For sure. Go on, you go, Jory. Yeah, was going to it was the – like I think we're very fortunate that we're surrounded in quite a large recruitment community um and we're not we don't shy away from having an outsourced or remote team at all. um I think it's super important to empower them and make them feel included in the business too. Because we're involved in such a large recruitment community, we'll have we'll have people say, ah hey, how do you get your offshore to work so well? I've had so much turnover and this and that. So we're getting asked quite a lot by other recruiters. And then by nature of um Filipinos coming to work in our business, and obviously we can only take on so much. as like, oh, hey, guys, or to a recruiter, I've got a really good person. Why don't you see if we can get this to work?
00:18:44
Speaker
So I think we did that four or five times and then was like, well, maybe we could actually have a bit of a run at this ourselves um because and know how much value we can provide from like the training of the mentorship to the onboarding, the screening, as opposed to here's ah here's an ah RP to your business.
00:19:00
Speaker
But then at the same time, it's sort of like a handball. You're not really setting that that remote professional up for success. And you're not helping that recruitment agency, given the systems and processes that we've refined, because we've made so many mistakes over the years. And that was the ah the idea of wingman recruitment.
00:19:16
Speaker
Great. And obviously, it's not just the two of you. You have also co-founders. So what how did you come by the Wingman group and what was it about them that had you decide that they were the partners that you wanted to be with?
00:19:32
Speaker
Yeah, this is ah a good one as well. So Sam and I had actually registered another business doing this exact model. um And we're big believers in finding mentors um and big believers in finding people further ahead in the journey. So um I ran into to Jonathan Rostron, who's the CEO of Wingman at my gym. um And I just had a bit of a chat to him and I said, mate, can I take you to break here? I just want to ask you a few questions and just get some pointers, maybe put me in the right direction because I know that they were specializing in real estate. And um when I met with Jonah, he brought his business partner in, Johnny Bell. um And then we had a bit of a, we had a breakfast together and that went really well. It was mainly just questions for us of what we, what we needed to be mindful of when were starting up there another business.
00:20:14
Speaker
um And then that escalated to them asking us back in for another lunch and then conversation started happening. And then it was the the case of E-boys interested in doing a joint venture because you guys have obviously understand the recruiting piece. You understand what the RPs can do in that particular sector. And we've got the systems and the operations, of the backend and the manpower. to deliver on a recruitment aspect when we're looking for the sourcing.
00:20:36
Speaker
And what's your ambition for the business, Sam? Like, what do you hope wingman recruitment can accomplish in, say, the next three years? So our our mission and vision is we want to change the perception of offshoring in the recruitment industry, initially across Australia, then New Zealand. um And then eventually I see this as ah as a global ah global movement. So um I guess our our visions and goals at the moment is to you know get the word out of of how how we're doing it. um And our goal for three years will be um a ah thousand remote professionals working across maybe five to six, 700 recruitment agencies across Australia is ah is our goal.
00:21:19
Speaker
Wow. And is is there something particularly special about age people going from a standing start to 15 mil turnover in 30 months that other companies, other recruitment companies didn't couldn't replicate? Or do you think it's possible with remote professionals as part of your expansion team that growth like that is achievable for most recruitment agencies?
00:21:49
Speaker
i think I think definitely the way that we've scaled, um especially with our remote professional team. I mean, we're we're quite niche and focused around what we recruit. um we're We're quite specific around geographical locations that we want to recruit in. um So we'll just specifically recruit in one suburb in one area in Brisbane and we'll completely saturate that area, that market until everybody knows who we are. We'll add all of the hiring managers into um you know lists in our CRM.
00:22:22
Speaker
So as our remote professionals are finding really good candidates, we can proactively reverse market those good candidates to prospect clients in a hyper-niched location, which I believe has been sort of a part partial drive of our success. ah It's allowed us to scale quickly in ah in a really tight geographical area, get certain temp numbers and financial numbers coming into the business, which then allows us the capacity to break out into a new geographical location and then obviously hire a new remote professional and a new consultant to look after a new area. So um you know I think that's probably the the the secret sauce into how we've scaled um so so quickly and sustainably.
Embracing Remote Professionals in Recruitment
00:23:07
Speaker
and So Jory, you've spent more time in other recruitment agencies. what What would be the number one mindset shift that you think most owners would need to have to really embrace the opportunity that remote professionals can provide?
00:23:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's probably like you you sort of touched a little bit on it there. It's yeah having an open mind is the big thing. um Like Sam, I'd never worked with with the Filipino workforce before. And I think when you have ah an idea, like you've got the Telstra worker on the end other end of the phone or um you're trying to call your bank and you're so frustrated and angry um and it's,
00:23:45
Speaker
what we're looking at is when you've got yeah your rp working your business it's to add more it's add more um service and give a better uh so your clients can get a better outcome more than anything um i think as well like a big key driver and it's a huge mindset shift that i guess we've had to go through is going to a bit of an abundance mindset over a scarcity mindset like it's quite scary for a lot of small recruitment agency owners to think of and an an additional overhead of $3,000 a month. um Because I guess initially you're thinking of that as an outlay with no return. um ah you know most But most all of the people that we're working with and women have helped along over the past few years with their remote professionals.
00:24:30
Speaker
you see a return almost within the first month. um So, you know, don't be scared to try something new, um you know, to to onboard a remote professional and, you know, you you'll see the return and the difference in in your billings or or the the amount of hours that you you choose to work in the week.
Conclusion and Future Collaborations
00:24:48
Speaker
Great. So, Jory, how can people get hold of you and how can people find out more about Wingman Recruitment? Yeah, like we've got a very large social presence on LinkedIn. ah There's a lot of content out there on both Sam and my personal pages. um Always open for a conversation if anyone wanted to have a bit of a chat.
00:25:06
Speaker
um There's a number of podcasts that we've also recorded with Confessions of Recruiter, obviously a couple couple with you, Ross. um So there's a bit of content out there if anyone wanted to look from a distance. And then again, we're definitely happy to share any information or tools that we've developed. um Because at the end of the we're trying to uplift and help the recruitment industry as a whole. We don't want to keep it like a bit of a secret. um If everyone can succeed, then I think that's a win win for everyone.
00:25:31
Speaker
sure brillianttte We have a offshore recruitment and remote professional task list. So it's literally just a PDF document and that we're more than happy to share with anybody. So feel free to flick Jory or an email um or flick us a message on LinkedIn and and we can we can send that document across just so you can see the the task that we delegate.
00:25:52
Speaker
Brilliant. well Thanks, Sam. Thanks, Jory. I really appreciate you making the time to chat with me. Congratulations on the success that you've had. it's ah To me, it's just thrilling because it shows that with a bit of entrepreneurship, there's a huge future for the recruitment industry, for the right people with the right mindset, thinking about business in a slightly different way. And and and both of you are leading the charge. So well done. Enjoy your summer break and look forward to catching up with you both in 2026. Great. Thanks for so much for us today.
00:26:32
Speaker
We hope you enjoyed our final podcast in our summer series. Ross and Adele will be back next week to regular recruitment news and question of the week. Thanks very much for your support in 2025. And we look forward to you joining us on the journey through 2026.