On 31 October 2016, Staff One opened its doors. There was no grand launch, just a small desk in the back room of a call centre in the heart of Sheffield, and a first client who had asked us to help them add 60 new members of staff to their growing team.

That set the tone for everything that followed. When a client says “can you?”, we say “yes” and figure out the “how” afterwards.

The Early Days

The vision for Staff One was always bigger than supplying commercial staff, but we had to start somewhere. By November we had an email address, a phone number, and a registered company. Within a year there were three of us, supplying commercial and construction staff from our own office: an eclectic space above Sheffield’s iconic Leadmill. It wasn’t a typical office, but then we were never a typical consultancy. We lived here until 2021 when a new, bigger, more accommodating base beckoned.

What we chose to do differently was to be one of the first boutique Recruitment Businesses to invest heavily in software development and IT infrastructure in order to build a system that would allow a small team to deliver a lot. Automation, compliance, security and the ability to mobilise swift and efficient employment campaigns and payroll wherever and whenever our clients needed it. We didn’t want to buy it, we didn’t want to lease it, we wanted to build and host it all. Our software “Sigma” was tested, deployed and continues to be utilised every minute of the day since its inception in 2016.

Growing Up

Over the following years the team grew and our services grew with it. We added payroll, recruitment process outsourcing, contract staff supply, and HR advisory, and eventually moved into bigger, more accommodating space.

In 2023 we completed a commercial restructure and brought in an investor, allowing us to deliver more for an ever-growing client base. Along the way we’ve come through the pandemic, repeated changes to industry regulation, and a constantly shifting UK employment landscape, and emerged as a go-to partner for everything staffing related.

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Ten Years On

Today Staff One is built on a long-serving team of experienced, reliable consultants and employment & payroll specialists, still serving our core sectors and still growing. Our in-house software has been continually developed and scaled, and gives us a reach of hundreds of thousands of registered workers, and millions more through our job board partnerships.

I asked our founder, Julian McFarlane, to reflect on the journey:

Ten years seems to have gone so fast. I left an amazing company where I’d worked for ten years and learned everything I knew about the industry. I sat down that October day and hoped for the best. I had so many ideas about how I could create something unique in the Recruitment & Staffing sector, a business powered by technology that it owned and developed and Consultants with tools that could make a radical difference, it was time to put my theory into practice.

What unfolded was a rollercoaster of clients, colleagues and learning experiences, some for better, some for worse, but all of them opportunities to learn and grow. I never had a ten-year goal. My objective then, as now, is to survive and to make each day better than the last for the business and everyone who works in it, for it, and with it.

We have now supported hundreds of companies. Our Construction Team have built major infrastructure projects, stadiums, warehouses, fitted shops, bars and built schools and homes. Our Care Team provide Nurses, Carers and Social Workers to the NHS, local authorities and private care organisations across the UK around the clock, every day. Our Commercial Team have provided core workers to businesses around the country and allowed them to expand and succeed by harnessing the very best talent. Internally, we have employed our own, sometimes changing, team of recruitment and employment professionals, I have watched my Staff go on to do so much within the company and after leaving with the experience and knowledge gained while with us. I’m passionate about us being a good business, giving back, investing in our local community and supporting charities whenever we can.

I don’t know what the next ten years will throw at the industry, but I do know we have built something good. The love I have for the work we do, finding good people for great jobs, will always drive companies to be their best.

I can’t thank my current and past colleagues enough, nor our clients for believing in us and giving us the opportunity, nor the 200+ current workers for Staff One across the UK today, who are the lifeblood of our business. Here’s to the next decade. Thank you.

Julian McFarlane – Founder & MD

Here’s to the Next Ten

We’re not stopping here, our capacity for all things staff is only broadening and improving. We are continually looking to partner with organisations who are looking to fuel what they do, with the highest calibre of people, recruitment and employment. If you’re looking for a compliant, responsive and safe recruitment partner, get in touch with Staff One to find out how we can support you.