Empowering Growth Through Partnership: Hunter Selection’s Journey with APSCo

Hunter Selection was established in 2005 and has grown into a trusted, specialist recruitment business across four key sectors. As a proud B Corp and employee-owned company, Hunter Selection has focused not only on business success, but on building a responsible, people-first organisation.

Since joining APSCo in 2016, the organisation has leveraged the full breadth of membership support - from legal resources and ESG guidance to specialist ED&I training - to help shape its internal culture and external credibility. In this case study, we explore how APSCo has become a strategic partner in Hunter Selection’s journey, helping the business strengthen its operations, develop its people, and build a more inclusive and resilient future.  

We met with Claire Torrington, Director of Development at Hunter Selection to hear about their experience. 

Q: "Can you tell me a bit about Hunter selection, including the sectors that you specialise in?"  

A: "We just celebrated  20 years in April. We are a B Corp company and certified in September last year after six months of a rigorous process. We specialise in four different divisions:, Engineering and Manufacturing, IT and Digital, Science and Technology, and service and sales. We're also employee owned. We have an Employee Benefit Trust where a substantial proportion of the company is owned by the leadership team with aspirations to take that to an Employee Ownership Trust, where everyone owns the company not just the leadership team."  

Q: "Can you tell us a bit about Hunter's selection’s vision for growth and how APSCo has supported you in realising any ambitions or goals that you have?” 

A: "We’ve been a member since 2016 and used APSCo quite heavily over 8 years and especially throughout our B Corp certification journey last year. Along the journey, we have relied on APSCo for materials around ESG, legal insights, templates, and industry and sector predictions to support our thoughts to ensure we make the right decisions for our growth.” 

Q: "How important is it to have access to reliable legal support, and how has APSCo helped in this area?"  

A: "Our accounts team heavily relies on the APSCo legal services. They will use templates and call the legal advice line. The legal helpdesk has been really helpful, and we’ve always found that it's really up to date and reliable. There's also training updates as well that come through that they will look into. And again, I think that probably dovetails into things like ESG as well, because you're putting things out there for the public to see, so we want to make sure that it is on point in terms of the legal aspects." 

Hunter Selection has made full use of APSCo’s support - not only drawing on our legal services, but also engaging with our events, training and development opportunities, and the Embrace hub.  

Let’s take a closer look at the range of resources that have supported Hunter Selection’s growth, starting with their experience of our ED&I hub.  

Q: "How has the APSCo Embrace hub helped shape your approach to ED&I?” 

A: "Over the last four or five years, definitely, we have used all of the Embrace series and all of the free content that you've supplied, and that's definitely helped us to become more confident and also feel like we are using the right language.  

I think clients expect you to have a certain level of knowledge of ED&I as a recruiter. They expect you to be able to advise them in 2025. Our consultants need support, and I think we're increasingly having to do more tenders and PSLs for clients. ED&I forms a huge part of that, so you can't afford to make any mistakes, and APSCo definitely keeps us on track. APSCo has really credible speakers and advisors in those sessions and people who you would know as industry leaders in that area."  

Q: We’re glad the Embrace hub has been so helpful on your journey. On the training side of things, what prompted the decision to complete our Inclusive+ course, and for anyone considering it, what outcomes have you seen so far?"  

A: "I completed my inclusive recruiter qualification a couple of years ago, and then Emma, one of our Senior consultants did it last year. We use that in-house for training to make sure that we are empowering all of our staff with basics on ED&I, and also looking at bias as the first couple of steps into ED&I. We will look to do more with the workforce in the future on ED&I but it is always really tricky when we have 50 people that we're trying to take on the journey.  

Having a number of the team with the qualification has been really beneficial in terms of winning PSLs and tenders with clients, being able to say that we have people who've actually dedicated time and energy to a self-led course. I don't think that's for everybody, but definitely for people who want to learn and can learn by themselves online. It's a great course." 

Q: "We know that you have attended a few of our virtual events. Are there any events that have stood out to you? Is there anything that you might have learned from any of our sessions?"  

A: "We haven't actually attended any in-person events, where our offices are based is tricky to afford the time to attend. But for most of the sessions, somebody in our company signs up.  

There's five or six of us who attend pretty much all the sessions – mostly ones on different sectors where applicable, including ED&I and any legal updates. It's been useful with some of the new legislation expected, for example the new legal ramifications about the  Employment Rights Bill have been really insightful and just having legal professionals on there. I think the series of events on offer are really useful to us."  

 Q: "It’s great that you’ve found our events calendar valuable. What tools or insights from APSCo have had the biggest impact on your business productivity?"  

A: "It's worth mentioning having an account manager as well. Wayne is our account manager, and he checks in with us every couple of months. He will point out different training and different insights and make sure that we're not missing anything. He also will give us a bit of a barometer of what's happening in the market, including what sectors are up and down. The emails coming through from Wayne are really valuable insights on the more global picture and there is a WhatsApp group. We've actually asked our account manager if he could help us with some templates, and again, he was helpful in that, and that helped us to win new clients and formalise some of our processes with other clients.  

We also have completed the APSCo Member Risk Assessment twice now and, again, found it really useful to ensure we are compliant and upholding best practices in the recruitment industry audited by an industry body. It definitely forms a central part of everything we do. We always say we're members of APSCo in every PSL, every tender and across our marketing, because that is the trusted industry body, and we've stuck with that decision throughout the years."  

Q: "What would you say to anyone considering becoming an APSCo member?"  

A: "You definitely have to. For the first few years we had APSCo, we didn't use it as much as we have the last five or six years - and definitely since COVID. When something like COVID happens, you look to find new resources, things that you wouldn't have ever thought of, after being isolated from the rest of the industry.  

Being able to turn to APSCo and knowing that templates are there, and that everything you're doing is backed up by an industry body is helpful. I think it can be lonely being on your own in a business where you think 'are we doing this right?'  

But when you can turn to APSCo and know that it's the norm or what we should be doing, and you've got advice there, then I think that really makes you confident to go forward in your decisions.  

It's been crucial to achieving the B Corp certification, and that journey doesn't end, because we will need to recertify again in two years. The journey continues by making improvements. We will publicly publish our plans and measure impact for previous year through our annual impact report, being able to say that we're using a trusted partner and a trusted industry body like yourselves really adds weight to what we do." 

Ready to grow your recruitment business in 2025? 

Join the many organisations already benefiting from APSCo’s legal support, expert training, ED&I resources and much more.  

To find out more about becoming an APSCo member, click here.
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