In my years as a Senior Manager and also a Director of Operations, one of the most difficult areas is finding the right candidates for a vacancy; even more difficult is finding the right recruitment company to act on your behalf. In recent years, particularly when I was National Operations Director for the Interiors division at Wates, I found Simon Cross very honest about his candidates and was able to profile the individual I was looking for and find the right candidate. I found Simon understands the Construction Industry and its particular requirements, making the process easier to deal with. Simon was professional, understanding and able to accommodate my busy time frames and very unlike many in the recruitment industry who I found pushy and almost like used car salesmen.

We’ve partnered with Harvey Jacob for the last 11 years, and they’ve consistently delivered excellent candidates across both temporary and permanent roles, including Site Managers, Health and Safety Managers, Engineers, and senior leadership positions. Simon and the team take the time to understand not just the skills we need but the way we work, meaning the candidates they provide are always a great fit. Their professionalism, responsiveness, and commitment to quality have made them a trusted part of our recruitment strategy, and we highly recommend them.

Simon has recruited Freelance technical construction staff for me over the last 20 years; mostly freelance, but I have also engaged the odd person on a temp – perm basis. I have always found that Simon is good at taking on board the type of individual I am looking for and, on the whole, delivers with a good degree of success. I find that Simon is honest about the knowledge of his candidates and gives me as much information as he can about the individual to make me feel comfortable that the candidate meets the specification I originally outlined to him. All in all, I trust Simon, and this is important as it means I can give him the information and know that 9 times out of 10 he will deliver the right person.

Simon Cross has provided me with a freelance staff recruitment service for almost 10 years. I have always found that he listens carefully to the employer’s brief and is invariably successful in finding candidates to meet the requirements. He has gathered a broad knowledge of the Construction Industry and is also able to support his clients in developing the precise requirements of their recruitment needs. His polite and amiable manner enables him to maintain close and regular contact so that his candidates’ performances are reviewed and his services are on hand to meet the ever-changing needs of his clients' business.

We have been using Harvey Jacob for both our permanent and freelance recruitment needs since 2007. Simon had been recommended to contact us by an old colleague of ours whom he had been recruiting for in Australia, prior to returning to the UK to set up Harvey Jacob. We specialise in Design & Build fit outs for Life Sciences. A lot of our projects involve repurposing existing commercial space and requires teams that understand the clients’ requirements, able to design and deliver projects to a high specification. Harvey Jacob have always provided a professional and consultative approach, taking the time to get to know the business to allow them to find suitable candidates. As it is sometimes difficult to find the ideal candidate, they will think outside the box and present candidates to us with the rationale behind why they believe them to be a good fit. They have been very consistent in providing quality staff from Senior level roles to include Director level through middle management, from Pre-Construction, Estimating, Technical Services, Quantity Surveyors and Contracts Managers.