Our Top 2019 Moments, and What We’ve Got Planned for 2020!
2019 has been the most exciting year for us to date. Since it’s been an extremely busy year, we thought we’d take some time to look back on what this year has brought us and have a chat about some of the things we have planned for 2020. The key moments of our 2019 looked a little something like this:
Starting the year with a new investment
A great kick off to our 2019 was securing a new round of investment, which has played a key role in all of the exciting things that we’ve been able to get up to this year. Secured from the North East Venture Fund, you can read more about our investment here.
The team grew
The Shine team has gained a lot of new members this year, from sales to software developers, and even new appointment to the board. A key moment for us this year was appointing our new Non-Executive Director and Chairman, Joe Slavin. As the former CEO of Fish4Jobs and Managing Director Monster.co.uk, Joe’s unrivalled level of expertise has played an important role at Shine throughout the second half of 2019, and will continue to play a key role in our next phase of growth.
Then our office grew
In June, after Joe was appointed to the board, we moved into a new office space more than double the size we were in previously. Still based in the Evolve Business Centre in Sunderland, we needed to make sure we accommodated our growth while still making sure there was plenty of space for new team members to align with plans for further growth in the future. Our new home gives us the flexibility to keep growing and improve our offering to both our current and future clients!
We sponsored new events (and lots of them!)
This year also saw the Shine team heading to a number of new events, including In-House Recruitment Live in London and Manchester, the FIRM day in Leeds, and TruNewcastle, to name a few.
In-House Recruitment Live really tops our list for one of our favourite exhibitions so far. Attending both the Manchester and London exhibitions, the one-day events are definitely not to be missed if you’re an in-house recruitment professional! Everything from the organisation of the events, to the quality of the speaking sessions, and the amazing team at In-House Recruitment stood out to us, so much so that we’ve booked to exhibit again in 2020.
Plus plenty of new partner channels
Over the last 12 months we’ve continued to develop our partner channel, with a number of new integrations. To name a few: iCIMS, Bullhorn, Jobtrain, and EasyWeb, which not only provides a seamless experience for recruiters and candidates, but also lets us work closely with other vendors in delivering end to end solutions. We are also looking forward to developing this approach further with more exciting announcements just around the corner.
And a lot of new developments
We’ll happily brag that the Shine platform has so many new features and functionality this year – so much has developed in 2019. Part of growing the team was expanding development, which has brought so many new and exciting things with it!
We’ve made improvements to things like our hiring manager process, so that it’s easier than ever before to get your whole hiring team engaged in the screening and selection process. And, because we’ve moved more and more into the recruitment agency space, we’ve developed a ton of handy new tools to make sure we’re offering exactly what it is that agencies want. This year has seen us develop our live interview tool, as well as our video introductions tool too.
What have we got planned?
We’re planning on 2020 being as jam-packed as 2019, but without revealing everything we have planned, here are just a few of the things we have to look forward to next year:
Development
As always, we’ll be making constant updates and improvements to the Shine platform to make sure our users are getting the absolute most out of the platform. One of our exciting, larger projects which is set to come in January 2020, is conferencing features in our live interview rooms. As we also said, we’re doing more and more in the recruitment agency space, so remember to look out for exciting new developments that will have your agency thriving. But don’t worry, we aren’t forgetting about all the in-house teams. We’ve got expertise coming from both sides to make sure that the platform is suitable for all of our clients.
Events
We’ve already got a few events in the works for 2020, and we plan on adding more too. First, you can catch us at the Recruitment Agency Expo at Olympia, London, on the 4th and 5th February. It’s our first time exhibiting here and we’re definitely looked forward to getting stuck in! Or, for all of the in-house recruiters looking for a chat with some of the team here at Shine, you can catch us at In-House Recruitment Expo, again at Olympia, on the 18th and 19th February.
We’re also heading to the first every Sub1000 event hosted by EasyWeb, the first event of its kind! An exhibition aimed specifically at organisations with less than 1000 staff, you can find us there on the 27th April at Rich Mix Shoreditch in London. And last (but certainly not least), you can find us at both In-House Recruitment Live events in Manchester on May 6th, and London on September 15th! We'll be adding more to this list throughout the year, and we'll make sure to announce these so you know exactly where to catch us.
. . . . .
We’re afraid that’s all we can reveal for now, as we don’t want to go giving away too many of our secrets. But if we can achieve as much as we have in 2019, we’re sure we’ll have more news heading your way soon.