Principal Recruitment Consultant

Karoo Group is a specialist provider of exceptional residential homes for children and young people who require safe, stable and nurturing homes. We operate Ofsted\-registered children’s homes across the UK, providing highly individualised care and support to young people with a range of complex needs. Our approach is built around trauma\-informed practice, positive behaviour support and creating genuine homes where young people feel safe, valued and able to thrive. At the heart of Karoo Group is a committed team who share a passion for achieving positive, lasting outcomes for the young people in our care. We are looking for a Principal Recruiter to take full ownership of the recruitment and compliance journey, from understanding staffing needs and attracting candidates through to selection, offers, pre\-employment checks and onboarding. This is a hands\-on role with a direct impact on the teams delivering frontline care. Working closely with directors, senior management and key stakeholders, you will have the autonomy to shape our recruitment approach, influence hiring decisions, solve recruitment challenges and put your ideas into practice. You will combine strong candidate attraction and selection skills with the judgement, attention to detail and professional challenge required in a regulated care environment.

What the Role Involves

Own the end\-to\-end recruitment process, from understanding staffing requirements and attracting candidates through to selection, offers, compliance and onboarding. Partner with directors, senior management and stakeholders to understand recruitment priorities, agree hiring plans and deliver against workforce needs.

Source and headhunt suitable candidates, including for hard\-to\-fill roles, while building relationships and talent pipelines for future vacancies. Assess candidates’ experience, values, motivation and overall suitability, providing a clear, professional and engaging recruitment experience throughout.

Manage recruitment compliance and pre\-employment checks, ensuring appointments meet relevant safer recruitment, safeguarding and regulatory standards. Take ownership of recruitment challenges, identify and address delays, and have constructive conversations that keep candidates and stakeholders moving forward.

Use recruitment data, feedback and market insight to identify opportunities, improve processes and strengthen hiring outcomes.

Maintain accurate, confidential recruitment records and provide clear visibility of candidate and vacancy progress at every stage.

What You Will Bring

The successful candidate will bring proven recruitment experience, strong judgement and the attention to detail needed to recruit safely and effectively within a regulated environment. You will be confident working independently, influencing others, managing competing priorities and maintaining high standards even when recruitment pressures are high.

Experience in managing recruitment through to appointment within social care, healthcare or a comparable regulated sector, gained in\-house or in an agency environment.

A proven track record of filling challenging vacancies within tight timeframes and improving recruitment outcomes.

Strong candidate sourcing, headhunting, screening and interviewing skills.

Practical recruitment compliance experience, with a working knowledge of safer recruitment and safeguarding.

Confident communication and sound judgement, including the ability to handle difficult conversations, challenge incomplete information and uphold safer recruitment standards when there is pressure to fill vacancies.

Strong organisation and discretion, with confidence using recruitment systems and data to track progress and improve performance.

Attributes We Are Looking For

Naturally confident and personable: Comfortable speaking to new people throughout the day and able to build rapport quickly.

A good judge of character: Able to recognise inconsistencies, poor attitudes and red flags, particularly when recruiting people who will work with vulnerable children.

Persistent without being pushy: Understands that recruitment requires consistent follow\-up and is comfortable dealing with no\-shows, delays and candidates who go quiet.

Target\-driven: Enjoys working towards clear numbers, takes ownership of results and does not wait to be managed.

Highly organised: Able to manage multiple candidates at different stages without losing track of interviews, checks, references or availability.

A strong communicator: Clear and confident on the phone, professional in writing and able to explain expectations effectively.

Competitive and energetic: Enjoys filling difficult vacancies and takes satisfaction from moving strong candidates through the process.

Resilient: Able to reset quickly when candidates cancel, disappear or fail checks rather than becoming demoralised.

Accountable: Takes ownership of recruitment performance and looks for ways to improve the pipeline rather than blaming the market, job boards or external factors.

Detail\-conscious: Understands that accuracy in social care recruitment is essential because poor recruitment practice can become a safeguarding or compliance issue.

Quality\-focused: Will not compromise on candidate quality simply to fill a vacancy and is comfortable rejecting candidates who do not meet the required standard.

Curious and questioning: Confidence in probing employment gaps, motivations, previous roles and reasons for leaving rather than simply relying on what is written on a CV.

Warm but professionally skeptical: Builds strong candidate relationships while remaining objective and willing to verify information rather than taking everything at face value.

Fast\-paced: Understands that good candidates move quickly and prioritises fast, effective turnaround throughout the recruitment process.

Pay: £30,000\.00\-£40,000\.00 per year

Benefits:

• Casual dress

This listing is from Indeed. View original listing ↗