Redefining recruitment: How Oakfield Group puts people, integrity, and trust before profit

The recruitment and headhunting industry is often criticised for making empty promises about candidate care and client relationships. In contrast, the Oakfield Group, founded by Paul Mattock, demonstrates the potential a human-centric business model and unwavering commitment to long-standing partnerships can provide to the industry. A headhunting firm that provides unparalleled access to roles and candidates across the UK and specialises in financial services, retail, leisure, hospitality, and pharmaceuticals, the Oakfield Group strives to connect candidates and clients through principles of care, sustainability, and trust.

The Oakfield Group has flipped the traditional narrative of recruitment firms by focusing on integrity, transparency, and measurable impacts to back up its promises. The company’s unique approach to headhunting rejects transactional, money-first methods in favour of long-term collaboration and mutual success. For example, Oakfield tailors its terms of service to align with client needs, offering flexible structures and even tying fees to a candidate’s performance over time once recruited. Moreover, the Group remains selective with clients even against lucrative prospects to ensure every partner aligns with its values. Its approach exemplifies its belief in the quality of its candidates and commitment to shared risk and reward.

As the founder and managing director, Paul instituted the unyielding principles upholding Oakfield today through the very delayed satisfaction of his career trajectory. Having started his journey at the lowest rung of the ladder in the banking industry—performing tasks like washing his bosses’ cars, collecting food orders, and being the ‘office lackey’—his eventual rise to the regional director of a major commercial bank was the culmination of years of grit, discipline, and empathy. Paul’s background gives him the unique ability to connect with professionals at all stages of their careers, from just entering the workforce and navigating career pivots to preparing for retirement.

After 35 years in financial services, Paul moved to corporate recruitment only to witness practices that prioritised profits over people. Disillusioned, Paul founded Oakfield Group to set the industry’s practices right. Rather than monetary gain, it was a healthy work-life balance on his mind as he left corporate London to set up Oakfield. By the end of a single train journey, he had already secured five clients, marking the vibrant beginning of the Oakfield Group.

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic hit the UK only one week after Oakfield was established, Paul’s determination to spend more time with his family, having had enough long commutes around the country meant that Oakfield was organised for remote work from the get-go. With video-calling platforms and other virtual systems ready, Oakfield was able to rapidly rise through the ranks despite the difficulties of the pandemic. With a business model based on organic expansion and sustainable relationships between headhunters, clients, and candidates, the Oakfield Group represents the power of integrity and care. Its clients in the first year still stick with them today, and 90% of its new clients are based on referrals.

Oakfield’s team of headhunters exemplifies the company’s culture of care. Self-employed and empowered to set their own terms with clients, headhunters hunt as a pack without internal competition, often pooling resources together for high-priority roles and clients. This fosters a supportive environment where success is collectively shared. The Group also prioritises the mental well-being of its headhunters, clients, and candidates. Oakfield provides resources and check-ins that go beyond professional placements, addressing family and estate planning concerns to ensure work-life harmony throughout their client partnerships and candidates’ careers.

Additionally, individually tailored terms of payment prove to clients and candidates alike the confidence headhunters have in the people they place by sharing the financial risk. Whether fees depend on the longevity of a candidate within their position or a candidate’s material success over several years, Oakfield Group is willing to take the leap and back its recruits. “Does it put us at risk? Yes, a little bit,” says Paul. “But, in a roundabout way, we’ll end up happier with our candidate and our client in the long term.” This approach also secures stable income streams for their headhunters, further enhancing well-being across the board.

Beyond the exciting challenges of filling specialist roles, the Oakfield Group offers in-house recruitment training, corporate coaching, and other tailored services to clients upon request. They’ve even combined expertise from different clients to catalyse mutual growth, further demonstrating the lengths Oakfield is willing to go to strengthen strategic partnerships with clients.

As Oakfield continues to grow, the company has ambitious plans to build upon its reputation of integrity, trust, and sustainability. They are now preparing a conference celebrating the importance of mental health and well-being within recruitment, the would-be first of its industry’s kind. Oakfield also plans to launch a recruitment app to enhance accessibility to new openings and candidates.

With a growing network of referrals, clients reaching out from global hubs like Dubai and New York represent the Oakfield Group’s endless potential for the future. By blending discipline and empathy they are redefining the recruitment landscape to ensure no one is left behind. As Paul Mattock concludes, “Since the beginning, I’ve told myself that setting up Oakfield meant I would look after everybody involved. We are interested in the people, not the money, and our unparalleled success shows it.”