32-year old Managing Director, Sasza Bandiera, celebrates his 10-year anniversary this week at London-based property recruitment consultancy, Oyster Partnership.
Since joining Oyster in 2008 as a Trainee Recruitment Consultant, Sasza has been an integral part of the business’ success after a long journey through the ranks, into management and now heading up the 53-count consultancy.
“I am extremely proud to have introduced processes to Oyster that I like to believe are the foundation of its success today. This includes training academies, opening new divisions and an on-going focus on career progression for all staff, as investing in my team is a longer-term investment in the wider business.”
Initially bringing to Oyster basic sales experience, the challenges Sasza’s career has faced vary from those of a young ambitious recruiter in a competitive market, to being one of the youngest Managing Director’s in the industry.
“No matter if it’s 10, 20 or 100 people, getting buy-in, trust and collaboration across a team is hard work. As a leader you have to do what’s right for the business as a whole, as well as looking after the people in it.” Bandiera said.
Founder, Daniel Whomes, explains Bandiera quickly stood out from the crowd.
“The first six months were a struggle for Sasza. So why did we continue to persevere? The very same reasons he has risen to the top of the company; rock solid principles, a ferocious work ethic, strength of moral character and a passionate ambition that has no limits. These incredibly rare qualities shone though in those first six months and still do now” said Whomes.
Following Bandiera’s step into Managing Director in 2015, the mentorship of businessman, Paul Flynn, has been of instrumental support to Bandiera personally and across the wider business.
“I have been working with Sasza and the Oyster board for some time now and in my 20 years in the Recruitment industry, I have met few people who can match his work ethic, commitment and ‘all round’ range of skills.
In conjunction with the founders, he has created one of the best-run recruitment businesses in the UK. The processes and culture are first rate, the commitment to the development of his staff and overall response and consequent improvement has been a pleasure to witness.
Moving forward Oyster has the opportunity to be the stand out Property Recruitment agency globally. It will be achieved with Sasza at the helm, leading with vision displaying the values central to him and the company” Flynn said.
Sazsa, husband to long-term partner Rochelle and father of two-year-old daughter Cataleya, focuses on the importance of personal drive in his staff and encourages them to discover what their own individual ambitions are and how that can relate to the possibilities in the work place, one that is essentially a target driven profession.
Oyster Partnership’s Talent Manager, Hannah Clarke, said:
“The majority of Oyster’s management team, like Sasza, were brought through internally from trainee recruiter to divisional management, continually reaching leading targets. It could be said the success of the business is due to our hiring preferences, team culture and training programmes introduced by Sasza, of which we are extremely proud.”
Founded in 2004, Oyster has grown to 52 staff – 44 recruiters and eight back office. Averaging £24million turnover and ranked 257 out of 25,000 UK recruitment companies*, Oyster possesses an incredibly competitive dominance in the market rivalling industry competitors.
Driven through market expertise, real-time access to industry data and an extended network of industry connections, Oyster are dedicated recruitment leaders across some of the largest portfolios and highest profile candidates in the UK.