Pictured above: (l-r) Positive Outcomes' Managing Director Chris Longmate with Craig Thompson, Managing Director of the Monarch group of companies that is opening three new branches across the region this year, creating 40 jobs

The Monarch Group of companies, which operates agencies for international banking giant Santander, is to open three new offices across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, creating more than forty jobs in the region.

National recruitment company Positive Outcomes has secured the contract to coordinate all Monarch's recruitment requirements for the new branch offices in Sutton in Ashfield, Langley Mill and Ilkeston, as part of a three-year preferred supplier contract with Monarch, which holds the licence to operate agencies of Santander in the UK.

Under the contract, Positive Outcomes will act as Monarch's sole supplier for all its recruitment, training and apprenticeships across its UK network of nine existing branches, in addition to the three new branches in the East Midlands, and for additional new sites that are scheduled for opening by the end of 2011. 

Positive Outcomes has already begun the recruitment process for the forty-plus staff needed for the new branches in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, which will open before the end of 2010. Vacancies include posts for secretarial, administrative and management personnel.

According to Chris Longmate, managing director of Positive Outcomes, the contract with Monarch typifies the way clients are increasingly choosing to work with the organisation: "An increasing number of our clients, both public and private sector, are realising the benefits of using Positive Outcomes throughout the whole of the personnel and HR lifecycle. By being involved at the outset in the recruitment of staff at all levels, we can ensure the best and most suitably able and qualified person for the job is selected, in the knowledge that they are of the right calibre for the work-based training which is the next phase of their employment lifecycle, which we will also deliver. 

"This seamless approach consistently proves its worth, as once the hiring stage is complete, the candidate moves into the learning and training arm of our business, and picks up the NVQ work-based training, which is government funded and for which we are accredited and assessed." 

He adds: "We are delighted that Monarch has committed to Positive Outcomes in this way, and look forward to working with the company, its team and staff."

Monarch, which is based in Yorkshire, provides private and corporate clients with independent financial advice on tailored financial planning. The company currently employs approximately sixty staff across its network of nine regional offices in Yorkshire, Cheshire and Tameside. The opening of the three new offices to create a branch network of twelve will increase staffing levels to over 100.

Craig Thompson, Managing Director of the Monarch group of companies - which includes Monarch Agencies, Monarch IFA, Monarch Intercounty Estate Agents and Monarch Sterling, a Paralegal company specialising in Wills and estate/inheritance planning - comments: "Monarch is focussed on a strategy of expansion, to create a network of twelve strategically located branches by the end of 2010 and continue our growth with more new sites over the following 18 months.

"Positive Outcomes took a very proactive approach with us, investing time and effort in understanding the business and our growth and staffing strategies. I was impressed by the team's service standards and as a 'tester' we used them to find an apprentice for one of our Stockport offices, which has worked-out extremely well. On the strength of the service and the support we have experienced, we have committed to the three-year preferred supplier agreement with Positive Outcomes, and the company will now deliver all our recruitment and training requirements across the UK, but with the immediate focus on the three new branches scheduled for opening this year."

Positive Outcomes is an £8M turnover specialist recruitment and training organisation, which has offices across the UK and operates nationwide for public and private sector organisations.