Howett Thorpe is structured to ensure you will always work with experienced financial recruitment consultants who understand you and your needs.

If you are a candidate we will provide unbiased advice on all your options. Because we operate as specialist divisions you benefit from our depth of understanding of your background. We provide you with career management support, advice on study support and guidance on qualification options and salaries. We agree how to and when it is appropriate to contact you and never submit your CV to our clients without your permission.

As a client, you will have a point of contact who is an expert on your needs whether it be for Permanent or Temporary recruitment.  At Howett Thorpe we undertake extensive advertising both online and offline and candidate details you receive will be of individuals we have confirmed are interested in your roles. Should your vacancy be confidential and you wish us not to advertise on your behalf, please notify us.

As members of Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) we strictly adhere to their  Code of Practice

Greg Thorpe's Statement

Howett Thorpe is different; we focus on placing the right person in the right company and developing their careers, unlike other consultancies that are more concerned with how many people they can place each month.

I became interested in recruitment when I was a student and my friends asked me for advice about job interviews.   I enjoyed being able to help them to find the roles they wanted and realised that knowing my friends as individuals enabled me to tailor my advice specifically to them. That discovery has influenced all my professional relationships with both clients and candidates.

A career in recruitment was a logical step for me. I started with Accountancy Personnel in 1985, loved the work and was quickly promoted to manager, first at Basingstoke, then at Guildford, before opening a new office in Woking.

After about three years the company was taken over by a well-known national consultancy and suddenly my job was all about numbers rather than providing a quality recruitment service that truly understood the clients’ needs. I quickly became disillusioned because, even if salary, location and job content are perfect, trying to place a candidate in the wrong environment, or where their face does not fit, always leads to frustration and disappointment for everyone. I am constantly amazed how many recruitment agencies put forward candidates they have never actually met as an ideal match for a client’s needs.

This way of working seemed so wrong to me that I knew I had to set up my own consultancy to provide individually-tailored recruitment. The first Howett Thorpe office opened in June 1988.

One of my great satisfactions is that many of the candidates I have placed, whether they are part qualified or qualified, are still developing their careers with the same companies. A large proportion of them are now also clients.

I work as hard at recruiting my own consultants as I do at filling vacancies for clients. It’s essential that they always put maximum effort into filling jobs, be it a part time bookkeeper role or a Financial Director. Team members have previously worked for highly respected national and specialist competitors or in the finance and accountancy sectors. I am proud to say that many of them have worked with me for 5 or more years; in a recruitment environment this is a great achievement and is very important in providing continuity for clients.

What is unique about Howett Thorpe is that consultants have the autonomy to make decisions so they don’t waste time waiting for agreements to be signed off at a higher level. I have always told my consultants “treat your desk as if it’s your own business”.