My name is Matt Wells, I founded Graham James Limited in 2014 and since 2016 the company has been co-owned with my brother David.
A lot of people ask, ‘why is the business called Graham James?’, well, my dad unfortunately passed away in 2012 from a brain tumor so I named the business after him, Graham James was my Dad’s names.
I come from a long line of self-employed business owners as far back as my Great, Great Grandparents. My Grandma was Post Mistress in a Suffolk village called Dalham near Newmarket. She was an incredibly hardworking lady and she was awarded a MBE for 70 years’ service to the community having started work at 15 years old and retiring when she was 85.
My parents also owned and ran their own Plumbing and Heating business for over 40 years until my Dad’s untimely passing before he reached retirement. He was my inspiration. A very hardworking man who was incredibly popular in his community and amongst his customers and work colleagues. In fact, a very hard act to follow!
Now his name is above our door, we have taken the values he instilled in me and my brother into our company.
What do I mean by this? What values am I referring to?
Graham James Limited is built on ‘doing the right thing’ for both our customers and clients alike. We always want to do the best job with the highest level of quality. And if we occasionally miss the mark, then we will do the right thing to rectify the situation.
We are also very aware that our own employees are the heart and soul of the business and we always want them to be continually developed and looked after so that they know how valued they are. We offer hybrid working and flexible working hours so that they can work around their lives, including children. The trust we place in them in turn means that our employees buy into our values and this translates to the service provided to our customers and candidates.
On the recruitment side of the business our USP is ‘quality over quantity’. We are never going to send 100 CVs in the hope that one sticks and then charge a full fee. This is not how we work. We work in partnership with our clients to learn about their business, their culture and their vacancies. We then work on shortlisting candidates, screening them, and then only sending them to clients if they meet the job brief. So there are maybe only 2 or 3 candidates to be interviewed but the client knows that they can do the job, they know the salary offered and are within a commutable distance.
If a client wants us to just send CVs without a properly written job brief then we are unlikely to work these roles as they will be a waste of time for all parties, unless it’s a well-known client who’s roles we know.
On the HR side of the business, we work with our SME clients to support everything from documentation or advice through to major projects such as redundancy or TUPE transfers.
We really are a ‘one stop shop’ for any staff related matter. If you’d like more information, email me at matt.wells@grahamjames.com or go to our website www.grahamjames.com.
As we enter into our 10th year of trading, I can only hope that my Dad continues to be proud of us and what we do so that he’s happy to have his name above our door!
