Forsythes Recruitment & HR has launched an official rebrand to Rarekind, in a move away from their founding firm’s distinguished name.

Forsythes Recruitment &HR was born in Newcastle 35 years ago – in 1987 – as a small department inside Forsythes Chartered Accountants; a firm originally established by brothers Alec and Colin Forsythes in 1951.

Managing Director of Forsythes Recruitment & HR, Geoff Crews said it’s been an honour to work with people to make Forsythes the brand it is today, but the future looks bright as Rarekind.

“Rarekind is the future of Forsythes Recruitment & HR. It’s been a privilege to share our roots with the Forsythes brand, and the people who have made the brand so successful, but it’s now time to carve our own identity beyond  those shared beginnings,” he said.

“Like other Forsythes departments, Recruitment & HR grew through the 90’s and 00’s. In 2010 the, then highly diversified, firm demerged to create six separate business entities sharing the Forsythes name via a license agreement. Over the following 11 years those businesses grew and prospered in many ways, including mergers and acquisitions that have taken the Forsythes brand to extraordinary new places and industries.”

“Sharing the Forsythes name for the first 10 years after demerging from the original firm has been what we needed to establish ourselves as a strong and growing independent business. We have had the time to forge a name for ourselves in the market that was autonomous from the Forsythes estate – so it was time we had a new brand to reflect that.”

Geoff and his co-directors have worked together at Rarekind, formerly Forsythes Recruitment & HR, for over 15 years throughout the Newcastle, Greater Hunter, Central Coast and Greater Western Sydney regions.

Their niche managers – the eight consultants leading the activity of each specialist recruitment team – have also now worked together for over 10 years.

In the Sydney market, Forsythes Recruitment & HR is well known under the brand name Penrith Personnel.

“You won’t find a stronger, more diversely unified, recruitment team. Rarekind is led and structured to attract and retain professional career consultants. Consultants who are invested in long term client outcomes rather than short-term monthly commissions,” Geoff continued.

“We are a team of consultants who develop time-proven cultural and people insights, which provide better advice and placements.

“We have torn up the single-minded commission-driven recruitment model. We stand for properly valuing consultants because we know that their loyalty and accrued knowledge is of value to our clients.

“Rarekind is the people and culture that our employer clients are searching for. Rarekind is our uniquely cohesive and multi-disciplined consulting team. The brand is also a nod of respect to our uncommon beginnings inside the multi-disciplinary Forsythes business services firm.”

According to Geoff, for their current clients, this rebrand is an affirmation of our unique ability to deliver deep front, deep-middle and deep-back-of-house expertise through a single point of contact.

A full service recruitment and HR consulting business with diverse niche specialists to provide whole business, people, and cultural advantage.

“Rarekind will be particularly powerful for employers wanting to access multiple pools of specialist talent, or better engage their existing teams, without appointing a number of unconnected specialist agencies,” Geoff said.

“Likewise, jobseekers with broad skillsets who feel narrowly pigeon-holed by niche agencies, will benefit from the more comprehensive exposure to lateral-thinking consultants and employers.”

Employers more than ever need to engage personally with their people. They need to position what they do, and how they do it, as worthwhile. Geoff believes this is achieved through recruitment, onboarding and a feeling of success and teamwork via smart rewards and organisational structure.

“Working from home is a mic-drop moment for recruitment and HR. The friendships inside businesses have long been the social magnet drawing otherwise-dissatisfied employees to workplaces each day. Removing face-to-face contact through lockdowns has revealed a friendship’s unnecessary need to work side-by-side. And left many wondering why they do what they do,” Geoff said.

“While lockdowns will end, a simple return to long hours in the office is unlikely. The future of recruitment and HR is about maximising cultural connection in the absence of face-to-face daily contact.

“As we move forward, united under the Rarekind brand, we will be the change the industry needs to see. Rarekind stands for being gutsy and unexpected. It stands for swimming upstream from transactional recruitment to advise on HR, structure and cultural lead indicators. We will be taking our brand, and the role it plays in attracting the best, seriously,” he concluded.