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Female-founded firm turns feedback into feeding schoolchildren
A recruitment firm founded by two friends is turning everyday customer feedback into social impact.
Signature Recruitment has launched its Signature Feedback Programme to support Magic Breakfast, a national charity that provides healthy breakfasts to pupils in disadvantaged communities across the UK.
The concept is simple.
For every piece of feedback the company receives, whether from a client reviewing a candidate or a candidate reflecting on their interview experience, Signature donates a breakfast to a child through the charity.
Friends Evelin Zauchner and Sharon Alred founded Signature in 2010 – photo: Signature
Since launching the initiative, the programme has already helped deliver more than 5,000 breakfasts to schoolchildren.
The story of the company began in Las Vegas over a couple of daiquiris, a pinkie promise and a transatlantic flight back home.
Friends Evelin Zauchner and Sharon Alred founded Signature in 2010, building the business between Bristol and London.
At the time, still using fax machines and Blackberry phones, with the Bristol office overlooking Brandon Hill, the firm quickly established itself in a competitive sector where there were several “big players”.
While recruitment has evolved with the rise of AI-powered hiring tools, Signature says human relationships remain central to its work, ensuring employers still meet potential employees rather than relying solely on algorithm-driven matches.
The firm works across sectors including education, construction, railway services, professional services and membership organisations, matching employers with candidates who meet specific workforce needs.
Since launching the initiative, the initiative has already helped deliver more than 5,000 breakfasts to schoolchildren – photo: Magic Breakfast
That approach has helped the company achieve a 98 per cent client recommendation rate.
The feedback initiative grew out of the company’s belief that feedback is essential to strong recruitment practice.
By linking something already central to its work with a charitable cause, the founders said they wanted everyday conversations to create a wider social benefit.
“Feedback is at the heart of great recruitment processes. It helps us refine our search, improve candidate experience and strengthen relationships with our clients,” said Alred.
“We wanted to take something we already valued and attach real-world impact to it. The Signature Feedback Programme means that every conversation we have creates a ripple effect far beyond recruitment.”
Unlike many corporate charity drives, the initiative is built into the day-to-day operations of the business rather than relying on one-off fundraising campaigns.
Every interview, placement and candidate conversation has the potential to generate a donation.
“We didn’t want charity to be something we do once a year and put on a poster. We wanted it embedded in our everyday work. That matters to us.”
The scheme also encourages clients and candidates to engage more actively with the feedback process as more responses help improve recruitment outcomes while generating additional donations – creating what the company describes as a “virtuous cycle”.
In 2015, Signature became one of the first recognised service providers with the Living Wage Foundation – photo: Signature
As an independent business, the founders say the ability to make values-led decisions remains central to what they do.
To mark International Women’s Day, the firm recently hosted a breakfast panel on the multigenerational workplace featuring insights from five generations.
The panel featured Amber Shippey, project management apprentice at Mace; Janis Sinton, managing director at TasteTech; Hattie Lawrence, chief executive at Langford Veterinary Services; Sangeetha Wynter, head of programmes and partnerships at Babbasa and Kim Lee, senior business development manager at Birketts LLP.
To mark International Women’s Day, the firm recently hosted a breakfast panel on the multigenerational workplace featuring insights from five generations – photo: Milan Perera
One of the main takes of the event was “generational differences should be embraced and celebrated”.
Main photo: Magic Breakfast
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