Wave 2021: a year in review

by in Agency Life

2021 has been a dynamite year. Integrations, new WaveTrackR features, wholehearted dedication to client support, adapting to new working routines, welcoming new team members, a huge number and variety of RecWebs websites… it has been a busy 12 months.

And we’re thrilled with what we’ve achieved in those months, especially given the year that had come before them.

It’s often only when you pause and take a look back at what you’ve done over a year that you realise just how much you’ve achieved. It’s all too easy when you’re busy to complete a project – which for us might be onboarding a new client, completing a website, publishing content, or developing a new product – and then move on to the next thing without taking the time to celebrate those wins. So that’s what we’re doing here. Taking a breath, looking back at all we’ve done over the year and celebrating it all.  

We’ve grown our WaveTrackR, RecWebs and media client base and have focused on creating a best in class client service to provide constant support to all of our clients. This led us to create our Wave Promise earlier in the year. Founded on 5 guiding principles, we promise to understand your business, its values and its ambitions; keep you informed; provide clear and concise communication; deliver outstanding client service; and only ever make promises we can keep. We understand that great support and service allows you to do what you do best – attract talent, retain talent, and match that talent with the right opportunity. With dedicated client support, you can focus on making your business a success. We’re aiming to be the market leader in talent attraction technologies – and we are working tirelessly to achieve this – but we won’t get there without providing our clients with outstanding support and service. Great customer service is something we deliver every day and we are extremely proud of it.

Wave Christmas do

To further strengthen our client support we have been growing our teams and welcomed 4 new members to the Wave family this year. It’s an exciting time of growth, fresh ideas, and new business, powered by our greatest asset – our people.

“We are privileged to work with some of the best talent in the industry, people who are not only great at their jobs, but who also truly embody Wave’s values. It has been a real privilege to see our new team members flourish, serve our clients brilliantly, and bring in exciting new ideas to the business. It’s a thrilling time to be at Wave right now.”

David Malham, Wave’s Client Services Director

We are also delighted to have continued to grow our RecWebs client base. This year we have worked with a huge variety of clients of different sizes, based across the UK and globally, recruiting in a wide range of different industries. It has enabled our designers to stretch their creative wings and our developers to build some really exciting sites. We are hugely proud of the websites we’ve designed, built and launched over the past 12 months and of the ones in the pipeline for the upcoming months.  

Our developers have been working hard this year on a number of WaveTrackR integrations and updates. We’ve improved the Bullhorn integration, integrated with a number of new job boards, and launched advanced user permissions, allowing our clients to extend or expire a job on multiple job boards. Perhaps the biggest WaveTrackR development this year is our eagerly anticipated integration with Vincere, enabling clients to utilise the multi-posting and analytical power of WaveTrackR right from within their Vincere account. As Wave CEO Dave Jenkins so succinctly put it, “it’s an integration that just makes sense.”

Like the rest of the world, we’ve done all this whilst figuring out a new way of working, a way that works for all at Wave as well as for our clients. We have all realised over the past 21 months that balance is key and that what that means differs from person to person. This is why we now have a Work from Anywhere policy to offer greater flexibility to every employee, whether they want to be in the office every day, part of the week, part of the month or not at all. We don’t mind whether Wavers work in the office, from home, from a cafe, from another county or another country. “We measure performance based on output and achievement rather than time in the office or online,” says Dave Jenkins, Wave’s CEO. Trust is important, he continues, “if you give trust to your team you’ll get it back.” As we forge ahead into a very different post-pandemic world, it feels exciting to see where we can go with this new working environment and with more flexible working habits.

The end of a year is a time for reflection. We asked Team Wave to take a look back over the past year and share what those months have taught them. Every Waver has experienced this year in different ways but there was a common theme – to value the little things. This is certainly a sentiment we can take forward with us into 2022 and beyond.

“I’ve learnt a lot this year but most recently I’ve learnt how important it’s been to have a clear direction of where you want to go as well as a set of guiding values and principles. I’ve never quite appreciated just how much these things can guide you during hectic, uncertain and chaotic times – all of the things we’ve experienced this year. Without this laser-like focus, it’s highly likely we would have lost our way a good few times in the last 12 months.

I’m ridiculously grateful that, so far, although COVID has impacted our business, it’s not impacted the health of anyone in my family, my friends or work colleagues. So many people have been impacted by the loss of someone so I thank my lucky stars that this hasn’t (and hopefully wont) touch my friends and family!”

Dave Jenkins, CEO

“One thing I’ve been reminded of this year is that nothing is permanent; everything is ultimately temporary. This allowed me to appreciate the abundance I have in my life – the people and the experiences – but also to understand that negatives will also pass. I found peace this year in focusing on the things I could achieve and planning for the things I couldn’t immediately do. I was very ill over the summer, and I’ve learned to listen to the little things, like a persistent cough, before they manifest into bigger things. I can apply this simple truth to everything I do. 

I’m extremely grateful to be working for a company where its people are truly valued.  Little things have really mattered this year, like being together with my colleagues in person, rather than just on a Teams call. This year, despite all of the challenges, I’ve felt very lucky to be alive.”

David Malham, Client Services Director

“I am grateful to work at such a supportive company where I know I can leave for maternity and come back to my job role. I’m also so happy that Rebecca has joined as I know she will continue to provide the quality support our clients have quite rightly come to expect from us. I’ve also learnt how important it is to still have face to face relationships with colleagues. Taking everything online and working from home has meant that we can be far more flexible but coming into the office and working alongside my colleagues has been such a morale boost.

Polly Payne, Client Success Manager

“The biggest thing I learnt in 2021 was to be grateful for the little things and never take anything for granted. I feel like we all learnt that this year with COVID, but personally it was an even more powerful lesson as I nearly had my life taken from me and spent time in hospital seeing first-hand the hard work frontline staff do. When something so major happens to you physically (be that COVID or, in my case, a mini stroke) you really learn to appreciate the little things we often take for granted. I learnt to appreciate the good and bad days and use them to grow. Part of that is joining Wave and truly finding personal and professional happiness. Go hug your loved ones and enjoy every second because life truly is a gift.” 

Rebecca Stevens, Client Success Manager

“I’m incredibly grateful for the brilliant team we have. We all work together to create a great workplace, while meeting the needs of our clients. I’m also grateful for Dave taking me under his wing and showing me the ropes! It’s been a brilliant few months – and here’s to many more! I feel like this is exactly where I’m meant to be and love coming into work every morning. It doesn’t get better than that.”

Ruby Moss, Media Strategist

“One of the things I keep being reminded of is how important time is. Not only having the time to do what you want, as well as time with family and time for work, but how easy these can get blurred and how important it is to keep everything balanced. So I’m grateful that Wave gives us the flexibility to work our own way, that we are allowed to manage our own time to make sure we are giving everything our best. It’s possible to take time to be with family by not being tied to working a regular 9-5 but rather when it works best for you and you are most productive.”

Luis Cajao, Marketing Director

“Having been on maternity leave since shortly after the first lockdown began, I returned to Wave earlier this year and it’s been so nice to have social interactions with colleagues again, even if it is mostly via video conferences and online chats. Coming back to work gave me the opportunity and motivation to keep learning and be up to date with the latest business trends but Wave’s flexible working policy has also allowed me to still spend lots of quality time with my daughter.”  

Kamila Fitchett, Data Analyst

“2021 has been a hard year for me personally as I have a lot of family that live overseas who I haven’t been able to see – some since before the first first lockdown – as well as family bereavements. However, the way I have been supported through all of it by Wave has helped me immeasurably and I can’t thank them enough. I’ve learnt through direct experience how important a supportive and understanding team is and how it can positively affect not just your mental health but your ability to work well.”

Emily Buckley, Copywriter

2021 may have started in a cloud with 2 months of lockdown but, with restrictions easing and the vaccination programme continuing at pace, business confidence began to return and productivity was hugely boosted. The year has since flown by on a busy cloud of new clients, new websites, product updates, integrations and team growth. We end the year with a new COVID variant causing uncertainty but jobs – and market confidence – still high.

2022, we’re looking forward to what you might bring.