LHi Austin; buying our first house!
Next week, the LHi Austin office will be moving out of our shared workspace and into our very own 60-person office in Downtown Austin.
For me, this move is a huge sign of the progress and growth of the brilliant (and mostly young!) individuals who are working every day to become better humans, better teammates, and better consultative recruiters for their clients and candidates.
Moving to Austin almost three years ago and taking on a 4-person team whose start to life had been disrupted by the pandemic, in an office the size of a decent garden shed – I remember feeling as if we were staring up at the peak of Mt. Everest and couldn’t be further away from the vision of a high-performing 40+ person team we had in mind.
Chloe England, moving from NYC to run Piper Maddox; our Clean Energy brand, was probably the single, most important thing that happened for LHi ATX at the time, and continues to be the epitome of a leader who isn’t scared of getting her hands dirty! A few movements, hires, plenty of hard work, new processes, meetings, phone calls! etc., and we got motoring.
All of a sudden, it’s September 2022, we’re a 15-person business and moving a few floors upstairs to a bigger, brighter, cleaner, LHi branded office with all the features and quirks, including a neon sign, standing desks and proper music speakers – what a day!!
A year of mostly very high highs – record months ensued, and we started 2023 with new vigor. “Play with Purpose”, our tagline (thanks All Blacks)!! Empowering, passionate, and genuine - our non-negotiables as teammates and people, checking each other regularly! High Performance Accountability; the pledge from the leaders, with our World Class Basics rolled out as processes to back up our claims of being in the top 5% of recruiters in the country.
We didn’t stop there though… The hiring ramped up more than ever. Ross Lewis took the leap, leaving a direct competitor to join as VP of Technology at Lawrence Harvey, our tech recruitment brand, steadying the ship in a tumultuous technology recruitment market who are now seeing the fruits of their labor! We then went on to launch our Built Environment brand; Harper Harrison in Austin, and out came Mike Tobin; Head of Harper Harrison Austin, from our Manchester office to start building what is arguably LHi’s most exciting venture since our inception! Simon Hobson; Head of Civil Engineering followed suit and is continuing to do great things in our Civil & Structural Engineering space.
I also made a big hire personally, with the birth of my first child, Ashton Eldridge! Ross Lewis and his fiancé brought a beautiful baby girl into the world, Evelina Lewis, and Matthew Petersen and his wife also had a daughter, Leighton Rae Petersen! So it’s safe to say that there have been many mini-recruits added to our growing Austin team.
This office holds a lot of memories for us, (and the dogs!). When I look around the room now, I see a group of individuals dedicated to the cause who understand what it means to work for LHi ATX. I also see a very cramped office with almost no space for activities (but not for long…😊).
This is just the start for the new group of leaders that have emerged, with 9 of the 27 individuals now at a level to start building divisions and teams, following in their footsteps, and demonstrating the ‘Younger You’ philosophy we hold dear across all our nine global offices.
For me, this move to ‘our very own house’ (with our very own kitchen!) almost feels like flying the nest and being backed as a real force to go and scale to 60+ LHi ATX’ers in the next 2-3 years and we couldn’t be more ready!
I have never been so excited to see a group of people take the next steps and achieve their goals and purpose. There is zero doubt in my mind that the next big move to a 100+ person office won’t be far away either.