The Reed Group
The largest family-run recruitment company in the world, and a pioneer of specialist recruitment services. We work with more than 30,000 organisations in the UK to fill their temporary, permanent and interim positions for 20 sectors.
The Reed Foundation is a charity set up by the founder of Reed, Sir Alec Reed in 1972. Over the past 10 years, the foundation has donated over £9.5 million to a wide variety of charities from a multitude of sectors, including environment and social mobility organisations here in the UK. Its purpose is to give back to the communities we work in and inspire a tradition of charitable giving as a company and with our co-members.
In 2021 we introduced Reed Franchise Partnerships, an exciting opportunity to bring international franchisees into our Reed family. After many years of establishing ourselves as an international community of recruitment experts, we want to help others use the Reed name to build their own business, with the help of our infrastructure, tools, and resources that can help them accelerate to success.
Reed.co.uk is one of the UK’s leading career marketplaces, connecting people to a world of career opportunities online. As well as jobs, Reed.co.uk offers courses and career advice. For recruiters and employers, it provides job advertising, a CV database with over 12 million candidates, plus recruiter advice and news.
The history of Reed
1960
Humble beginnings
Reed was founded on 7th May 1960, with the first office located on Kingsley Rd, Hounslow (West London). In the early 1960s REED pioneered specialist recruitment services; a move which fundamentally changed the UK recruitment market.
1972
Educate to Accumulate
Sir Alec Reed founded the Reed Business School in a Cotswolds manor house to provide a learning centre for REED Co-Members as well as residential courses for accountancy students. The Reed Business School has even been listed as one of the most beautiful places to study in the world.
1988
Building the Foundation
The Reed Foundation acquired 18% of the Reed Group of companies and, in the following year, founded both Ethiopiaid and Womankind Worldwide.
1995
Online Revolution
REED became the first high street recruitment agency in the UK to have a presence on the web. reed.co.uk is the UK’s #1 job site and has also become one of Europe’s biggest job boards, being used by 85% of the UK’s top 100 recruitment agencies.
1996
Reed Learning
In 1996, Reed Learning became one of the UK’s leading business training providers. It was the first provider to launch green learning courses, become an exclusive training partner to Google and winner of several national training awards. Now, Reed.co.uk is home to thousands of online learning courses.
1998
Welfare to work
Established in 1998, Reed in Partnership was one of the first employment support service providers in the UK, with a single office in Hackney. Today, Reed in Partnership offers services throughout the UK, fulfilling its mission: to positively transform people’s lives and their communities.
2007
The Big Give
The Big Give is a non-profit, match funding platform that allows charities to double donations from supporters. Since its launch in 2007, it has raised over £156 million for thousands of great causes through the power of match funding.
2008
Reed goes global
In 2008 the organic growth of Reed, meant taking our family values global. For the first time ever, we opened international Reed offices in Turkey, Malta, Czech Republic, Hungary and South Korea.
2020
60 years and counting
In May 2020 Reed turned 60 years old. With 60 years under our belt and many more to go, we continue to lead the way with the best recruitment solutions and comprehensive industry knowledge. Over the last seven decades, Reed has organically grown to become one of the world’s largest recruitment powerhouses, having built an incredibly strong team of over 3,400 co-members across a number of locations.
2021
Reed Franchise Partnerships
This year we have launched our latest venture. Reed Franchise Partnerships' purpose is to share knowledge and experience with partners further afield. With the help of our experienced team members, our new international partners are starting out on recruitment journeys which we hope are as long and fruitful as Reed’s.