EP343: Why Transactional Recruitment Is Dying - Kirk Evans & Ant Davidson, Co-Founders, Nter TalentEP343: Why Transactional Recruitment Is Dying - Kirk Evans & Ant Davidson, Co-Founders, Nter Talent
The Recruiter's Recruitment Podcast
Kirk Evans and Ant Davidson share how Nter Talent is moving away from transactional recruitment towards embedded, data-driven partnerships with clients. They talk about their own journeys, investor-backed growth, trainee hiring plans and why simplicity and transparency are central to their model.
46:47•26 Oct 2026
Why Transactional Recruitment Is On Its Way Out
Episode Overview
- Transactional, fee-led recruitment is described as “dying out”, with clients favouring long-term, solution-based partnerships.
- Kirk and Ant highlight the importance of honest, simple conversations focused on cost, volume of hires and measurable savings for clients.
- The founders advocate an embedded multi-solution model, using data and dashboards to show real-time progress and savings, helping them secure and expand key accounts.
- They stress hiring and training local cohorts of trainees, with a structured three-month programme and office-first culture instead of outsourcing overseas.
- Clear division of strengths between outward-facing BD and internal delivery is presented as crucial for scaling without becoming a bottleneck for the team.
“A client at the end of the day, they want to know how much it's going to cost them, how many people are going to get through the door and how much money are you going to save them.”
How do different strategies aid in addiction recovery? Swap "addiction" for "recruitment" and you’ll get a strong feel for this conversation with Nter Talent co-founders Kirk Evans and Ant (Anthony) Davidson, who are convinced that old-school transactional recruitment is running out of road. The chat, hosted by Lysha Holmes, has a mates-at-the-pub energy, laced with very clear thinking about how modern recruitment actually works.
Kirk and Ant share how they moved from traditional agency life into launching Nter Talent in 2023 with an investor-backed model, building from a tough market rather than riding a boom. Their view is simple: clients don’t want another agency racing to the bottom on fees; they want a partner who saves time, money and hassle.
Ant tells his unusual journey from the Royal Air Force into recruitment, admitting he “fell into it” after a disastrous-feeling interview involving holiday photos and monkeys instead of a PowerPoint. Kirk, the self-described “brains of the operation”, talks about shifting from sports centres into logistics and supply chain recruitment, and how both founders now split responsibilities between outward-facing business development and internal delivery.
The pair break down why they think transactional recruitment is “dying out”, what embedded and multi-solution partnerships look like, and how radical transparency – dashboards, savings per hire, and over-sharing data – helps them “lock out their competition”. They also tackle a hot topic: hiring local trainees instead of offshoring support, with a structured three-month training programme, office-first culture and a big focus on grit and resilience.
If you’re in recruitment and wondering how to stay relevant, win long-term clients and build a team that actually sticks around, this no-nonsense conversation might have you rethinking how you sell, who you hire, and how you grow. Are you still just chasing fees, or are you building something that lasts?
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