Manchester-based recruitment company Amoria Bond is one of the fastest-growing businesses in Europe, and for good reason.
The business, which has been named one of the best recruitment companies to work for by several major industry bodies, is leading the way when it comes to STEM recruitment while also offering incredible benefits to its employees.
Its team members have access to perks like lunch clubs and book clubs as well as career-progressing benefits like grants for external training, not to mention the team trips to destinations like Las Vegas and Dubai.
Amoria Bond prides itself on its expertise and relationships with its clients and candidates but colleagues are well looked-after too – as per its mission statement of ‘Progressing Lives Everywhere’.
Credit: Amoria Bond
Anyone who goes to work for Amoria Bond is placed on a 10-steps-to-the-top progression programme, so everyone knows where they sit and where they’re headed within the business.
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Even those who join at trainee level know they’re only 10 steps away from being a member of the executive board, and four members on the current executive board actually joined as trainees.
But despite the clear route to career progression for all employees, each individual is given a personalised progression plan to help them reach that next step.
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It works, too – half of all the recruiters who work at Amoria Bond have been promoted in the last year, with some even getting promoted twice.
The team at Amoria Bond. Credit: Supplied
Amoria Bond specialises in pioneering sectors like advanced engineering, technology and energy, matching people and businesses who are building a cleaner future for the world.
Those who work for the business have access to award-winning training and development, including the Amoria Bond Academy, which has thousands of expert-led videos.
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The company’s learning and development team also runs in-person training sessions and one-on-one Zoom sessions.
It’s also committed to diversity and inclusion, believing that everyone deserves respect and equal opportunity regardless of background.
Amoria Bond says: “Diversity and Inclusion is an ongoing journey and we’re in it for the long haul.
“We don’t pretend to be perfect, but we are 100% committed and hold ourselves fully accountable to delivering sustainable, meaningful action-led change internally, within the recruitment industry we love, and across the STEM sectors we serve.”
As well as internal diversity and inclusion committees in each office, and annual reports published publicly, Amoria Bond is one of the founding signatories of the Diversity and Inclusion Charter and founding members of Programme One, a collaborative initiative that aims to remove barriers to black talent.
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ASCEND is an internal initiative too, which is designed to attract, retain and progress women across the Amoria Bond Group and wider recruitment industry.
The perks keep coming too, including daily benefits like flexible and remote working, uncapped earnings, company cars and mobiles, and 24/7 access to a wellness hub.
Amoria Bond offers a lunch club to its employees. Credit: Supplied
Employees are given a £500 development allowance to spend on external training every year, and are offered activities and prizes for hitting targets.
Top performers are treated to a Lunch Club at some of Manchester’s best restaurants as well as being able to get a book or audiobook of their choice every month through the company Book Club.
Amoria Bond team members are able to take a day off to spend time volunteering for charity without it coming out of their annual leave, and can swap time off for different religious holidays.
Everyone finishes for the week at 4pm on a Friday, but those who hit their TFI targets are able to finish at 1.30pm.
And then the whole team has the chance to travel the world with global sales conferences, with 2022 destinations including Dubai and Las Vegas.
You can find out more about Amoria Bond on the company’s website here.
Featured image: Supplied
Business
Manchester rent is now ‘41% more expensive than five years ago, according to a recent study
Danny Jones
Yes, that’s right, as per some of the latest data on leased housing in central Manchester, it’s now approximately 41% more expensive to rent here than it was half a decade ago.
If you’ve lived in and around the city centre for long enough, chances are that you’ve already been feeling that difference, especially of late.
The ongoing cost-of-living crisis roughly began in 2021, following the economy and the world essentially opening back up after multiple lockdowns, so it’s little surprise that new research has shown affordability when it comes to renting has been on a slump ever since, too.
As well as the price of seemingly most things in everyday life going up post-pandemic, the average rental rate for even just a one-bedroom flat/apartment has jumped up significantly between 2020 and 2025.
Even some ‘available’ housing in town is being hampered by claddin (Credit: Valienne via WikiCommons)
That’s according to the numbers crunched by credit card experts, Zable, anyway.
Not only did their recent report cite the rent prices going up even before the cost of living crisis – essentially following the outset of the Covid-19 outbreak – but if their figures, the rate of inflation and the unwaveringly high demand for housing are anything to go by, this trajectory is likely to continue in 2026.
As of February this year, around one in three UK households is now a single-person occupancy, which already comes with its challenges (the Manchester City Council tax discount being a thin lifeline for countless), not to mention energy bills and the cost of groceries continuing on an upwards trend.
Put in the simplest and most reductive terms, it’s now almost £300 dearer for most people to live on their own than it was back in 2020, and besides Liverpool clocking in as second on the list of increasingly expensive cities to live (a 42.12% increase), Manchester came in third.
You can see the full table down below:
Rank
City
% increase – 2020-2025
Difference from 2020 to 2025 in £
Average rental cost for a 1 bed 2025
1
Newport
47.39%
£2,611
£8,121
2
Liverpool
42.12%
£2,290
£7,727
3
Manchester
41.00%
£3,364
£11,569
4
Edinburgh
40.28%
£4,620
£16,090
5
Leicester
39.93%
£2,391
£8,379
6
Wolverhampton
39.22%
£2,049
£7,273
7
Nottingham
39.07%
£2,400
£8,543
8
Glasgow
38.02%
£2,679
£9,725
9
Colchester
37.63%
£2,617
£9,572
10
Cardiff
37.06%
£2,828
Average rental cost for a 1-bed 2025
Another fear is that with lots of people finding it hard to manage living in other major cities like London, even those moving to Manchester are also having an impact on how available affordable housing is here.
That’s why schemes such as the new ‘social rent’ development over in Wythenshawe are so important to the current generations of renters, with the possibility of owning your own property in the future becoming increasingly difficult for so many.
It’s also worth noting that Manchester ranked fourth among the British locations where the cost of living is said to have increased the most over the past five years, with the average difference in annual spend growing by an estimated 22.84%.
Millions of UK workers to get pay rises from today as National Living and Minimum Wage increases
Emily Sergeant
Millions of workers across the UK are set to begin receiving substantial pay rises from today.
After the Government announced back in November that it would take the recommendations made by the Low Pay Commission, and increase both the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage, those changes have now come into force in a bid to ensure people on lower incomes are ‘properly rewarded’ for their work.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Low Pay Commission, it’s an independent body made up of employers, trade unions, and experts whose role is to advise the Government on the minimum wage.
As mentioned, the rate recommendations introduced today were agreed unanimously by the Commission.
This means that the living wage, for eligible workers who are aged 21 and over, has now risen by 4.1% from today to £12.71 an hour.
For a full-time worker, that means a pay increase of £900 a year.
Millions of workers in the UK are getting pay rises from today / Credit: John Kakuk (via Unsplash) | Pexels
The National Minimum Wage rate for workers aged 18 to 20-year-olds has also increased today by 8.5% to £10.85 an hour, and then for 16 to 17-year-olds, and those on apprenticeships, the rate has increased by 6% to £8 an hour.
“The recommendations we made last autumn sought to balance the need to protect the economy and labour market, whilst providing a real-terms increase for the lowest-paid members of society,” commented Baroness Philippa Stroud, who is Chair of the Low Pay Commission.
“A lot has changed since we gave our advice to the Government last autumn, and we are now beginning to gather evidence for recommendations later this year.
“The current economic uncertainty makes it essential that the Commission hears from those affected by the minimum wage and builds consensus for evidence-based recommendations.
Workers aged 21 and over are now legally entitled to the National Living Wage after the age threshold for the highest rate was lowered from 23 in 2024.
National Minimum Wage rates are available to workers aged 16 upwards.
Daisy Jackson -
27th April 2022 
