How it all began
In May 1960, as a pioneer of specialist recruitment, Sir Alec Reed opened the very first Reed office. Since then, we’ve grown into a diverse organisation, operating in countries across the world and offering a range of award-winning services in recruitment and all things talent.
Origin timeline
On 7 May 1960, Reed opened its very first office on Kingsley Road in Hounslow, West London.
Reed Business School held its first accountancy course in 1972 with just three students. Based in the Cotswolds, it’s now described as one of the most beautiful places to study in the world.
Started by Sir Alec Reed in 1988, the Reed Foundation owns 18% of Reed and has donated over £10m to charity over the last 10 years.
Reed launched the UK’s first recruitment website, Reed.co.uk in 1995. It now helps millions of people across the UK find jobs they love.
Reed began offering its award-winning business training services in 1996. We were the first training provider to deliver green learning courses and to partner exclusively with Google.
Reed in Partnership became one of the UK’s first employment support service providers in 1998. Today, it offers award-winning services to positively transform people’s lives and their communities.
The Big Give is a non-profit match funding platform that allows charities to double donations from supporters. Since its launch in 2007, it’s raised over £156m for charities around the world.
In 2008, we were able to take our purpose global, opening offices in Turkey, Malta, Czech Republic, Hungary, and South Korea and helping people everywhere Love Mondays.
Since its launch in 2020, Reed has grown organically to become one of the world’s largest recruitment powerhouses with a talented team of over 3,400 co-members across dozens of locations.
In our latest chapter in Reed's history, we launched our latest venture: Reed Franchise Partnerships, whose purpose is to share our decades’ worth of knowledge and expertise with our international recruitment partners.
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Our companies
Join one of our companies and make a positive impact on peoples’ lives every day. All the businesses in the Reed Group are united by our purpose of ‘improving lives through work’ and share the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to find meaningful, fulfilling work.
Culture, values and purpose
When you join Reed, you’ll be joining a company full of friendly, hardworking co-members who are always willing to support you if you need it. See what our co-members have to say.
Find your team
Across Reed’s companies we have a myriad of fantastic opportunities to accelerate your career, with roles spanning a multitude of sectors. Whether you want to develop your skills as a specialist recruitment expert, join one of our forward-thinking tech teams, or help our co-members continually develop their skills in one of our learning and development teams, we can help you take your career to the next level.