Listen: Sarah House-Barklie, people and culture director at Investigo, talks to Employee Benefits about the global recruitment agency’s reward strategy, and the initiatives it has introduced to support its employees’ wellbeing during the pandemic.
At a glance
Investigo is a multi-specialist recruitment agency which deals with a number of different sectors such as finance, change, technology and public sector. It also has an executive practice and a consultancy practice which manages transformation projects end to end.
The agency’s typical job roles include recruitment consultants, HR, development, marketing, finance, legal, and administration.
It has around 250 employees working across operations in the UK and the US. Its workforce is 60% male, 40% female and the average age is 34.
The average length of service is 3.1 years, and the organisation has recently recruited a number of people as part of its growth plans. It has 20 people with longer tenures at over 10 years.
Primary business objectives that impact employee benefits
- To continue to focus on growth, and as a result, to continue to have a close eye on how its benefits will need to evolve.
Career history 
Sarah House-Barklie joined Investigo in November 2019. She has held a variety of international HR director roles in finance, PR, gaming and marketing organisations, as well as focusing on compensation and benefits in her early career. House-Barklie has also acted as adviser to the board for a number of charities and been on the panel of HR analytics, diversity and inclusion (D&I) and the future of HR conferences.
House-Barklie says of her achievements: “Every role I’ve had has had either a project that I’ve worked on or that my team has accomplished which I’ve been proud of. Seeing some of my old teams go on to be successful in their own rights has made me proud.
“Working on the initial public offering (IPO) of RBS Insurance to become a standalone business that became Direct Line Group was a massive project and one that was a hugely successful collaboration effort across a number of teams.
“I’ve been really lucky in that I’ve been able to work with some of the best minds in the industry over the years to continuously ensure that whatever team I’ve been in, that we’ve led the way in terms of thinking a bit differently to the norm and not just going with best practice HR ways of thinking.
“I’ve also enjoyed researching and writing articles and playing a part as an adviser to boards and seeing those ideas turn into real actions that make a positive difference to a business.”