Clear thinking. Strong delivery. Trusted partnership.

Syme Drummond is a specialist Search & Talent Solutions business partnering with organisations across the UK and overseas to identify, engage and secure exceptional talent. Founded in 2010 by Katie Drummond, the business was built on more than 25 years of recruitment experience and a simple belief: recruitment works better when you genuinely understand the organisation, the market and the people behind the hire.

Katie began her career working across global, national and independent recruitment businesses, building extensive experience across specialist, professional and leadership appointments. A graduate of the University of Glasgow, with HRM forming part of her Master's degree in Marketing, she also undertook her CIPD studies early in her career, developing a particularly strong reputation within Human Resources, People and L&D. Those roots remain an important part of Syme Drummond, but the business today reaches considerably further.

Our areas of expertise

We now deliver assignments across the full spectrum of professional, operational and leadership talent, including:

People & HR | Legal | Finance | Commercial | Business Development | Operations | Technical | Head Office Support

Our work ranges from junior and mid-level appointments through to specialist, senior leadership and executive search. And while our functional expertise has broadened, the way we work has remained deliberately specialist. We do not believe every vacancy requires the same recruitment solution. For straightforward or repeat hiring, an exclusive contingency approach can provide a simple and efficient route to market. Where a requirement is niche, difficult to fill, senior, confidential, business-critical or simply requires greater market reach, we move into a structured retained search methodology, built around research, market mapping and proactive headhunting. And where an organisation already has internal talent capability but requires additional capacity, specialist market knowledge or additional reach, our fractional search and talent solutions allow us to provide exactly the level of support required.

Search, not simply advertising

Our retained search approach is fundamentally different from simply advertising a vacancy and waiting for applications. Every search begins by understanding the business, the reason for the hire, the success profile and the market we need to access. We then map the relevant talent pool, identify appropriate individuals and proactively engage the market through targeted professional headhunting and direct outreach. Throughout the assignment, we share market intelligence and feedback so that our customers understand not just who is available, but what the market is telling us about salary, benefits, availability, location and the perception of the opportunity.

Syme Drummond is accredited by the Institute of Retained Search, giving our customers the reassurance that our search methodology follows recognised professional standards. But methodology is only part of what makes a search successful. Relationships, judgement, curiosity and communication matter too.

More than recruitment

Our work increasingly extends beyond an individual vacancy or search mandate. We can support with as much or as little of the recruitment process as you need.

We support customers with:

Retained Search & Executive Search
Structured, research-led searches for specialist, senior, confidential and business-critical appointments.

Exclusive Contingency Recruitment
Focused recruitment support for straightforward, junior/mid-level and repeat hiring requirements.

Fractional Search & Talent Solutions
Flexible support for organisations that have internal recruitment capability but require additional capacity, reach or specialist expertise.

Talent Mapping & Market Intelligence
Helping organisations understand where talent sits, competitor structures, salary expectations and the availability of particular skills.

Benchmarking & Succession Insight
Providing intelligence to support workforce planning, organisational design and future hiring decisions.

A genuinely consultative partnership

The foundations of Syme Drummond have always been relationships. Katie has spent more than two decades building an extensive network of professionals and senior decision-makers, and many of the customers who have worked with her throughout her career remain part of the Syme Drummond network today. We are proud that the majority of our network comes via referrals and recommendations. As the business has grown, those relationships have opened doors into new disciplines, new organisations and increasingly complex mandates. But our objective has never been simply to become bigger.

It is to become more valuable to the customers we work with.

That means understanding the organisation behind the vacancy. Challenging a brief when something does not feel right. Sharing what the market is telling us. Communicating before somebody needs to chase. And taking ownership of the process from initial conversation through to successful appointment. Internally, that is reflected in our values: game changers, connected and consistent and purposeful in our action.

Because great recruitment isn't about sending more CVs.

It's about understanding the market well enough to find the right people and managing the process well enough to secure them.

Syme Drummond. Clear thinking. Strong delivery. Trusted partnership.