Helping Ixion Holdings Build a Brilliant Team for the NEA Contract
Recruiting for specialist roles is never straightforward, and finding Business Advisors for Ixion Holdings’ New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) contract was definitely a challenge. Luckily, Red 5 People love a good challenge.
Ixion needed people who could help unemployed job seekers turn their self-employment dreams into reality. But these weren’t your typical vacancies. We were looking for three very specific types of people:
Advisors who had already worked on government-funded or private sector business support programmes.
Employment coaches who had made self-employment advice their thing.
Entrepreneurs who’d set up and run their own businesses, and now wanted to give back.
Plus the occasional candidate who also held a SFEDI qualification – always a nice bonus!
A Quick Word on the NEA
The New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) was a hugely successful Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) programme that ran for over a decade. It supported thousands of unemployed people to turn great ideas into real businesses, offering practical advice, mentoring, and financial support. While the scheme has now ended, it made a real difference to people’s lives — helping many achieve independence and build a future through self-employment.
It was a programme that needed the right advisors — people who could inspire, guide, and challenge — and that’s exactly what we set out to find.
Our Approach
We kicked things off with a bunch of tailored adverts aimed at reaching different types of candidates. But if we’re honest, the best results came from good old-fashioned headhunting. We researched where the right people were, reached out directly, and (shock horror!) picked up the phone to have real conversations.
It wasn’t just about ticking boxes on a CV. We spent time understanding if candidates had the right experience, mindset, and motivation. One of the big challenges with these roles is making sure people see them as a proper career move, not just something to do until their own work picks up again. So every conversation counted.
The Result?
A brilliant, diverse team that brought a whole range of skills to the table, from former NEA advisors and accountants to entrepreneurs who had “been there, done that”, with a few SFEDI-qualified candidates sprinkled in too.
Best of all, they weren’t just qualified, they wanted to make a difference. The team went on to do a fantastic job, making a real impact with the people they supported. And we were proud to play a part in making it happen.
At Red 5 People, we don’t just find candidates, we find the right people. And we love helping organisations like Ixion build teams that truly make a difference.