We’re all sports fans – but we’re also careers fans. We’ve had some awesome moments in 2022, as Britain emerged from Covid restrictions, and here’s some insight into what the LAPS team actually do at work.
Robbie Simpson: LAPS’ co-founder and MD, ex-footballer.
My best moment with LAPS was when I got contacted by Richard Branson’s blog writer, who contacted us to ask whether we mind whether Richard Branson mentioned LAPS in a blog post. He was writing a piece called ten reasons why athletes make great employees, and he’d heard about LAPS and wanted to mention it. LAPS was in its infancy at this stage, and founding LAPS myself did give me some uncertainty. I knew there was a need for LAPS from the sportsperson’s perspective, but I was still a bit apprehensive about whether or not athletes were so in demand in the workplace. For someone like Richard Branson to highlight ten reasons why sportspeople were a valuable commodity to recruit solidified the founding of LAPS, but also to get recognition from him was amazing. I’ll be dining off that for a very long time!
You can read Richard’s blog here.
Annie Vernon: Head of Content and Marketing, ex-rower.
As a sports fan, without a doubt my favourite part of my job is reaching out to LAPS members from all manner of sports and backgrounds, and working with them to create content for our library of blogs and video profiles. If I had to choose one it would be the time I spoke to former IPL cricketer Sushant Marathe, who revealed how top-class batters learn to reconcile themselves with public failure – that’s the nature of cricket. As a batter, you fail far more times than you succeed and you need to learn to forgive yourself and keep bouncing back the next day. As a huge cricket fan I loved hearing Sushant’s insights.
Terry Moor: Partnerships Manager, Leeds United fan.
The best moment over the last twelve months for me has been the increase in clients who want to renew partnership agreements with us. This shows that our partners recognise the benefits of both working with LAPS and our members. It also shows they recognise the quality of sports professionals whether that be to recruit for roles, advise on opportunities or recruit onto courses. For our members, the renewal signifies opportunities for them with partners who recognise the qualities they can bring to businesses or onto courses. So, it’s great for our members and great for our partners, a complete win: win.
James Craigen: Head of Talent, semi-professional footballer.
My highlight of the year would be representing LAPS at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. It was great to speak to current LAPS members who were competing at the championships, but it was also great to speak to future members and tell them about what we do at LAPS and how we can help them now and in the future. On a side note, I’m not going to pretend I didn’t enjoy the opportunity of watching some quality tennis!
Rob Steed: co-founder and CEO, the recruitment guru.
After two years of Covid it was great to bring back Ahead of the Game in 2022. I loved hosting over 750 athletes across our events at Twickenham and Old Trafford. Covid arrived after the first of our 2020 events, meaning we had to cancel the other two (and had a much reduced attendance at the first), so it was a little stressful deciding to start up again, but I’m so glad we did – both events were fantastic.