32 people. 4 offices. One learning infrastructure.

THE CHALLENGE

EC1 Partners has been placing talent into the global FinTech market since 2008 through the financial crisis, through the crypto boom, through every cycle the sector has thrown at them. Offices in London, New York, Miami, and Singapore. Thirty-two people. A specialism that spans Electronic Trading, RegTech, ESG & ClimateTech, Crypto & Digital Assets, Capital Markets Software, and beyond.

The business knew how to recruit. The challenge was how to develop the people doing it.

As Chief People Officer, Sam Gasson owned that problem directly. EC1 had grown organically, bringing in entry-level recruiters and developing them in-house but with senior leaders carrying full desks, finding consistent time to deliver the fundamentals of recruitment training was a constant pressure.

"For our leaders to be able to give people the training of the fundamentals of recruitment as a whole - that was a bit of a struggle."

At the same time, something was shifting in the market. Candidates coming through EC1's own hiring process were asking a question the business needed a credible answer to.

THE TRN DIFFERENCE

EC1 came to TRN through a recommendation. What landed immediately was the practical fit: a platform where consultants could independently access structured training, on their own time, at their own pace, without pulling senior people away from billing.

"They could just come on board and do every single day, as part of their day, an hour's training on various topics. Even from the simplest things like how to make a telephone conversation into a lead."

Three years in, TRN is no longer a supplement to EC1's learning and development approach. It is the approach.

The platform is used across all four offices. TRN World - covering everything from recruitment fundamentals to legislation updates, AI shifts, and back-office operations - is treated as a live reference, not a static tool. When a compliance or operational question surfaces, the team's first move is to search TRN.

"It's one of those things that's in the background, but it's heavily used."

THE COMMERCIAL OUTCOME

The clearest commercial signal isn't internal. It's what EC1 hears from candidates.

"I'd probably say 99% of the candidates will ask: what training do you have in place? And because we're a small organisation - we don't have an L&D manager - we will always refer back to The Recruitment Network. It's a really good selling point when we're speaking to people about training."

For a 32-person business competing for experienced FinTech recruiters against larger firms with dedicated L&D functions, that answer matters. TRN gives EC1 a credible, structured response to a question that's now standard in every hiring conversation.

The cost equation has shifted too. External training spend has contracted significantly, EC1 ran one outsourced motivational session last year, reserved for in-person delivery where the format added something TRN's platform couldn't replicate. The fundamentals, the ongoing development, the legislation and market updates, all of it runs through TRN.

"I don't think the business would necessarily look any different, but I think we would have spent more money on external training. And I don't think people would be able to embed it as much because you do an offsite for half a day, you come back, you recap a couple of weeks later, and then it's there but not. Whereas with TRN, because it's constantly evolving and literally a click of a button, it's really, really helpful."

BEYOND THE PLATFORM

The value EC1 draws from TRN isn't confined to the training library. The WhatsApp groups have become a live peer resource of organic conversations that surface practical answers faster than any formal process.

When EC1 began evaluating CRM systems, a decision that had been on the table for years, the WhatsApp groups were where they went first. Real feedback from recruiters using systems day-to-day, unfiltered and current.

"Some of the conversations that happen quite organically within those chats - it is really, really valuable."

The credibility of the voices on the platform has also been a factor in getting the wider team engaged. Experienced consultants who might question why they need external input change their position when the person delivering it is someone they recognise and respect.

"The credibility of some of the people you have on the platform is unbelievable. You can show the people who are actually speaking, whether it's live content or authors, and it instantly makes people want to learn more because they can see they're learning from someone who's really credible."