Ketan Dattani, CEO and Founding Owner of Buckingham Futures
Ketan Dattani is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur. He holds 25 years of Environmental Health recruitment experience and has a high profile within the sector. He is widely documented as an expert on Employment Law, Employee rights and for providing Careers Advice.
Ketan is the Founding Owner and CEO of Buckingham Futures, a specialist Environmental Health Recruitment Business that provides bespoke permanent and temporary recruitment and consultancy solutions to public and private sector employers.
Academically Ketan holds a degree in Environmental Biology, and a Masters degree in Environmental Planning and Management. He also holds a Certificate in Employment Law and The Certificate in Recruitment Practice which is a nationally recognised recruitment qualification developed jointly by the REC and key employers.
What's your industry?
Environmental Health Recruitment
How did you end up sitting where you are today?
I set up Buckingham Futures in 2013, a specialist Consultancy supplying Environmental
Health personnel across the Private and Public sectors on a nationwide basis as I
identified an opportunity to aid Environmental Health professionals to fill the gap in the
employment sector caused by significant challenges to the global economy caused
population growth, increasing demand for natural resources, soaring costs of energy
and escalating impacts of climate change.
My philosophy is one whereby Environmental factors are drivers of my business
success. This means that we always go the extra mile to understand the business
objectives and operating environments of our clients.
What kind of work does your daily role involve?
I am responsible for the growth and success of the business, including;
* Sales & marketing
* Operations
* Budget and P&L responsibility
* Internal recruitment, training and retention
* Client & candidate recruitment
What gets you excited about your industry?
Currently something that particularly proud of is our partnership with The Chartered
Institute of Environmental Health with the launching the Directory of Student Training
Opportunities - a listing of training opportunities to help Environmental Health students
complete their Environmental Health Practitioner Portfolio.
The available opportunities are offered by local authorities, private sector businesses
and charities and are grouped geographically and align with the five areas of the
Portfolio: Environmental Protection, Food Safety, Housing and communities, Health And
Safety, and Public Health, to allow students to fill any gaps in their learning experience.
There is value in it for everyone, and a genuine win-win for students, employers and the
future of the Environmental Health profession.
What's the best advice anyone ever gave you on your journey in business?
While a lot of people have helped me along the way, the one person (apart from my mother) who I have always been particularly grateful for is the Head of Science at Hendon College, Dr. Theo Cronje. He believed in me when no body else did.
College was a difficult time for me as I was going through a series of failures due to my unshakeable belief in my ineptitude. It stopped me from truly trying to succeed. Unwittingly, I was conforming to a self-fulfilling prophecy I’d set for myself.
Dr. Theo Cronje saw potential in me that I myself could not see. He encouraged me to apply for University entrance. This was truly foreign ground to me. No one from my Council Estate had been to University!
The more I look back, the more pivotal that his guidance and advice has been to the rest of my life.
What's the most challenging project or situation you've overcome to date?
I started Buckingham Futures for personal and professional fulfilment. I love to feel as if I am contributing to something important, an overarching vision for what I can create, and am motivated by change, challenge, and problems to solve.
I was very motivated by the idea of creating something from the ground up.
Making the jump from being an employee to starting my own company was very exhilarating, rewarding, and fun, but was exhausting, relentless, stressful and interesting in equal measures.
Are you using any AI tools right now to help grow your business or, if not, do you plan to use any this year?
Yes, I am looking into AI to sift through CV's and applications to find the best candidates for a position. The use of AI in this way can help to speed up the recruitment process and make it more efficient.
Overall, do you see AI as a good thing for business?
Yes, AI will free up the recruiter’s time, provide valuable insights during the recruitment process and make the recruiter’s job easier.
Overall, do you see AI as a threat or an opportunity in business?
Opportunity, one of the biggest benefits of AI in recruitment is the opportunity to remove human biases from the hiring procedure.
If you had one wish for the future of your industry, what would it be?
Recruiters will need to combine human strengths with digital know-how. They’ll have to quickly adapt to new technologies, systems and platforms. They’ll also be required to be a great communicator, problem solver and collaborator, so they can connect the right individuals to the right roles. With the optimal skills mix, recruiters will augment – rather than compete – with technology.
