Ethical team: Lucy Bristow, centre, with her staff. Her firm won the Best Recruitment Consultancy award

Lucy Bristow
Winner of The Best Recruitment Consultancy

20 years as the vital link

DURING her 20 years running a recruitment consultancy in Bristol, Lucy Bristow has seen competitors come and go.

She said: “It’s not as easy as it may look running this sort of business. You have to enjoy working with people and I get great pleasure out of placing them in the right job.

“The role of the recruitment consultant is to act as the vital link between candidates and clients, matching the two together for both temporary and permanent needs.

“We are helping companies to build teams integral to the future of their business and the future of the regional economy.

“I suppose the fact that this recruitment consultancy has been going for so long is down to several things.

“I have a really good team of people working with me. Treat them well and everyone will work well.

“We have local knowledge and are professional as well as having ethical valuesand that is important.”

These are the qualities which helped Lucy Bristow Appointments’ 17-strong team win the Best Recruitment Consultancy prize in the Evening Post Recruitment Awards.

She said: “In the past 20twenty years we have added to the services that the agency offers. We have moved from being a purely PA, secretarial agency to offering expertise in HR, marketing, finance and business support.” It reflects Bristol’s importance as a commercial centre” “Regional knowledge is important in running a business like this. I really understand the region and its economy very well. I also like the fact that this business is contributing something to the region. It’s great to see Bristol growing in importance with many firms now having their head offices here and we are helping them.” “There is a real need in the region for a professional consultative approach to both the firm’s needs and that of the person seeking work whether it’s of a temporary or permanent nature. she says. One of the main changes in the industry over the last two decades has been the advances made on the internet and the introduction of online job sites and job boards, she says. “Although these sites do have a place and widen the pool of available candidates, time and again we hear stories of how employers become increasingly swamped with poor quality CVs” says Lucy.

Besides having an office in the heart of Bristol, behind the Hippodrome theatre, just a stone’s throw away from her first office on the other side of the city centre in Small Street, Lucy Bristow has opened up another office at Aztec West.

It was a move inspired by the ever-growing number of companies moving to green field sites in the area, with easy access to the M4 and M5 motorways.

The move also moves the agency closer to thousands of people living at Bradley Stoke – meaning Lucy Bristow Appointments has every chance of continuing its success.

“Individuality is something else we put great stress on. By interviewing the candidates face to face, testing their skills and discussing their career aspirations, it means we can match and exceed the requirements of both candidates and clients. These are things that, of course, can’t be done online” she says. “When people looking for work come to us we spend a good hour with each of them to find out not only what skills they have but also what they expect to get out of a job. “Many agencies set their consultants targets to achieve and place much importance on that. We have targets too but if they are not achieved that is not everything. The team that work for me are making my business for me. “One of the reasons that this firm is successful is that a lot of time and trouble is spent making sure that every member of the staff is well-supported. For example, I pay for them to take the exams run by the Recruitment and Employment Federation. “The recruitment industry is highly competitive and to be one step ahead, our consultants have to add value, understand our clients’ company culture, be consummate multi-taskers, offer help and advice to both clients and candidates and be prepared to go that extra mile. “We also visit firms who are looking for staff to find out exactly what their needs are and this helps to build up a long-term business relationship” she explains. Lucy Bristow says she’s delighted that some firms have used her agency almost from the day she set up business in the city. They are amongst the five thousand clients on her data base.

We have moved from being a purely PA, secretarial agency to offering expertise in HR, marketing, finance and business support.