Shining a light on a recruitment milestone

Recruitment: Gerard Francis, Lighthouse Personnel

Obviously, we were confident we could achieve success, but actually getting to 400 placements was another matter and it’s an achievement of which we are hugely proud, being a humble, family-run recruitment agency in Colchester.

Starting out

Speaking for myself and our consultant, Sam, we had steered clear of recruitment in our younger days as the traditional ‘cut-throat’ and competitive nature of the industry just didn’t align with our values. I always wanted to run my own business, however, and that’s where the idea came from; the desire to offer an honest, professional recruitment service without cutting corners.

So, Lighthouse Personnel was born, to recruit for people’s future success and help guide them in the right direction – hence the name of the business. (I also grew up next to a lighthouse and it’s a symbol of my faith, so the name made so much sense for us.)

Road to success

So how have we made it to the 400-placement mark? We feel our honest, transparent approach to recruitment offers our clients genuine value and takes time off their hands. We really focus on quality over quantity when it comes to putting people forward for positions, and we meet with our clients to make sure we can give applicants a genuine overview of what life would be like to work with them. Recruitment as an industry is traditionally heavily focused on KPIs and high targets. We’ve stripped that back so we can offer a thorough service to our clients that adds genuine value.

Specialising in professional services recruitment in Essex and Suffolk, we work with companies of all sizes and from a variety of industries. We’ve seen the impact of COVID and the cost-of-living crisis affect both our clients and our business, and the past few years have been a real challenge to our resilience and ability to adapt to change. We have had to make some difficult decisions internally that have tested our resolve. We are now proud to be established in Colchester, and we have also become a recognised and respected recruitment agency in Ipswich too.

Moving forward

We’ve seen some real consistency this financial year and we hope to see that continue. In despite of the challenges that have been thrown at us, we believe in our values and have stuck to them; to EQUIP (Enhance, Quality, Unity, Integrity, and Partnerships) our clients and candidates for the future. We feel as though the last few years have enabled us to be prepared for the challenges to come – and we know they will come – but they have also taught us to trust in our vision and stick to what we know and do best; doing recruitment the right way.