Alistair Houghton meets KIRSTY CRAIG, owner of The Business Connection agency

KIRSTY CRAIG is so keen to get things right in her new Liverpool office that, when the Daily Post visited, she was hammering nails into the wall herself.

Her recruitment agency, The Business Connection (TBC), opened its first office in the city last week, and is now set on an expansion course, despite the current troubled economic times.

The financial services, call centre and management recruitment specialist will celebrate its 20th birthday at the end of this month.

Ms Craig – whose stepson is James Bond star Daniel Craig – says she is determined to restore the battered image of the recruitment industry, and says the sector needs to be licensed by the Government so clients can be confident about the service they receive.

She is also UK managing director of TEAM, the association of independent UK recruitment agencies that is working to drive up the industry’s standards.

TBC’s dedication to high standards and building long-term relationships with its clients, led one of its competitors to call it “the Harrods of commercial recruitment agencies” – and that quality, says Ms Craig, is why the business is ready to expand now, when others are stumbling.

She has secured independent backing for TBC’s expansion from a “private investor” whose name she will not reveal – except to make clear it’s not her stepson.

That investor, she says, shares her belief that TBC can prosper by providing a quality service in tough times.

She said: “From the feedback I’m getting, companies are getting really insistent on quality of service.

“We have a very positive message. Times are tough but people are still recruiting.

“I was around for the last recession in 1992. We saw an increase in temporary usage because companies wanted flexibility.

“If they had a dip they let people go, but if they had a sudden increase in trade and needed staff quickly, then temporary staff were the answer.

“I don’t think it necessarily needs to be doom and gloom. In the media, particularly the national press, there’s a lot of hysteria out there.

“There’s a danger we can talk ourselves into a worse position than we need to be in.”

Ms Craig says she won’t rush her expansion plans, but says she is keen eventually to have as many as 10 branches across the North West.

“We think we’ve got a very positive message,” she said. “If you’ve got the right agency, it will save you money and it will certainly save you time so you can focus on your business.”

Ms Craig grew up outside Chester and moved into sales after leaving school at 16.

She became a sales clerk, moving briefly to Barbados.

“I came back because I was bored in Barbados,” she smiled. “I decided I wasn’t a little island person.”

Instead, she joined Monet Jewellery, first as account manager at Browns in Chester, and ultimately becoming area manager for its south-east and London stores.

That meant she had to deal with London recruitment agencies to find temporary staff. The experience was not a happy one, and she began to believe she could do the job better.

“The quality of service was awful,” she said. “I got a real bee in my bonnet about recruitment.”

She joined Drake International as a consultant, before switching after a year to an independent consultancy in Ealing.

But, by 1988, she realised she wanted to leave London and work for herself.

She said: “I was doing a 120-mile a day commute, and going from Oxfordshire to central London wasn’t funny.

“I started to look for recruitment jobs closer to home.

“We happened to come up to Chester for the weekend, and I was talking to my then brother-in-law who said I should set up in business in Chester, being customer-driven by delivering high standards.”

TBC has worked with M&S Money since 1989, and has worked with MBNA since recruiting the first 80 people to its Chester operation in 1993.

Its office in Bixteth Street, in Liverpool’s commercial district, is its first outside Chester. The office will, she hopes, mimic the Chester operation where the “friendly and welcoming” reception includes pictures of the staff and their families.

In her role at TEAM UK, Ms Craig regularly meets officials from BERR to discuss new regulations that could affect the industry, from laws governing “gangmasters” to new rules on agency workers.

TEAM has strict membership criteria, and Ms Craig believes the industry as a whole would benefit if practitioners had to be licensed and meet Government standards.

“It was deregulated in 1993 and in my opinion that was a big mistake,” she said. “There’s no barriers to entry now.

“It’s a great shame because, as a business, if you find the right recruitment agency, it can add real value to your work.

“I do feel very passionate about the industry and believe it has a really positive role to play in the job and recruitment market. But standards have declined.

“I’ve written to BERR and said ‘we need to relicense this’.

“When I started in 1988, I had to apply for a licence. I had to justify whether I was fit to run an agency. Six months later, I passed an audit and inspection from the DTI.

“Quality service is crucial. I don’t put up with rubbish. Customers don’t have to put up with rubbish.”

alistairhoughton