The year is 1986. Ronald Reagan is President of the United States and Maggie Thatcher is Prime Minister of Britain. Much history was to be made, and this was also the year that Patricia (Pat) and Patrick Lynch decided to set up their own recruitment business, Situations Recruitment Agency, in Guernsey, 35 years ago this April.
Reaching 35 years in business is quite a milestone for any business, and we couldn’t be prouder to have been serving the island for so many years. Starting off with just Pat and Patrick, the business has grown in strength and numbers, and today we are now a business of 8 staff, large enough to be able to offer a full range of recruitment services, small enough to be able to still offer the personal, dedicated service that is synonymous with the name Situations.
Directors Jenny Mitchell and Melissa Campbell have been with the business for 20 and 19 years respectively, gained many years of priceless experience, forged long lasting relationships with clients and candidates alike and after Patricia’s sad and untimely death after a long illness back in 2009, taken the helm of running the business to ultimately become joint owners and Managing Directors.
Over the years we’ve been blessed with some fantastic staff who have all made such valuable contributions to the business and we can’t thank them all enough. We’ve moved premises to our present offices in the heart of town on Market Street, supported our local community through our involvement in some worthy causes and charities such as Lungevity, the GSPCA, Les Bourgs Hospice, Grow Ltd, Macmillan Cancer Support to name a few, done cake bakes and beach cleans, jumped in puddles and played bingo, all to support our island and further afield.
There have been a few other notable milestones too along the way, proudly receiving the Award for the Best Use of Social Media back in 2015 and being shortlisted for Best Small Business at the Guernsey Awards for Achievement in 2016.
We’ve also embraced huge changes in the way we’ve operated as a business, largely due to the exponential developments in technology. We’ve moved from snail mail to email when sending out CVs, are now able to contact our candidates immediately via their mobile phones and email, and our advertising and marketing is now almost exclusively via social media and the internet, so much so that we have a dedicated member of staff who looks after our website and manages our social media presence. Cloud based technology has meant that we’ve even been able operate during a global pandemic, simply by seamlessly moving from our offices to working from home.
Confidentiality, data protection and compliance are all an integral part of how we do business now too, with candidates all receiving comprehensive screening when they register. It’s all about fulfilling our duty of care to both our candidates and clients alike.
On a personal note, the past 20 years spent working at Situations have been the most rewarding, enjoyable and fun of my working life and it’s been an honour and a privilege to have been a part of a business I love, with colleagues I love and respect, not to mention the fantastic clients and candidates I have met along the way.
What the future might hold, who can say, but if the past year is any indicator, it’s sure to include more working from home/remote working, less business travel as video conferencing and calls have become an everyday occurrence, and more emphasis on work/life balance and work flexibility. Ever evolving technology will certainly have a huge part to play as well. One thing is for certain, and this is that Situations will continue to move with the times, rise to the challenge and offer the very best service possible, whilst being proud to be an active participant of our #Guernseytogether island community.
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