“WHEN smart girls seek a vacancy they go to the Castle Agency,” declares an old newspaper advert as it opens up a window onto a world of work from half a century ago.

In the 1960s it was perfectly acceptable for jobs notices to specify not only applicants’ gender - only one out of six vacancies advertised was for a male employee - but also their age, as in “lady book-keeper/typist, aged between 25 and 40 years”.

A different world, then - and who would have guessed in 1966 that the same company which placed this advert would now be celebrating its 50th birthday, having grown from a small secretarial recruitment business employing two people to a £3.5 million turnover enterprise employing a team of 20 and covering the whole of Yorkshire?

The company, owned by Suzanne Burnett, a former president of York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, has doubled in size in the last two years, and has plans to do the same again over the next three years.

Its head office will stay in Scarborough and strategic growth will come from expanding its specialist divisions, formed in an internal restructure last year, and appointing highly skilled and experienced specialist recruiters to work across Yorkshire.

Among the new appointments is that of HR recruitment specialist Melanie Jones, who is based in York. She has more than 20 years’ experience in recruitment and will manage all director and manager-level HR roles across the region.

Mrs Jones explained her work involved networks which operated in more than one direction. Clients knew to approach her for candidates for jobs in the HR field, and she knew people in the sector who could point out the best candidates, who might not be actively seeking a new job.

Mrs Burnett, who is managing director, bought the company from her parents in 1997. This was ‘big leap of faith’ and difficult to finance. She thought it would be a part-time business for her, but became increasingly involved, taking a business management degree and gaining recruitment qualifications.

“I just loved it really and became quite ambitious. I always wanted to have a nice business and enjoy going to work. We are looking for that to be a place where people want to work because they know we look after our staff.”

She said the business had been on an upward curve since 1997, and had expanded particularly in the last three three years, driven by Mrs Burnett and her director, Kerry Hope, who joined in 2014.

How had this success been achieved? “It’s getting good people in the business, having a really strong team that has the right skills. I think as I’ve matured and grown the company has grown,” Mrs Burnett said.

Castle Employment works closely with clients to find the right people or team for their organisation on a permanent basis, or to supply temporary and contract staff to cover seasonal fluctuations, increased workload, absences and skill shortages.

Roles filled range from director-level appointments, with salaries of up to £120,000 a year, to junior administration staff.

Castle’s clients include a mix of blue-chip companies and SMEs across Yorkshire and the north, such as McCains, Askham Bryan College, Hare Structural Engineers, the Forestry Commission, Yell, Karro Foods, RaflatacUPM and Benenden Healthcare.

The future vision is to become recognised as a ‘boutique’ employment agency, with high-quality, trusted, specialist advisors in the local recruitment marketplace.

Its specialist divisions are engineering and manufacturing, HR, business support, finance and accounts, hospitality, catering and cleaning, industrial, construction and agriculture and most recently education.

As well recruiting HR professionals, Castle also separately offers advice on HR issues, including seminars on aspects of employment law.

A big changes in the past 50 years has been the advance of modern technology. Mrs Burnett said: “When I first started everything was a lot slower. We had a little collection of people looking for work, all very local.

“If we had a job we had to send them a postcard; you couldn’t ring them because they would be at work. Then later you could call their answerphones, and then all CVs were faxed.”

The speed and ease of modern communications have helped greatly in Castle’s expansion. “It’s much easier to attract candidates, the marketplace is almost worldwide,” said Mrs Burnett. “The technology that’s come along in the last few years means we can work remotely a lot more efficiently than we could before.” This enhanced the company’s strong flexible working ethos, one of the policies which helped to retain talent.

In addition Mrs Burnett said there was a strong team culture and ethos, including team events. Mrs Jones said: “Everybody works very well together. People feel valued and appreciate the flexibility, and there is a very friendly and supportive culture.”

Mrs Burnett said over the next few years she would like to see the company increase its turnover, add to its professional team and expand its reach across the Yorkshire region.