ESTABLISHED more than 50 years ago, Castle Employment Group has transformed over the last four years and has become one of Yorkshire’s leading independent recruitment agencies.

The business has grown from a Scarborough focused, high street, 10-man employment agency to a 40 strong team with eight specialist divisions servicing Yorkshire.

The business is now entering the Large Business of the Year award, alongside managing director Kerry Hope who has been nominated for the Business Personality of the Year title.

At Castle, 80 per cent of the management team have been with the business for more than seven years, demonstrating ongoing commitment to staff development and focused strategy around retention of staff.

Due to the rapid expansion Castle expanded into additional offices in September 2017 having both a presence in the town centre on Scarborough, and on the outskirts.

The business invested in new telecoms and IT, and servers have been upgraded due to the ever-growing team and business expansion, now enabling the team to work remotely. As part of the expansion principal consultants have been appointed, and working from home, based in York and Leeds they have been a huge contribution to driving the brand across into wider Yorkshire.

Leading the growth is Scarborough-born managing director Kerry Hope, who became an FIRP member in 2018, after 17 year experience in the recruitment industry.

Following her A levels, Ms Hope left to go to Bradford to study a degree in Psychology & Law. She started her career in recruitment in 2001 and has worked for independent and international businesses.

Ms Hope, who is also a trustee at Scalby Learning Trust, returned to her home town, Scarborough in 2014 to improve her work life balance with her two children. She joined Castle Employment in 2014 and was appointed to head the Recruitment side of the business.

Within the last four years Ms Hope has transformed the business building on the established 50 years brand with huge transformation whilst maintaining 95 per cent retention of staff.

In 2017 Ms Hope was promoted to Managing Director and Shareholder and took responsibility of the dedicated HR & Employment Law business. She has since grown this part of the business in 18 months by 60 per cent.