24 profile Coming of age for GCS
In a year that sees Reading-based GCS Recruitment Specialists celebrate its 21st birthday, company founder Chris Bartlett was the recipient of a prestigious accolade ....
Bartlett was named 2011’s Director of the Year (£25m to £99m) by the London and South East branch of the Institute of Directors (IoD). “To say I was surprised would be an understatement!” says Bartlett. “It may be a cliché but simply being nominated for the IoD’s Director of the Year Award was a tremendous honour in itself. I never considered the possibility that I might actually win.”
Humble words from a man who has spearheaded the development of a company that was recently rated as the leading recruitment business in the Thames Valley 250 but, as anybody who knows Bartlett will tell you, he prefers to celebrate the success of others rather than sit in the spotlight himself.
“It is thrilling to see GCS come of age” says Bartlett. “Aside from the IoD award, in the year we celebrate our 21st birthday, we have won Best Medium Business at the Global Recruiter Awards and were named Student Employer of the Year for the London and South East region by the National Association of Student Employment Services. We’ve broken company records and have become a £30 million turnover business for the first time in our history and are well on our way to realising our five-year ambition of tripling in size. It’s been a great year for the company and I consider myself fortunate to work with such a fantastic group of talented and enthusiastic people.”
Over two decades after GCS went from concept to reality, Bartlett looks back at the very beginning with fondness. “I still remember walking out of the bank manager’s office with nothing in my pocket, a smile on my face and a loan agreement grasped in my hand, thinking ‘we’re in business’” It was the beginning of an adventure that would provide numerous highs and lows for Bartlett; a journey that has seen trials and tribulations mixed with great success.
When starting GCS, Bartlett’s aim was to create a business where he could surround himself with others who shared his principles, ambition and drive but also his appetite for fun; in short, a recruitment business that would give employees a professional home that they couldn’t wait to get to each day. “I’ve always viewed employees as volunteers and not conscripts,” says Bartlett. “Unless somebody enjoys what they do, you’re never going to get the best out of them. We all spend the majority of our day at work so not enjoying your job is absolutely no way to live, in my opinion.”
The early days of GCS were sometimes difficult to enjoy. “The recession in the early 90s was challenging, to say the least” recalls Bartlett. “We downsized from five staff to two and moved from serviced offices into my back room. The darkest day I faced was when we didn’t know if we had enough cash to pay our contractors.” Many entrepreneurs would likely have thrown the towel in at this point but Bartlett was resolute that GCS would continue. “Honesty is always the best policy. We called up our contractors and explained the situation, saying that we would do everything we could to honour their contracts. They understood the pressures of the market
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and were accommodating – in the end, we were able to find a way to pay them all and stay in business.”
Surviving the 90s recession, Bartlett was able to capitalise when the market picked up with the IT boom of the mid- 90s. With a large number of competitors eliminated by the recession, GCS’ reputation as specialists within the IT field led to a rapid reversal of fortune. Recruiting cutting- edge technology professionals for businesses across the country, GCS found itself at the forefront of the UK’s IT revolution. As the decade drew to a close, the company employed over 40 staff and represented more than 200 contractors.
“The late 90s was a great time to be in IT recruitment” recalls GCS managing director, David Bloxham. “Fortunately Chris was savvy enough to understand the ‘boom and bust’ cycle of business. He knew that the market would not stay hot forever.”
He was right – even before 9/11, the dot-com bubble had burst and the much anticipated next-generation telecoms had under-delivered, leaving that particular sector in recoil. As 2002 approached, recruitment agencies found themselves with a surplus of unemployed candidates and very few vacancies to fill. GCS was no exception. “It was survival of the fittest,” remembers head of GCS technology Chris Devonshire. “We all had to dig deep. If you were not prepared to work harder than your competitors, you were unlikely to survive. Luckily for us, Chris Bartlett had already survived a market downturn so he was able to give us the required mix of guidance and encouragement.”
Despite the uncertain climate, GCS continued to grow and was enjoying a renaissance by 2005. “By then, we had firmly established our corporate identity,” says Bartlett. “We knew what sort of people fit best into our company
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – SEPTEMBER 2012
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