Post-lockdown recruitment gets green light

Post-lockdown recruitment gets green light at Bristow & Sutor  

Bristow & Sutor, one of the UK’s leading local authority debt recovery specialists, is resuming recruitment and hiring for Enforcement Agents (EAs), Collection Officers and several ad hoc roles within the business. Collections and enforcement agencies have been on the front-line of businesses affected by social distancing measures, but with Government legislation allowing visits to resume next month, the company is looking to grow once again.  

Bristow & Sutor already directly employs over 450 people across the UK to provide end-to-end debt collection and credit management support for clients in local and central government, as well as the private sector. The inability to safely undertake visits and inspections in recent months saw EA members of staff furloughed and, despite technological investment ensuring customer support staff remained available, almost all recruitment activity had to be placed on temporary hold.  

All furloughed EA staff at Bristow & Sutor have continued to receive training and certification, so they would be prepared to work as soon as it was announced as safe to do so. From a local authority perspective this was essential, as businesses who did not retain staff will now need to recruit to replace, whereas Bristow & Sutor are immediately recruiting to grow. This is especially important when considering the company has recently won a number of key new business projects, including collecting unpaid Penalty Charge Notices at warrant stage for all road charging schemes and traffic enforcement contraventions for TfL (Transport for London). 

Many local authorities are keen to resume collections and enforcement activity as soon as possible, to help fill the holes left by loss of revenue streams and to help provide increased support to those impacted financially by the coronavirus pandemic. From Monday July 20th, Bristow & Sutor began supplying reconnection letters to debtors, giving them the opportunity to set up flexible payment arrangements and discuss changing circumstances before services recommence from the 24th August. 

Andy Rose, CEO at Bristow & Sutor, says, “At Bristow & Sutor, we remain advocates of the direct model of employment, so we are delighted to be able to resume hiring again. We have already seen a significant number of clients instruct us to prepare for sensitively making visits to their debtors. It is our committed intention, to the very best of our ability, to protect our workforce, ensure the safety of the vulnerable in our community and work with all partners and customers during these uncertain times.” 

Bristow & Sutor has over 42 years’ experience in the collection of local council tax, non-domestic rates and penalty charge notices. The business has successfully acquired £6million pounds on behalf of clients during the COVID-19 lockdown and recently won Silver at DCXA’20 in the Digital Transformation and Change category.