Happy 8th birthday to Synergy Recruitment!
Today, 8 October 2026, Synergy Recruitment is eight years old! Eight years ago the two of us stood in a kitchen with a glass of fizz in hand, cutting into a cake with our brand new logo on it and wondering what on earth we’d let ourselves in for. Today we stood in the very same kitchen, with a new cake and a few more years behind us, and honestly it felt pretty emotional.
Those two photos tell a story that most people don’t get to see. Behind the smiles is eight years of hard work, a few sleepless nights, an awful lot of coffee (and wine!) and a business we’re really proud of.
Where it all started
Synergy Recruitment was set up in Macclesfield in 2018 by Yasmin Bentley and Marie Williams-Spalding. We started with a simple belief that recruitment could be done properly, with honesty and real care for both the businesses we work with and the people we place, and still be successful.
From day one we’ve specialised in Business Support recruitment for SMEs across Cheshire and Manchester. That means Administration, Customer Service, HR, Marketing and Accounts & Finance roles, from entry level right up to senior management, on both a temporary and permanent basis.
In our very first year we were named Start Up Business of the Year by the North Cheshire Chamber of Commerce, which still makes us smile when we think about how new and nervous we were back then! Since then we’ve also won the Excellence in Customer Service Award, which means the world to us because it’s a testament to our focus on always doing the right thing by our candidates and clients.
The years that tested us
It hasn’t all been cake and fizz. Just 18 months after we launched, Covid hit and the recruitment world more or less stood still overnight. We kept going, kept supporting our clients and candidates as best we could, and came out the other side.
More recently, rising National Insurance costs, big changes to employment law and a tough economy all landed at once, and there was a point where we genuinely weren’t sure Synergy would make it. We’re not going to pretend that was easy. It was hard, and it would have been easier to give up.
We didn’t, and 2025/26 turned out to be our best financial year ever! We don’t share that to show off. We share it because we know there are other small business owners reading this who are in the thick of it right now, and we want them to know that the tough years don’t have to be the end of the story.
Eight years in numbers
We’ve never been big on blowing our own trumpet, but a birthday feels like the right time to look back at what we’ve achieved together with our clients and candidates.
In eight years we’ve placed around 600 people into jobs across Cheshire and Manchester. Every one of those is a real person starting a new chapter, and a local business getting the support it needed to grow.
We’ve also been lucky enough to receive more than 200 five-star Google reviews. Some of the things people have written about us have genuinely brought a tear to our eyes, and we read every single one. One of our favourite things ever said about us is that we’ve “taken a different approach and succeeded by putting people and localism at the heart of [our] business”, because that’s exactly what we set out to do.
Our aim has always been to raise the standard in our industry, and the feedback we consistently receive from clients and candidates tells us we’re achieving that. That’s the bit that makes us proudest of all.
Our temp side has grown a lot too. In the last year alone we’ve placed 135 temps with one high-volume client, supplying customer service staff across two of their sites. We love hearing that our temps are consistently high quality, need fewer interviews per placement and often go on to be offered permanent roles.
Behind all of that is the way we work. We meet every client to properly understand their business and the role, interview every candidate face to face, and only put someone forward when we genuinely believe they’re the right match. It takes a bit more effort, but it’s why the people we place tend to stay and add real value.
The people who got us here
None of this would have happened without our clients, who have trusted us with their teams, and our candidates, who have trusted us with their careers. Thank you for picking up the phone, for recommending us to your friends and contacts and for sticking with us along the way.
We also owe a huge thank you to Del. Delydd Barker-Jones is our administrator and the person who keeps Synergy running smoothly behind the scenes, looking after the copious amounts of admin that come with recruitment, making sure all of our compliance is 100% nailed and that nothing slips through the cracks. If you’ve ever had an interview arranged without a hitch or a quick, friendly reply from us, there’s a good chance Del was behind it. We genuinely couldn’t do it without you, Del, so thank you!
Here’s to the next eight years
When we started Synergy, we wanted to prove that recruitment can be done well while still doing the right thing by everyone involved. Eight years on, we feel like we’re doing exactly that, and we’re more determined than ever to keep raising the standard for Business Support recruitment in Cheshire and Manchester.
So today we’re having a slice of cake, raising a glass and feeling very grateful. Thank you for being part of our story!
If you’re a business in Cheshire or Manchester looking for Admin, Customer Service, HR, Marketing or Accounts & Finance staff, on a temporary or permanent basis, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch through synergyrecruit.co.uk and let’s have a chat.
