Flexible employment consultants Kristal McNamara and Shelley Snelson, who set up in business less than two years ago, have doubled staff numbers and moved into new offices after quadrupling year-on-year turnover.
Their Bristol-based firm Flexology has a double specialism – consulting with businesses to develop a flexible working culture and placing staff into flexible roles at a senior professional level. 
This combination attracted employers across the South West who wanted to develop their mindsets regarding the changing world of work and the adoption of more flexible working practices. As a result, Flexology’s turnover increased by 402% between 2017 and 2018.
Kristal and Shelley, pictured, now plan to double the size of their business and staff each year for the next three years.
The pair have recently started their own recruitment drive with the employment of two key personnel.
Lena Smeaton joins as senior account manager to manage the company’s expanded client and candidate base while Samantha Furley moves from law firm Barcan+Kirby to become Flexology’s new marketing manager.
The expansion of Flexology, which was launched in March 2017, has also coincided with a move into new offices in Berkeley Square in Clifton after six months in Entrepreneurial Spark programme based in a NatWest building at Temple Quay.
The pair are highly qualified. Shelley is a qualified chartered accountant with more than 16 years’ experience of leading large operational and client facing teams and investment decisions across professional services, banking and other industry sectors.
She said: “We are increasingly seeing more employers understanding the evidence; that flexible working attracts and retains staff as they are happier, healthier and more productive.
“We have also seen an increase in repeat business from our existing clients due to our continued success working with them.
“The world of work is changing, with an increased focus on flexible working and staff wellbeing, and we regularly talk as subject matter experts on this at key events.”
She said will the recruitment business had seen a period of huge growth, the pair were also excited to be working with a number of businesses on their consultancy work, introducing more flexible working to their existing business.
“We are highly optimistic about the future, creating a substantial change to the world of work for new and existing staff in Bristol and the South West and helping businesses to create the environment to attract and retain talent,” she added.
Kristal is a qualified change and programme management professional who has worked in the financial services sector for more than 15 years and has extensive experience in project management, business improvement and leading large-scale programmes of organisational change.
She said: “We’re delighted about the progress of the company and the appointments of Lena and Samantha, together with our move to Berkeley Square, is a significant moment for us.
“Lena has 30 years of business experience and has worked across many industries, with customer and client service as a key focus. Samantha brings a range of professional services expertise to our branding and marketing and we are also looking forward to her taking forward our event, research and innovation work.
“We’re building a great team and looking forward to adding to it further over the coming months and years.
“We are also pleased to be in new offices, after six successful months in the offices of NatWest in Temple Quay. We wanted to find a large open plan office in which to grow our team and our location in Berkeley Square gives us a space, surrounded by other businesses, to enable us to continue to build our team and community.
“One of our key company values is client partnership and it’s great that we are also conveniently close to the city centre, where most of our clients are based, to enable us to meet with them regularly.”
