Recruiters are once again in the media spotlight. And this time it’s a former Recruiter ‘Diary of…’

columnist. Sinead Hasson, who was featured in the 13 May issue of Recruiter, swapped office floor for shop floor when she appeared on BBC show Keep It In The Family at the end of May.

The series looks at family businesses where the children are unwilling to take over, and saw Sinead parachuted into department store Austin’s of Derry, which is fighting the threat of recession.

It is owned by Sinead’s father, Luke. Sinead is perhaps better known as managing director of Hasson Associates, a small Soho-based agency specialising in the market research sector.

Moving from a team of four to a workforce of 103 posed its own challenges, as Sinead told Recruiter: “Working in this job [recruitment] it is a lot easier to co-ordinate communication with four people than it is with 103!”

However, Sinead did say that her experience of people management had proved useful, although she has no plans to make the move to retail permanently, or to launch a retail division in her own business. She did sign an agreement, at the end of the programme, saying she would consider the option in three years, but told Recruiter she much prefers the type of work where sitting rather than rushing around a department store is the main component of the day!