AWR podcast part 2

The Guidelines for the AWR, drawn up by the Government, run to 49 pages. Employment law expert Martin Bloom talked through those guidelines and gave further examples of how the Regulations may be interpreted at our employment law briefing.

He made the point that there are many caveats, inclusions and exclusions and that, in some cases, definitive answers will only emerge when the regulations are tested at tribunal level.

This podcast was recorded during Martin’s presentation at the employment law seminar and gives further information on calculating the 12 week qualifying period, the definitions of pay and compliance information.

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Student awards – we were there!

I was delighted to attend this year’s Peterborough Regional College’s student awards just last week. This is the third year we’ve been involved through the sponsorship of the Best Business Student category.

The ceremony provides a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the students – and there was a long stream of them being rewarded for their efforts and hard work over the last year.

Celebrity speaker Kanya King (an MBE no less), the founder of the MOBO awards, gave a stirring speech and presented the students with their awards.

‘Our’ winner was Indre Rackauskaite who came up on stage to receive her award.

Her tutors said: “Indre consistently has produced good quality assignment work, regularly passing it at first attempt. She is conscientious in her approach, has performed her duties as a course representative properly and has travelled up from Level 1 through to Level 3 with high grades throughout.”

That’s certainly a good recommendation to have on your CV!

Indre struck me as a very competent young lady and I am sure she will build on the success she has had at college as she steps onto the career ladder.

As always the ceremony itself felt very fitting and definitely a celebration for the students. I came away feeling very upbeat and positive and I was just presenting an award!

REC webinar

Some very interesting facts and figures were showcased during a webinar hosted by our industry body the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. Our recruitment partner Karen Dykes took part in the ‘event’ and was buzzing with both information and ideas afterwards.

The webinar itself was excellently executed. The Chief Executive Officer Kevin Green spoke and shared a lot of up to date information and forecasts from the industry.
Those taking part, and there were around 130 recruiters from across the country, were able to vote in real time on subjects Kevin was discussing, giving a brilliant snapshot of both opinion and what’s happening at a local level.

Karen is now investigating the possibility of how we could use webinars to host seminars along the lines of our regular employment law briefings – a great way to get even more people together without anyone having to leave their desks.

Much was made during the webinar about the added value agencies should offer their clients.

That’s something we’ve always believed very strongly in, and aimed to offer from day one of the business.

There were lots of suggestions made along the lines of being a ‘true partner’ and ‘investing in clients’. We believe that’s key to a successful working relationship. Unless you know your clients, their business, their ethos and their culture how can you find the right fit for their recruitment requirements?

In fact, we had a lovely compliment from a client the other day who said ‘ACR ‘gets us’. As an agency, we couldn’t provide the service our clients deserve if we didn’t invest time in understanding them.

There was talk of ‘widening the offering’, which included ideas such as training temps, providing testing and adding HR services. It was as the CEO Kevin Green talked through these things that we realised it read like a tick list of our services!

The whole team believes strongly in our brand and our offering but it was good to have some outside confirmation that what we do every day is exactly the kind of template that other agencies are now being encouraged to work towards.