AWR: Impact Assessment

We have stepped up our initiative to help clients introduce the necessary measures to ensure compliance with the Agency Workers’ Regulations – set to be fully implemented this October.

Demand for information about the Regulations – and how they will affect individual businesses – has been high.

Our recruitment partner Karen Dykes has been working closely with our industry body the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) to make sure the information we have is the most up to date possible.

The regulations are far-reaching affecting the pay and some benefits of workers on assignment with the same company for more than 12 weeks. But while they include a lot of detail, there are exclusions too – some of which are still being ironed out.

Through Karen – and our close relationship with the experts at the REC – we have been able to help many businesses understand more about the Regulations.

Now we’re offering to work with each employer to produce an Impact Assessment. This will not only answer specific questions and resolve issues but will help plan each businesses’ strategy for ensuring procedures are place, staff are briefed and compliance is assured. Each assessment will be bespoke and take into account the businesses’ reliance on temporary staff.

The Regulations stipulate that it is, ultimately, the recruitment agency’s job to ensure a worker receives the pay and benefits they are entitled to. But the help of the client is imperative. So joined up thinking is vital to ensure agencies maintain their reputations and businesses remain employers of choice among temporary staff.

Businesses interested in finding out more about our tailor-made Impact Assessment should call us on 01733 319888 or email.

Happy New Year

2011 has arrived. And we’re very much hoping things continue as they did in the run up to Christmas.

Strangely, just as everyone else started slowing down in that last week our phones were ringing off the hook. It was almost as if other businesses were quietening down, freeing up HR staff to make the calls they’d been putting off for a while.

Even on Christmas Eve we were accepting jobs.

That kept us busy in the traditionally quite period between Christmas and New Year and now we’re back to full strength for the New Year and looking forward to getting our teeth stuck in to what 2011 brings.

Here’s to a good 2011 for all of us!

How was 2010 for you?

December’s rolling quickly towards Christmas and that means the end of the year is fast approaching too. I’m not sure it’ll be marked down in the history books as a good year but 2010 probably just avoided reaching ‘annus horribils’ status.

Let’s be honest, after the disaster that was 2009, 2010 didn’t have to deliver much to be an improvement.

After the pre-election waiting game, the second part of the year began with news of huge public sector cuts and no definitive answer as to how drastic the impact would be on the private sector and the economy as a whole.

We’ve spent the year concentrating on what we do best – matching clients with candidates, candidates with roles, and providing the added value we’re so proud of.

We’ve once again taken a leading role in ensuring local businesses are preparing adequately for the deadline for the introduction of the Agency Workers Regulations next October. Our on-going relationship with the REC has helped enormously and we were delighted to welcome the REC’s director of external relations Tom Hadley to speak at a one-off seminar about the regulations in the summer.

Around 200 of Peterborough’s most high profile business people attended our annual Breakfast Law Briefing to hear about the new Equality Act in September.

This year’s annual Salary Survey produced some interesting results – showing an average two per cent increase in wages over the past 12 months. After a 3.6 per cent downturn the previous year that was good news.

Our student sponsorship continued, as did our support for both the Peterborough and Stamford business awards – perfect opportunities to recognise business of all sizes and types and their input into the city’s economy.

The environment has been at the top of our agenda throughout the year. We have given presentations and provided blueprints to other commercial organisations explaining how to move towards becoming a paperless office. Our investment in that side of the business has continued with more and more of our systems integrated.

Overall, for us as a business, it’s been a good year with plenty of positives to look back on. That’s reflected in the fact there’ll be two new members of staff at our 2010 Christmas party. Charlotte and Suzi have both joined the team in the last few months and we’re looking forward to showing them the importance of playing hard as well as working hard!

So, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a peaceful Christmas and, of course, a prosperous new year.

Consultant Karen celebrates 10 years with ACR

I started Anne Corder Recruitment 15 years ago and one of the things I’m most proud of is the level of staff retention we have recorded. Our turnover is low and people seem to stick around – something for which I am incredibly grateful and very proud.

On that note, this week marks a special date in our calendar. Our consultant Karen Dykes has been with us for 10 years, and I’m sure, on occasion, she’d say it feels like all that and more!

Karen came to work at ACR via stints as a flight attendant, estate agent and with another recruitment agency. I remember her interview – it wasn’t that she bought into the ACR ethos, she shared it even before she came here.

And on a personal level we really liked her – which always helps!

We turned out to be right on every level. Karen shares my personal passion and the company’s passion for excellence. She is one of the most tenacious individuals I’ve ever worked with, absolutely refusing to settle for anything other than perfect.

Her achievements during that 10 years are many – most notably heading up the move to a paperless office and working tirelessly to ensure we reach the ISO industry standards year in and year out.

And she’s a great person to have at a party too!

She’ll be very embarrassed that I’ve made her the subject of the blog which she set up but for the record: congratulations Karen on your 10 years and thank you for being a great colleague and a good friend.