Budget 2014: More investment for apprenticeships pledged

An energy sector jobs boost, recruitment help for SMEs and Apprenticeship Grants for Employers (AGE) success rates were the main headlines concerning our industry from yesterday’s 2014 Budget.

And luckily for the Chancellor, predictions made last year about the growth of the economy and relief for the jobs market have been backed up by figures released by the Office of National Statistics yesterday also.

The report showed that between November 2013 and January 2014, unemployment fell by 63,000, with almost half of that figure accounting for 16-24 year olds. Average earnings also increased by 1.4%, with a rise in the number of self-employed also recorded.

The positive news for these two groups of people was the focus at least of the recruitment side of this year’s Budget, with the government pledging continued support of Enterprise Zones to help entrepreneurs and start-ups hire staff and grow their business through private investment.

Mr Osborne also revealed that the AGE scheme will continue to be a key focus in 2014, with an extra £85 million being invested to provide more than 100,000 grants over the next two years.

This in particular has been received well by leading HR and recruitment bodies and industry leaders, who keenly recognise the critical link between investment in young people and future growth.

British Chambers of Commerce director general John Longworth said: "With a huge confidence gap still separating employers from young job-seekers, we are very pleased to see the Chancellor heed our call to help firms take on and train tomorrow's workforce.”

On a less positive note, many were left disappointed to discover that the plans to remove under 25s from employers National Insurance Contributions did not form part of this year’s Budget as expected. Had it been included, the cost of hiring would have been dramatically reduced for many companies through lifting 1.5 million young workers out of the jobs tax. Allusions were made, however, to this forming part of next year’s reform plans – a pledge that campaigners will no doubt continue to keenly push for.

As ever, I welcome and applaud any initiative that serves to create jobs and strengthen our industry. Support must therefore also be pledged on a local as well as national level in order to keep this slow ascent towards recovery going.

ACR is moving!

I’m delighted to announce that the ACR team will be moving offices in a few short months.

Work is now under-way at our new premises on the Peterborough Business Park at Lynch Wood.

It means leaving our city centre base on Park Road, however the move will be instrumental to our ongoing business development plans by bringing us closer to our existing and potential clients. And with all candidates now sending in their CVs digitally, a central location is no longer a necessity.

The accessibility of Lynch Wood was also a contributing factor to the move, as it is close to the A1 and boasts excellent public transport links. The new building has ample parking space and more interview rooms to make life easier for our meetings with clients and candidates.

Having launched the business 18 years ago, I have witnessed first-hand the many ways in which recruitment has changed and the adjustments that have had to be made in our day-to-day operation as a result.

Our latest move reflects our long-term commitment to remain fresh, modern and contemporary without losing the intrinsic business values which have helped us retain so many clients over the years.

We are hoping to make the move late spring/early summer, with business continuing as normal at our Park Road office in the meantime.

We will be making sure we keep everyone up-to-date with the latest news regarding the move but please do get in touch if you have any queries, either via email or by telephoning us on 01733 319 888.

With 2013 already off to an exciting start, I look forward to what the rest of the year will bring as we welcome clients and candidates to ACR’s new home very soon.

ACR team offers help to future doctors and tattoo artists!

With so much talk about high levels of youth unemployment it was an absolute pleasure to see enthusiasm and ambition is still prevalent among young people.

Six of our team took part in an event organised by the Rotary Club of Peterborough, aimed at giving youngsters an opportunity to try out their interview skills in a formal environment.

The year 11 students from Kings School had to submit a CV with covering letter and then spend half an hour with one of our recruitment partners, talking about their chosen career path, answering questions and demonstrating their knowledge.

We gave them feedback at the end of the session and also provided written feedback to the school to give them a focus for future career discussion.

It was brilliant to hear of the diverse plans the 15 and 16 year olds had. Among the careers they are working towards were doctor, teacher, vet, figure skater, actor, pr and tattoo artist!

The standard overall was very high with the students presenting themselves well, communicating clearly and demonstrating a good level of background knowledge.

We were able to suggest tweaks to CVs and covering letters which, we hope, will give the students some valuable advice to call on in the future.

In total, around 150 students were given the benefit of professional advice. That’s 150 youngsters who have got that scary first interview out of the way and can now face job and university interviews with the benefit of experience!

From small acorns…

We shunned our trouser suits and laptops in favour of wellies and anoraks for a morning – quite literally – in the field.

As an agency we have pledged to support the Forest for Peterborough initiative by planting a tree for each member of our team – and one for every candidate we place in a permanent position throughout the year.

And when we say ‘planting’ we mean actually planting.

Which is why a bunch of us found ourselves, spades in hand, at Thorpe Meadows, preparing to dig.

We were delighted to be joined by some of the candidates who have recently started new jobs through us – and the clients who employed them. It was a real team effort and while we didn’t quite plant an Anne Corder Recruitment forest we certainly added a good amount of saplings to what will one day grow to become a beautiful woodland habitat.

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.

Emergency budget - good news for small businesses

There are some very solid small businesses in Peterborough, sitting alongside sizeable employers like Tesco, BGL and British Sugar.

But, however long they’ve been established or loyal their customer base, many have struggled through the recession. The pre-election uncertainty at the beginning of the year – despite the glimmer of better times to come - forced many businesses to simply baton down the hatches and hope to keep the cash flowing long enough for the market to experience a definite upturn.

We have a number of clients who have held off recruiting or investing in new equipment for instance, waiting for more stability in the market.

So we were relieved and delighted on their behalf to see a tax break thrown out in the emergency budget.

Chancellor George Osborne announced an increase in small business rate relief from October. This will help 500,000 small firms nationally – and a significant number regionally and locally - enjoy a tax reduction.

Of course, lower taxes frees up more money. For some firms that will mean the opportunity to start implementing the kind of medium term recruitment strategies that have been sitting on the shelf for months.

And that’s good news.

Salary Survey launched

The Peterborough Local Market Salary Survey has been providing businesses in the Greater Peterborough area with vital information about pay and benefits packages since we launched it 12 years ago.

Last year’s survey included information gathered from some of the city’s highest profile companies and provided a snapshot of the renumeration packages of 4,800 employees – an excellent sample size representing many different sectors.

The results are, obviously, invaluable to all companies wanting to remain competitive when attracting the very best employees.

And so, we’re now launching the 2010 Salary Survey which will, once again, be produced by PAYdata, in conjunction with us at ACR.

The survey results provide a perfect benchmark for companies as they review employees salaries. And with the economy now appearing to be more stable than it has for some time, they will also provide a good indication of how city businesses have fared and, indeed, how they see themselves moving through 2010.

All companies who take part in the survey – which is, naturally, entirely confidential – receive a free detailed report of the results.

Businesses wishing to register their interest in taking part in the survey can contact us at info@annecorder.co.uk.

Peterborough 'upwardly mobile'

Much has been said about Peterborough in the press over the past few years – not much of it has been positive.

So it was refreshing to see a large picture of the beautiful Cathedral splashed across the Sunday Times over the headline ‘Upwardly mobile’ and alongside a map showing the city as one of the ’12 areas on the way up’.

The piece talked about the ‘substantial regeneration’ of the city ‘with millions of pounds of public money committed to attract blue-chip employers who will provide well-paid jobs and make the city one of the most sustainable in the country’.

Add to that the number of companies with Peterborough offices which featured in The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies 2010 and our region starts to look a lot more attractive.

We were very proud to see one of our clients – Coloplast - featured in there as well as others from round the region.

Peterborough is on the up it seems. That’s good, not only for those coming into the city but for those of us who have been here for the long haul – both personally and professionally.

And of course it’s a great sign for us as a recruitment agency. People moving to the city will create a bigger pool of talent for us to draw from and companies relocating here will generate a wider variety of positions for those candidates.

New opportunities

We’ve been tasked with finding the right people to help a new client substantially expand its team – just the type of recruitment campaign we love getting our teeth stuck into.

And a very positive signpost too, especially as the client concerned is in financial services and mortgage provision, one of the areas worst hit by the recession.

So we’re now sourcing candidates with knowledge of the home buying process, excellent communication skills and a proactive approach to make outbound calls. And if they have CEMAP qualifications then all the better.

There’s a good salary on offer with the potential to boost earnings to between £25 and £35K.

If you’re interested – or know anyone who might be – please get in touch.
Email us at info@annecorder.co.uk or call for more details on 01733 319888.

Get a better job – we’re right behind it

A lot of people who might otherwise have begun a job hunt last year sat tight, preferring to stay with their current employer than start a potentially futile job hunt or, worse still, change jobs only to find themselves surplus to requirements not long after.

But with signs the job market is moving in the right direction – the latest Report on Jobs sponsored by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG (which we contribute to) reveals there was an increase in demand for staff in the three months to December – now could be a good time for candidates to start considering their options.

We’ve always found job fairs a very positive way to engage with candidates. You know that everyone in the room is actively interested in launching a job search, that’s why they’ve taken the time to visit. As an agency exhibiting at these events we find we’re often targeted by people who know they’re not particularly fulfilled or happy in their current role but aren’t quite sure what else might be open to them.

We’re able to help, advise and suggest possible solutions – whether it be companies they could speak to, courses they could attend to improve their skill set or even inviting them in for a more formal consultation if we feel we can really add value to their search.

Get A Better Job day is an annual event in Peterborough. This year it’s being held on Thursday, January 28 between 10am and 6pm at The Great Northern hotel.

While those are currently out of a job are welcome, the day is also geared towards those who are looking for, as the name suggests, a better job!

Peterborough Salary Survey

The results of this year’s salary survey won’t come as a surprise to many people – the figures show wages have slipped by an average of 3.6 per cent since last year.

We’ve been involved with producing the salary for 12 years and this is the first time it has recorded a drop.

This year 24 of Greater Peterborough’s most high profile companies fed in information about the pay and benefits received by a total of 4,800 employees.

That’s a good sample size and the fact that different industries and sectors were represented means the results provide the most accurate overall picture locally that we have.

We suspected this climate could deliver the first fall in salaries since the survey began but we were surprised by some of the figures – warehouse and store staff were among the hardest hit with their pay dropping 10.2 per cent while call centre and customer service staff saw a drop of 7.5 per cent.

As the figures are averages, they may not represent a real drop in the money in an employee’s pay packet but rather provide a reflection of the result of redundancies or pay freezes.

However they’re interpreted, the figures unfortunately paint a generally negative picture. But then that’s pretty much how the year has panned out in business. The best it seems we can hope for is that the start of 2010 brings with it some market confidence to give business, staff – and salaries – a welcome boost.

ACR sponsors NHS Trust awards evening

Playing an active role in the community is very much part of our ethos. So it was with pleasure that we co-sponsored the Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Trust Annual Awards held this week.

And what an eye-opener the evening was.

One hundred NHS Trust employees and volunteers were recognised for their commitment, dedication and hard work during the event. It was the stories you never hear about which touched the guests – including me. There was the volunteer who has played the piano at the hospital chapel’s Sunday morning service for 20 years. The employees who have worked in the hospital, unstintingly, for 25 years. The teams who have worked so well together they have made the kind of difference a group of individuals never could.

Our sponsorship enabled the Trust to put on an event that really helped show its staff and volunteers just how much they are appreciated – not just by the Trust but by the region as a whole.

From our perspective, helping to mark the achievements of so many incredible local people was nothing short of an honour.

Back to Business Club

Positive moves to get people back to work are to be applauded. So, although public speaking isn’t my most favourite thing, I was pleased to accept the invitation to present to members of the newly-formed Back to Business Club.

Launched by the Greater Peterborough Partnership, the club is aimed at professionals who have been made redundant and are now looking at their options.

Our involvement was sought from the outset, as an agency which deals with the kind of professionals the club is aimed at. And, having met some of the people using the club, I’m delighted we made that commitment.

During the session which I tagged ‘Signposting the journey back to work’, there was a really good rapport and people obviously found ‘comfort’ if you like in the fact that they were all in the same boat. Job clubs aren’t for everyone, as I’ve said before, but they can provide a valuable focus while offering constructive and relevant advice – and the networking value shouldn’t be dismissed either.

We talked about the current jobs market, the importance of being methodical and organised in your job search and places to look for jobs that aren’t always obvious.

Moving forward with the project we plan to continue feeding relevant job adverts through to the club and its members.

Sessions are held every Thursday from 2pm to 5pm at Peterborough College of Adult Education.

http://www.gpp-peterborough.org.uk/backtobusiness.php

Redundancy matters at top of briefing agenda

We’ve put redundancy at the top of the agenda for this year’s Employment Law Breakfast Briefing and, not surprisingly, it’s proved a big pull.

We have almost 200 people – HR professionals and business people from the Greater Peterborough area - who have signed up for the event on Tuesday – September 22.

Partners in Hegarty LLP Solicitors Martin Bloom and Tim Thompson will be the speakers, as usual. They’re going to be covering redundancy and fair selection – unfortunately still very relevant topics in the current climate.

The briefing is taking place at the Cambridge Suite, at the East of England Showground and includes breakfast.

I’ll be there bright and early to introduce the event. Thankfully that’s all I need to do – Tim and Martin are the experts!

There will be quite a few of the Anne Corder Recruitment team there too – it’s a good opportunity to catch up with clients and contacts.

We’ve still got room for a few more people so do feel free to get in touch if you’re interested in coming along - info@annecorder.co.uk

ACR’s light in the gloom

The headline national unemployment figure doesn’t look good – 2.4 million with predictions it could reach three million by the end of the year.
Our consultant Kerry Tanner was interviewed on the radio, shortly after the government released the numbers, and asked for our – local – take on the national figures.

And that’s where we can knock the doom and gloom on the head – or at least shine a little light into it.

Because at ACR, after – and we’d be the first to admit it - a very slow start to the year, things have begun looking up in the last three months.

As Kerry told the BBC Radio Cambridgeshire interviewer: ”We have found the job market very different from that of last year – but we have found an interesting trend.

“From the end of March to July we have seen a steady increase in roles coming into the business – permanent, temporary and contract.
“There has been a vast difference in the volume this year compared to last year as you’d expect in the economic doom and gloom but there does seem to be more movement in the local market than in the national market.”

Her comments are based on genuine figures and, while we don’t want to over egg the situation and say everything is fine when clearly it’s not, it does seem that Peterborough is a bit of a hotspot of employment.

And that can only be a good thing for those of us living and working here.

MP Stewart Jackson pledges support

We believe passionately in what we do and in providing the very best service to our clients and candidates.

That’s why we’ve taken a stand against the new Agency Workers Directive – well before it reached – and was passed in – Europe.

And we’re delighted to say that we have the full backing of our MP Stewart Jackson.
On the surface the directive is a positive step – offering temporary workers equal treatment to their permanent counterparts.
In reality it could prove the death knell for a range of temporary roles in companies, charities and groups across the region as they struggle to meet the estimated 20 per cent increase in the cost of using temporary workers and to cover the administratve burden.

Unfortunately, the legislation is now set to be introduced – despite the best efforts of us, our trade body the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and other agencies like us – with just the date to be fixed.

We’re asking it be pushed back until the last possible moment – October 2011.
Mr Jackson agrees.

We invited him to our office to discuss the directive and to urge him to support us.
After listening to our arguments he agreed the directive appeared ‘unworkable’ and said ‘we need to keep the pressure on the Government’.
He hinted that if the Conservatives were to win the next election, he would push for the directive to be ‘killed off – or least watered down’.

We’d be delighted if that were to happen though we feel it’s probably more realistic to fight for delaying the introduction of the legislation.

We’ve asked Mr Jackson to be in Parliament on the day it’s discussed to fight our corner.
I’ll keep you posted on future developments.

Salary survey being compiled

Market forces are in an interesting state of flux with the factors which influence remuneration packages changing. More candidates are chasing less jobs. People are applying for jobs they are over-qualified for or starting again in a completely new industry.

That gives employers a dilemma. Who’s worth what? How should comparisons be drawn?
For that reason we’re hoping this year’s Salary Survey, an initiative we spearheaded 12 years ago, will be more useful than ever.

The Local Market Salary Survey, being compiled by specialist reward consultants PAYdata in partnership with us, gives an invaluable snapshot of employees pay and benefits.

We ask dozens of companies – big and small – from a range of sectors, across the Greater Peterborough area to contribute to the survey – confidentially of course.
The results are compiled into a report which gives companies the information they need to remain competitive – and realistic – which is key in the current climate.

Questionnaires are currently being distributed with the final report due to be released at the beginning of September.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the Salary Survey or in taking part please get in touch with us at info@annecorder.co.uk

Success leads to second phase

In this job, there’s little that’s more satisfying than being able to pass on a job offer to a candidate. So we were delighted when our latest recruitment drive on behalf of a client resulted in more than a dozen people being offered a new position.

The candidates were delighted, we were proud of our success and the client was so pleased we’ve been able to move onto the second phase of fulfilling their recruitment requirements.

It’s an exciting project. A national company has its headquarters in Peterborough which is opening up a lot of new opportunities on the job front for the city.

We were engaged to recruit staff for its Customer Service Centre. Within a week we had arranged two recruitment events, backed by radio and newspaper advertising campaigns, press stories, banners, information on twitter.com, coverage on websites and of course all the backroom work that goes into liaising and reporting.

The client now has in place all the necessary managers and a good percentage of staff.

More are needed though so we have another recruitment event in the pipeline to find people with customer service, sales order processing and knowledge of supply chain experience. We are also working closely with other clients – and further companies we are aware of because of our local knowledge – who may be making staff with the correct skill set redundant. The advantage to this is many-fold – we can provide very positive outplacement help, fulfil the brief from the national client and help filter redundant staff in the right direction.

If you know anyone with the required set of skills ask them to contact me.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Young Enterprise winner has designs on The Apprentice

Luke Pagliaro. Remember that name. I predict it’ll be one that crops up in the future.

Luke was the Managing Director of Stanground College’s Young Enterprise company.

It’s a brilliant scheme, run through schools, which has pupils setting up and running a company during a school year. They sell shares to family and friends and the idea is to be able to pay them a dividend at the end. Of course, it’s a fantastic learning opportunity and one which gives those who take part a really good insight into business.

We’re proud to have been involved in the Peterborough Young Enterprise for a long time and have seen some great businesses – and young business people.

At the end of the year there is an award ceremony and we sponsor the Best Managing Director category.

The top MDs give a presentation about their company and themselves from which a winner is picked. It’s a privilege to meet some of the students and find out what makes them tick.

Luke was this year’s winner. And a very worthy one too.

At 15 he’s two school years younger than a lot of the students taking part. Yet he was confident, articulate and injected real humour into his presentation. He didn’t even have crib notes which I can never do!

Luke came into the office after the event and told us how he’d won a classroom version of The Apprentice and likes the idea of taking part himself in a few year’s time.

Like I said – remember that name!

The importance of keeping applicants happy

We’ve all heard the anecdotes of hundreds of applications flooding in within hours of a job ad going live. And, as the current recession deepens, more and more of us are likely to disappear under a mountain of CVs.
It’s virtually impossible for lean HR departments - already under headcount pressure - or a small company, to deal with that kind of influx.
Unfortunately those applicants – all of them – expect a response. Their CV is fired off in seconds by email and they expect to hear back almost as quickly.
When the feedback fails to arrive, hours, days and even weeks later, they begin to get disgruntled. Of course, it’s understandable from both perspectives. But, from a company point of view, it could be damaging.
The volume of social networking websites and forums available on the internet gives candidates endless avenues to vent their frustration. And, as everyone knows, people are quick to criticse and not so quick to praise. If a prolific blogger, tweeter or forum poster isn’t happy with the way the recruitment process has been handled they WILL share that.
Within minutes those comments can be right round the world – and the company’s reputation with them.
We’re geared up to deal with a high volume of applicants because it’s what we do.
If you’re launching your own search to fill a vacancy, please please please ensure your hiring strategies are in place first.