Recruitment drive launched in the city

We are delighted to be part of a new recruitment drive launched in the city.

A long standing client has announced expansion plans which will create a total of 30 new vacancies. These are support roles for the contact centre so the hours are Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5pm rather than shift work. The aim is to fill the roles between now and the summer – some on a permanent basis and others on contract.

This is perfect timing for the city. As in so many places, the number of available jobs has been in continuing decline. The announcement that a raft of new roles is being created can only be a positive – not just because it offers new opportunities to job seekers but also as a demonstration that companies are investing in the city and in the future.
We’re now working with the client to pinpoint the right people for the new roles which will be supporting contact centre staff.

Again this sits perfectly in Peterborough which has become something of a ‘service centre’ hub over the last few years. The skills – customer service, admin and IT - are there among the workforce to be utilised.

We’re now busy organising an open event for next Friday. We will be inviting candidates whose CVs match the required skills to attend on an appointment basis. Those we deem suitable, both in terms of their skill set and their personality, will then be passed through to the client.

This is a really exciting opportunity for us, job seekers and the city – I shall look forward to reporting back on how it goes.

AWR: the first impact figures

The Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) have been in place for a couple of months now so we are able to start looking at the impact they are having on the sector.

The REC launched AWR Monitor at the same time the Regulations were implemented. Along with other REC members, we’ve been feeding our data into it, and the first monthly snapshot has now been produced.

The good news is that the demand for temporary staff remained relatively strong – temporary and contract staff billings increased in October at a similar pace of growth to that shown the previous month.

Demand was strong for both temporary and contract staff in engineering and construction, blue collar, IT and computing, secretarial and clerical, and for medical staff.

More than eight in 10 employers were planning to maintain or increase the number of temporary staff in both the short and longer term while just three per cent were planning to substantially decrease their numbers within the coming three months.
This is obviously good news for those who are career temps and have been concerned that demand for their services would fall in light of the new rules.

And it’s also cause for celebration for those who are using temporary, interim or contract work as a route back to longer term employment. The knock on is, of course, that those people are working rather than becoming another addition to the unemployment figures. It’s good to see that 84 per cent of people believe, as we do, that more needs to be done to support the use of flexible working as a bridge into employment.

* We are still working with clients and contacts to ensure the correct processes are in place to be compliant with the Regulations.
Do get in touch if you’d like more information about how we can help.

ACR cook off for Children In Need

Rather embarrassingly, I won this year’s ACR Bake Off in aid of Red Nose Day!

I promise it wasn’t fixed. And while I admitted to setting my alarm early to get up and bake rocky road before breakfast, that was more to do with running out of time the evening before than a desire to serve up ‘still warm from the oven’ treats!

The whole idea started off as a bit of fun and a money spinner for charity.
Things quickly got very competitive – it was almost cook books at dawn!

We had everything from Delia’s finest to ‘Granny’s family recipe’ among the offerings. There were quiches and brownies, muffins, cakes, savoury snacks and biscuits. Every portion was sold for a donation to the charity which was, of course, the winner in the end.

On the side, there was the option for each taster to vote for their favourite. The goodies were donated anonymously so it really can’t have been rigged!

We have a few new members of the team this year who are an unknown quantity in the kitchen so today in the ACR office could be interesting!

I’ll let you know who wins – and how much we raise!

Agency Workers Regulations

Tomorrow’s date October 1, 2011 has been looming over us as recruiters for a long time. It’s deadline day for the introduction of the Agency Workers Regulations – a day we’ve been preparing for for around two years.

Yet still there are some companies, mainly small to medium sized ones, which haven’t taken steps to ensure compliance. This may be a ‘head in the sand’ tactic or it may be that they’re not aware it will affect them. But it will.

Every company which uses temporary staff needs to be aware of the legislation and have a policy of implementation.

In short, the AWR brings the terms of basic working and employment condition for temporary agency workers in line with comparable permanent members of staff. Some of their entitlements kick in from day one – such as access to collective facilities and amenities, for instance canteens and child care facilities. Others such as holiday entitlement start after 12 weeks.

The reality is that the majority of temporary staff, who provide a hugely valuable service, are already well treated and rewarded. The regulations will simply provide a safety net.

Like many agencies, we have invested a substantial amount of time and effort in preparing for the implementation and helping our clients prepare. We hope those efforts will help inspire confidence among our clients.

For those who haven’t yet sought advice or help, it’s not too late – in fact it’s a necessity to avoid falling foul of the legislation and potentially facing legal action.

We can provide a free assessment of your situation to ensure you have all the necessary processes in place – please get in touch.

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!

The Equality Act 2010 – don’t get caught out

The introduction, at the beginning of October, of the new Equality Act 2010 neatly wraps up in one package much of the legislation previously covered by a host of different anti-discriminatory legislation.

But, HR professionals shouldn’t assume that’s all it does. The Act tweaks a few issues – and ones which it would be easy to trip up on without a spot of insight and forethought.

During the Employment Law Breakfast Briefing we staged in conjunction with Hegarty LLP Solicitors, their employment law expert Martin Bloom talked about some of these tweaks in more detail including the legality of pre-employment health enquiries, secrecy clauses and genuine occupational requirements.

You can listen to his thoughts by clicking here.

Employment Law Breakfast Briefing

I’m just back in the office after our Employment Law Breakfast Briefing and my head’s buzzing with information!

We’ve been running the briefings in conjunction with Hegarty LLP Solicitors for more than a decade and now regularly have 200 people attending.

It takes a lot of work to co-ordinate but it’s so worthwhile.

Hegarty’s employment law experts Tim Thompson and Martin Bloom deliver the actual briefing. The subject this time was the introduction of the Equality Bill on Friday which will spell the final curtain for a host of other legislation including the sex, race and disability discrimination acts.

Having listened carefully to Tim and Martin this morning, I have to say I think the new Bill is breath of fresh air. As Martin explained, in layman’s terms for all of us non-legal delegates, the overall principle of the new rules is ‘fairness’.

The objective of the bill is that everyone has the right to be treated fairly and to fulfil their potential.

There was lots of talk of ‘protected characteristics’ - the new buzz phrase apparently. Protected characteristics are all the things that make us individual – our sex, race, sexuality, disabilities, marital status… Under the new Equality Bill employers – and potential employers – can no longer single anyone out for discrimination on any of those grounds.

While the protected characteristics encompass a wider spectrum than the previous laws covered – particularly including marital and civil partnership status, gender resassignment and pregnancy and maternity leave – it does seem to be a much easier to understand ‘catch all’ bill which, from an HR point of view, should make life a little simpler.

Lots more to blog about on this subject over the coming days…

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.

Here's to 2010

First of all – a very happy new year. And it does feel like there’s a very real prospect of that – something I’m not sure I could have said with any certainty this time last year.

Despite a very shaky start to 2009, it feels like, as the year has progressed, we’ve found ourselves on a much more even keel. Some of that is down to the green shoots of confidence which started to appear in the economy. A lot of it is down to the sheer hard work and determination of all at ACR to retain, gain and develop our business.

Throughout 2009 our core business remained strong as we continued to fill permanent, contract and temporary positions, win new contracts and increase our client base. This is despite industry figures showing the recruitment market has contracted by more than 20 per cent during the year.

But some of our proudest moments came from achievements in those areas which we have integrated into the business in our efforts to ensure we employ best practice in everything we do.

Our Paperless Office Project reached its culmination and we didn’t just shout about it, we won an international award for it! Recruitment partner Karen Dykes joined me at a very special ceremony at the Houses of Parliament to receive our Green Apple Award presented by no-less than a former Bond Girl! The contacts we made there have enabled us to become even more green – sourcing new eco-friendly suppliers for much of our office equipment and supplies for instance.

The ties we have with our local community – through business awards, Young Enterprise, Opportunity Peterborough, Chamber of Commerce, CIPD, etc – have been built upon. We were one of the first local businesses to throw in an offer of help to the newly launched Back to Business Club. Our connection with this gave us the ear of our local MP Stewart Jackson. We have used that contact to lobby Mr Jackson about forthcoming legislative changes – something which has been encouraged by our trade body the Recruitment and Employment Confederation.

Their last Report on Jobs showed the best numbers for permanent and temporary jobs in the past 18 months – a good sign for all of us.

Communication has always been key for us and that has increased hugely in the last 12 months. We send out regular e-newsletters, post blogs here and use Twitter.com profusely to reach new candidates and keep current ones up to date.

And so here we are – at the end of one of the toughest years anyone in business can remember – and on the threshold of one that, hopefully, can only be better.
Already we are noting a new air of confidence among our clients, a definite positivity which hasn’t been apparent for many months.

And we’re looking forward to helping build on that during 2010.

Let’s hope, that for all of us, this year really does prove to be a happy and prosperous one.

AWD - 2011

One of our management team Karen Dykes spent Friday in Leeds at the fourth Agency Summit to discuss the EU Agency Workers Directive draft regulations.

This Directive will give agency workers equal treatment to permanent staff 12 weeks into an assignment. It has been recognised since these regulations were first discussed that there is going to be a huge impact on the recruitment industry – we’re going to be in the frontline of its delivery.

We now know it’s going to be implemented on October 1, 2011.

The good news is that its introduction has been delayed until then. The over-riding feeling among agencies is that this legislation is going to stall demand for temps as companies manage without rather than incurring the costs involved in implementing the new rules. With the economy as it is if that had happened now it could have proved disastrous.

The other win as far as we’re concerned is the second consultation period which the government has agreed to before the legislation is rubber stamped early next year.

It’s another eight weeks grace for us to lobby parliament and our MPs about the nitty gritty of the document. There is a lot of ambiguity within it and some loopholes which must be dealt with.

We will be continuing to work with the REC and other agencies to ensure that when the final document is produced it is both realistic and workable. And once it’s been through parliament and is on the statute books we will be working with our clients to ensure that its implementation is as smooth as possible.

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

Back to Business

If I can see some real benefit in a recruitment-related initiative – to individuals, companies or the area as a whole - I’m always happy to lend a hand if required. So I was delighted to accept the invitation to be involved in The Back To Business Club which has been launched by the Greater Peterborough Partnership.

The club is aimed at professionals who have been made redundant and who are keen to get back to work or explore alternatives such as setting up on their own. It is hoped the club will help maintain the confidence and motivation of the jobseekers who attend by keeping them in touch with similar-minded people in the same situation.
We regularly deal with the kind of professionals the club is aimed at so it made perfect sense for us to be involved.

Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson opened the first session which saw about 30 people through the door.

What we don’t want is the club to be seen as ‘exclusive’. At the same time people are recognising that, in the current climate, there is a need for a service specifically targeted at managers and professionals, many of whom may not have been out of work before.

‘Job clubs’ aren’t for everyone and I understand why some people may feel reticent to attend. But as a word of encouragement having met some of the attendees at the first session, if nothing else I think the networking opportunities it offers are worth exploring.

If you want any more information you can click on the link Back to Business or pop along to a session – held every Thursday from 2pm to 5pm at Peterborough College of Adult Education.

Signs of recovery

A media frenzy has greeted the August Report on Jobs – a regular report published by our governing body the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG. It suggests the labour market is showing signs of recovery – so it’s hardly surprising the newspapers, tv and radio stations have been quick to pick up on it!

We submit data to that report and our findings are in line with the overall picture the key points of which are:
• marginal increases in both permanent and temporary staff appointments
• candidate availability rose at weaker pace
• permanent and temporary staff pay fell at slower rates

The REC’s chief executive Kevin Green told the BBC that employers are becoming ‘more confident in their hiring decisions’. Again, that’s something we would agree with. After many months of clients hanging back from making long term decisions about taking on permanent staff, we are now seeing movement in that market.
The good thing is those now actively seeking staff have a very definite need - companies aren’t just trawling the labour market on spec.

Kevin said: ‘For the first time in 17 months, this month’s report shows signs that the UK jobs market is improving. There has been an increase in permanent recruitment and growth in temporary placements for the first time in over a year.”

And that, as everyone in recruitment and HR would agree, is very welcome – and very good – news.

How green are we?!

Eighteen months ago we came up with the concept of a paperless working environment. Looking round our office in Park Road the idea was almost laughable. We had dozens of filing cabinets, hundreds of paper files and thousands of pieces of paper. Our only concessions were the banning of Post-It notes and the shredding and recycling of used paper.

But… not only have we achieved it – WE’VE WON AN AWARD FOR IT!
We’ve scored a Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice run by The Green Organisation.

The awards have been going for 15 years so are well established as one of the major environmental recognition schemes not just in the UK but internationally too. The Green Organisation supports the work of other environmental groups that play the role of environmental watchdog while concentrating more on the positive aspects of environmental endeavour – they describe it as looking at the carrot as well as the stick!

Our entry described how The Paperless Office Project required a substantial financial and time investment but how the benefits across the board have already exceeded expectations.

We’ve reduced costs and waste, streamlined office procedures, freed up valuable staff time and future proofed the office. And we’ve become quite evangelical about it all – talking to clients and other companies we network with about the benefits in the hope we can encourage them to adopt at least some of our proven methods.

We’re off to London in November to pick up our award.
Well done us!

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!

Customer service professionals needed

A client is looking to take on a substantial volume of customer service roles and we’ve been tasked with finding the right recruits.

There are some great opportunities – and in quantities we haven’t seen for months.
We’re looking for scheduling co-ordinators, co-ordinators and administrators to work in a business to business environment.

As well as strong communication and negotiating skills, problem solving abilities are a must. We’re also looking for people who can think on their feet and creatively resolve issues to deadlines.

If you’re interested or know anyone who might be please get in touch. We’ve organised a couple of Recruitment Events for potential candidates – on Tuesday 16th and Thursday 18th June.

Email us recruitment@annecorder.co.uk or call for more details on 01733 319888.