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.

Will the AWR affect your business?

The Agency Workers Regulations will affect your business if you have a tripart arrangement with an agency to supply temporary staff. If that three-way agreement - where a worker is hired through an agency by a business – isn’t in place then the Regulations won’t affect your business.

If that agreement does exist, the Regulations WILL affect your business and you need to ensure you are up to speed with exactly what that will mean when they come into force on October 1.

In this podcast – recorded at our employment law briefing - employment law expert Martin Bloom of Hegarty LLP Solicitors explains the importance of comparable employees, the rights the Regulations will give temporary staff and from when, and where the liability lies.

CLICK TO LISTEN TO PODCAST

Breakfast Seminar - AWR

There was a barrage of questions at the end of this morning’s Employment Law Briefing – always a good sign I think!

The topic was the Agency Workers Regulations with the presentation delivered by the incredibly knowledgeable Martin Bloom, employment law partner at Hegarty’s, our joint hosts of the briefing.

He covered the main points of the Regulations which sparked interesting discussions during the break and very pertinent questions at the end of the session.

The Regulations are aimed at bringing the terms of basic working and employment conditions for temporary agency workers in line with comparable permanent members of staff. But there are many caveats, inclusions and exclusions and very little in the way of definitive answers – many of which will only come when the regulations are tested at tribunal level.

Martin has studied the 49 page Government guidelines document at length and, using his experience as an employment tribunal judge, interpreted the regulations both legally – and morally – for delegates.

For instance: after 12 weeks in the same temporary role, working through an agency, a worker will be entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions.
However – from day one they are entitled to access collective facilities and amenities including things like canteens, child care facilities or transport services.

One delegate raised the question of gym membership – offered to all employees. Martin was clear that the Regulations state gym membership should, in that instance, be offered to temporary agency workers. However, the company could argue that the cost of doing that for workers who may only be in post for a matter of days or weeks is an ‘objective justification’ not to.

On the other hand, there was the delegate whose employees are always given a Christmas gift. Although this isn’t in their contract, because it has happened for a number of years it has become a recognised ‘benefit’. Therefore, Martin explained, temporary agency staff would also be entitled to a gift.

We have been working with our trade association and experts like Martin for around two years to ensure we are not only fully briefed and prepared to implement the Regulations but also in a position to discuss compliance with our clients. The process is continuing with us working closely with businesses, on site, to deliver free Impact Assessments – feel free to contact us to find out more about that service.

We’ll be uploading podcasts of Martin’s presentations and more information over the coming weeks so keep in touch.

Stamford Mercury Business Awards success

It was an absolute pleasure to attend last night’s Stamford Mercury Business Awards at Greetham Valley Hotel, Golf and Conference Centre.

I jointly sponsored and judged the Business of the Year category which proved to be an incredibly difficult job this year.

It was a struggle to cut the entry list down to the final four and picking a winner involved an awful lot of discussion following our visits to each entrant.

It was Human Touch which finally took the honours. They’re a local ambulance provider also offering first aid training with an impressive business plan to take them into the future.

I was incredibly impressed with the business’ offer and the team in place.
A large number of them were at the ceremony and were obviously thrilled to have won the award.

The whole evening was a wonderful celebration of local businesses. People talk about recessions and difficult times but seeing the number of small businesses not just starting up but flourishing was testament to the entrepreneurial people and spirit that exist in the Stamford area.

The Greetham Valley venue deserves a well done too for the delicious food and delightful setting that helped create such a lovely atmosphere at the ceremony.
It was an honour to be part of something so special.

Agency Workers Regulations

There are just four months to go before the Agency Workers Regulations come into force in October. And our seminar on that subject is less than three weeks away.

There is no doubt this is going to prove a landmark law change for recruiters and it is vital that both us – and HR departments – understand exactly what is needed to ensure compliance.

The seminar has been designed – along with the employment law experts at Hegarty LLP Solicitor – to ensure delegates leave with a comprehensive knowledge of the regulations and also hints and tips as to how current processes can be tweaked to ensure all requirements are met.

The main speaker will be Hegarty’s Martin Bloom whose presentation slides will be available in the form of a handout.

For more information about the breakfast seminar – taking place on June 9 – or how to access the presentation after the event please get in touch with us.

Diversity training – and so much more

Even when business is busy it’s important to remember the bigger picture.

We had a lesson in that last week when the team took time out of the office to engage in some diversity training.

This is a key area for recruiters. We have to be on top of the latest legislation, understand the theory and not only be able to put it into practice but to demonstrate to our clients it’s importance and it’s practical interpretation.

The latest diversity session with People HR proved very worthwhile. And, by involving every member of the team in one of the two sessions, everyone heard the same message.
This kind of training helps us all brush up on our knowledge levels and be confident we are adding genuine value to the recruitment process for our clients.

The other advantage is that training sessions offer a good opportunity for a spot of team bonding. Having everyone sitting in a room, listening and learning together creates a great sense of ‘team’ and is an excellent motivator. Everyone came out fired up and buzzing with ideas and energy.

A morning well spent!