Eloise’s April 2019 News – Holiday Planning, Brexit’s Impact on Recruitment and Reinvigorating Your Sales Team
Hello and welcome to April
The end of the tax year is upon us, and for a lot of us it’s also our year end. Hence, I’m seeing a lot of finance work, discussions and conversations going on in businesses across the East Midlands.
I am working on my planning and budgets for the next year and all my team managers are having 121’s and reviews with their teams.
It can be seen as a labour-intensive time of year with lots of admin and spreadsheets, but I like it. It’s time for reflection; working out what went really well and what can be improved on and what we can learn from. An exciting time for planning, thinking, focussing, energising and regrouping.
The sun has been shining and it’s time to put all your new ideas and dreams into action.
Staff holiday planning ready for Easter
We have our first surge of holiday taking coming up in April. The schools are off for two weeks and we have two bank holidays; Good Friday on 19thApril, and Easter Monday on 22ndApril.
Are you ready? Have you planned your workload around people being out of your business? It can be a stressful time of year with many offices losing many team members for a couple of weeks. It may not seem like it’s comparable to Summer holiday leave, but more and more people are using Easter to take an extended break.
If you’re anticipating a staffing problem then our temporary workers team are primed and ready for action. Get in touch with Ben or Sarah to talk through any short term staffing needs you have coming up. Alternatively just visit https://www.vanillarecruitment.co.uk/register-a-vacancy, fill in your details and we’ll be in touch.
The recruitment market and the impact of Brexit (so far)
As I write this we’re no further forward on a solid outcome with Brexit, but what I do know is that the employment market is really strong and really busy. I honestly thought that Brexit would impact on my business quite heavily, and I’ll admit that I was concerned what the first quarter of this year would hold. However, businesses are recruiting at the moment and they’re still doing lots of it.
This is great news for us at Vanilla but as I always say, the recruitment industry is a great barometer for our economy. If we’re busy, it means businesses are doing well. And we are very busy.
I know I’ve mentioned it before but I can’t stress the importance enough. The record low unemployment rates plus the uncertain outcome of Brexit has greatly reduced the number of people looking to change jobs. The already arguably smaller market of jobseekers across Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, has now decreased even further. My advice to you as an employer, is to hold your valuable team members close. Do what you can to keep your workforce engaged and happy, so you’re not forced to recruit in this tough, candidate led market.
We have several blog posts on the general topic that you may find useful : ‘What do employees value most about their careers?’, ‘Why do employees stay? How to build employee loyalty’, ‘Build an employee benefits package that people actually want’ and ‘How to successfully tap into the part-time talent pool’,
Further developing or reinvigorating your sales team
Sales people can fluctuate in confidence, just like the rest of us. And, just like the rest of us, they can fall into ruts, bad habits and certain ways of doing things. With the nature of sales though, a blip in confidence or a slight skills gap can impact your business significantly.
One way to deal with the above is to brush on on some training. We’ve partnered up with Gateway HR in Corby to enable us to promote a selection of training opportunities, and they have a course on a full Sales ‘Boot Camp’ Programme coming up soon that may be of interest to you.
There are 6 sessions in total on the programme covering:
- Sales Essentials
- Negotiation
- Managing Accounts
- Developing Winning Presentations
- The Emotionally Intelligent Seller
- Consultative Selling
For more information about the programme click here. Or get in contact with Gateway HR directly and mention Vanilla Recruitment – [email protected], 01536 215240 or www.gatewayhr.com
Running towards June – The Bamboozle Relay Marathon
Corporate social responsibility is something we truly believe in here at Vanilla, which is why we have a chosen charity and help to raise awareness and much needed funds in any we can.
As a business, we partner with the charity Bamboozle Theatre Company. They are an amazing local charity whose mission it is to offer learning and meaningful opportunities to disabled children, young people and their families (see our full charity page here).
We are sponsoring the Bamboozle Relay Marathon, which is the third of their 70/Seventy fundraising events for 2019. The event is on the 22nd June, at Leicester Racecourse, and the marathon will be completed either by individuals or a team as a relay.
So… as you might have guessed, we are entering our own team!
Myself, Nathan, Ben, Sarah G and Nikki are training hard to try and put in a decent effort on the day. All spurred on by our lovely mascot Waffles. None of us are prolific runners, some of us are starting from scratch on our running journey. What we do have is determination and the realisation that we can’t back out now!
We would be delighted if you’d like to support us with some sponsorship. The link to our fundraising page is below, and if you do sponsor us then a huge THANK YOU, it will help make all the miles worth it. https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/VanillaRecruitment
National Minimum Wage rise
I imagine you’ve all seen it on the news, but just to remind you that workers aged 25 and over on the National Living Wage will receive £8.21 an hour from Monday 1st April, up from £7.83 (a 4.9% rise). You can see all the current National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates on the official Government website: https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates.
And that’s it for another month. Enjoy your planning and hold your valued team close.
Have a good April.
We recruit throughout the East Midlands covering Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland and the surrounding areas, especially Market harborough, Leicester, Corby and Kettering. We help people find their perfect job and match suitable jobseekers with businesses looking to hire the best candidates across our five specialisms – Sales, Marketing, Accountancy & Finance, HR and Office.