Eloise’s December 2019 News – Temporary Staff, Management Loneliness, Employer of Choice and Mince Spies
Hello and welcome to December!
Here we are, December. The final days not only of 2019, but also of the decade. It feels like October and November didn’t even happen; we just flew straight to December.
Party season is in full swing, ours is coming up. There’s a lot to cram into this month with parties, Christmas jumper days, secret Santa, buffets, lunches and of course lots of work before everyone heads off for some family time. It’s go, go go. It’s silly season.
It can be a magical time of year, but we all need to be mindful that for some, it is a very hard time of year. Not everyone is on the same page and some won’t want to join in with the festivities, maybe you don’t. I always encourage checking in with your teams and this time of year it is doubly important.
Temporary staff cover during the Christmas holidays
What is also important is making sure you have enough cover during December and January. With a combination of people taking annual leave and lots of bugs making people ill, it can be tricky to balance your staffing levels.
Don’t worry, we’ve got your back!
We are experts in helping businesses successfully fill any planned or unplanned staffing gaps, as well as both short and longer term staff shortages. Give my team a call and we’ll talk you through the process of having a temporary worker in your business, the process and what to expect from them.
Contact Sarah Clarke on 01858 898 058 or email [email protected]
Management loneliness
They say that ‘it’s tough at the top’. But in all seriousness, being a manager of people can become isolating and lonely.
You may have once longed for that corner office, but now it’s yours you feel a real disconnect from the rest of the team. You might also feel that you can’t or shouldn’t air any of your own feelings with members of your team. It can be isolating, unhealthy.
I write a lot about wellbeing, engagement and self-development. The other important factor here is self-care.
I read an article about this just the other day in The Recruiter. According to research they highlighted, one in four (27.2%) senior leaders say they ‘feel lonely in the workplace’, and 40.8% claim that ‘people’s attitudes towards them changed after they moved into their role’.
Using this data, they also asked senior leaders what they suggested to help prevent loneliness in the workplace. The findings are all things that are quite easy to introduce, there isn’t anything particularly complicated or challenging. All worth considering for your business:
- Have more office socials (34.5%)
- Hire a diverse team (32.9%)
- Construct an open-plan office (28.2%)
- Improve the on-boarding process (27%)
- Put appropriate support in place (49.2%)
I’m really interested to hear what you think about this. Do you or have you felt this way? Do you have any tips that you’ve seen work for you or others? Is there something we could be doing together? Drop me a line, I’m keen to hear from you.
Want to be an employer of choice?
With the recruitment market being so tough, being an ‘employer of choice’ can really boost your recruitment success.
There are lots of ways you can help achieve this and offering flexible working is certainly one of them. But now new research has shown that working less hours a week can actually extend your life expectancy.
The research was carried out by Cambridge based medical research specialists Antibodies.com. They compared average life expectancy against lifestyle and health trends.
The recognised recommended maximum number of hours to work a week is 48. But they found that working anything over 40 hours per week can actually shorten life expectancy by nearly 10 years.
Is this something you could weave into your employee offering? Maybe to formally state that no employees are expected to work longer than their contacted hours, or that weekly working hours are capped at 40?
All food for thought. Click here to read the post for yourself.
Mince spies
We’re performing our usual mince pie tasting service. You may remember from previous years that my whole team get involved in this so we can report back. Allowing you to invest in only the best mince pies.
We had only just got over last year’s mammoth tasting and to be honest, and some of us would have been happy not seeing a mince pie again. However, we are rising to the challenge.
We first started reviewing mince pies back in 2017 with ‘Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Mince Pies’ coming top of the pies with an average Vanilla team score of 23.7 out of 25.
Then in 2018, ‘Greggs’ won us over with an average Vanilla team score of 22.2 out of 25.
So far this year we have taste tested mince pies from Aldi, Tesco, Greggs and Coop. If you have any top tips or suggestions, let me know and we’ll add them into our line-up.
Keep an eye on our social media to find out who will be crowned as The Vanilla Recruitment Top Mince Pie 2019.
Facebook • LinkedIn • Twitter • Instagram
If you need us over Christmas…
We’ve got a few weeks to go but to give you a heads up, we’ll be available until 1pm on Christmas Eve and then we’ll all be heading off for some time with our loved ones until Thursday 2nd January 2020.
But, if you do need any support between those times, you can contact us on our mobiles, and we’ll get back to you.
And that’s my last blog of 2019
I’ve been doing this for some time now and I can finally say that I really enjoy it. If you’ve been with me since I was first convinced to write a regular blog post, you’ll know how daunted I was by it every month.
I also take more interest reading other people’s blogs now, knowing the process they go through. Do you write content for your business? I’d be interested to read it and maybe share some of your thoughts in my own posts. Let me know.
But for now, I wish you a fantastic December full of peace, calm and love.
Here’s to 2020!
We recruit throughout the East Midlands covering Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland and the surrounding areas, especially Market Harborough, Lutterworth, 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