Eloise’s February 2019 News – Brexit, New You, Training and Ghosting

Hello and welcome to February 2019

January is finally done and dusted. I’ve seen all the memes about it seeming like January has 794 days. It is a long month and at times has really felt like it.

What is absolutely lovely though, is that the evenings are now getting lighter for longer and although it’s cold with an outlook of snow, there is a sense of spring being just around the corner. I’ve even smelt freshly cut grass a few times in the past few weeks and the bulbs are coming through in my garden.

 

Brexit business survey – Your views and concerns are needed

We’re still in the dark about what’s to come but as I keep saying, businesses are keeping calm and carrying on. We’re busy with the New Year surge in new jobs coming on across the region, which is testament to the strength and optimism that remains in the workplace.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) are running a survey and are inviting responses from organisations to offer a local insight into preparing for the UK’s departure from the European Union.

The survey is being hosted by the Leicestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), but any of our clients at Vanilla are welcome to participate. It has 11 questions and will be used to understand the diversity of attitudes across the business landscape. They want to hear from businesses about the impact, the concerns and your preparations surrounding Brexit.

 

New Year, new you – what have you got planned?

A new year always brings resolutions, new focus, new targets and big push from people both professionally and personally.

Are you doing anything different this year to nurture your team? To support your businesses mental health? 

The benefits of creating and nurturing a happy and healthy workplace is proven to reduce sick days, increase productivity and increase staff retention. Plus, it also creates a strong employer brand to make future recruitment easier. (We have a couple of blog posts which may be useful How to build a strong employer brand to help recruit the best talent and Health and wellbeing at work).

Now is a great time to review what you’ve got in place for the year and get some new things on people’s radars. It could be a series of volunteering opportunities, a charity challenge, or just sharing some local offers of interest.

As a team at Vanilla, our chosen charity is Bamboozle Theatre Company, they support children with profound disabilities to experience meaningful experiences to help them and their families. As part of their calendar of events they are doing some big fundraising challenges this year. And my team are going to be taking part in the Bamboozle Marathon as a team around Leicester Racecourse in June and are supporting the National Three Peaks Challenge in May.

We’ll be training together, fund raising and reaping the benefits of all the endorphins whilst we’re at it!

At the end of my post I’ve included some offers and opportunities from across Leicestershire and Northamptonshire that you might want to share with your own teams to support their mental health.

 

Training opportunities

One of my good business friends, Kay Buckby at The Development Company, is hosting a Mindfulness for Life, 8-week programme starting on 4thFeb.

There is no charge for the course, just a charitable donation.

I’m sharing this with you because it’s a great opportunity for anyone to learn what mindfulness really means and to see in practise how they can use it in their everyday lives as well as at work.

If you or someone in your team is suffering with anxiety, stress, burnout or anything that is impacting on their clarity or concentration, this is worth considering. It is being held at The Grange in Earls Barton on Monday’s, 1pm – 3.30pm, from 4thFebruary. There’ll also be homework outside of these times and you’ll need to commit to the full 8 weeks.

If you’d like to find out more, contact Kay on 01604 810 801 or email [email protected] (quote Vanilla)

Training venue = The Grange, 108 Northampton Road, Earls Barton, NN6 0JH

 

Interview Skills Workshop with huge discount for Vanilla clients

We have also got a great offer on an Interview Skills Workshop coming up with our training partners, Gateway HR. In the recruitment market we are in, with good candidates in short supply, it is imperative that we all have excellent interviewing skills to ensure we get the most out of new potential employees.

It is also essential that we make a great interview impression ourselves, to encourage people to want to work for our companies.  The workshop is open to anyone that wants to improve or review their interviewing skills. Click here to see our recent emailer showing lots more information. If you want to book directly on the course click here and use the password ‘Vanilla’ to gain access to the offer.

Tuesday 12th February 2019

Gateway HR – 4 Brisbane House, Corby Gate Business Park, Corby, Northamptonshire, NN17 5JG
9.30am – 12.30pm

 

Ghosting – The new term and what does it mean?

There’s a new buzzword in town, ‘ghosting’. It’s a millennial term that is gathering momentum. And I’ve been hearing the term more and more from clients and job seekers.

The term is being used to describe employment and recruitment situations when someone just goes off the radar. And it can be used to describe both people and businesses.

I get employers coming to us to help them recruit because they’ve experienced ghosting, either where they’ve offered someone a job and they don’t hear from that person again, or someone is due to start work and they just don’t turn up. Sometimes it’s also when an employee just stops turning up for work altogether and the business finds out they have moved jobs without telling them.

On the flip side, we also get job seekers complaining of being ghosted themselves, when they’ve been unsuccessful in getting a job they’ve been interviewed for and then the trail goes completely cold and they can’t get hold of anyone to get any feedback or an update.

In both situations it is very bad practice to ghost someone, to just go off the radar. It leaves me cold that anyone would do this, especially if people are just stopping going to one job because they have another. This kind of practice should not be encouraged, it shouldn’t even be a thing we need to talk about.

At Vanilla we help employers to avoid ghosting as much as possible. We know that the period of time between a job being offered and the candidate actually starting can be critical. We make sure we keep in touch with a candidate during this time to help keep them excited about their new role, answer any questions and allay any fears etc.

If a candidate does receive a counter offer before they start their new role, we help to manage this too and try to keep the recruitment on track. We also keep all our candidates in the loop and provide feedback after interviews on behalf of our clients.

Apart from the list of things below to get you thinking or to share with your teams, that’s it for another month.

Drop me a line if you have any recruitment questions, or I’ll be back in touch in March.

Thanks

Eloise

 

Things you could look to share with your team:

As I mentioned earlier on in my post, here are some pointers of things happening in your area. You could look to take part as a team or just use it as info to share with your business to help support their mental health and goals for 2019.

Kettering

  • She Can – Kettering
    • Two local Kettering ladies have set up a series of courses for ladies of ALL fitness levels to join them and learn how to run and how to enjoy running. They also host after school running sessions for girls from Brooke Weston Academy. Beginner courses are either 4 or 8-week blocks and you can find out more here: www.shecandoit.co.uk
  • Fitness – Rothwell
    • At the Rothwell Montsaye School, there is a swimming pool, fitness classes, gym and dance studio that are open to the public. There is no joining fee and they offer low-price membership or pay as you go options. www.montsayesportsandfitness.co.uk

Northampton

Wellingborough

Corby

  • Team Work Trust – Corby
    • They support their members who have mental health needs, or learning or physical disabilities by providing education projects and activities. They offer corporate volunteering opportunities and have worked with local employers like RS Components and The Royal Bank of Scotland. www.teamworktrust.co.uk

Leicester

  • Ape Index – Leicester
    • If you’re after something different and you like watching Ninja Warrior UK on the television, try Ape Index. They have a ninja style course, obstacle racing, bouldering and offer training and classes. www.apeindex.rocks
  • VAL – Leicestershire
    • Voluntary Action Leicestershire offer a specific ‘employee volunteering’ service. They work with companies big and small to help match them with community projects that will really make a difference. www.volunteerleicestershire.org.uk

Market Harborough

  • Can and Will Studio – Market Harborough
    • A new fitness studio has been set up at the Rugby Club in Market Harborough. It is a collaboration project involving local fitness trainers from difference disciplines. You can sign up to take part in hot yoga, HIIT and lots of other different classes: www.canandwill.net
  • Strong Bird Fitness – Market Harborough
    • Emma at Strong Bird Fitness offers a range of different indoor and outdoor fitness classes for beginners right through to those with a higher fitness level. There is also a Flock to Healthy Living programme to promote how to achieve a strong mind, health and body. www.strongbirdfitness.com

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.