Do you really want to leave your job? Go through our 7 steps first to really make sure

Do you love your job?

We all can have bad days and think we want a new job but are we sure we really don’t like the one we already have? Try these tips before you decide if the grass really would be greener in a new job:

Have a positive frame of mind  

Negativity is a most likely the way to becoming demotivated, things feel different if we have the right attitude. It can be hard to turn it around, but look at all the positives and don't focus on the negatives.

Plan your time

Feeling “snowed under” is counter productive, have a “to do list” to ensure you prioritise and organise. It is amazing how you start feeling in control again.

Stay focused

Stay focused on that “to do list” and feel a sense of achievement when the list shrinks, start really looking at where you need to spend your and time make sure you prioritise the important work that really counts. If you have not heard of the 80-20 rule, read up about it because it is true! You can use it for everything, Implement the concept into your to do lists making sure the important work is top priority, now give yourself a big tick! The 80-20 rule here

Keep perspective

If people around you aren’t happy it is usually about them not about you, focus on what’s important to you and don’t involve yourself. Other people can easily bring you down, in fact some people love bringing others down with their negativity. Keep perspective, feel positive and don't let other shape your life.  

Take a break

Never think you don’t have time…. Even 5 minutes away from your desk really can make a difference. Get some fresh air, take a few nice deep breaths, smile and you will be amazed how it can put a spring in your step again.   

Beat the stress

Talking about taking a break, at lunchtime why not download an app called Headspace?! It’s a 10 minute meditation app made easy. (come on, you have 10 minutes!) It’s a great stress beater. As stress is common in fast paced working environments this could be just the antidote you need to start seeing the wood through the trees again! Don't say we don't look after you! https Headspace app here

Be clear 

Be clear about what’s expected of you and the role you are employed to do, don’t worry about something you don’t need to. Try managing your workload, if you are already at breaking point don't take on extra work for someone that’s not in your remit. Sometimes you have to be a bit ruthless (in a nice way) to make sure you can cover your own work without blowing a gasket! 

Achievement of the day

Pick your main priority of work to do as your first job of the day. You know, the one that is a pain, the one you don’t like doing, the big bad complicated one! You're fresh in the morning and although you don't feel like it, getting the main jobs all sorted first thing gives you a more relaxing afternoon on more enjoyable work. At the end of the day you will have a big grin on your face knowing the nasty stuff is sorted, not continually haunting you day by day! Now, give yourself a pat on the back and go home feeling good!

Still No?

If the answer is still NO I don’t love my job, (don’t say we did not try) the time will have come to talk to a Prestige Recruitment Consultant, we deal with jobs across multiple disciplines: Office Support, Fashion & Retail, Sales & Marketing, Technical Engineering HR, Technology and Hospitality. Come and talk to us, we like to think we do things a bit differently. 

Challenges Facing HR Departments in 2016

What are the big issues for Human Resources Departments within the UK in 2016?

Prestige Recruitment are committed to supplying the highest quality HR recruitment services within the industry. We have an ongoing commitment to thoroughly research and understand our market sector holistically. Our focus is not just the recruitment piece of the jigsaw, it is also looking at all the challenges and pain points that are faced within HR departments as a whole. This gives us the ability to understand the HR industry in it’s totality, allowing us to be better informed and more relevant in our services. This article gives a flavour of our findings through our 2016 research on the challenges the industry faces. We believe sharing this information with the HR industry will inform and create discussions, leading to ideas and solutions regarding the issues that we face.   

The chart below is an indication of what hot issues are trending in 2016. We collated this chart by talking to a large array of leaders within HR departments. 

HR Departments Issues 2016

The Issues

Of course recruitment is always talked about but this year there seems to be a few stand out issues. There are some issues that feature less on the radar at the moment but could profoundly affect certain business sectors. 

Absence Management

Absence Management was one topic which was high on the agenda. We noted that some clients were implementing the 'Bradford Factor' into their business and finding it had helped after a period of integration. We have a comprehensive article coming soon on absence management which also takes a look at the 'Bradford Factor' within the document. Sign up for our soon to be published free copy of 'Keep Absence Management Under Control'. 

Lack of Time and Resources

A big pain point for HR departments this year seems to be the lack of time and resources to roll out projects and to keep up with workflow. There were a mix of reasons for this but the increase in the amount of actual work, reduction in department staff, and a lack of issue ownership within departments seem to be the core issues. We will be looking at this in more detail over the year,  trying to discover time saving ideas and software that may help.

Staff Retention

Staff retention was another problem within the industry, this was due to many factors depending on the market sector. We have decided to look at deeper research on this subject and produce a comprehensive article and resource on this issue. We will be looking into a wide range of dynamic topics from staff retention through engaging company culture, to the skills shortages found in some industries. Keep a look out for this soon. 

Management Ownership

Around ten percent of issue discussed were attributed to the lack of management ownership. HR departments are seeing issues passed over to them prematurely which is adding to the workload of their departments. Is this because managers themselves are overloaded with work? Or are there other factors at play? More research on this subject is needed, one thing is for sure, businesses managers need to work more cohesively to make the best of their resources.
 

The following potential issues are low on the radar at the moment but a few people have raised concerns about them.  We feel these could have a large impact over the coming years in certain industries and larger sized businesses.

The Apprenticeship Levy

In last year's budget, the government announced its intention to introduce a levy on large employers in order to fund three million new apprenticeships in England by 2020. This was part of its commitment to developing vocational skills and to increasing the quantity and quality of apprenticeships.

The government carried out a consultation on the proposed levy in the autumn last year, following which it has now published draft legislation. The levy is effectively a new tax on employers to fund apprenticeships. This may bring a substantial amount of additional work to HR departments.

Gender Pay Reporting

Larger employers in the private and voluntary sectors will have to publish details of their gender pay gaps. By April 2018, affected employers will need to report their annually mean and median gender pay gaps, also gender bonus gaps and the number of men and women across salaries. This will undoubtedly add to the workload of those HR departments affected. 

Modern Slavery and Worker-exploitation

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 has introduced a new annual duty for organisations with a turnover of £36 million plus, this is to report the steps the organisation has taken to ensure that slavery or human trafficking is not taking place. For effected businesses with manufacturing bases overseas this could turn out to have a large affect on reporting and administration duties. 

The Round Up

As you can see, we have a lot to analyse and work on. Prestige will be talking to more departments over the next few months and hopefully publishing interesting articles on the main pain points that are hitting the HR industry. Having now seen the results of the European vote we feel there may be more issues on the way with our exit from the Europe Union.

To keep on top of our reports for the HR industry sign up to have them emailed to you as soon as they are produced.

Get your HR Reports here

Sign up for your HR reports & articles

If you would like to contribute to the debate or highlight any issues for our reports please email us here. 

Prestige Recruitment Group 20th Anniversary Celebration

The Celebration

Friday the 15th of April was the 20th year to the day that Prestige Recruitment Group opened for business. To celebrate this landmark year we took all our employees down to London for a VIP day which kicked off with a 4 hour cruise around the Thames, on board the beautiful MV Edwardian boat. The wine flowed, the food was sublime and then we headed off for a champagne and nibbles reception in a private pod on board the London Eye, by which time most of us were “pie eyed”! 

Back In 96 - This Year in History!

 In 1996 the recruiting landscape looked so different, life was different. For a start it was a leap year, John Major was PM, the US president was Bill Clinton, DVD's were Launched in Japan, Dolly the sheep was cloned and Nintendo released the Nintendo 64. In entertainment The English Patient and Independence Day were big at the cinema, and the top tracks of that year were The Spice Girls - Wannabe, Fugees -Killing Me Softly and Mark Morrison - Return Of The Mack. If you liked a good read The Green Mile by Stephen King was one of the best selling books. As for the news,  Terry Venables announced he would resign as England manager, Prince Charles and Diana got divorced and Mad Cow Disease hit Britain. That then begs the question, were we mad to have an idea that we could open a recruitment company with different values to the rest of the herd!

In The Beginning

Having had nearly 10 successful years in recruitment I (Jeanette Wharrad) took a year out to travel Europe and on a sun drenched beach the idea was born for a recruitment business that would take on a fresh,  honest and consultative approach, to challenge the “norm”, using recruitment techniques that nobody was using at that time. I knew I definitely wanted “a partner in crime” and approached Annejulie Webb whom I had previously worked with for 5 years. Together we pooled our money, planned our strategy and opened the doors in a humble office in Solihull, just a few desks, phones and a rolodex !!  we also blew the first months’ petty cash on very expensive fresh flowers….well we wanted to create the right impression!! After 3 months we employed our first two Consultants and within 4 years had 4 offices and 42 staff! The Journey had begun in ernest with an amazing start, we found our gut instinct for a new consultative approach really resonated with our clients. In turn we were rewarded with great client retention and a plethora of new business.

The Journey

We always describe our journey as a roller coaster ride, amazing thrilling highs and at times gut wrenching lows! The first 10 years were fast, invigorating and trouble free, we rode the crest of the wave peaking at 7 offices; again, always trying to look at things in a different way. We were the first agency to introduce a guaranteed speed of service: 15 minutes to fill a temp booking and 24 hours to get CV’s out for permanent roles and when the recession hit we then introduced a “unique guarantee period” to give clients an extra safety net. All these new introductions and our commitment to an ethical consulting approach really hit home. At our height we employed 75 staff, turned over £6 million and went from an agency providing office support staff to having specialist divisions focusing on niche markets. In 2005 we had to drag ourselves into the 21st century and invested in our first CRM system, goodbye rolodex, sorry to see you go! Our staff were a collection of talented, unique and colourful people,  we had a great office vibe and a strong company culture…. then in 2006 we saw it coming, as we know, it was no ripple in the pond, it was more a tidal wave that hit the recruitment shores hard. We had to take drastic action to survive and keep our heads above water, we reduced our office network to 3 as we had to make very painful business decisions to ensure the survival of the company. After the highs this was one of the gut wrenching lows, but we now look back on it as an amazing learning experience in how to survive.  As the saying goes “What does not kill you makes you stronger” and this period of time made ready to come back strong. We learned to be nimble, to keep open minds on new working paradigms and to keep focus on the one thing that matters, delivering the best service to our clients with that consultative approach that we were always known for.  No short cuts for quick wins, just keeping to our principled approach to business knowing this would serve us well.

Where We Are Now

To say we have had to evolve as a business more than once would be an understatement, if we hadn’t the waves would have crushed us! We have learnt big lessons and whilst we are obviously older….. we are definitely much wiser and better business people for it!! After steadying the ship for a long period of time the last few years have seen us on the expansion trail again, fuelled by our success and dogged determination to create a leading client focused service. Technology now rules what we do, as well as our CRM system we have data management, multi posting & search software and an integrated website supporting social media and content marketing campaigns. We are proud to say our values never wavered though all the turmoil, we have been truly lucky to have a team of dedicated Consultants who have stayed loyal and helped us rebuild the great business that it once was. We are really looking forward to the future, we know there are more exciting times ahead and if we get the waves crashing in on our shores we will be ready! I still pine for that rolodex, the smell of tin and well used cards always brings a smile to my face (unlike when your network goes “down” and you cant do anything!) and Annejulie loves the fact she doesn't have to manually type up hundreds of time sheets any more (technology does rock!!) Let us see what we can do in the next decade, what new ideas we can bring to our industry as it changes and morphs within the fast changing environment that we all are part of.  

The celebrations were a day to remember and of course the boat trip wouldn’t have been the same without those expensive fresh flowers courtesy of petty cash!!

We would like to thank all our clients, candidates and staff, past & present for a fantastic 20 years!   

Prestige Recruitment Group celebrates 20 years in business

Friday 15th of April kicks off the celebratory year for Prestige Recruitment Group, who opened their doors in Solihull 20 years ago. All four offices and their sister company Zoot Recruit, will close on Friday as the staff are set to enjoy an all expenses paid VIP day in London. 

Whilst the business has enjoyed much success in that time, it has had to constantly evolve and reinvent itself to deal with the many trials and tribulations of the worst recession in history, only to come out of the other end much stronger and wiser!  

Founder Directors, Jeanette Wharrad & Annejulie Webb have always stuck by their principles of providing a professional, efficient and friendly service whilst never compromising quality for quantity, which they both admit in the hard times was a tough proposition! Now the business is once again in a renewed stage of growth both Directors are proud to say that the company to this day remains self-financed, which for them has meant their principles have never had to be diluted.  

As Jeanette and Annejulie have been in recruitment for over 50 years between them, they often reminisce about how the world of recruitment is almost unrecognisable now; so Friday is not only about celebrating the achievement of 20 years in business but also about saying a big thank you to their loyal team of staff, many of whom are now part way through their second decade of service. 

How to choose a good recruiter

How does a Client choose a Good Recruiter?

It’s a general fact that over 70% of HR professionals and businesses will, at some point, look to a Recruitment Agency to assist with their recruitment needs. Whilst most of them are bombarded with calls and promises just how do you choose a Good recruiter.

Things to consider:

Is your recruitment specific or general - unless your recruitment needs are very general, make sure the agency you choose understands your industry. If they don’t have experience or an insight into your business, then they’ll struggle to identify the most suitable candidates.  They should also be knowledgeable on the current market place.

High street or Independent 

High Street or mass market suppliers may mean brand recognition and a cheaper fee but can also lead to a poor service, as you are just one of hundreds of clients they deal with.  Independent or Specialist agencies usually means they genuinely appreciate your business and make you a priority. 

Check their Process  

What are you paying for? What is their process for attracting candidate’s? Do they practice diversity? What are their turnaround rates? What level of service should you be expecting? 

Recommendation  

Any competent recruiter will have a raft of testimonials or clients happy to vouch for them.

Have they asked to visit you? 

This is vitally important and allows a Consultant to truly get “a feel” for your business enabling them to find candidates that really fit every criteria.  

Negotiate

Will they or won’t they? Most are willing to come to a reasonable agreement…. but remember rates that are cheap will be cheap for a reason.

Develop a working relationship

Of course not all agencies are the same but the best ones will be keen to develop a working relationship, offer commitment and provide great service.

All Consultants who work for Prestige Recruitment Group have been trained to the highest standard and support real business ethics. Our areas of expertise include Office Support, Fashion & Retail, Sales & Marketing, Technical Engineering and Hospitality.