Hillier's Headlines
My weekly roundup of industry news and updates and everything that’s happening here at People Group.
I hope you all enjoyed a nice weekend. Mine was a pretty typical one; making sure the parents are ok, entertaining the children and enjoying a little sunshine.
We’re half way through June and as I write this our shops are now opening their doors for the first time in months. And while I’m sure we’ve all enjoyed a little more freedom over recent weeks, this latest move feels like a big positive step forward.
Industry updates
While the overall picture for the economy looks fairly bleak, (OECD - the UK economy projected to contract by around 11.5% in 2020), the government has promised to implement a “strong and swift” recovery plan, which is echoed by Paul Kynaston, MD of Search Construction in our latest Industry Leaders video series. If you’ve watched any of the videos since we started back in March, you’ll notice there are some recurring themes. And I think the most noticeable one for me is that our industry will bounce back quickly. There are certainly already plenty of signs of this. Have a look at the latest video here
Changes to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
As I’m sure you know the CJRS is changing. I’ve mentioned the changes in the past few editions of Hillier’s Headlines. The tapering off of government support over the coming months and guidance on bringing staff back part time from July 01. The full guidance is laid out here. For additional guidance you can join a HMRC webinar also.
To see the key outcomes of the CJRS take a look at Recruiters recent update.
Positive signs for recruitment
I’ve seen plenty of articles over the past few days showing that business is starting to get moving again. In the REC’s Jobs Outlook, business confidence in hiring is showing signs of improvement. Also worth a look at the APSCo Recruitment Trends Snapshot which also provides data showing signs of recovery. You’ll need to log in to your APSCo account to view the trends update.
Returning to work
It’s clear that the biggest issue businesses face right now is trying to get staff back to work and offices/premises open again, all be it under new rules for social distancing. It’s something we’re very much working on right now here at People Group. It’s worth taking a look at the government guidance on working safely, which gives 5 practical steps to consider and access to information for different sectors by following the links.
HR Grapevine published an article a few days ago looking at some of the issues faced by businesses across the country who are looking to open up. There will of course be many challenges, but I know we’ll all work within the new rules and hopefully be back to something near normal before too long.
Around the home office
I’m sure I’ve mentioned previously how busy we’ve been since lockdown began. And it’s no different this week.
Latest insights and articles
We’ve released a couple of new articles last week which you may have already seen. The first discusses three ways in which recruiters may want to think differently in light of recent developments and feedback. Based on our own research with 600 contractors and drawing insight from our Learnings from Leaders video series we back up our reasons to think differently with what we’ve learnt.
The second insight looks at getting back to work. Focusing on practical guidance for recruitment agencies as we all look to get back in the office. We also take a look at business processes and what you can do now to smarten them up and look at new ways of working.
People Group getting back to work
We’ve spent the past 3 to 4 weeks looking at how we safely get our staff back into the office. We’ll be using a staged approach to slowly bring staff back in. This week we’ve been checking all of the office signage and making sure that risk assessments are in place. It looks like the first group of staff will be back in the office next week.
We’ve also created a set of posters which we are plastering across the office! You can access some of these posters for free via the latest insight mentioned above (Getting back to work) or via the linked image below.
Links with China
I’m pleased to tentatively announce that we have been named as a preferred supplier to a large HR Solutions provider in China. I’ve been doing some work behind the scenes but hope to be able to say more soon. As you can imagine there’s a big market in China for UK talent, so watch this space as we provide more detail over the next couple of months.
What about the pets?
Look out for a news item coming this week. If you saw our Pets at Home feature back at the beginning of lockdown, this article follows up with some ways to reduce separation anxiety now that we are beginning to return to work. It is a very real issue for our pets, so if you can prepare them, start now!
That’s all for this week. Please do get in touch with me for additional information on anything mentioned or just a general chat. My virtual door is always open.
Take care all.
Terry Hillier, CEO People Group Services.