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Win the war for talent

The UK jobs market for specialist positions remained extremely competitive and fast-moving throughout 2019. Research from the British Chamber of Commerce revealed that in the first quarter of the year, over half of UK businesses (53%) had intended to recruit but nearly three-quarters (73%) then struggled to find the right people. It shared similar findings in quarter three, with three quarters of UK businesses still reporting difficulties finding the talent and skills they needed.

At the moment, this candidate-driven market looks set to continue into 2020. So what are the strongest weapons employers can use to boost their armoury and win the war for talent?

A competitive offering

One of the immediate things people may think of is salary. If you pay the most, will you come out as the winners? Our findings and day-to-day experience show this isn’t necessarily the case. Employers do need to be prepared to offer a fair and competitive salary, and they can use our Compare my Salary tool to benchmark what they are offering against similar roles in the eastern region. However, a happy and fulfilling place to work relies on much more than just how much people are paid. This is good news for smaller employers, charities and not-for-profit organisations in particular. There are still many ways in which they can compete against the finances of larger businesses. For example, benefit packages show an investment in people and can demonstrate the company’s values and culture. From a financial perspective, they can save employees significant amounts of money and provide financial security and reassurance in times of distress, such as if they were to become too ill to work. Wellbeing benefits have the combined advantage of helping people to stay fit and healthy while also offering real support if ever needed, like fast access to medical services or counselling. Plus lifestyle benefits including agile working, opportunities to reduce commuting times or additional annual leave, can all help people to balance their work and home life. All of these can be significant points of difference when high-calibre employees are choosing between two possible job offers. 

Quick and positive recruitment experiences

Good people are being snapped up extremely quickly, so it tends to be businesses which can act fast that come out on top. Does this mean they are putting themselves at risk of bad hiring decisions by rushing? When advising our clients on the need for speed we still reinforce the fact that there should be a robust process in place. What we are emphasising is the necessity to prioritise interviews and decision making, and to remove any unnecessary complications. Otherwise there is a real risk that a preferred candidate will already have accepted another job. Plus, more so than ever in a candidate short market, recruitment becomes a two way process. The best people will have the confidence to walk away from an organisation if they are not impressed. Employers may not have control over how many other interviews a good candidate is going for, but they do have the chance to check that they are delivering the best possible experience at every stage and are not missing any opportunities to highlight why people should want to work for their organisation.

Employer brand and strong recruitment marketing

We see every day how businesses that haven’t genuinely invested in their employer brand find it harder to attract the best people. This is reinforced by a recent LinkedIn survey which revealed that 75% of applicants now consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job. Through our Best Employers Initiative and sponsorship of Best Employer awards, it has been fantastic to see so many organisations in our region genuinely investing in creating a strong employer brand. It is clear that business leaders are recognising the importance of this when it comes to competing for, and retaining, high-calibre employees. Those who are passionate about developing their organisation’s workplace environment, engagement levels and overall employer brand can register to join us at the launch event of Best Employers Eastern Region 2020. This will once again be a great opportunity to come together with like-minded business leaders and to share expert advice and best practice examples. Once businesses have a strong employer brand in place, they can go on to adopt a marketing approach to recruitment. Every touchpoint a prospective employee may engage with is a chance to actively promote the positives of working for your company and to share more about your culture and employee value proposition.

An open mind

With candidates in high demand, it can sometimes be almost impossible to find someone who ticks every single box. Does that mean employers should put recruitment on hold and keep waiting for the ‘perfect’ candidate? We are working with clients to review what really is essential criteria and what is just desirable. After all, what makes a really good, talented employee? In most cases it is about the right attitude. If you can find someone who is the right fit for your organisation, who shares your values, is engaged with your organisation’s purpose and who will thrive in your workplace culture, you are likely to have found a high-calibre recruit. Additional skills and experience can be learnt on the job, roles can be adapted and different working patterns can be offered to suit someone’s situation. Employers who are open minded to the idea of making a role work for the right person or investing in training and developing people to meet all the criteria have the opportunity to create their own top talent. In return, they are more likely to be rewarded with engaged, loyal employees who want to stay and progress with the business. Considering that retaining high calibre employees is currently just as much of a challenge as recruiting them, the long-term benefits should not be underestimated.  

Seek expert support

When businesses are trying to hire specialist positions in a tough recruitment market, our consultants can really add value and make a difference. Our specialist sector knowledge is the primary reason why companies choose to work with us. As expert consultants in their different disciplines, our team invests time in developing and maintaining a strong network of contacts. This dedicated focus connects us to the best people and enables us to source high-quality and ‘hard to find’ candidates.

Self-Improvement in the workplace

An organisation’s company values can play a significant role in creating a workplace culture which enables employees to bring their best selves to work and therefore be more engaged, motivated and productive.

Using her own experience as a co-founder of Pure, a values-led organisation, Chief Operating Officer Gill Buchanan has shared some of her top tips on embedding values into a business and the reasons why this makes a positive difference.

Gill said: “In our day-to-day work as professional recruitment specialists for the eastern region, we are increasingly seeing just how much importance candidates place on finding an organisation which genuinely cares and which has a set of values they can really relate to. Companies with clearly communicated values are often the most successful when it comes to competing for top talent and having high levels of employee engagement.

Supporting vision and purpose

A company’s vision and purpose can be used as the inspiration and guidance to set company values. This will help to ensure that they are authentic and can successfully form the basis for the organisation’s culture. For example, when we established Pure, our vision was to create a company which was different to others within the recruitment industry. We wanted our business to focus on developing long-term client and candidate relationships rather than being driven by numbers and KPIs. Having a clear idea of what we wanted to achieve helped us to choose our values. We wanted them to represent everything we believed was important about the way we wanted to work and achieve success. Our six values are: Pure Quality, Pure Teamwork, Pure Supports, Pure Delivers, Pure Rewards and Pure Innovates.

Bringing people together

Employees who feel a sense of belonging are far more likely to be engaged and motivated to go the extra mile for themselves, their colleagues and the business as a whole. Shared values can bring people together whatever their background, interest, age or level of expertise. They enable businesses to celebrate and encourage diversity while still uniting people in day to day behaviours, standards and attitudes. We recognise that our business is a people business. We want to bring our people together and look after them as they are our ambassadors and the ones engaging with our candidates and clients. Our values have helped us to create a culture where great work is rewarded, teamwork is celebrated and everyone is supported to deliver high quality.

Company culture foundations

People spend a lot of time at work, so it is understandable that they will want to be in an environment which is a positive place to be. An organisation’s values can help to achieve this as they set the foundations for a company’s culture and the attitudes and behaviours to develop and maintain it. For example, we have a people-first culture and our Pure Supports company value helps us to achieve this. As well as supporting each other, and our candidates and clients, we want our employees to have the support they need to do their job well. It helps us to shape everything from the equipment and training we provide to the initiatives we put in place to support the mental and physical wellbeing of our team.

Embedding values into day to day business

For company values to make a real difference they need to be brought to life and embedded in day-to-day working practices. This means more than just displaying them as part of the office branding, although that is still a very positive thing to do! They also need to become foundational to the business and genuinely underpin everything. Values can be embedded by making them a part of every aspect of your business from recruitment and onboarding through to referencing them in staff reviews, reward and recognition schemes and L&D plans. They also need to be reinforced and authentically displayed by the leadership team to ensure they flow from the top down.

As part of the leadership team at Pure, our values have given us the basis of establishing a consistency of how we want to do things. Because we all really believe in the values, we can live them while still being our true selves, we don’t have to robotically try and demonstrate them. They have also become a key part of the language we use when talking about our business, from updating our teams internally through to our external communications.

We believe that being able to share our values with our clients and candidates helps to give them a real understanding of what it is like to work with us. The same goes for potential new recruits. Our values help us to explain more about how we have created a culture which differentiates us from other recruitment firms. To help share this with prospective employees, and new recruits, we have put together a Pure book to explain more about our company in a fun, easy and tangible way. After a few months of being part of our team, we also ask new employees to deliver a presentation which includes sharing examples of when they have seen our values being demonstrated day to day. This really helps people to understand why they are so important to us and how they benefit everybody.”

Get with the times

Through Pure’s day-to-day recruitment work supporting clients and candidates, the team sees first-hand how employers and HR personnel are adapting and evolving their recruitment approach to suit the current candidate-driven market. Here Gill Buchanan, COO at the professional recruitment specialists, looks at some of the emerging trends and recruitment actions which are becoming a top priority as employers look to compete and stand out.

Employer brand

A LinkedIn survey revealed 75% of applicants now consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job, which is why we are seeing more organisations genuinely investing in creating a strong employer brand based on the company’s vision, values and culture. A commitment to creating an attractive employee value proposition will help businesses to attract, retain and engage the best people. And a strong employer brand now goes beyond just a competitive salary, and even learning and development, career progression and well thought out perks and benefits. There is a growing trend for candidates to also base their decisions on ethical and lifestyle factors including how socially responsible a business is and its workplace environment and culture. 

Competitor research

As businesses recognise the significant impact employer brand can have on the ability to recruit the best people, more employers are taking the time to research their industry and local recruitment market to understand how they can compete and stand out. Our expert consultants are regularly asked for advice based on our wealth of experience within our specialist sectors and our knowledge of the Eastern region. Employers are keen to be better equipped to be able to share with candidates what they can offer them in return for their knowledge, experience and expertise, compared to a competitor who may also have made them a job offer.

Flexibility

While offering flexible working opportunities is ultimately part of an employer brand, it is becoming such a competing factor that it warrants a section of its own. People realise that they can still be ambitious without having to be in an office for over 12 hours a day and are looking for roles which can give them the time and flexibility to do things outside of work. Employers are also recognising that they are risking missing out on, or losing top talent from the organisation, if they can’t provide business-suitable flexibility for employees such as return to work parents or those with caring responsibilities. 

Recruitment marketing

Having researched the market and created an attractive employer brand, more precedent is being put on actively marketing this to both current and future employees. Businesses are promoting themselves as employers people want to work for by communicating their employer brand across multiple channels and in a variety of different, engaging ways. A simple newspaper advert or online advert is unlikely to be enough to stand out, recruitment materials are proactively showcasing company culture and employee value proposition and are backed up with engaging content on dedicated website careers sections, social media activity, employee-related news, blogs and case studies and videos about working for the company.

Employee referrals

Another LinkedIn survey revealed that candidates are three times more likely to trust a company’s employees when looking for credible information on what it is like to work there. Employees have always been an organisation’s biggest advocate and more businesses are harnessing this by implementing employee referral schemes, engaging them to provide positive online reviews, featuring real-life employee case studies in print and videos, and enabling employees to act as inspiring role models through work with local schools, colleges and universities.

Strategic recruitment

Rather than potentially competing for talented candidates unnecessarily, businesses are taking a more strategic approach and only going out to market to buy new talent when there is a clear need for immediate, long-term skills and experience. Instead many businesses are planning ahead and using skills audits to identify what they need to meet the company’s goals and looking to build their own talent and expertise from within, or to recruit people they can see potential in and committing to training them to become the full package. Alternatively, they are looking to borrow expertise on a temporary basis, capitalising on the growing gig economy which has opened up the pool of talent available to businesses for short-term projects.

Recruitment speed

Businesses are increasingly conscious that it is often the first organisation to the finish line who will win the race to employ top talent. They are reviewing their recruitment processes to make them as agile, while still effective, as possible and are prioritising time to meet with high-quality candidates rather than risking losing out to a business which has moved faster.

Candidate experience

Organisations are also increasingly reviewing the candidate experience they provide at every stage of the recruitment journey, from initial clear information through to the interview and the communication of final decisions. A company’s preferred candidate is more likely to accept their job offer, over that of a competitor, if they have had a positive experience throughout. Plus any high calibre candidates who were not successful will still view the organisation positively, be more likely to apply again and to recommend the business to others; maintaining the company’s reputation and its ability to attract top talent.

A good recruitment consultant will have their finger on the pulse of the industry they specialise in, and the local market, and will be able to provide valuable insight into any shifting trends. Here at Pure, our expert consultants don’t just support clients in finding the right person for the role they also provide expert market insight, employer branding advice, talent planning support and help to create a positive candidate experience.

Get with the times: Pure Recruitment

Through Pure’s day-to-day recruitment work supporting clients and candidates, the team sees first-hand how employers and HR personnel are adapting and evolving their recruitment approach to suit the current candidate-driven market. Here Gill Buchanan, COO at the professional recruitment specialists, looks at some of the emerging trends and recruitment actions which are becoming a top priority as employers look to compete and stand out.

Employer brand

A LinkedIn survey revealed 75% of applicants now consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job, which is why we are seeing more organisations genuinely investing in creating a strong employer brand based on the company’s vision, values and culture. A commitment to creating an attractive employee value proposition will help businesses to attract, retain and engage the best people. And a strong employer brand now goes beyond just a competitive salary, and even learning and development, career progression and well thought out perks and benefits. There is a growing trend for candidates to also base their decisions on ethical and lifestyle factors including how socially responsible a business is and its workplace environment and culture. 

Competitor research

As businesses recognise the significant impact employer brand can have on the ability to recruit the best people, more employers are taking the time to research their industry and local recruitment market to understand how they can compete and stand out. Our expert consultants are regularly asked for advice based on our wealth of experience within our specialist sectors and our knowledge of the Eastern region. Employers are keen to be better equipped to be able to share with candidates what they can offer them in return for their knowledge, experience and expertise, compared to a competitor who may also have made them a job offer.

Flexibility

While offering flexible working opportunities is ultimately part of an employer brand, it is becoming such a competing factor that it warrants a section of its own. People realise that they can still be ambitious without having to be in an office for over 12 hours a day and are looking for roles which can give them the time and flexibility to do things outside of work. Employers are also recognising that they are risking missing out on, or losing top talent from the organisation, if they can’t provide business-suitable flexibility for employees such as return to work parents or those with caring responsibilities. 

Recruitment marketing

Having researched the market and created an attractive employer brand, more precedent is being put on actively marketing this to both current and future employees. Businesses are promoting themselves as employers people want to work for by communicating their employer brand across multiple channels and in a variety of different, engaging ways. A simple newspaper advert or online advert is unlikely to be enough to stand out, recruitment materials are proactively showcasing company culture and employee value proposition and are backed up with engaging content on dedicated website careers sections, social media activity, employee-related news, blogs and case studies and videos about working for the company.

Employee referrals

Another LinkedIn survey revealed that candidates are three times more likely to trust a company’s employees when looking for credible information on what it is like to work there. Employees have always been an organisation’s biggest advocate and more businesses are harnessing this by implementing employee referral schemes, engaging them to provide positive online reviews, featuring real-life employee case studies in print and videos, and enabling employees to act as inspiring role models through work with local schools, colleges and universities.

Strategic recruitment

Rather than potentially competing for talented candidates unnecessarily, businesses are taking a more strategic approach and only going out to market to buy new talent when there is a clear need for immediate, long-term skills and experience. Instead many businesses are planning ahead and using skills audits to identify what they need to meet the company’s goals and looking to build their own talent and expertise from within, or to recruit people they can see potential in and committing to training them to become the full package. Alternatively, they are looking to borrow expertise on a temporary basis, capitalising on the growing gig economy which has opened up the pool of talent available to businesses for short-term projects.

Recruitment speed

Businesses are increasingly conscious that it is often the first organisation to the finish line who will win the race to employ top talent. They are reviewing their recruitment processes to make them as agile, while still effective, as possible and are prioritising time to meet with high-quality candidates rather than risking losing out to a business which has moved faster.

Candidate experience

Organisations are also increasingly reviewing the candidate experience they provide at every stage of the recruitment journey, from initial clear information through to the interview and the communication of final decisions. A company’s preferred candidate is more likely to accept their job offer, over that of a competitor, if they have had a positive experience throughout. Plus any high calibre candidates who were not successful will still view the organisation positively, be more likely to apply again and to recommend the business to others; maintaining the company’s reputation and its ability to attract top talent.

A good recruitment consultant will have their finger on the pulse of the industry they specialise in, and the local market, and will be able to provide valuable insight into any shifting trends. Here at Pure, our expert consultants don’t just support clients in finding the right person for the role they also provide expert market insight, employer branding advice, talent planning support and help to create a positive candidate experience.

Teams need to feel together more than everHuxley Events

In these strange and difficult times, team building and team development can seem low down a managers list.

The reality is actually quite different – now more than ever teams need to feel together.

Being apart does not mean you cannot be together, and with working practices changing in so many ways it is really important for leaders and managers to work creatively and sensitively to support their teams.

Remote work can be lonely, disengaged and unproductive; or the complete opposite.

So when people can’t be together what is the alternative?

Virtual Team Building Activities

The Benefits of Virtual Team Building

The benefits of virtual team building include:

• Improved team collaboration.
• Better internal communication.
• Increased job satisfaction.
• Measurable increase in retention.
• Happy remote workers.
• Productive remote teams.
• Build team culture.
• Improve your company’s reputation.
• Give your people something to tell their significant others about
• Improved relationships between managers and direct reports & more

Team Building Tip:

Every manager cares about the bonds between team members. They should constantly keep everyone involved in the team processes, motivating individuals to be more than just co workers.

Experienced team leaders know how it is important to support each other in a positive, playful manner. And they know that informal team building activities are an appropriate way to improve team spirit and make employees more solid. No matter you work in a software company, e-commerce store or involved in mass media, – team building will enhance your team and business.

The connections within distributed teams are not so easy to establish and maintain. You can encourage them to connect via email. However, to bring them closer, you should think about fun activities.

What is Virtual Team Building?

Virtual team building is the practice that includes organising online games and activities that give remote employees an opportunity to socialise and communicate with co-workers who rarely meet in person, or who they used to see but with changing working practices it is a lot less frequent.

People who work remotely do not have the same opportunities as employees in offices have, they can not interact outside of the scope of work. And now we are going to describe one of the most evident problems of distributed teams.

Any remote worker is typically focused on their own tasks and responsibilities. They are often very individually driven.

Distributed employees rarely get the chance to fully interact with their co workers as if they would in a “regular” office. The lack of organic relationships may lead to remote meetings feeling routine, dry and transactional as they just stick to the agenda. Nobody will know what else to talk about other than work since they never get to chat in the morning.

Unfortunately, very often virtual teams make companies lose successful communication that is so crucial to employee satisfaction and retention. People lose that opportunity to casually bump into each other near the coffee machine and talk about things unrelated to work such as their hobbies, current sports events, home life, or even politics.

You may say that these interactions and small talks mean nothing but they actually impact team performance and motivation a great deal.

Our favourite virtual team building activities include;

 VIRTUALLY KILLED CRIME SCENE TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITY

• HEALTHY HEART & WORLD COOKERY TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITY
• THE GOLD RUSH USA ADVENTURE VIRTUAL TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITY
• ESCAPE THE ROOM VIRTUAL TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITY

When team members feel closer, their morale improves, productivity rises and happiness goes up.

Huxley Events

By James Wiliamson, NAAME

This week, NAAME Project Manager, James was lucky enough to catch-up with Daemmon Reeve, Group CEO at Treatt & Chloe Ludkin, Executive PA to Group CEO. Treatt recently delivered an outstanding presentation at West Suffolk Manufacturing Group, offering an insight into their response and resilience to the pandemic as well as the companies expansion plans. Here’s what they had to say:

Treatt Background

Treatt plc manufacture and supply a diverse and sustainable portfolio of natural extracts and ingredients for the global beverage, flavour, and fragrance industries. The business factory and facilities is based at Bury Saint edmunds.

Workplace Wellbeing

A healthy workforce is important to Treatt, and we acknowledge our duty of care in supporting our staff with their wellbeing. This year, we have developed a Wellbeing Committee and provided training to a team of Treatt employees who have become our Wellbeing Champions with the aim of providing a signposting service to our workforce. The Wellbeing team have carried out a range of activities throughout the year including talks from external speakers on Positive Thinking, Sleep Clinics and Nutritional Advice. For Mental Health Awareness Week in May, we offered further sessions for the benefit of our employees during the lockdown period. The programme was all delivered remotely in response to COVID-19 lockdown, offering us new opportunities in terms of the scalability and accessibility.

Throughout the pandemic, the safety and wellbeing of our global workforce has been our number one priority, both physically and mentally. To support this, we have conducted risk assessments across site which are frequently updated, we have always ensured 2m distancing and we have implemented one-way systems throughout the organisation. Team bubbles have been created to significantly reduce cross contamination risks, as well as create a robust process for managing potential virus cases. We have also offered free face coverings, increased our cleaning regime, and ensured constant provision of hand sanitiser. To protect our employee’s mental wellbeing, we have incorporated small acts of kindness such as grocery supplies, fruit and hot food deliveries to our on-site employees and home delivered cakes to our home-based employees. Best practice has been shared with our colleagues in the US, and vice versa, even though COVID-19 secure guidance moved at different speeds during the pandemic in each respective country.

New Ways of Working

New methods of working have enabled us to carry out virtual webinars for customers, hold weekly wellbeing check-in’s available to all staff, introduce virtual social activities such as bingo and quiz nights and stimulate global engagement through our wellbeing initiatives by means of video. Daemmon Reeve, Group CEO, has also held numerous informal virtual coffee catchups with staff across the group, enabling informal Q&A sessions with the CEO.

Treatt chose not to participate in the furlough scheme as we didn’t feel this was ethically right, and not intended for a business like ours. We have had periods of time where certain staff members have not been required to work during the pandemic, these staff were redeployed to other areas or remained at home and paid in full. Our Health and Safety Manager was released during the pandemic to support the NHS, due to his nursing background and we have also supported local care homes by producing hand sanitiser within our Manufacturing operation.

Treatt continue to partner with local organisations and schools to enhance the educational opportunities to the future working generation. An example of this includes two members of staff fulfilling the role of Enterprise Network Advisors, partnered to support a local High School in Bury St Edmunds which is pivotal in preparing children for the working world.

We are currently undergoing a substantial investment in the firm, with the development of a new global headquarters on Suffolk Business Park. This development renews our commitment to the town of Bury St Edmunds and the local community where we employ over 200 people. Our new headquarters is built and designed to increase the efficiency of our UK operations, whilst providing a significantly enhanced working environment where the Treatt community will flourish.

With special thanks to Chloe Ludkin & Daemmon Reeve for sharing their lastest insights with us. A great example of truly looking after your employees in a time of need, and fantastic to hear about their expansions plans and investment into the local economy.

Got a diversification story you would like to share with our members? Please get in touch with James: james.williamson@newanglia.co.uk

Did you know a health and social care worker is attacked every 30 minutes in the UK?

Here at Safepoint we have launched the #Every30Minutes campaign, with support from The Care Workers’ Charity and Drury Healthcare.

With this campaign, we look to shine a spotlight on the violence, abuse and stress professional carers can suffer.

Find out more at https://safepointapp.com/every30minutes

The Engaging People Company

This year has brought many challenges. Including a new one I hadn’t envisaged.

The technology terrors.

Back in the very early spring, setting up meetings could bring with it previously unentertained anxieties. No sooner would I pop a virtual appointment in my calendar than my mind, like the DeLorean in the Back to the Future movies, would race forward to a few days hence. What if my Wi-Fi drops out? What if my laptop freezes? What if my microphone stops working? What if ditto my camera? What if I can’t get the grips with the settings? What if-

And when not thundering into some future parallel universe, my mind would cast back to times gone by, experiences when the technology had failed. And these unwelcome memories brought very literal reminders of the feelings of worry that they had provoked at the time.

Like a rocking horse, I oscillated unhappily between the ‘what ifs’ of an unknown and increasingly concerning future scenario and past reminisces of previous technological mishaps. And with each new thought, I could feel my anxiety increase until my worry had formed itself into a low, unhappy hum, prodding me annoyingly.

STOP.

What can I do?

I can set up my laptop closer to the Wi-Fi

I can go do a ‘test run.’

I can spend half an hour familiarising myself with the settings.

And that was it. Anything else that might crop up was out of my control. So if my laptop suddenly froze, or the internet dropped out, or if a power cut rudely and abruptly shut everything down, I would deal with it in the moment.

Such a simple, every day and minor challenge. But an example of how by realising we always have a choice, that there is always something we can do – as well as stuff about which we can do nothing – we can mitigate and manage worry and stress: and unnecessary worry and stress at that.

In any situation we have power. The key is realising where our power lies.

What can I control? What can I influence? That’s what we focus on. There is always, always something that we can do – even when we feel like something is happening to us rather than with us.

And what can I do nothing about? This is the stuff that we have to let go. Especially as these are the things on which we exert so much of our mental energy, ultimately bringing worries and stress and anxieties. It’s so often the ‘what if’ aspect of our lives, such as in my case. I had no way of knowing what would happen, I’m not a psychic, so getting lost on that turbulent train of thought was futile. And ultimately, unpleasant.

Because as well as realising where our power lies, focusing on what we can control and influence, is freeing. If I cannot do anything about it, then why I am giving it such head space?

The pandemic which we find ourselves in is a prime example where we can find and focus on the things within our control and influence. What can I control? Washing my hands. Wearing a mask. Keeping my distance. What can I influence? Others behaviours’ through my own.

But I am not an epidemiologist (there’s a word I couldn’t say never mind spell a year ago). I’m not a scientist. I’m not a politician. The pandemic offers many tempting opportunities for ‘what if…’ thinking but is this helpful? Or is it just creating further anxieties in an already challenging time?

Of course, that’s all very well said and done: it’s a pandemic after all. But it can be an invaluable tool. And, when we find ourselves on that slippery ‘what if’ path, we can remind ourselves that the only moment we need to focus on is this one. Right now.

*Oh, and those technology terrors are long since banished. I’m happy to report that I’m more than au fait with a good Zoom quiz these days.

This article was shared with permission from The Engaging People Company

Can we help? We’d love to hear from you. Please do get in touch:

Phone: 07834 578872

Email: michelle@engaging-people.co.uk

Twitter: @engagepeopleco

If you need help and advice on how to claim your apprenticeship incentives, this article offers some useful information and resources to help you do so.

The ESFA introduced payments to support employers who hire new apprentices between 1 August 2020 and 31 March 2021. You can apply for these payments until 30 April 2021. Therefore, if you take on new apprentices from 1 February 2021, you can apply between 1 February 2021 – 30 April 2021.

In short, for eligible apprentices aged 16 to 24, employers will receive £2,000. Whereas for those aged 25 and over, employers will receive £1,500. These incentives are claimed on the Digital Apprenticeship Service, so you will need your organisation’s bank details so the ESFA can pay your organisation directly.

Eligibility

You can only apply for new apprentices who joined your organisation from 1 August 2020 to 31 March 2021. This also includes if you recruit apprentices who have been made redundant. You cannot apply for an existing employee who joined your organisation before 1 August 2020, even if they started an apprenticeship after this date.

How to apply

You can apply for an incentive payment after you have added new apprentices to your digital apprenticeship service account. You can apply until 30 April 2021. The ESFA has produced a video step by step guide detailing how to make an incentive claim via the Digital Apprenticeship Service.

Watch the step by step guide here

When you’ll get paid

This is a direct agreement between your organisation and the ESFA. Payment is made in two equal instalments for each apprentice. The first payment is after an apprentice completes 90 days of their apprenticeship and the second is after 365 days. To receive the full payment, the apprenticeship must last for at least one year. Bacs provides payments on the 14th working day of the month (usually taking three working days to process). After you apply, you can view the estimated payment dates for each apprentice in your digital apprenticeship service account.

You can find out more about our apprenticeships here and some employer resources here.

We are delighted to have been named the UK’s leading adult education provider taking home the Adult and Community Learning Provider of the Year award at the Tes (Times Educational Supplement) Further Education awards, often referred to as the ‘Oscars of education’.

Denise Saadvandi, Head of Service said, “I have never felt so proud of this fantastic service, the total commitment and dedication of our staff and tutors to our service and learners has led us to achieve great things for our community in Norfolk.”

The award recognises providers ‘whose imagination and passion’ have shown ‘excellence in providing a high-quality curriculum with excellent student outcomes’.

On the evening, the judges said about the service that: “Norfolk County Council has an amazing ability to do what’s right for its community. In life before Covid, 98% of provision was delivered in 200 venues across the region, but by April 2020 everything had changed and all provision moved online. As a result, learners remained connected with education and, crucially, with each other.”

We want to say a massive thank you to all of our staff, tutors and learners for their amazing achievements over the year. We couldn’t have done it without you!

If you’d like to watch the awards, the stream of the event can be found on the Tes YouTube channel. The Adult and Community Learning Provider of the Year Award is announced 32 minutes into the stream.

www.norfolk.gov.uk/adultlearning .