Highly recommended! Josh and Sarah have been fantastic at Astute. They've found and placed me in 2 jobs now between them, both really responsive and excellent at keeping you up to speed with things. Very knowledgable about the roles and happy to talk to companies with any queries you have.
Great agency one of the best ones I've worked with! Liz has been a great help and support in helping me towards a new direction in my career life. She is very attentive and keeps me in the loop at all times! She makes the extra effort to work with my preferred requirements for work and even if it isn't completely attainable she meets me in the middle and does as much as she can to help! Also Liz is very funny might I add 😂 and I'm happy that I can now put a face to the name after all these years! Thank you again Liz for all your help and support! 😊
Josh and the Astute team was very swift to help me to find roles that matched my profile. They are really reliable and will help through every step of the recruitment process going out of their way to assist and follow up when needed. Could not find a better recruitment agency!
Fantastic recruitment agency.. Josh was extremely enthusiastic, encouraging and clearly knowledgeable about what was needed from both the employee and the employers point of view. Extremely supportive especially in regards to interview preparation and endeavoured to procure feedback promptly. Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Astute in the future to both candidates and recruiting businesses particularly for the right fit for the role!!!
I have worked as a candidate for Astute and they have been excellent. Super friendly service and professional agents keen to fit the right person to the right job. It has been a pleasure dealing with them and I would happily work for them again in the future. Highly recommend this agency.
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So, as we find ourselves in another Lockdown, what is the advice for employers and their employees on this adaptation of the Government’s original Furlough Scheme? Here, we try and break these down and provide some useful links for more detailed advice and webinars.
HMRC have published full revised guidance about the extended Coronavirus Job Retentions Scheme – i.e. the Furlough Scheme. This has now been extended to March 31st 2021.
The key changes for furlough claim periods from November and beyond are as follows: –
The UK Government are currently reviewing if employers could be eligible to claim for their employees serving contractual or statutory notice periods and will change the approach for claim periods starting on or after December 1st. Further guidance is to be published at the end of November. As things stand, employers may claim the grant for notice periods.
In the cases of Employers claiming for an employee for the period from November 1st retrospectively, only backdated written agreements put in place up to and including November 13th may be relied upon for the purposes of a claim. In simple terms, this means employers should ensure written furlough agreements are in place by November 13th if they are wanting to claim the grant retrospectively from November 1st.
After December 2020, the names of employers who claim under the Furlough Scheme for the month of December onwards and, for employers that are registered Companies or Limited Liability Partnerships, both the company name and registration number will be published by HMRC, so that this information will be in the public domain.
Should an employee decide to end their maternity leave early to enable them to be furloughed, they must give their employer at least eight weeks’ notice of their return to work and the employer will not be able to furlough them until the end of the eight weeks.
USEFUL LINKS: –
Top Accountancy firm, Dains, have compiled a number of useful HMRC advice and areas for businesses to focus on including: –
To keep up to date with the latest developments on COVID-19, advice to employers, businesses, and employees, please follow our company page on LinkedIn HERE.
Last year, almost to the day, we were delighted to host another of our business breakfast’s with Mr John McCarthy as our guest speaker. We hosted the event at the fabulous grounds of Derbyshire County Cricket in Derby and welcomed over 75 people from local East Midlands businesses.
John spoke passionately about his experiences in the Middle East whilst held hostage. The feedback from our guests was amazing and everyone commented what an inspirational morning it was.
Our MD, Mary Maguire, who organised the event, went on to keep in touch with John through the initial Lockdown in March, and the months that followed. His public engagements as a speaker were postponed due to the Coronavirus restrictions and Lockdown so he was only too glad to work with us again as and when, and put the event ‘online’. He has since conducted several online events for large Government Departments and major corporates.
Scroll forwards, a date was set!
Our team have all been working tirelessly to extend personal invitations to our local business communities.
We want to highlight & support local businesses and retailers in these difficult times for the Highstreet.
So we reached out to our friends at BEARand are delighted to announce that they will be providing all our attendees with a free cup of coffee and cake AND 20% off all their on-line products before Christmas!
Hopefully, we will all be able to enjoy a coffee and tasty treats at BEAR again soon!
Our reminder emails will have the discount codes for our attendees to use!
So, we are all looking forward to this Thursday afternoon. We have several businesses that have booked their whole Finance and HR departments to enjoy our webinar as a team event, which is great!
If you are interested in attending this online event, please contact Mary Maguire on her email [email protected] and she will be delighted to advise of any extra ticket availability.
Astute Recruitment Ltd share our top 10 tips for managing stress and anxiety
As England heads into a second national lockdown, we provide some tips for working from home during this stressful time, and hope this helps those feeling anxious, worried or struggling generally.
Carole is speaking at an online Stress and Wellbeing Summit, covering stress management, workplace wellbeing and how to develop resilience during unprecedented times, as a result of the pandemic.
In this ‘new normal’, companies, and their staff face massive challenges with millions of people once again asked to work from home – some for the first time in their lives.
Carole Spiers said, “With over half of adults reporting that their mental health worsened during the first lockdown (MIND Survey, June 2020), it’s more important than ever to get wellbeing working for home-workers.”
We are sharing ISMA’s 10 tips on working from home productively with a few extra pointers we all learned at Astute Recruitment in the last lockdown: –
1/ Dress as though you are going to work.
Finding a daily routine is proven to help anxiety and stress. Find a place that is exclusively yours during working hours. Get dressed every morning, at the same time. Don’t stay in pyjamas and slippers every day. If you need to make or attend video calls, you need to be dressed for the camera.
2/ Be open to adapting to change
People are creatures of habit and often do not like changes to our daily routines. Now we find ourselves in the current changing situation, we must be able to adapt, be open to adapt and get used to change quickly. Try and think positively about ways you can use your time in isolation most productively.
3/ Try exercising and eating healthily
Every day build some time for exercise. This can just be a short stroll or an online fitness class. Diarise this. Make this something to break up your day and change your focus away from ‘work’. Be aware of what you are eating and try and eat more healthily. You can pre-plan your meals and get creative with your cooking if some food items aren’t easily available.
Stock up on some staples that you can mix and match to knock something together easily. Don’t forget that frozen vegetables retain their goodness and vitamins much longer than freshly bought items.
4/ Using IT to keep in touch
When you are used to working with others, it is not easy being by yourself. Make full use of video/ online meetings, video calls and phone apps to stay in touch with colleagues and others in your circle. At Astute in the last lockdown, our team whether furloughed or not, said that their highlight of the day during lockdown was our daily zoom meeting. It wasn’t about work, it was about talking and seeing each other and really helped everyone. Whether working from home or not, to have a daily time to look forward to catching up with friends at work, (albeit in their homes!) can provide a real highlight to your day and ‘lift’ your spirits.
5/ Make it easier to work with family at home
Having to work with small children, older kids, and partners/ husbands/ extended family at home doesn’t help you to concentrate. But what can you do? If you have a partner, share the load. If you live alone with children, get them occupied with an activity before you start to work. Build a routine, a day plan that the kids can get used to, and share this in the kitchen on a wallchart or whiteboard. If everyone understands when ‘Mummy or Daddy’ needs to be working – it is easier to have that time alone.
6/ Plan work in blocks of time
Normal office hours between – 9 – 5 might not work in Lockdown and working from home. If you have children, you may choose to work in the evening as well, or very first thing before the kids get up and get a couple of hours admin out of the way. There is nothing wrong with this and this helped a number of our team with kids or partners, to manage their day, give them structure and help them be really productive.
It is essential to build in breaks where you can step away from your bedroom/ kitchen table or if you are very lucky – your home office 😊 Set your alarm on your mobile so that you have regular meal times and just even 5-minute breaks to go and make a cuppa. With no usual office banter or typical office distractions, it can be all too easy to zone out and suddenly realise hours have gone by and you haven’t eaten anything!
Make sure you take regular breaks and set yourself goals during the day.
7/ Keep in touch with friends!
It can be really lonely working from home. With no distractions from your friends in the office as usual, think of someone you can ‘buddy’ up with. We are all social creatures and thrive with social interactions. Having a ‘buddy’ to share experiences with and give each other support/ advice – is a brilliant idea and so good for your wellbeing (and sanity!). It can often give you a real lift. Get imaginative and have a ‘Friday drink’ at 4pm/ 5pm – or later in the evening – share a glass of wine, online!
8/ Get the balance right
There is no ‘one size fits all’ and recognising this is absolutely key.
What works for you does not necessarily work for someone else! Use trial and error until you find the right balance and don’t feel bad about getting it wrong a few times! Kids/ pets/ partners and life in general will still throw some curve balls.
If you do find certain things work – share your successes with friends and co-workers. You may just have the key to unlock some of their problems!
Talk to people used to working alone from the last lockdown. There may also be people you know who are used to working from home anyway. Contact them and ask what tips and ideas they can share. They will be glad to share if they know it will help you/ someone else!
9/ Have clear boundaries between ‘home/ family life’ and ‘work-life’
Every day, At the end of your ‘work’ day, switch off your computer. Tidy your desk and close the door.
This routine will become a daily habit and help with balancing your work time and home life.
Just as you would in a normal working week- you need to have clear boundaries between work time and home time.
10/ Get a good night’s sleep!
Worry and anxiety can often be a barrier to getting to sleep and having quality sleep.
The answer? Plan your bedtime. Make sure you have some downtime from work before you go to bed. Our brains are wired so that if they have been crunching numbers, solving problems and generally very active – they need some time to calm down.
Don’t eat rich foods or drink too much coffee after 8pm. And put down the Playstation/ social media feeds an hour before bedtime.
Have a regular time for bed! Whether you are a night-owl or rise with the lark, make sure you stick to a bedtime routine and go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Regular 7-hour sleep times will improve your mental health, make you more alert and more productive at work and at home!
