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Sarah Stevenson, (far right) Astute Recruitment’s MD with all the other winners at the Leadership Awards

All of us were thrilled to watch Sarah go up on stage with all the other winners at TheBusinessDesk.com’s East Midland’s Leadership awards!

Sarah has tirelessly led her team from start up through the most difficult of times. Through every crisis, she has managed to lead from the front through grit, determination and inspiration.

Sarah has also managed to enable her team to adapt to every problem, rise to every challenge with support, help and passion.

Its fair to say that all of us, from the bottom of our hearts, could not be happier for her or think of a more deserving winner for this category.

You can watch Sarah’s speech after collecting her award on the link below.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UTTqm3ZjKeWX9vTL9

A huge thumbs up also goes to Sam Metcalfe and everyone at The Business Desk.com for putting together a brilliant evening.

Thanks to the sponsors too for their support.

The biggest thanks goes

to all the winners and

finalists at the evening.

Everyone of them showed that

hard work,

inspiration and successful leadership

can achieve wonderful business success

for their staff, families,

and teams!

Everyone getting settled for a great evening at the BusinessDesk.com’s East Midlands Leadership Awards

Here at Astute, we love to celebrate success, so tonight we are keeping our fingers crossed for one of our founders, and MD, Sarah Stevenson who is one of the finalists at The Business Desk.com’s prestigious East Midlands Leadership Awards.

After a couple of difficult years, it is brilliant for us to have most of our team together and celebrate an evening toasting the most talented leaders in our East Midlands business community!

Our table is booked at Nottingham’s Crowne Plaza.

TheBusinessDesk.com wanted to create the East Midlands Leadership Awards to celebrate the leaders in business who are role models within their organisations. The bar is set high this year with a great selection of business owners and leaders who have done so much for their organisations and teams.

The winners will show the qualities of extraordinary leadership and be able to demonstrate the positive impact this has had.

The Leadership awards offer a great opportunity to recognise and showcase the achievements and success of businesses in the region.

There are ten categories at this year’s awards evening, which will see the winners acknowledged in front of the cream of the East Midlands business community.

The judging panel for this year’s awards was: Amanda Fletcher of the Nottinghamshire Golf and Country Club; Reshma Sheikh of Octavian Security UK; Richard Blackmore of the CBI and Jude Weston of NG Chartered Surveyors.

TheBusinessDesk.com’s Midlands editor Sam Metcalf, who chaired the panel, said:

“The standard of this year’s entrants was higher than ever, displaying the depth and breadth of the leadership talent in the East Midlands.

“I’d like to thank our judging panel for their time and expertise and wish all the shortlisted individuals all the best for our awards evening in March.”

We’re all keeping our fingers crossed for Sarah, but we wish the best of luck to all the finalists this year. You have all done brilliantly to be shortlisted and all deserve to celebrate!

The Categories and Shortlists for this year’s business awards are: –

Young Leader of the Year

Adam Horton, Hortons Estate Agents
Louisa Hackford-Gentle, Autistic Nottingham
Roheel Ahmed, Forsyth Barnes
Samantha Wilde, Retail Assist
Stephen Mair, Andrew Granger & Co

Transformational Leader

Adrian Buttress, PermaGroup
Alan Forsyth, Hockley Developments
Bev Wakefield, Vibrant Accountancy
Roland Kendall, Retail Assist
Sarah Stevenson, Astute Recruitment

Public and Third

Sector Leader

Amo Raju, Disability Direct
Ann Bhatti, Connect Derby
Ian Cooper, Speakers for Schools
Marysia Zipser, Art Culture Tourism
Naomi Watkins-Ligudzinska, NW Counselling Hub CIC

Mentor of the Year

Adam Rhodes, Rhodes Wealth Management
Justin Donne, Art Culture Tourism
Kirin Abbas, Paragon Law
Laura-Jane Turner, Jigsaw24
Richard Fairey, Rushton Hickman

Emerging Entrepreneur Leader

Amad Tababa, Autify Digital
Daniel Connor, DC Personnel
Luke Draper, IDT
Rob Spence, Paragon Sales Solutions

Diversity & Inclusion Leader

Amo Raju, Disability Direct
Barjis Chohan, Art Culture Tourism
Kul Mahay, Ignite Your Inner Potential
Mark Esho, Easy Internet Services
Thalej Vasishta, Paragon Law

Professional Services Leader

Amit Sonpal, Barclays Corporate Banking
Andrew Robinson, Andrew Granger & Co
Carl Hilton, BSP Consulting
David Ryley, Ryley Wealth Management
Tony Sherwin, Retail Assist

Green Leader

Becky Valentine, Spenbeck
Gary Styles, Zellar
Lance Hill, Eight Days a Week Print Solutions
Roger Whittle, Jigsaw24

Non-Executive Leader

Jade Martin, Rushton Hickman
Justin Donne, Autistic Nottingham
Rita Carta Manias, Art Culture Tourism

Company Leader

(up to 100 employees)

Adrian Buttress, PermaGroup
Alan Forsyth, Hockley Developments
Arran Bailey, ALB Group
Edward Acres, Acres Group
Lance Hill, Eight Days a Week Print Solutions

Company Leader (100+ employees)

Ian Williamson, ITP Aero UK
Rob Darby, 200 Degrees Coffee
Stewart Vandermark, Nelsons

Leader of the Year?

To be announced on the night !

We wish everyone the best of luck!

“I can be changed by what happens

to me. But I refuse to

be reduced by it.”

–Maya Angelou

What a great definition of resilience! Whatever stage of life and career, there’s no denying that strength of mind and spirit are powerful keys to succeed and overcome life’s hurdles.

From job interviews, applying for promotions, working to get recognition to achieve that promotion, all require tenacity and resilience.

Not everyone passes exams or aces their job interview first time. Most of us have to learn through making mistakes.

Along as we can recognise where we have gone wrong, and have the will to make sure that the same mistake is not made time and time again, that’s progress!

The spirit to keep trying to achieve your goals despite setbacks, that’s true resilience.

All extraordinary achievements come from an ordinary person giving that little bit of extra

effort.

The extra in extraordinary comes from that seed of self-will to try one more time.

To make that final push.

To revise for that extra hour.

To re-read that cv one more time before an interview.

Reading from autobiographical books by champions from the worlds of sport and business, or all have one overriding strength in common.

Resilience.

At some point, all of them have had problems.

Often huge setbacks.

From injuries, failed attempts to ‘win’ to bankruptcy, but they have bounced back.

They have refused to accept defeat on their paths towards their goals.

They have had an inner steel core that has said, ‘You are enough. You will get through this. You will succeed’.

What are the keys to building your own personal bank account of resilience?

We’ve broken them down into 5 bitesize ‘keys’.

Each one will need consistent, hard work to maintain and develop, but together they are a set of keys that will unlock your true potential, and help you achieve strong levels of resilience personally AND professionally!

Let’s turn each ‘key’ and see what it could unlock for you..

What are the five keys

to unlock resilience?

Think of people you feel are resilient. Chances are, they will have some core strengths in common.

1. Inner self-belief/ drive
2. Strong personal sense of emotional well-being
3. Forward/ future focused mindset
4. Solid friend/ relationship/ social network
5. Strong personal sense of their own ‘Physical well-being/ physical health’

For employers and businesses, a crucial strategy to develop in their staff and teams are strong levels of personal resilience.

For example, in a sales / recruitment environment- high levels of individual resilience allows individual consultants to overcome a declined job offer, or failed recruitment campaign, chalk it to experience and crucially move on.

Equally, in a pressurised accounts team, it allows the team to bounce back when a deadline is missed, or accounting error is made.

High levels of resilience will create a positive ‘can do’ mentality in teams to overcome the problem and create the shared impulse/ desire to make sure the same error/ difficulty isn’t repeated.

Individual resilience in a team setting, will encourage an underperforming, overworked, or even an under-challenged employee within a successful team, to gain a fresh and objective perspective on the situation at hand.

Sometimes thats all that’s required to make lasting positive, changes. A simple gear-shift towards a more positive mindset.

So, here are our 5 ‘keys’ to unlock resilience.

Emotional wellbeing

The first and most fundamental key to unlock resilience is emotional wellbeing. This is all about how someone – an employee/ manager – understands and is able to manage their emotions.

This is all about being able to see things from multiple perspectives, able to resolve internal arguments, whilst smoothing conflicts between others, and healthily being able to express emotions.

Resilience is critical in times of stress AND conflict, and it’s crucial to achieve a rational, calm responses to ‘difficult situations’.

When something upsetting or frustrating happens, we recommend trying these four easy steps;

• Stop. Take a second (or 20 🤣), to think about the emotions you’re experiencing. Breathe in, breathe out, take the time to pause. Allow yourself to ‘be in the moment’ and truly ‘be present’. Be properly focused on the issue at hand. Don’t allow yourself to get distracted.

• Remind yourself that emotions are short-lived/ temporary, but your actions/responses won’t be!

• Attempt to identify what exactly upset/frustrated you.

• Explore ways to handle the situation in order to reach the most positive outcome

Looking to the Future

A resilient person is a person focused on their future – ready to embrace change and new challenges.

Until someone invents a time-travelling Tardis or Delorean, nobody can predict the future.

But, it is possible to be prepared to successfully handle unforeseen obstacles. The ability to ‘Look to the future’, is the ability to plan ahead, and to ultimately be ahead.

To achieve this, a person must set themselves a realistic goal – or a ‘SMART‘ objective.

Specific,
Measurable,
Achievable
Relevant,
Time-restricted.

Write down your SMART goal(s), or if you have a few, keep the number achievable.

Write down any achievements that you’re proud of. Anything important that this taught you.

By doing this, if you find yourself feeling unmotivated at any point, you have something real to refer you back to of how adaptable and successful you can be when you put their mind to it.

———————-

Inner drive

Inner drive is all about a person’s ability to focus on themselves on a daily basis. Although a person shouldn’t put too much pressure on themselves, they can do the following things on a daily basis:

• Be ‘in the moment’ – in other words, use their own self-awareness as a guide

• Practice managing thoughts, emotions, and actions

• See constructive criticism and setbacks as opportunities for development. Learn not to take criticism personally, but see it as an opportunity to grow. To improve. Actually encourage constructive feedback if you face a work criticism from your boss.

• Write a to-do list that keeps you on top of your tasks and holds you accountable

• Focus on your core values

A person’s core values can form a major part of their personal identity, and include the things that are most important to them. If they make choices that deviate from their values, they are likely to lose motivation. As a result, their mental health could suffer.

Knowing what they believe in can allow their core values to help them make decisions that drive them to succeed.

Adopt good physical health habits

As we’ve mainly focused on ‘fluffy’ things like thoughts and emotions, it might be a surprise that physical health is a definite key to resilience! It is vitally important!

To truly take care of their physical health, a person needs to eat properly, get enough sleep, stay hydrated, and actively listen to their body. By maintaining good physical health habits, it will give a person the energy and drive to maintain all of the other keys to resilience.

When a person takes care of their body on a daily basis, it sets a reminder of something many people often forget – that small, consistent improvements stand the test of time in comparison to sudden, grand gestures.

Relationships

A person’s relationships can drastically improve their resilience, and their life overall. By having a healthy social network, it becomes far easier to develop and maintain resilience, even if the social circle of friendship is small. Quality not quantity counts in relationships.

This means having trustworthy people to lean on when a person needs support, advice, or someone to listen.

Those looking to develop their resilience should ask themselves:

• When was the last time they were stressed at work?

• Did someone help them?

• If so, who was it?

A person must recognise those who are loyal and helpful, to be able to recognise and identify their meaningful relationships. If they found that the answer to their question was that no-one helped them, think – did they reach out for help? Or did they keep it to themselves and find that things escalated – to a bad day or even a bad week?

But a person also needs to make time and emotional space for others – this is all part of being resilient. Being genuinely interested in what others have to say and showing them that they can lean on you in hard times too. This will create genuine, lasting relationships built on trust and empathy – and it’s an enormous source of strength. Good social connections give a sense of belonging and it will increase happiness, enjoyment – and in turn – it will reduce susceptibility to stress and increase a person’s ability to handle adversity.

So there you go.

If you follow the above consistently – you should notice that your average mood will be more positive. Your relationships will be happier.

Your work colleagues and job may become easier to manage.

Who knows? You may be ready to go for that promotion, new job or take that exam!

International Women’s Day is a global, annual opportunity to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements and rally together for women’s equality.

Marked annually on March 8th, International Women’s Day (IWD) is one of the most important days of the year to:

Celebrate women’s achievements

Raise awareness about women’s equality

Lobby for accelerated gender parity

Fundraise for female-focused charities

This #IWD2022, our thoughts turn towards the women in Ukraine.

Mothers, daughters, women of all ages fighting for survival against aggression by Russian forces.

Women reporting from Ukraine war zones to ensure the world knows the truth.

Women forced to flee their homes with their children.

Women forced to give birth in bunkers.

We send our support to all the women of Ukraine.

Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women issued the following statement ahead of International Women’s Day: –

“On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the power and potential of women and girls. We recognise their courage, resilience and leadership. We mark the ways in which we are making progress towards a more gender-equal world.“

Sima goes onto say;

“At the same time, we see how that progress is being undermined by multiple, interlocking and compounding generational crises.

Currently, we are witnessing the horrifying situation in Ukraine where the impacts on women and girls, including the hundreds of thousands displaced, remind us: all conflicts, from Ukraine to Myanmar to Afghanistan, from the Sahel to Yemen, exact their highest price from women and girls. The Secretary- General has been clear, War Must Stop.”

Watch a video of Sima Bahous: https://youtu.be/HvBUwrIp9k0

This year’s campaign is represented by the #BreakTheBias hashtag and calls on people to work towards a world that is equitable, inclusive, and free from bias and discrimination so the playing field is levelled for women moving forward.

Back to Sima:-

“The impacts of COVID-19 have increased inequalities, driving poverty and violence against women and girls; and rolling back their progress in employment, health and education. The accelerating crises of climate change and environmental degradation are disproportionately undermining the rights and wellbeing of women and girls. They are multiplying insecurity at all levels, from individual and household to national. Rising temperatures, extended droughts, violent storms and floods are resulting in loss of livelihoods, they are depleting resources and fuelling migration and displacement. The latest major IPCC report on climate change, and our Secretary-General, have warned us that ‘nearly half of humanity is living in the danger zone – now, ’and that ‘many ecosystems are at the point of no return – now’.

Climate change is a threat multiplier. But women, and especially young women, are solution multipliers.

We have today the opportunity to put women and girls at the centre of our planning and action and to integrate gender perspectives into global and national laws and policies. We have the opportunity to re-think, re-frame and re-allocate resources. We have the opportunity to benefit from the leadership of women and girls environmental defenders and climate activists to guide our planet’s conservation. We need Indigenous women’s inter-generational knowledge, practices and skills.

It will take unprecedented levels of global cooperation and solidarity to succeed, but there is no alternative to success. We must protect our hard-won gains on human rights and women’s rights and lead decisively to leave no woman or girl behind.

We have a blueprint to follow. It involves women’s full and equal participation and leadership in decision-making; their access to green jobs and the blue economy; and their equal access to finance and resources.

We need to ensure universal social protection and a care economy that protects us all. We have to scale up financing for gender-responsive climate, environmental and disaster risk initiatives; including for COVID-19 recovery and to increase resilience to future shocks. The solution is there. We resolve to pursue it.

Let us make this International Women’s Day a moment to recall that we have the answers not just for SDG 5 but, through the advancement of gender equality, for all 17 Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030. I look forward to working with every one of you to that end.”

Wise words which all of us here at Astute thoroughly support.

And our thoughts and prayers go to all in the Ukraine.

We’ve done a fun straw poll in the office to see how people like their pancakes.

Sarah Stevenson – ‘Lemon and sugar all the way!’

Mary Maguire – ‘Thin with a generous drizzle of honey’

Sarah-Louise – ‘Lemon and sugar for me!’

Tom Norton – ‘Smothered in maple syrup and bacon’ Prize for weirdest preference surely?)

Andy Lilliman – ‘Not the biggest fan – sorry!’

Richard Bowe – ‘Maple syrup and ice cream on the top!’

Josh Dunn – ‘Lemon and sugar all the way!’

Jess Starns – ‘Lemon, sugar and bananas (sometimes with a bit of cream!)’

Liz Champion – ‘In the bin’ – really made us laugh this one. Clearly not a fan!

Matt Morgan – ‘Maple syrup, then fold the pancake, then lemon juice, fold again then sugar!’

Harry Langridge – ‘Bacon works for me!’

Tiarna Boler – ‘Bananas and whipped cream!’

The most important bit is the recipe for the pancakes themselves!

Below is our classic recipe you can use! And a top tip at the end too, for the perfect pancake every time!

Alternatively, just pick up a pack of pre-made pancakes, pop in the microwave and voila!

Ingredients:

100g plain flour

2 large eggs

300ml milk (Semi-skimmed works best!)

Optional – you can add 1tbsp of sunflower or vegetable oil, but this is down to you.

Ditto a pinch of salt – totally optional – they work just as well without!

And of course – make sure you have your fillings ready and waiting! Whether thats fresh lemons, oranges, honey, maple syrup or Nutella!

These measures make around 6 – 8 pancakes depending how much batter you use each time. If you want to make more – just double the measures above. If you don’t have large eggs – just use one more ‘medium egg’ than the recipe above instead and that works just as well!

Method:

1/ First – put the flour, eggs, milk (and add pinch of salt and dab of oil if you wish at this point) into a large mixing bowl

2/ Whisk to a smooth batter – (you don’t want any lumps in your pancakes!)

3/ Small frying pan (optional – you can have as big as you prefer, but tossing them may be harder!)

4/ This is the key bit! Drizzle some oil onto the pan and heat gently. Use a fair bit. When heated, use several sheets of thick kitchen roll folded up, to wipe up the excess oil but DONT throw this away. Just pop this with the oil soaked bit to one side. You’ll need this later!

5/ pop the pan back onto the heat for a few moments to heat it – then pour one ladle of your batter into the pan. Leave the pancake for a few seconds, then using your spatula – go around the edges and gently push any excess pancake mix so it forms a neat circle.

6/ Now for the fun bit! After waiting 30 seconds to a minute (depending how hot you have the heat set), gently use the spatula to lift the pancake at the edges, then gently shake the pan. As soon as the pancake can glide over the pan – you’re ready to toss!

7/ After tossing once, just repeat every few minutes and cook to your taste. Then slide onto your plate and its ready to eat!

8/ Every two or three pancakes, glide the oil side of the kitchen tissue you used earlier over the pan. This will stop the pancakes from sticking to the pan but also avoid you using too much oil as there will only be the lightest of sheens on the pan. It also stops your pancakes sticking when you are trying to toss them!

9/ Eco/ stop food waste tip: Cooked too much? Simples. Just leave the excess pancakes to cool, and when cold, layer them in-between grease proof paper, wrap altogether in clingfilm and pop in them in the freezer for up to two months!

Now you are all ready.

Enjoy!

“Cometh the hour, cometh the man”.

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president has shown that someone with limited experience as a leader, can rise to horrendous challenges with immense dignity, bravery, intelligence, and honesty.

Infact, the horrific invasion of Ukraine has flagged a tale of two massively contrasting leadership styles, a David versus Goliath – not just in terms of Ukraine versus Russia, but Zelensky versus Putin.

In Zelensky there is a leader who has led his people, harnessed their passion and won the hearts and minds of his own people, and many millions, far, far away.

Then we have Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. The truly brave Russian souls who demonstrated publicly in Moscow itself, risking their very lives in doing what is simply a democratic right to all of us in the West, show that Putin has not got the total will of his people behind him. Despite what he may say.

May I just say at this point, say that I know Russians who are equally appalled at Putin’s actions.

This incursion, this wretched invasion of a proud sovereign, independent nation, is not applauded by all Russians. Its important not to criticise all Russians and believe that they all support Putin, because they don’t. The bravery of the many hundreds of Russians to protest publicly and risk their livelihoods, jobs and very lives are a testament to that.

Putin’s recorded warped, inconsistent rants on history, wild personal accusations of Zelensky, and in one breath asking Ukranians to ‘go home, be with your families’ and in the next, ‘take up your arms, overthrow the corrupt Zelensky and his Government’ are a total 180° polar opposite to the Ukrainian’s quiet, calm, consistent appeals and speeches to camera for his people.

From being in a suit, to wearing military fatigues and telling his nation, ‘no, I’m here and staying here’, Zelensky has calmly, and consistently appealed that there is a better way.

In a situation that is rapidly evolving, the way that Zlensky’s passion as his nation’s leader, has been able to ignite such powerful and never before used sanctions from other leaders around the world is in turn inspiring and powerful to watch.

With nothing more than his passion and a phone, he has drummed up enthusiasm and action from the rest of Europe and beyond.

A great leader is not defined by their ability to wield great force.

Great leaders inspire great actions above and beyond those expected, from a team, a business, and vitally for the Ukraine, an entire nation.

Brilliant leaders are able to blow to life embers, then cradle and harness the flames of passion in their teams, to go above and beyond what is expected of them.

To reach deeper, harder, further than they thought they could ever aspire or possibly achieve.

And this is the key bit.

To try hard, and keep trying harder still, because they believe in their boss/ leader/ President.

Not because they are paid to.

Not because they are forced to.

Because they want to.

And that’s the rub, right there.

‘Great leaders are made great,

not through fear or oppression,

but through love.‘

Many famous leaders

have achieved

great power,

but they were not truly great leaders.

Not truly loved.

And in the war for hearts and minds, that’s where brave Zelensky has already won, and won hands down.

Now the trivia bit, and some light relief!

‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man’. I thought this was from a Shakespeare play or other such writer, when I thought that quote summed up my thoughts on this blog.

Nope.

Turns out that no one person can truly be attributed as the owner of this great phrase. It sounded like a quote though, so I investigated.

Turns out that the phrase is credited to an England tail-end batsman, Cliff Gladwin in the 1948 England vs South Africa test series.

In the first test at Kingsmead, Durban, in South Africa, England needed eight runs off the last eight-ball over, with nos.9 and 10 at the crease.

With light fading, and an increasingly dry wicket that gave the bowlers lots of help, England got home after a ‘leg-bye’ was scored off the last ball of the game, when the ball struck the no.10, Cliff Gladwin, on the thigh and a single was scrambled.

The Derbyshire bowler is remembered mostly for this batting feat and his immortal words: –

“Coometh the hour, coometh the man.”

I’ll take that as a former Londoner who now counts Derbyshire as her home. 🤣

People are people, whatever their nationality. Today as we all hear the shocking news from the Ukraine, we send our thoughts and heartfelt wishes for a swift end to the fighting.

Many candidates, friends, and clients we have dealt with are Ukranian.

The East Midlands may be some 2,630KM from Kiev, a long way from our comfy offices and homes, but we are all the same. Fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, working hard to earn a living and striving for a better future.

One of our founders and owners Mary had this to say:

“One of the first finance people I placed was a lass from the Ukraine.
Wonderfully eloquent, educated, and professional. She had a great sense of humour. A beautiful smile. 😀

She loved the job and was there for years. We’d exchanged friendly emails for years, as that’s what she’d become, a friend. 💖

Since then, there have been many, many warm, lovely Ukrainian people I’ve dealt with as candidates, clients and colleagues.

On this day of sad, shocking news that Russia is shelling the Ukraine, I just want to say that the thoughts, prayers and hopes of peace go to all the wonderful men, women, and children of the Ukraine 🇺🇦 .

Wherever they are, at work or home.

Around the world 🌎 or in the Ukraine, our prayers for peace and safety go to you all, and your loved ones. 🙏”

Here at Astute we have many, many candidates, clients and friends from the Ukraine.

Today, our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the Ukraine and around the world affected by the events happening.

We can only hope that diplomacy is able to win the day before too many people are hurt, or sadly killed.

If you have been affected,

or simply want to

help, see below

for a link to make a donation.

Ukraine Crisis Appeal | British Red Cross

https://bit.ly/3LU2gFn

Liz only started with our team at Astute Recruitment Ltd a few short weeks ago.

Her first week was a record breaker too having managed to get her first permanent and temporary placement within just 3 days of starting. She also managed to pick up a brand new job to work on with her very first BD call!

We’ll let Liz tell you herself: –

“My first few weeks at Astute… Where do I start?

Its been a great way to start the New Year, in a new job with such an established leadership team!

Amazing morale and I’ve made lots of new friends here. I wasn’t nervous at all and fitted straight in.

Did I mention our Lunch Club Pub Fridays? No one mentioned this on my interviews so it was a lovely surprise to be taken to the pub for a couple of hours after a successful weeks work! Even better – this happens every week!

What I’ve really embraced here is how everyone works as a team. We’re like one big family, all helping each other out, recommending candidates for each other’s roles, sharing the latest information and tips! None of that typical ‘me me me’ culture that often comes up in Sales Teams!

Top class training……I quickly became busy so the 12 week training programme went out the window, but what better way to learn the systems than hands on! As I’ve done recruitment previously, it was great to have such a flexible attitude to tailor the training to my specific needs!

Didn’t I break a company record with first candidate placed on day 3 ?

I’m feeling excited for my future with Astute Recruitment, and how busy the office support and HR side is, and is getting busier by the day!

Great to be in the right environment to put my skills and experience to good use

Thanks Liz! we love your feedback and welcome to the team!

Liz does all temporary, permanent and temp to permanent back office recruitment including HR, admin, customer services and all other office, non-finance jobs.

Newly promoted for the second time to Managing Consultant, Tom Norton, has finally moved into a new home. Here at Astute we always try our best to support our team in any way we can.

From our Friday pub lunch club, to our office treat box we keep topped up, we make sure we can have fun!

But all of our team have busy lives, and ‘stuff’ happens. From the renovations for a new kitchen (Matt Morgan) to repairing garden fences after storms (Richard Bowe). We’ve allowed them to WFH and have the flexibility to do what they do best – recruitment clearly) but to also enjoy their own lives and deal with that ‘life stuff’ that sometimes gets in the way.

Back to Tom. After numerous possible homes that fell through, finally he was able to exchange – but it was all a bit short notice.

He was a bit anxious!

His saved holiday from last year technically expired with the start of a new holiday year.

He needed a week off to move in and get all the plumbing, wiring and decorating sorted.

Then there were some internet delays and problems.

So how did our owners, Sarah and Mary, help Tom out?

They allowed him to carry over the holiday from last year.

They allowed him to take a week off at very short notice to move in – with their blessing.

The result?

Tom has just moved into his fab new home and we couldnt be happier for him.

(Plus, we’re all waiting for invites to the house-warming party!)

True story.

How admitting your worst work error can lead to interview success!

When asked on first interview, my candidate shared their worst work mistake. They have a second interview! Why?

Their work mistake? It was a biggie, but my candidate was authentic.

They clearly and honestly told a brief story about their error.

They described the potential harm and gravity of what they had done in error.

Then, they explained how they immediately raised their arm with their boss, admitting their mistake. They took ownership of the situation.

They explained how they could remedy their error and mitigate damage.

They were honest.

My client admired the way the candidate handled things and values that honesty.

Discussing post-interview feedback, my client told me,

“No one is perfect. Everyone here makes mistakes.

We’re all human.

It’s how those mistakes are dealt with, flagged,

handled and overcome that really matters.

We really loved that about Xxxxxxx and could

definitely work with her”.

So never be afraid to own up to work mistakes.

In your actual day job, or on interview, humility and honesty go a long, long way.

Just make sure you can demonstrate how you took ownership of your error, sought help and explain how a solution was found, ideally with your help!

In the words of someone a lot wiser than us,

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never

tried anything new.”

Albert Einstein

How true!

Even more importantly, when looking for a job, try and seek the employers that understand their staff are only human and who take honesty seriously. Making mistakes is not the problem. Its how a potential employee handles that error that really counts!

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Mike

16:04 13 Mar 23

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.

C R.

10:45 27 Jan 23

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! 😊

Christine

10:32 20 Dec 22

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!

Helen Pinegar

16:19 18 Dec 22

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!!!

Lisa Leigh

11:56 30 Nov 22

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.