3285 Days | 469 Weeks | Over 16 Industry Awards | Helped 2,000+ People Find Jobs | Happy Birthday Astute Recruitment!

We can’t believe that 9 years have flown by so quickly.

From redundancy back in 2009 in the midst of one of the worst recessions ever known, to set up, grow and become the ‘go to’ accountancy and office recruitment specialist across the East Midlands is amazing.

The statistics speak for themselves……..

Thank you to everyone who has supported us and here’s to another 9 successful years!

3285 Days | 469 Weeks | Over 16 Industry Awards | Helping 2,000+ People Find Jobs & Secure Work |

Happy Birthday Astute Recruitment!

Leigh Timmis round the world cyclist and adventurer will be speaking at Astute Recruitment’s Business Breakfast on 18th Oct 2018 at Derby’s iconic 3AAA County Ground

DERBY-based business Astute Recruitment has teamed up with round-the-world cyclist and new Guinness World Record hopeful, Leigh Timmis to share tips on how East Midlands-based businesses can deliver a world class performance.

The ‘Cycling for Success’ business breakfast event, which will take place on 18 October at the iconic 3AAA County Cricket ground in Derby, not only focuses on building a world class team, but will also put a spotlight on Mental Health and Mental Resilience.

Local professionals will hear tips and anecdotes from Leigh, touching on how he created a world-class performance despite a number of challenges and set backs along the way. They will also learn how crucial mental health is in achieving goals and overcoming pitfalls, Leigh will also discuss how important it is to have the right team around you – a key issue many SMEs face as they grow.

Derby-based world record hopeful, Leigh Timmis said: “This will be my first engagement after my world record attempt and I’m hoping to be able to speak about the world record I will hold by that point.

“It’s fantastic to be working with Astute to help local businesses create a world class performance whether that’s locally or internationally. I’m also excited to be able to raise awareness for my charity, MQ: Transforming Mental Health, working to share the importance of mental health in creating personal and professional success.”

Having struggled with mental health issues in the past, the topic is something that’s close to local adventurer, Leigh Timmis’ heart. After quitting his job in 2010, Leigh cycled around the world for over seven years.

Leigh’s latest adventure saw him fly to Carbo da Roca in Portugal on the 10 September to attempt to break the Guinness World Record for cycling across Europe in the fastest time. Leigh will be speaking at the event less than a month after his world record attempt which he hoped to complete in just 20 days, four less than the current world record. In the event Leigh smashed not only the World Record but also his own goal of 20 days – completing the marathon cycle in just 16 days!

Managing director of Astute Recruitment Ltd, Mary Maguire, said: “It’s a really great honour to be able to partner with Leigh for this event, he’s such an inspirational person and a great business speaker.

“The aim of the breakfast session is for delegates to leave in a positive, can do frame of mind, feeling confident that they can use some of Leigh’s tips to bolster team spirit, harness potential and exceed expectations. Whether these are business goals, career goals or personal goals.”

To sign up for the event please visit: https://www.astuterecruitment.com/leigh-timmis-round-the-world-cyclist-presenting-tips-anecdotes-for-success-at-one-off-event-at-derbys-iconic-3aaa-county-ground-on-18th-october-2018/

Astute has worked to secure more than 1500 jobs for local businesses and is continuing to go from strength to strength, hiring three new consultants in the last six months and launching a highly successful commercial division.

As featured in TheBusinessDesk.com, their Midlands Leadership Awards have been created to celebrate the people and organisations across the entire region who are role models for their teams and who have continuously raised the bar for their competitors.

Those shortlisted have showcased the very best qualities of modern leadership – of inspiration, collaboration and empowerment. The winners will be announced at an exclusive awards lunch on Thursday 15th November 2018. The day will be a celebration of the transformational impact great business leaders are having in our Midlands Region across Finance, Professional Services, Accountancy, Manufacturing, Service and all other industry sectors.

The Leadership awards offer a great opportunity to recognise and shine a light on the achievements and successes of businesses in the region. Sarah’s inclusion as a finalist for these prestigious awards follows on her successful recognition as Entrepreneur Of The Year, awarded by the Derbyshire Times, Small SME Director Of The Year East Midlands, awarded by The Institute of Directors and Finalist of The East Midlands Chamber’s Entrepreneur of the Year. The Midlands Leadership Awards also serve to recognise the fantastic work Sarah’s team here at Astute Recruitment Ltd have achieved in becoming the go-to accountancy and office recruitment specialist in the East Midlands. Our unique Triple-Point Guarantee and other innovations will reach a wider audience and we hope inspire other innovations in excellence across the recruitment sector.

Fingers crossed for Sarah and all the other Finalists below!

Leader of the year – This person will be selected from the other award winners and will be the person or organisation that embodies outstanding leadership and is an exemplar for the whole Midlands Region.

The finalists for the 2018 Leadership awards are: –

Professional services

David Richardson, Lloyds Banking Group
Nick Green, Squire Patton Boggs
Sarah Perry, Wright Hassall
Sarah Stevenson, Astute Recruitment
Steve Allen, Mills & Reeve

Best leadership programme

Birmingham LGBT
Meridian / Common Purpose
Plink Fizz
Streetwise MBA / Common Purpose

Empowering Potential

Anthony Burns, Paycare
Anthony Ratchford, Intec Microsystems
Lee Southen, Grayling
Sallie-Ann Allen, Enploy
Simon McAlpine, Infinity IT Solutions

Diversity and inclusion leader

Carmen Watson, Pertemps
Claire Bell, West Midlands Police
Hilary Smyth-Allen, BPS Birmingham
Prof Kiran Trehan, University of Birmingham
Yetunde Dania, Trowers & Hamlins

Public and third sector

Mike Hopkins, South and City College Birmingham
Paul Kalinauckas, BCRS Business Loans Limited
Tom Clarke-Forrest, Sport 4 Life UK
Dr Yeow Poon, Chinese Community Centre

Transformational leader

Greg Reed, HomeServe Membership
Matt Jones, Oxbridge Home Learning
Mike Hopkins, South and City College Birmingham
Pauline Biddle, Deloitte
Phil Mead, NEC Group Arenas

Company leader (up to 100 employees)
Jonathan Evans, Discovery
Keir Edmonds, MCS
Kevin Rogers, Paycare
Mike Brooman, Vanti
Scott Parsons, Forsyth Barnes

Company leader (100+ employees)

Craig Dickson, DAC Beachcroft
Greg Reed, HomeServe Membership
James Rigby, SCC
Shahid Sheikh OBE, Clifton Packaging Group

Leigh Timmis round the world cyclist and adventurer

Leigh Timmis is a remarkable fellow. Having cycled around the world over 7 years his latest adventure sees him fly to Carbo da Roca in Portugal in just a couple of weeks to attempt to break the Guinness World Record for cycling across Europe in the fastest time!

Over 10 countries.
From Portugal to Russia
Some three thousand nine hundred and fifty miles.
In less than 20 days. (a staggering 9 days less than the current World Record!)

Leigh and his carefully recruited team, will attempt a world first and put another Derbyshire person in the spotlight after Adam Peaty’s exploits at the European Championships.

On Leigh’s hopefully triumphant return to the UK from Ufa in Russia, he will have some much deserved rest. Then his first engagement will be at Astute Recruitment’s Business Breakfast at the home of cycling in Derby’s iconic 3AAA County Ground on the 18th October from 7.30am.

Local business people will join Astute to hear Leigh pass on some great tips and anecdotes around how he created a world-class performance. You will learn about how crucial mental health is in achieving goals, mental resilience and how to overcome pitfalls along the way. Leigh will also talk about how important it is to have the right team around you – a key issue for many SME businesses at the moment.

You can follow Leigh’s journey via the BBC Worldwide and on Leigh’s website https://www.leightimmis.com/ and support his charity Transforming Mental Health.

All of us at Astute are delighted to have Leigh as our guest speaker and to book tickets for what promises to be an unforgettable morning please click on the Eventbrite link HERE to secure your place.

We look forward to seeing you there.

This year we were approached to see if we would like to have a local school’s student for a weeks work experience. We feel passionate about giving young people a chance and would always encourage any businesses to give a young person the opportunity to gain valuable work experience. The impression of work life they will gain and the confidence to know what to expect in a typical working office will be invaluable for when they look to enter the employment market.

Over the last ten years we have had several apprentices join the team and develop. Sometimes going on to become permanent salaried staff, so it was our pleasure to have John Gravenor with us for a week. He put together the following words describing what he learnt about recruitment during his time with us and thought we would share this. Thank you Jon!

What have I learnt about recruitment consultants?

One of the main things I have learnt about recruitment consultants is that a recruitment consultant doesn’t just help a person look for a job, they help a person find the best job possible for them, that they would be happy to work at as well as try and find the company the best possible candidate for the job. So, in summary it’s a balancing act of trying to find the best candidate for a business but also finding the best job for the candidate. I also learnt that a recruitment consultant doesn’t only help people looking for jobs between £15,000 to £30,000, they also help people that are looking for £100,000 and up. I was lucky enough to be allowed to sit in a meeting between Vijay and a very experienced man looking for £120,000 plus which goes to show that no matter how experienced a person is, everyone could always use a hand to make themselves seem more employable.

What have I learnt about Astute in particular?

Astute is much more focused on quality over quantity. Astute makes sure that a candidate is not only right for the job but also fully prepared for the interview and anything that could come after. Astute is in constant contact with the Candidate to check up on progress and make sure they are still happy with the job. Even after a candidate has secured a job, Astute continues to keep in contact with a candidate make sure everything is okay and the candidate is happy with the position they have.

What about the people at astute?

The people at Astute are very kind and inviting not only to me and each other but also candidates and companies. They are more compassionate than many of the other recruitment consultants as they spend time to get to know their candidate to ensure that they are completely happy with everything. Everyone at Astute is completely willing to go the extra step to make sure candidates are happy, which is something very rare in the bigger recruitment companies. The people at Astute are always motivated and willing to help at any point and they even try to help other people with their own money by holding charity events to help others even more. The people at Astute are also well rewarded for their work by Mary and Sarah with trips to F1 and other rewards.

Overall, I had a wonderful time at Astute Recruitment and will be sad to leave but will come back to do even more work experience if I am allowed

Jon Gravenor

Astute Recruitment’s New Divisional Manager – Vijay Patel featured in The Business Desk

Derby-based recruitment agency Astute Recruitment has hired Vijay Patel as divisional manager.

With over 19 years sales experience, he previously worked in America as a divisional director, and has 13 years’ recruitment experience.

He said: “I’m very excited to be joining the Astute Recruitment team to help them continue to expand its business and client base within the senior market. Having worked across the sector both in the Midlands and internationally I’m delighted for this opportunity and ready to get stuck into this new challenge.

“I’m very proud of my previous sales track record and recruitment career to date – I can’t wait to see what my future holds at Astute.”

To see the article by The Business Desk in full please click HERE.

Clive Mason/Getty Images
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won last year’s Formula 1 British Grand Prix

The team at Astute have worked so hard in the last twelve months, so Sarah Stevenson and Mary Maguire are delighted to take Astute’s team down to Silverstone and hopefully see Lewis Hamilton work towards securing Pole Position for this weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Photos of the day to follow next week!

“Reward success in your team and your team will reward you with success”

Astute Recruitment Sports Day

Astute Recruitment has teamed up with local charity Treetops Hospice for a ‘school sports day’ event later this month (19 July) to raise vital funds for the hospices’ work.

Treetops Hospice provides support and care for patients and families living with life limited illness or affected by death, through its day care centre and hospice at home services. The organisation currently relies on donations to make up two thirds of its funding.

Andy Lilliman, senior consultant at Astute Recruitment said: “We’re delighted to be raising money for a local organisation which is close to our hearts – many of the team at Astute have friends and family that have been supported by Treetops, and so we’re looking forward to giving back.”

The event will be held at Treetops Hospice grounds and will feature a variety of classic sports day events, including an egg and spoon race, sack race and a 100m sprint. Local businesses are invited to join in for a small sign-up fee.

“We’re hoping to raise £500 through team sign ups and the sale of raffle tickets.

“Hopefully we’ll get some sunshine and it will be a good excuse to get outside, have some fun and relax whilst helping a great cause. We hope to see as many local businesses as possible sign up a team.”

Laura Corden, corporate partnerships founder at Treetops Hospice said: “We are delighted to have Astute Recruitment host its Corporate Sports Day here in the lovely gardens of Treetops Hospice Care. It is a pleasure to welcome the company, along with other local businesses to take part in what is set to be a fun filled and competitive evening.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for organisations to find out more about the services Treetops offer and to take a look around our facilities. We are hoping to raise awareness of our Compassionate Communities Project whereby we aim to engage businesses to become more aware of the impact life limiting illnesses may have on employees and their families.

Corporate support is incredibly important to Treetops and without the generosity of local businesses we would not be able to continue to deliver the services we do. We are excited to meet everyone at the event and wish the event every success.”

To sign up for the event, visit https://www.treetopshospice.org.uk/events/astutesportsday/. Or please call Andy Lilliman or MD Mary Maguire at Astute Recruitment on 01332 346 100.

Everyone had a great time at our business breakfast on Mental Resilience. Our guest speaker, John Dabrowski, did an amazing presentation explaining the importance of mental and physical wellbeing professionally and personally to each and every one of us.

Some key takeaways: –

We all need to take the time to develop our self-belief and sense of self-worth. It is these that give us the confidence to perform to our maximum potential at work or in our personal lives.

It is crucial to pro-actively train ourselves to look for the positives when adversity hits. Easier said than done, but John demonstrated some great techniques we can all implement as part of our daily routines to make these changes become an important habit and vital life skill.

John also talked about the importance of visualisation. When you have a challenge to overcome, be it a difficult meeting, a new responsibility at work or where you have to present to a team for the first time, John talked about the power of visualising yourself succeeding. You need to close your eyes and in your mind picture the ‘challenge’ and picture yourself successfully doing it. This is incredibly powerful and triggers synapses in your brain which automatically kick into gear when you physically attempt to do the ‘challenge’ to help you.

John went on to give some brilliant examples of sportsmen and sportswomen who have achieved the absolute pinnacle in their disciplines. From an early age they had a goal, visualised themselves being successful and then had the focus to singularly pursue their dream. The ability to focus is actually key in developing mental resilience and John spoke in depth about this.

Mental resilience also means being able to bounce back from physical as well as mental adversity. John encouraged us to seek out the positives regardless of the situation… there is always some positive that we can take – it’s just that sometimes it is easier to do this than others.

Another key area are Comfort zones. – it is only when we challenge ourselves to move outside our comfort zones that we can truly grow our inner self-belief and ultimately grow our confidence levels. So when you are given a new task which stretches your abilities and makes you nervous, if you complete this – the completion of that task will instil a new aura of confidence so that eventually this challenge will become a natural part of you which you can confidently execute. Then you can move onto the next challenge!

There were many other things that John mentioned and these are explored in depth in his book “Off The Wall – How to develop world class mental resilience”. Click HERE to go to John’s website at JD Mindcoach

So – thank you to John, our team at Astute and of course our guests who came and made the event a really memorable and potentially life changing experience!

Some photos of the event:

John-Dabrowski-Giving-one-of-his-books-to-winner-at-Astute-Recruitments-Mental-Resilience-Workshop

John Dabrowski sharing a great video clip of a famous basketball player at Astute Recriutment Ltd Business Breakfast on Mental Resilience

Astute Recruitment Ltd named Best Regional Niche Recruitment Consultancy Of The Year 2017 By ACQ Magazine

Astute Recruitment has been named ‘Regional Niche Recruitment Consultancy of the Year’ at ACQ (Acquisition Finance) Magazine’s Global Awards.

ACQ Magazine holds its usual Global Awards programme annually to recognise firms who demonstrate ongoing outstanding performance and lead the way across the entire corporate sector including accountancy and finance.

Mary Maguire, managing director of Astute Recruitment, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to receive this prestigious award by ACQ Magazine. It caps a great year where we achieved record revenues.”

“We’re passionate about supporting local businesses by matching them with the right people and we’ve worked hard to establish a reputation as experts in this field. We already pride ourselves on being the ‘go to’ financial recruitment agency in the East Midlands but it’s an honour to be recognised on a much wider, international scale.”

“The team routinely goes above and beyond in terms of what we offer our clients and candidates, while at the same time pushing the boundaries of what has previously been thought possible for recruitment firms. One example of true innovation is the launch of our ‘Triple Point Guarantee’ for clients – unique across the recruitment sector.”

“We also have our hugely successful series of business breakfast events, with the next one in February. International guest speaker an published Author, John Dabrowski, will be speaking about mental resilience.”

“These events are designed to be educationally innovative, inspiring and powerful workshops, where SME business & professionals can genuinely take away key techniques to improve their engagement with staff and ultimately improve business performance.”

Astute has worked to secure more than 1500 jobs for local businesses and is continuing to go from strength to strength, hiring 3 new consultants in the last 6 months and launching a successful commercial division.

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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.