225+
5 reviews
MikeMike
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.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! 😊
ChristineChristine
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 PinegarHelen 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 LeighLisa 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.
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Autumn Budget 2017: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Astute Recruitment's MD Mary Maguire Airs her thoughts for SME Businesses on the Chancellor's Autumn Statement
Autumn Budget 2017: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Astute Recruitment's MD Mary Maguire Airs her thoughts for SME Businesses on the Chancellor's Autumn Statement
Autumn Budget 2017: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Astute Recruitment’s MD Mary Maguire Airs her thoughts for SME Businesses on the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement

 

One of our MDs was asked by East Midlands Business Link to comment on the Autumn statement made by the Chancellor yesterday. The article published is as follows: –

 

“Mary Maguire, MD of Astute Recruitment, said:

Philip Hammond certainly laid out some positive steps to help UK businesses in today’s budget.

For example, this budget demonstrated a commitment to investing in scale-up businesses, which was very positive. The proposed new fund for scale-up businesses is great news provided this funding is made available to every relevant start up in every corner of the UK.

The Chancellor also recognised that small businesses are under great pressure at the moment. The announcement that he won’t reduce the VAT threshold for small businesses from £85,000, and will bring forward the uprating of business rates based on the CPI inflation index by two years was most definitely music to most business owners’ ears. This was a serious concern to many start-ups and SMEs.

The National Living Wage rise is, of course, good for low wage individuals. However, SMEs will be under pressure to honour this and this could further impact inflationary pressures in the economy and affect the tight margins between profits and losses.

The Chancellor’s 12 month extension of the National Productivity Fund is also welcome news. Digital and high tech businesses will be greatly helped, especially in that growth phase from start up to scale up.

However, it would be great if there could also have been some incentive for businesses to be kept in UK ownership post start-up, rather than just have the UK as a seed facility for overseas owners to come in and buy them out.

The announcement of the OBR’s downward economic growth forecasts could be bad news. However, we partially talked our way into negative mindset in the 2008 recession – the OBR has been wrong before and Brexit is not predicated to be a financial disaster especially when the terms of trade deals with Europe are yet to be finalised.

Having spoken to MDs and FDs in local successful SMEs in the last two days I can report that uncertainty is what is holding back companies’ capital investment and strategic plans. Perhaps this was a missed opportunity to present a more balanced forecast and build and inspire some confidence. The rate of growth for East Midlands businesses, nationally, has outperformed vast tracts of the UK including London – but strangely an opportunity to balance this with the OBR’s projections in today’s Autumn Budget was missed.

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