Eloise’s January 2023 News – New Year, Business and Recruitment in 2023, HRHuddle on Domestic Abuse

Happy New Year and welcome to January 2023

January. Love it or hate it, it’s never quite how you expect it to be. In December I imagine January will be about starting new things, being inspired by a new year, and feeling fresh after the Christmas break. But then you find yourself a week into January, still finishing off mince pies and Quality Street, struggling to remember the day (or year) and high on the smell of over-ripe Stilton.

The first week back after Christmas is more about easing into the new year. Then the second week feels like the first ‘proper’ week 🙂

The start of a year can be hard for people for all sorts of reasons. I’ve just listened to the latest podcast from the Big Balance Theory with Sarah Cripps. She interviews Professor Claire Thompson, who talks about really getting to know what makes the individuals in your team tick. Exploring what can brighten their day if they’re feeling a bit down or stressed. Is it a Twix? Is it a walk around the park? She wasn’t talking about deeper mental health concerns, but little lifts. How many of us know what our colleagues ‘little lifts’ are? Or even those of our family members. Or actually, what our own are? Maybe something to explore during January.

What will 2023 have in store for us?

We know it’s going to be challenging regarding energy costs for businesses and households. But what are the other business predictions for this year?

I’ve been trawling the internet for theme predictions and the main ones I’ve found are:

• Do more with less

Live and work more sustainably. Look at what you have and see if there is more you can be getting from it – your technology, your assets, your connections. What tech are you subscribing to? Are you getting the most from it? Are there more elements you could be using or processes you could be automating? How many costs do we turn a blind eye to because they are small or we don’t understand them fully – these all mount up.

Are you using all of your office space? Could you move to somewhere smaller or rent rooms out? The kudos that went with having a glamorous office space, isn’t a thing anymore, so we need to be really honest with ourselves about our actual needs.

• Retention over growth

2023 could be a ‘back to basics’ year for businesses – really looking at what you do best and how you add value for your customers. By focusing on these elements and reminding customers of what you’re doing for them/giving them, and working with them on what they need, retention will then be more achievable.

I think the other theme here will be honesty. Really looking at our businesses and taking off the filter of who we might want to be and looking at who we really are. Then maximising on that.

• Human connections

Many articles say the tactics used to get businesses through the pandemic will need to be different to get through 2023.

2020 was all about the digitisation of our workforces and offering. The amount of actual conversations and face-to-face meetings has decreased dramatically. There are benefits to this but it also means that lots of the true connections, value and information sharing, have been lost. Those little side chats with a client on the way to the meeting room, or the extra people who would attend a physical meeting and join in, who might not attend or join in an online meeting. It’s those nuggets of information that are lost. And it’s those that can make the difference in understanding, really understanding, what your customer needs or the challenges they have and not just the ones they discuss on a call.

The feeling is that we need to work out how we cultivate these relationships better moving forward. I guess it’s about slicker account management and checking in. But not just with the main contact, but maybe with others, the users, as well.

What I’m taking into 2023

‘The future is never certain, but you can control your response’. I saw this quote online and really liked it. I’m taking it into 2023 with me. We don’t know what lies ahead, Covid taught us that. But we’ve learnt to be present, to flex, to adapt. The skills we have gathered over recent years, the resilience and openness, all gives us a good foundation for the year ahead.

I believe it’s also super important to focus on your own reality. The UK press loves the drama, the doom and gloom. But they don’t always get it right. We need to apply our own filter.

The recruitment market

The main takeaway from the KPMG and REC on Jobs is that ‘demand from employers continues to remain strong as 2023 begins’. They talk about ‘unpredictability’ as being the buzzword of 2022, and that ‘economic uncertainty’ is likely the watchword for 2023.

Job openings in all industries remain above their pre-pandemic levels. And vacancy data suggests that demand from employers for workers remains very high. As we know, unfortunately, the UK’s candidate supply remains low, however, unemployment rates are close to record lows.

They have found that more employers are turning to temporary workers to meet business needs and they predict this will keep rising. This could well be another theme for 2023, as businesses could be more hesitant about permanent recruitment.

And that’s it for another month

I’m going to leave it there for January. Let’s keep supporting each other as businesses and as people.

Have a good start to the year.

Eloise

We recruit throughout the East Midlands covering Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland and the surrounding areas, especially Market Harborough, Lutterworth, Leicester, Corby and Kettering. We help people find their perfect job and match suitable jobseekers with businesses looking to hire the best candidates across our five specialisms – Sales, Marketing, Accountancy & Finance, HR and Office

Our temps do an amazing job for a wide range of clients in the area. They are some of the most flexible and hardworking people and we want to recognise that every month.

So, if you have a Vanilla temporary worker on assignment, or who has just completed an assignment, who you think has gone above and beyond or exceeded expectations in any way. You can nominate them to receive our Temp of the Month Award.

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