Eloise’s May 2022 News – Sole Tasking, Recruitment Market, HR Changes, Mighty Hike

Hello and welcome to May,

It’s not a normal May this year. The 2nd May bank holiday has been officially moved from Monday, 30th May to Thursday, 2nd June and we get an extra day on Friday 3rd June for the Queens Platinum Jubilee.

So, although May has only 1 bank holiday this year, there are going to be a lot of people taking the final week of the month off to capitalise on the two bank holiday days in June.

Do you have anything planned as a business for the Jubilee? Maybe customer offers aligned with the long weekend, or even a street/car park party?

How is it going to impact your business? Is it just business as usual with a longer weekend or does the changing of the bank holiday positively or negatively impact you? I’d be interested to hear.

Sole tasking not multi-tasking

I’ve been reading recently about how to be the most productive each day, and the research surprised me. We’ve had it drilled into us for years and years about the importance of multi-tasking and this is a skills buzzword I see on CV after CV and in many job descriptions.

But the research out there, in abundance on the internet, is that to be highly productive we shouldn’t be trying to do everything at once. Instead, we should be prioritising and time blocking so we can focus on a sole task.

By starting each day with a realistic list of actions to get completed, you can give them a priority order and then allocate a time slot during the day to ‘sole task’. I have been trying this and it has meant that I get things ticked off my master list quicker than using a multi-tasking/ scattergun approach.

Give it a try. Let me know how you get on.

The recruitment market

The KPMG and REC, UK Report on Jobs published in April, has three main takeaways:

  • Demand for staff increases at fastest rate for six months
  • Labour supply falls rapidly, driving a record rise in starting salaries
  • Overall vacancy growth hits six-month high

So not a great deal has changed… there are lots of jobs out there and few people actively looking to change jobs.

However, with starting salaries being forced up and up, there is a great opportunity for employers. If you get your package right, non-active job seeking candidates can still be tempted to move. The rise in salaries poses a great opportunity for them. And as we transition out of the pandemic people are feeling less worried about moving jobs.

What changed in April for HR and payroll teams?

HR teams are set to be very busy this year as we transition into ‘covid as usual’ and navigate all the latest government changes.

April saw these changes:

  • Increase to the minimum wage and other statutory rates
  • National insurance rises – a temporary 1.25% increase in Class 1 primary (employee), Class 1 secondary (employers) and Class 4 (self-employed) NIC.
  • Family friendly leave rates – including maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, and parental bereavement leave – going up from £151.97 to £156.66 per week
  • Tribunal awards increasing. The basic award for unfair dismissal increased from £16,320 to £17,130. The compensatory award for unfair dismissal will increase from £89,493 to £93,878, or 52 week’s pay (whichever is lower). Finally, the additional award for unfair dismissal will increase from £14,144 – £28,288 to £14,846 – £29,692.
  • The lower earnings limit is also increasing from £120 per week to £123 per week
  • Statutory sick pay (SSP) has also changed from £96.35 per week to £99.35 per week

What’s on the horizon for HR teams in the rest of 2022?

Things being talked about that don’t have concrete dates yet are:

  • Flexible working – following a consultation, the government is considering the option to allow employees to request flexible working from day one of employment
  • Ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting – 2022 could see the first real step towards standardising this type of report
  • Data protection – the ICO is due to issue updated employment practice guidance on data this year
  • Sexual harassment – A new duty for employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace is expected to come into force this year
  • Right-to-work checks – The scheme became digital as a result of the pandemic and was met with overwhelming positive feedback. As a result, the government is set to make the change permanent later this year
  • Modern Slavery – Reforms to the Modern Slavery Act are expected late this year. When this happens, you may need to review your anti-slavery statements

We can help keep your HR team/person up to date with all these types of changes and more, via our HRHuddle.

If your HR representative isn’t already on our HRHuddle mailing list for webinar invites, or they are not a part of our private HRHuddle Facebook group – do encourage them to get in touch with us. This is a free, local community of HR professionals. We organise meetings, webinars, Q&A sessions and peer to peer learning and sharing opportunities, backed up by with employment lawyers and industry experts.

Are you utilising temporary workers?

Do you know we have a specialist temps team?

We work with all types of businesses to provide; emergency, short, medium, and long-term workers. They could be for project work, holiday cover, or sickness cover. We often find our temps plugging gaps in recruitment or even testing out future recruitment options.

They are a fantastic resource for you to tap into on your terms.

Summer is always the busiest time for our temps team. But we are lucky to have extra resources available from students returning for the summer and we also normally take on recent graduates.

The most popular types of roles our experienced team of temps undertake are:

  • Administration
  • Reception/concierge
  • Customer Service
  • PA/Secretarial
  • Finance
  • HR support
  • Marketing

If you are sorting out your summer staffing plans and want to explore your temp options, get in touch.

The Mighty Hike Series – training is in full swing

If you remember, last month, I said about fundraising again to raise money to support the amazing work of Macmillan Nurses.

On Saturday, 14th May – which is approaching faster than I could have imagined – I will be walking a marathon with my husband and 2 good friends, in memory of my dad, Mike Purvis who died last September.

If this cause resonates with you, or you can spare any pennies, please donate to help Macmillan Cancer Support continue its great work.

My fundraising link is here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sheltonknightmarathonwalk

Thank you

That’s us for another month

I hope you have a great May and can enjoy the long weekend going into June.

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

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