Chchchchachanges
I can’t confess to having a crystal ball and knowing what the future of recruitment is, or the future of the job market, of job adverts, of the unemployment rate, of how candidates will find jobs but what I do know is it feels like everything seems to be changing, constantly and with no pattern or understanding. One day it feels like work is back to a level of normality and I am busy working away, looking at CV’s, chatting to new candidates, working with clients to understand team fit, reading job adverts and it is like the last 6 months haven’t happened. And then the next day I have to ring my work landline because it is not rang for the whole day and I want to check that it still works. And when I am chatting to people, whatever industry they are in, they pretty much say the same. Spain is a great example. Everything is fine, you can go on holiday there and BANG…..you have to go into self-isolation when you get back to the UK.
So how do we survive this? I do not mean physically, I mean mentally. And maybe I even mean financially. Let us do the mental stuff first. I am taking next week off I think as I am exhausted. Self-care is paramount. My week of luxury in Tenerife in September is no more and I clung on last year for that and despite my holiday company going into Administration and having to be repatriated, I did relax but I didn’t come back as relaxed as I had hoped. So, this year’s holiday was to be the gold standard. Not anymore. I have no holiday to cling to. So, I have to do what I can control. Big overhaul of my diet, back in the swimming pool, getting lost in a good book, meditating to keep the stress levels down so I can sleep at night. There is probably nothing that I have said that will come as a surprise to most of you. You might even want to suggest something that has worked for you in a bid to help someone else.
And then there is financially. Some people have not had to give that a thought through this. I sadly have done nothing but think of this since March. Most of us have taken mortgage holidays, cut down pension payments, reduced anything where we can, negotiated reductions in services, built spreadsheets which summarise every single outgoing to your business and personal finances and I am exhausted. I am so tired of worrying about it. But my business has survived thanks to some amazing clients and utterly brilliant candidates. But I am under no illusion that I have to change my business model in order to survive. “THE NEW NORMAL”. I am tired of hearing that already but just because I am tired does not mean I can switch off. I have been squirreling away in the background to come up with new ideas, new ways of working, new opportunities, talking to new clients, to new candidates, looking at new ways of thinking. And I think I have cracked it, for me at least. So, come September there might be a new idea or two coming this way. I am controlling what I can. But I am also going to have to rely on the goodwill of others. If you want to work with a dedicated, passionate, down to earth recruiter who sees the person behind the CV, then I am your girl. If you want to give me a vacancy that a load of other recruiters are also working on, then that is possibly not for me. I do not do bun fights or scraps in the playground in the hope that I get a CV in before another agency does. Because I will always rather have spent 45 minutes on the phone to a candidate really understanding them and making sure that they’re right for your business, rather than a quick 5 minute chat & a CV submission, also known as the “Spray & Pray” approach.
To summarise, I hope that whatever you have gone through in the last 6 months, that you are finding your way forward, finding what you need to change, how you need to adapt to help you and your business, clients, customers and career. I hope that everyone you love is still by your side (in a Facetime / Zoom kind of way) and I hope we can all help each other through this transition and recognise that we cannot all carry on as we are. But we are not changing to be difficult or awkward, we are doing it for survival. Technology continues to change so why shouldn’t the way businesses work evolve as well?
Watch this space…..and stay safe.
Email: jo@winhurstrecruitment.co.uk
Tel: 0115 975 6513
@winhurstrec