Between the 13th-19th June, the world acknowledges Men’s Health Week 2022. This annual event is organised by the Men’s Health Forum and aims to raise awareness of preventable health problems that disproportionately affect men and encourage them to gain the courage to tackle their issues.

Over the last two years, Men’s Health Week has been focused on COVID-19 and the impact the virus has had on physical and mental wellbeing. The theme this year is ‘Time For Your MOT’ – which emphasises taking notice of what’s going on in your mind and body. As such, the campaign focuses on taking notice of all the health problems that have been brushed aside due to the pandemic.

Men and mental health

According to the Mental Health Foundation, approximately 1-in-8 men have a common mental health problem such as anxiety, stress, or depression. When left unattended, these problems can worsen and be detrimental to those affected. This is highlighted in current statistics: for example, in the UK, 3 out of 4 suicides are men. Furthermore, suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45. These statistics underline the importance of removing the stigma surrounding men’s mental health, helping men reach out, talk about their problems and seek treatment.

It is no secret that a stigma exists regarding men’s mental health, and sadly some men still feel uncomfortable discussing their problems openly. According to recent statistics, 40% of men won’t talk about their mental health with their friends or family. Therefore, many individuals suffer in silence. While the topic is becoming more prevalent with more awareness campaigns, there is still a need to help men feel comfortable enough to speak out about their mental health.

Identifying the symptoms

There may not always be clear signs you’re dealing with a serious issue, not just a bad day. If your life satisfaction seems to have taken a knock or feeling like you want to be alone a lot, there could be more going on. Here are some of the common signs and symptoms associated with mental illness:

Anger, irritability, or aggressiveness
Noticeable changes in mood
Difficulty sleeping
Avoiding friends and social activities
Constant low energy
Drug or alcohol abuse
Ignoring personal hygiene

Men often feel embarrassed or uncomfortable talking about their mental health. But the bravest thing you can do is tackle the issue before it becomes a bigger problem. You are not alone. Many other people are going through the same emotions and struggling to find the best way to cope.

Get your Mens MOT here https://www.menshealthforum.org.uk/mhw

Feeling lonely at work? Key tips how you can prevent loneliness at work.

In line with the theme for this year’s Mental Health Week, we wanted to explore some key tips to show how businesses, employers and HR professionals can help to avoid loneliness in the office.

Loneliness can be crushing and can severely dent people’s sense of wellbeing and mental health. Nowhere can this be more evident than at work. Whether in an office or on the factory floor, so many core emotions can be stirred by loneliness from low-self-esteem to anxiety.

Feeling alone at work can also hugely impact businesses, employers and organisations in terms of lower levels of performance, lack of productivity, reduced staff engagement, and even increases in staff absences.

This year’s theme of loneliness is therefore very welcome and flags the importance for employers to try and ensure their employees can enjoy processes to hopefully help any negative feels and avoid feeling ‘alone’.

6 astute tips to avoid loneliness at work: –

1/ Training and open Management Styles

Companies and employers are helpless to try and alleviate loneliness in their workforce if they don’t have open channels of communication and don’t have the ear of their line managers, team leaders and staff. Companies should try wherever possible to designate a representative to be responsible for mental health and wellbeing who can be in regular contact with all line managers so that any issues can be flagged from the off, and the necessary support provided.

2/ Allow your company culture to permit staff to reach for help.

For so many years the mantra of businesses and employers has been to gloss over worker hardships and just tell their staff to ‘man up’. No longer is this acceptable for the majority of work places or their staff. Infact, the employers that encourage honesty and openness around their teams for individuals to say they need help without ridicule or derision, are the very same employers who will benefit from a loyal and higher performing employees!

To encourage open communication, implement employee satisfaction surveys with questions directly addressing how they are feeling in themselves. By offering their employees an ‘ear’ and by genuinely caring about their teams individual wellbeing, this can inform management strategies to help create better activities to address loneliness and other feelings or issues of anxiety or mental health problems. Alternatively you could use regular 1:1’s as a way of directly asking your staff about any worries they have and to encourage honesty and openness to express their thoughts.

3/ Lets talk! Have great communication channels in your team!

Increased staff engagement and open communication with your employees will improve all your team’s ability to feel connected to their colleagues, their jobs and their employer. Better lines of openness can go a long way in alleviating loneliness.

Companies who make sure that their processes are clearly communicated, will allow workers to feel much more confident about asking for support and help when they need it. It is really important to ensure that EVERYONE in the business is onside too. A toxic situation can be created when at grass roots everyone is feeling connected and able to reach out but the ‘boss’ or ‘senior manager/ director’ is unapproachable and always unavailable!

An example for our team at Astute is the way our owners Sarah and Mary, are always available to have a quick informal chat in private if there is an issue of concern or a personal problem that has arisen.

4/ Reward collaboration!

Having a culture that naturally rewards collaboration, across the business for everything from training to everyday work practices and initiatives, means that the likelihood of loneliness being experienced will be vastly reduced. By feeling more involved, listened to and supported, employees will individually have a much stronger sense of ‘belonging’ to their company which creates the opposite environment for loneliness to thrive. Stronger peer groups and inter-company / inter-department relations will also help to create a much more positive culture and again help banish loneliness.

As an example – for our team we have an employee of the month award. This can be given to anyone in our team and can be awarded to someone who has collaborated and helped their colleagues as well as for special achievements, not just for pure financial/ business performance. This enables the whole team to feel part of the challenge rather than just reserved for our top performers.

We also have our ‘Reward Board’ where everyone from our office manager to anyone else can win a range of prizes including half-day extra annual leave just by achieving non-sales activities that still benefit the business. This engages everyone, makes everyone feel valued and actually creates a fair bit of laughter, fun and banter.

5/ Avoid creating too much pressure!

This is a biggie. Many employees can feel disenfranchised, anxious and lonely if they are placed under undue stress. This is not the same as the pressure that they can individually place upon themselves either! Instead, bosses can often send the wrong signals that only x,y,z will do in terms of sales and production targets – which may actually be more geared / achievable by only the most experienced employees, rather than everyone being able to hit the same targets.

In more niche businesses, individuals can put too much pressure on themselves to perform – much more pressure in fact than their bosses can create! This can cause huge problems unless regular 1:1’s happen. A 1:1 is a great opportunity for employer and employee to directly address any pressures they are feeling that week. For the employer to ask this on a regular basis within a neutral, regular meeting will allow any concerns on this to rise up and be addressed, without the employee suffering in silence and more than likely feeling very lonely too.

At Astute, all of our team have regular 1:1’s to allow them to individually air any issues they may have as well as sharing great ideas and better ways of working that can benefit the whole team! Everyone is important to us.

6/ Use outside professional experts!

Most SMEs have under 15 staff, so it can be hard to have an in-house expert to cover all of this on top of their day-to-day job! So, it’s a great idea for any internal representative to be able to have access to an external professional who they can reach out to for trained guidance and involvement if necessary. MHPP is one such organisation that is free and specifically created to provide this free external support to all businesses.

We hope the above has been useful.

If you would like to read more about Mental Awareness Week, with useful links and more information head to our article HERE .

International Women’s Day is a global, annual opportunity to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements and rally together for women’s equality.

Marked annually on March 8th, International Women’s Day (IWD) is one of the most important days of the year to:

Celebrate women’s achievements

Raise awareness about women’s equality

Lobby for accelerated gender parity

Fundraise for female-focused charities

This #IWD2022, our thoughts turn towards the women in Ukraine.

Mothers, daughters, women of all ages fighting for survival against aggression by Russian forces.

Women reporting from Ukraine war zones to ensure the world knows the truth.

Women forced to flee their homes with their children.

Women forced to give birth in bunkers.

We send our support to all the women of Ukraine.

Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women issued the following statement ahead of International Women’s Day: –

“On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the power and potential of women and girls. We recognise their courage, resilience and leadership. We mark the ways in which we are making progress towards a more gender-equal world.“

Sima goes onto say;

“At the same time, we see how that progress is being undermined by multiple, interlocking and compounding generational crises.

Currently, we are witnessing the horrifying situation in Ukraine where the impacts on women and girls, including the hundreds of thousands displaced, remind us: all conflicts, from Ukraine to Myanmar to Afghanistan, from the Sahel to Yemen, exact their highest price from women and girls. The Secretary- General has been clear, War Must Stop.”

Watch a video of Sima Bahous: https://youtu.be/HvBUwrIp9k0

This year’s campaign is represented by the #BreakTheBias hashtag and calls on people to work towards a world that is equitable, inclusive, and free from bias and discrimination so the playing field is levelled for women moving forward.

Back to Sima:-

“The impacts of COVID-19 have increased inequalities, driving poverty and violence against women and girls; and rolling back their progress in employment, health and education. The accelerating crises of climate change and environmental degradation are disproportionately undermining the rights and wellbeing of women and girls. They are multiplying insecurity at all levels, from individual and household to national. Rising temperatures, extended droughts, violent storms and floods are resulting in loss of livelihoods, they are depleting resources and fuelling migration and displacement. The latest major IPCC report on climate change, and our Secretary-General, have warned us that ‘nearly half of humanity is living in the danger zone – now, ’and that ‘many ecosystems are at the point of no return – now’.

Climate change is a threat multiplier. But women, and especially young women, are solution multipliers.

We have today the opportunity to put women and girls at the centre of our planning and action and to integrate gender perspectives into global and national laws and policies. We have the opportunity to re-think, re-frame and re-allocate resources. We have the opportunity to benefit from the leadership of women and girls environmental defenders and climate activists to guide our planet’s conservation. We need Indigenous women’s inter-generational knowledge, practices and skills.

It will take unprecedented levels of global cooperation and solidarity to succeed, but there is no alternative to success. We must protect our hard-won gains on human rights and women’s rights and lead decisively to leave no woman or girl behind.

We have a blueprint to follow. It involves women’s full and equal participation and leadership in decision-making; their access to green jobs and the blue economy; and their equal access to finance and resources.

We need to ensure universal social protection and a care economy that protects us all. We have to scale up financing for gender-responsive climate, environmental and disaster risk initiatives; including for COVID-19 recovery and to increase resilience to future shocks. The solution is there. We resolve to pursue it.

Let us make this International Women’s Day a moment to recall that we have the answers not just for SDG 5 but, through the advancement of gender equality, for all 17 Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030. I look forward to working with every one of you to that end.”

Wise words which all of us here at Astute thoroughly support.

And our thoughts and prayers go to all in the Ukraine.

We’ve done a fun straw poll in the office to see how people like their pancakes.

Sarah Stevenson – ‘Lemon and sugar all the way!’

Mary Maguire – ‘Thin with a generous drizzle of honey’

Sarah-Louise – ‘Lemon and sugar for me!’

Tom Norton – ‘Smothered in maple syrup and bacon’ Prize for weirdest preference surely?)

Andy Lilliman – ‘Not the biggest fan – sorry!’

Richard Bowe – ‘Maple syrup and ice cream on the top!’

Josh Dunn – ‘Lemon and sugar all the way!’

Jess Starns – ‘Lemon, sugar and bananas (sometimes with a bit of cream!)’

Liz Champion – ‘In the bin’ – really made us laugh this one. Clearly not a fan!

Matt Morgan – ‘Maple syrup, then fold the pancake, then lemon juice, fold again then sugar!’

Harry Langridge – ‘Bacon works for me!’

Tiarna Boler – ‘Bananas and whipped cream!’

The most important bit is the recipe for the pancakes themselves!

Below is our classic recipe you can use! And a top tip at the end too, for the perfect pancake every time!

Alternatively, just pick up a pack of pre-made pancakes, pop in the microwave and voila!

Ingredients:

100g plain flour

2 large eggs

300ml milk (Semi-skimmed works best!)

Optional – you can add 1tbsp of sunflower or vegetable oil, but this is down to you.

Ditto a pinch of salt – totally optional – they work just as well without!

And of course – make sure you have your fillings ready and waiting! Whether thats fresh lemons, oranges, honey, maple syrup or Nutella!

These measures make around 6 – 8 pancakes depending how much batter you use each time. If you want to make more – just double the measures above. If you don’t have large eggs – just use one more ‘medium egg’ than the recipe above instead and that works just as well!

Method:

1/ First – put the flour, eggs, milk (and add pinch of salt and dab of oil if you wish at this point) into a large mixing bowl

2/ Whisk to a smooth batter – (you don’t want any lumps in your pancakes!)

3/ Small frying pan (optional – you can have as big as you prefer, but tossing them may be harder!)

4/ This is the key bit! Drizzle some oil onto the pan and heat gently. Use a fair bit. When heated, use several sheets of thick kitchen roll folded up, to wipe up the excess oil but DONT throw this away. Just pop this with the oil soaked bit to one side. You’ll need this later!

5/ pop the pan back onto the heat for a few moments to heat it – then pour one ladle of your batter into the pan. Leave the pancake for a few seconds, then using your spatula – go around the edges and gently push any excess pancake mix so it forms a neat circle.

6/ Now for the fun bit! After waiting 30 seconds to a minute (depending how hot you have the heat set), gently use the spatula to lift the pancake at the edges, then gently shake the pan. As soon as the pancake can glide over the pan – you’re ready to toss!

7/ After tossing once, just repeat every few minutes and cook to your taste. Then slide onto your plate and its ready to eat!

8/ Every two or three pancakes, glide the oil side of the kitchen tissue you used earlier over the pan. This will stop the pancakes from sticking to the pan but also avoid you using too much oil as there will only be the lightest of sheens on the pan. It also stops your pancakes sticking when you are trying to toss them!

9/ Eco/ stop food waste tip: Cooked too much? Simples. Just leave the excess pancakes to cool, and when cold, layer them in-between grease proof paper, wrap altogether in clingfilm and pop in them in the freezer for up to two months!

Now you are all ready.

Enjoy!

People are people, whatever their nationality. Today as we all hear the shocking news from the Ukraine, we send our thoughts and heartfelt wishes for a swift end to the fighting.

Many candidates, friends, and clients we have dealt with are Ukranian.

The East Midlands may be some 2,630KM from Kiev, a long way from our comfy offices and homes, but we are all the same. Fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, working hard to earn a living and striving for a better future.

One of our founders and owners Mary had this to say:

“One of the first finance people I placed was a lass from the Ukraine.
Wonderfully eloquent, educated, and professional. She had a great sense of humour. A beautiful smile. 😀

She loved the job and was there for years. We’d exchanged friendly emails for years, as that’s what she’d become, a friend. 💖

Since then, there have been many, many warm, lovely Ukrainian people I’ve dealt with as candidates, clients and colleagues.

On this day of sad, shocking news that Russia is shelling the Ukraine, I just want to say that the thoughts, prayers and hopes of peace go to all the wonderful men, women, and children of the Ukraine 🇺🇦 .

Wherever they are, at work or home.

Around the world 🌎 or in the Ukraine, our prayers for peace and safety go to you all, and your loved ones. 🙏”

Here at Astute we have many, many candidates, clients and friends from the Ukraine.

Today, our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the Ukraine and around the world affected by the events happening.

We can only hope that diplomacy is able to win the day before too many people are hurt, or sadly killed.

If you have been affected,

or simply want to

help, see below

for a link to make a donation.

Ukraine Crisis Appeal | British Red Cross

https://bit.ly/3LU2gFn

Liz only started with our team at Astute Recruitment Ltd a few short weeks ago.

Her first week was a record breaker too having managed to get her first permanent and temporary placement within just 3 days of starting. She also managed to pick up a brand new job to work on with her very first BD call!

We’ll let Liz tell you herself: –

“My first few weeks at Astute… Where do I start?

Its been a great way to start the New Year, in a new job with such an established leadership team!

Amazing morale and I’ve made lots of new friends here. I wasn’t nervous at all and fitted straight in.

Did I mention our Lunch Club Pub Fridays? No one mentioned this on my interviews so it was a lovely surprise to be taken to the pub for a couple of hours after a successful weeks work! Even better – this happens every week!

What I’ve really embraced here is how everyone works as a team. We’re like one big family, all helping each other out, recommending candidates for each other’s roles, sharing the latest information and tips! None of that typical ‘me me me’ culture that often comes up in Sales Teams!

Top class training……I quickly became busy so the 12 week training programme went out the window, but what better way to learn the systems than hands on! As I’ve done recruitment previously, it was great to have such a flexible attitude to tailor the training to my specific needs!

Didn’t I break a company record with first candidate placed on day 3 ?

I’m feeling excited for my future with Astute Recruitment, and how busy the office support and HR side is, and is getting busier by the day!

Great to be in the right environment to put my skills and experience to good use

Thanks Liz! we love your feedback and welcome to the team!

Liz does all temporary, permanent and temp to permanent back office recruitment including HR, admin, customer services and all other office, non-finance jobs.

Newly promoted for the second time to Managing Consultant, Tom Norton, has finally moved into a new home. Here at Astute we always try our best to support our team in any way we can.

From our Friday pub lunch club, to our office treat box we keep topped up, we make sure we can have fun!

But all of our team have busy lives, and ‘stuff’ happens. From the renovations for a new kitchen (Matt Morgan) to repairing garden fences after storms (Richard Bowe). We’ve allowed them to WFH and have the flexibility to do what they do best – recruitment clearly) but to also enjoy their own lives and deal with that ‘life stuff’ that sometimes gets in the way.

Back to Tom. After numerous possible homes that fell through, finally he was able to exchange – but it was all a bit short notice.

He was a bit anxious!

His saved holiday from last year technically expired with the start of a new holiday year.

He needed a week off to move in and get all the plumbing, wiring and decorating sorted.

Then there were some internet delays and problems.

So how did our owners, Sarah and Mary, help Tom out?

They allowed him to carry over the holiday from last year.

They allowed him to take a week off at very short notice to move in – with their blessing.

The result?

Tom has just moved into his fab new home and we couldnt be happier for him.

(Plus, we’re all waiting for invites to the house-warming party!)

After 12 years in business, Astute Recruitment Ltd has become one of the premier accountancy recruitment businesses in the East Midlands. We’re also the only East Midlands recruitment expert to have secured over 15 business awards as finalists or winners. You can see some of the awards our team and Directors have received clicking on the following link www.astuterecruitment.com/about-us/awards/

So, we were thrilled for the Derbyshire Life magazine to contact us and ask us if we would like to be included in their special 90th edition in their feature on award winning businesses in Derby!

Great for Astute Recruitment Ltd to be featured in this very special 90th edition of Derbyshire Life

Why have we strived to secure business awards?

Over to one of our MDs – Mary Maguire – who does all our award entries herself, and manages all Astute’s marketing and social media.

“The biggest hurdle setting up a business and brand is getting that brand and what it stands for ‘out there’. Being able to showcase multiple business awards is a brilliant way to show your target audience that you are a recognised expert in your field. It flags to potential clients that they can have total confidence in using your services.

Winning business awards also builds trust for potential staff who may be researching local businesses to see whether they would like to work for that company too. So, from an Employer branding point of view, success in winning awards is key.

As most people recognise, there is a talent shortage of workers skilled in several business sectors currently, from finance and accountancy professionals to skilled IT software developers to drivers, healthcare specialists, hospitality workers and so many more.

So, What better way to help your business and team attract the very best staff than to demonstrate credibility from successful business awards! You could be flagging your company to potential clients, but also raising your company’s profile to potential staff of the future as a credible potential employer!”

For Astute Recruitment Ltd, this means that our current and potential clients can see that we’re a thoroughly professional business and are acknowledged experts in our field. Our awards have also been an additional attraction in our recruitment strategy to appeal to the very best potential recruitment staff wanting to develop their careers and also to experienced recruitment professionals seeking to utilise their knowledge and relationships in a really professional but friendly, fun environment!

Business awards are awarded by impartial business organisations. For different organisations, this means targeting specific awards relevant to your industry.

Sarah Stevenson, our MD of Astute Recruitment Ltd with Dominic Heale, after being presented with the IoD's prestigious Director of the Year Award - Small SME Business — Sarah Stevenson, our MD of Astute Recruitment Ltd with Dominic Heale, after being presented with the IoD’s prestigious Director of the Year Award – Small SME Business

How to start winning awards for your business?

While Mary has been hugely successful in writing awards entries for Astute Recruitment Ltd over the years, this is not something that every business owner has the natural flair or time for.

Instead, there are ‘go to’ experts who will be able to understand your company, and successfully craft an award-winning application for you. One such expert in crafting winning words for an array of businesses is the Founder of Derby’s ‘Ask the Chameleon’ – Rachel Hayward.

Rachel herself has had a tremendous 12 months in winning several business awards including: Female Entrepreneur of the Year, by East Midlands Chamber of Commerce (EMCC) and Derbyshire Live Business Awards in the Professional Services category.

Business Owner Rachel Hayward and some of her business awards in 2021

We asked Rachel to sum up why Business Awards should be a critical part of every company’s marketing and branding strategy. Over to Rachel!

“Awards really do confirm your place in the marketplace. They help in the buying decision and are hugely motivational for your staff team as well as yourself. Running a business is challenging and to be judged as excellent by your peers is extremely rewarding.

The key is often choosing the right category for you and your business. Certain categories will be hugely competitive, so consider other areas in your business that you shine. Maybe you have an excellent apprentice or can demonstrate consistently high levels of customer service? Maybe you go the extra mile as an employer, or you are a third-generation family business? With over 3,500 awards at any one time, there really is an award and category for everyone. “

“My top tips are:

Do your research, look at your competitors and peers, even those businesses/entrepreneurs who inspire you. What awards have they won?
Do you fit the criteria, can you prove it (you will always need factual information to demonstrate success)
Give yourself plenty of time to create those winning words.
Don’t wait for a secret nominator – many award organisers fully expect you to write your own application.

Make 2022 your year to gain your first award success”

We completely agree with Rachel! Its great to hear from Rachel being an award winning expert on winning business awards for her clients! Her insights and tips are really useful. You can contact Rachel at her business, Ask The Chameleon on her website askthechameleon.co.uk/about/

For our own team at Astute Recruitment Ltd, from the ICAEW’s award of Best East Midlands SME Business, to the IoD’s Small Business Director of the Year award, our awards have pride of place in our new office in Derby’s Cardinal Square and on our website!

What our business awards mean to us at Astute!

Business awards reward exceptional business success, ultimately building trust to use your company. Awards inspire confidence to our clients, candidates and potential staff of the future, as we continue to grow, that Astute’s team are unrivalled leaders in financial recruitment.

Sarah Stevenson and Mary Maguire receiving their award for Best East Midlands SME Business by the ICAEW for Astute Recruitment Ltd

We want to bring our business to the attention of new audiences to truly stand out, and for us, securing business awards

really is the best way to cement our reputation as the ‘go to company’ in our sector, Financial Recruitment.

So, be ‘Astute’ and give your marketing strategy a ‘reboot’.

Strive for awards to boost

your business to the next level!

Article by Mary Maguire, MD Astute Recruitment Ltd

Once you’re there, you’ll also be able to track their progress as they swim/ run and cycle towards their distance goal!

We’ve been sharing updates on our team page too!

Did you know?

Suicide is largely preventable, however, shockingly, around the world we lose 60 men to suicide every hour of every day. These are our fathers, brothers, sons, uncles and friends.

Some heart-breaking statistics & links are below: –

How movember makes a difference…..

Mental health and suicide preventionSuicide is largely preventable. Here’s how we’re making a
difference

Prostate cancerGlobally, ~10.8M men are living with or beyond prostate cancer. Here’s what we’re doing about it

Testicular cancerOur approach to the world’s most common cancer among men aged 15-39

Extra ways YOU can support #movember2021!

GROW A MO

Patchy, lopsided, itchy or epic – whatever Mo you grow this Movember, your face will raise funds and awareness for men’s health.

MOVE FOR MOVEMBER

Commit to running or walking 60km over the month, at your own pace. That’s 60km for the 60 men we lose to suicide each hour, every hour across the world.

HOST A MO-MENT

Rally a crew and do something fun and easy. Hosting is all about having a good time for a good cause.

MO YOUR OWN WAY

Create your own challenge – it can be anything. A gruelling test of physical endurance or a not-so-sweaty pledge to kick a bad habit. Your epic efforts will help change the face of men’s health.

Good Recruiters are like swans. Clients and candidates should experience a smooth, calm recruitment process, and not see the way our legs are kicking madly under the water! Clients do need to realise that there is a lot of work that proper professional recruiters do behind the scenes though!

Take client 1. Long-standing, and currently we are on an exclusive recruitment campaign to hire two permanent qualified accountants and appoint for a 12 month maternity leave Qualified Accountancy role for them. Open, regular dialogue with the hiring line managers as to our headhunting progress, ongoing guidance on the salary budget, and whether the annual salary for the roles is accurate market rate to entice the ideal profile of the candidate.

This strategy of clear communication and collaborative recruitment partnership means that we can achieve near 100% CV sent to interview requested ratio.

The client knows that for every single applicant forwarded to them, our team will have already contacted and reached out to many, many more potential candidates that did not make the grade. When headhunting, we will investigate if they are looking for a role, and challenge the candidates on their aspirations, technical financial skillset for these particular finance roles and ‘team fit’ to see if they align with our client’s employee value proposition and ethics.

Our client knows that one CV in their inbox could have meant many man hours in the background, skilfully interviewing and deep diving into potential candidates’ skills, experience, and career/ life aspirations.

The result? A seamless process whereby quality interviews take place, with smooth, transparent communication and honest, constructive feedback the whole way through.

Our client benefits from one agency acting as a true ambassador for their brilliant finance teams, with a justified expectation of quality not quantity of applicant.

Our candidates benefit from a targeted search that takes their aspirations AND their accountancy skills into account.

This is a recruitment partnership that has lasted many years.

Client 2/

A qualified accountant with specific industry sector background and key system skills was urgently required. Our client needed an incredibly quick turnaround and wanted to conduct interviews and ideally offer a suitable candidate within a week. The job was taken at 2pm on a Friday.

The consultant worked hard.

Very hard.

Conversations were had with over 100 potential candidates – most calls lasting 20 minutes, up to an hour.

The result? 4 x CVs were in our client’s inbox for Monday morning.

All were interviewed, one person was offered the role straight away with just a few days.

Scroll forward.

A friendly phone call to follow up as our bill was unpaid.

Why?

Our candidate was still in post – and very happy in the role. His boss was equally happy.

The reason for the bill not being was that they did not believe that we had ‘worked hard enough on the role. They felt that just a couple of quick calls were made and that was it so expected a reduction in our fee as a result. They had not realised all the man-hours and dedicated time sourcing and speaking to potential candidates behind the scenes.

This is why Good Recruiters are like swans.

Clients and candidates should experience a smooth, calm recruitment process, and not see the hard work going on beneath the surface.

They should understand that there is a lot of work going on out of sight, to make that process seamless and smooth.

Good employees are also S.W.A.N.s too!

The SWAN formula is an acronym created by an executive recruiter, John Swan, and is a very useful tool to improve candidate selection processes.

Four Simple Letters: S. W. A. N.

SMART. Always look to recruit intelligent, smart people into your business/ team. But how can you measure the intelligence of a candidate? The answer is simple. Questions! Intelligent people tend to be more curious than average people.

Successful people are smart, especially when it comes to the skills and competencies required for their specific job. This is what Jim Collins meant in his business classic, Good to Great, when he wrote about “getting the right people in the right seats on the bus.” People who have a gift for their particular job tend to work faster, make fewer mistakes, and are far more productive.

WORKS HARD. When recruiting, look for people who are willing to work hard and who have backgrounds and achievements that show how they have gone the extra mile and exceeded expectations. As we emerge from the pandemic, employers need staff who don’t just work lots of hours. Instead they want employees who can work smarter and handle their workloads to deadlines. The years of presenteeism are fading away and rightly so.

People who actually want to “work hard” are more successful at their jobs. The basic rule is that “people don’t change.” A person who is unaccustomed to hard work is not suddenly going to transform under your supervision.

AMBITION. An excellent candidate is someone who wants to move ahead in life. Ambitious people are willing and eager to take additional training; they are already reading and studying and seeking opportunities to grow, both personally and professionally. They value continuous improvement and genuinely want to be the very best they can be.

This is not about only selecting candidates who want to be the FD of a Plc. It is the ambition to be the best at whatever level they are working at and the willingness to learn/ read/ train to become the best.

Candidates should be “ambitious” and able to demonstrate to you why they want this particular job.

We love this quote by Steve Miles, Vice Chairman of Heidrick & Struggles; “Don’t seek a flame-chaser, find people who are anxious to be effective and ambitious about this assignment, not some future promotion or benefit. They have to live for today in that job, not chase the flame of future possibilities.”

NICE. The likability of the candidate is a critical factor. Where this quality was once mainly prized in customer service/ public facing jobs, being ‘kind’ is a highly valued strength in people applying for all levels of employment and professions. Whether in finance, accountancy, or other professions, employers are looking for people who they can work with and who can share and believe in their team values, and who they like. Team fit is one of the most consistently important attributes that our clients are looking for.

When we say “nice,” we mean people who are cheerful, positive, easy to get along with, and supportive of others. They fit within the culture of your organisation. Their beliefs are in alignment with your values and the customers your organisation serves.

In the final analysis, your ability to pick the right people for your team is the key to motivation. You cannot hire the wrong people and then expect to motivate them to be excellent performers for your team. You need to look hard for your ‘A’ players, or use an ‘astute’ recruitment expert who can do a thorough search for you!

The saying, ‘measure twice, cut once’ is particularly true in the world of recruitment.

Other blogs you may be interested in: –

Candidate Blogs

Do you know what time it is on you’re your career clock? Hints and tips to keep your career on track!
From Abacus to Ai, why a career in accountancy is a great career choice!
What does it take to be a great Financial Director?

Client Blogs

Why its OK to talk about mental health at work. We discuss a new, free initiative available to East Midlands businesses
Why recruiting the right people at the right time is key for business success
Why good recruiters are like swans / How to hire the right candidate for your business!

If you would like to discuss anything regarding this article or any of our other articles, please email [email protected]

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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.

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