Year in Review: Claire Wakelin – Benjamin Edwards Recruitment

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January to March 2020 – The year started brightly with our normal rush of companies looking for talent – New Year – New Start. Traditionally, the bleak months of the year are strong in recruitment as job seekers and employers spend the natural slow down over the festive period reflecting and putting new plans into operation. Brexit was still looming and holding down salaries.

Lockdown 1 – The initial Lockdown was cataclysmic for all businesses and households. Companies pulled their vacancies and interviews that were scheduled did not happen. At Benjamin Edwards we chose not to furlough our team and continued to trade in a Covid secure environment, adapting our operations and making good use of Zoom and other platforms to connect with our hundreds of candidates. We launched a brand-new website which has been a major success including our Talent Search Program. The website enables clients to search for candidates as well as supporting candidates looking for jobs. We continued to trade and placed around a third of our normal placements. Our personal approach and autonomy meant we were unfettered by the restrictions that some of the big recruiters experienced.

We focused our time on coaching our candidates with job hunting in a Covid world and published over 20 blogs with tips and hints.

We were busy on LinkedIn too, doing everything we could to promote our candidates on our website and keep our profile going which proved to be remarkably successful.

August to October 2020 – “Eat Out to Help Out” and an easing of restrictions melted our phones. Enquiries were high. The demand for Accountants remained strong. Every business needs solid financial information now. We were as busy during this period as at any time in previous years. Even though we were busy, we anticipated a shift from permanent positions to interim and temporary posts towards the back end of 2020 – and were proved right. All the intelligence pointed to a shifting landscape. The original furlough scheme was due to cease at the end of October; post-Christmas Brexit difficulties; and a potential collapse of the traditional bricks and mortar retail landscape and hospitality sector constraints. So, we ramped up our interim and temporary division, actively seeking financial talent in Lincolnshire to support businesses based in our county and surrounding areas.

October to December 2020 – This has proved to be an itch that needed to be scratched. Now we are recruiting really experienced financial crusaders who are wanting to support businesses in transition and can’t afford anyone fulltime or permanently on their payroll. We are geared up for the temporary market able to pay PAYE, Ltd or umbrella companies.

We are busy across the board – anyone who has payroll expertise is particularly in demand due to the complexities of the furlough scheme. Our focus has always been on our wonderful county of Lincolnshire and the Finance and Accountancy people that live or want to work here.

On to 2021 –  As I reflect back on 2020, it has been rotten for us all: freedoms curtailed; worries about our families; grief, health and wellbeing; home-schooling; job losses and job security; personal finances and so on; but I have learned so much and have re-engaged with so many talented people and resilient employers across our County. I give thanks to all our tenacious clients, candidates, and team members for soldiering on. My hope for 2021 is that these relationships will continue, and we can once again meet up in person!

Want to know more?
So why choose Benjamin Edwards?
• We are great listeners and offer an honest, refreshing, and ethical approach to recruitment
• Solid local knowledge of both candidates and companies in Lincolnshire & surrounding areas
• We combine old school recruitment with new-age technology
• Full end to end recruitment process
• Advertising
• Free local market analysis & advice
• Free remuneration package advice
• Search & Selection
• Retained services for senior appointments
• Outplacement support if making redundancies
• CV advice
• Careers guidance
• Proactive candidate promotion

If you want to know more, or have a difficult recruitment issue please do get in touch!

Difficult to talk at work? Then contact us outside of office hours on 07585035316

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