With leadership being found as the top most important management skill, we wanted to take some time in our new series to speak to Meridian's leaders about their work and the niche environments in which they operate. In this first edition, Meridian's friend, life coach and former employment rights lawyer, Suhail Mirza, interviews Head of Transport & Infrastructure Fred Ewing about transport modelling, climate change and how the work he and his clients are doing today wont be seen during this life time.

On Friday, in a virtual day presented by BBC’s Dan Walker, we were delighted to receive our rankings within the Best Companies UK league tables.This followed our accreditation of 3-stars in the prestigious Best Companies ratings in April– the highest accreditation a company can receive. This meant we were ranked within 4 tables, the Northwest, Southwest, Mid-Sized Company and Recruitment Company.After a tense wait to see where we placed within the country, we were thrilled to place:·        26th in the Northwest·        11th in the Southwest·        17th in the UK Recruitment Sector·        24th in the UK Mid-Sized Companies.​​Meridian’s Head of HR, Sarah Ward said: “It is such an honour for Meridian to receive our 3* Best Companies rating, and then to place so highly within each of the league tables is an incredible reflection of the hard work of the Meridian team.”Best Companies create their league tables each quarter and we are happy to be new additions to some of these league tables; the rest of which we have climbed through the rankings year on year to help businesses to create a ‘happier and healthier workforce’, which we are proud to uphold as a key value at Meridian. Under the leadership of CEO, Derek Skelton, Meridian is continuing to go from strength to strength, with 2021 having been our best year to date.We are very proud to have achieved such an accolade and would like to extend our thanks to the entire Meridian team who filled in the survey and work so hard every day to help us achieve such praise and status across the UK.​

​Meridian Business Support is pleased to confirm the completion of a Management Buyout and the appointment of 11 new shareholders from the Meridian Senior Leadership Team.The MBO was led by Meridian's CEO, Derek Skelton, and Finance Director, Jeanette Barrowcliffe, following Meridian's outstanding performance over the last five years. In particularly, Meridian has thrived in the challenging socio-political climate and had a turnover exceeding £100 million in 2021. About the deal, Meridian's founder, Rod Kavanagh commented:"Meridian's exceptional performance over the last few years has proved that the company is in very capable hands. I am confident in this decision and know that the future of Meridian will be bright".Meridian's new shareholders would like to thank Rod for his dedication to the business for over 32 years.The completion of the deal led the Meridian Senior Leadership Team to invite an additional 100 of its team to take shareholder options, as part of an EMI scheme - a rarity within the recruitment industry - to ensure that the company's future is in the hands of those who have contributed to our recent successes. Commenting on plans for the future, Derek Skelton said:"This seamless deal represents an exciting new chapter for Meridian. We have a world-class culture, as demonstrated in our 2022 Best Companies 3-star accreditation, and the move to include more employees as shareholders and share option holders will only strengthen this as we work together to identify new opportunities and developments for our future. We will continue to work closely with our clients, suppliers and candidates, and guarantee that they will always receive the same high standards of services that they expect."

​We are excited to announce that Meridian Business Support has been awarded a Best Companies 3-star rating – the highest accolade Best Companies offers! After receiving the 2-star accreditation in 2021, our teams have been working even harder together to ensure we have an inclusive and open culture that enables people to thrive and enjoy coming to work. As a result of their brilliance, Meridian has now joined this exclusive list of 3-star rated businesses across the UK. Meridian’s CEO, Derek Skelton commented:“I am always proud of the Meridian family and this rating is testament to determination of each one of them to live and breathe our values, delivering best in class service to our customers. Meridian’s culture is one of the best out there and it is fantastic to have this recognised by Best Companies and join the 3-star elite.”Meridian will soon be able to share our UK wide ranking within the recruitment sector and we are excited to see the business continue to go from strength to strength. ​https://www.b.co.uk/companies/meridian-business-support

​This week marked the start of stress awareness month, a month based around lessening the effects of stress and discovering their causes so issues can be tackled head-on. Stress can be experienced in many different ways, it can help to motivate us to achieve things in our daily life, but too much stress can affect our mood and cause us to feel anxious.Research shows that 74% of the UK felt overwhelmed or unable to cope at some point over the last year following the impact of the pandemic, changes in the ways of working, and the uncertainty of the job market during this period. Although restrictions have now lifted and life is seemingly heading back to some level of normality, the impact of such stresses can be long-lasting. Stress Awareness Month aims to help people pick up on what makes them stressed and address issues head-on before they affect day-to-day life, and now post-pandemic aims to help people feel a sense of normality in the workplace. Stress presents itself in many ways, therefore needs to be dealt with through different means. Throughout this month, we will be looking at the ways in which stress can be reduced in the workplace. We have listed some ways to face stressful situations, whether they be physical such as going for a walk, doing some exercise, or getting a break away from your computer or phone, or mental, such as talking to a friend or colleague about worries you may have, or making sure you have a clear workspace to focus on your tasks for the day.​Here are some tips to help reduce the feelings of stress to get you through a stressful day:Get outdoors for a walk - Fresh air and exercise are both ways of winding down and helping to relieve stress.Take a break! - Getting away from your screen for a short break can help massively. Grab a cuppa with a friend or colleague and take 5 minutes to switch off!Get some exercise - Exercise releases endorphins in the brain to make handling stress that little bit easier.Listen to your favourite music - Make a playlist of your favourite songs and take some time to switch off and relax.Make a list of priorities for the day - tick off each point on the list as they're completed to keep track of what you've achieved throughout the day.Clear space, clear mind - Remove any distractions you may have by having a spring clean. This could be your workspace, one room, or your whole house!Lessen your screen time - Sometimes our phones can be the biggest distraction day-to-day. Try to take some time away from the screen for a little while each day.Talk to a friend or colleague if something is worrying you. Always talk to someone if you’re feeling stressed or anxious and get things off your chest. A problem shared is a problem halved.Set yourself a challenge - focus on something completely new, such as taking up a new hobby or sport to keep your mind active.We are very fortunate at Meridian to have a very supportive team across all of our branches. If you ever find yourself struggling, please reach out to someone you trust, there will always be someone to help. There are also many online resources available such as MIND, MentalHealth.org, and ReThink.https://www.mind.org.uk/https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/mental-health-issues/stress/https://www.rethink.org/advice-and-information/living-with-mental-illness/wellbeing-physical-health/stress-how-to-cope/https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/getting-help

​Saturday 5th March marked the day of our annual Meridian Conference & Awards at the beautiful Carden Park Hotel, sponsored by The Access Group, Brabners, Corinthian, Exchequer Solutions, FluidOne, Gallagher, Altodigital, Aziz Coach Service, Veritas, and W Denis. Each year Meridian brings together the team from across the country to celebrate their hard work and incredible achievements throughout the year including a number of new awards this year following a record year of achievements in 2021.Following an introduction from Meridian CEO, Derek Skelton we had an update on the past 12 months and what an amazing year it was for Meridian, including 33 promotions across the business and an incredible number of job roles being filled. We were delighted to see many awards being presented during our day event including our graduation and financial awards and long service awards; Student of the Year – Charlotte McMeechanCommunity Champion – Samantha BealeLargest Perm Fee – Fred EwingQuality Award for Compliance – Trafford ParkOutstanding Team Contribution – NRCUnsung Hero of the Year – Cathy KendrickMost Improved Branch of the Year – Glasgow Long Service Award - 5 yearsJanet CalthorpeOlivia BodleyLouise KetteringhamDeimante LekuteGemma LakinPaula DragonskaAdam TemmeNicola ThomasSteph SopjesDerek SkeltonAdrian SafferyGary CallowStephen PearsonAnd many more awards, presented by Head of Learning and Development, Jamie Abbott and honorary ‘Professor’ for the day, Derek Skelton. We were delighted to be joined by guest speaker, Roz Savage, the first woman to row solo across the worlds ‘Big 3’ Oceans – The Atlantic, Pacific & Indian Oceans, rowing over 15,000 miles, around 5million oar strokes and spending over 500 days at sea in a rowboat, with injuries along the way, and most disastrously – a broken stereo! Roz is now the holder of 4 Guinness World Records and an MBE for services to fundraising and the environment. Roz addressed the Meridian team on the importance of resilience and perseverance through difficulties, this was proven by 4 members of our team joining Roz on stage ‘rowing’ a mile whilst being splashed by ‘waves’ along the way. One way of getting through the struggles was to ‘begin with the end in mind – your funeral’ and not leave behind any regrets. Roz profoundly stated ‘I want to look back and know I did my best and tried my hardest. I realised I wanted to leave a legacy’ a statement to live by!Following a catch-up at the bar with colleagues and friends from branches across the country, our evening event commenced, with everyone dressed to the nines and celebrating our colleagues once more presented by our esteemed host, Rob Latimer. We presented many of our incredible team members with awards during the evening;Best Newcomer – Carmel BardsleyBest Client Facing Customer Experience – Rebecca AmesBest Candidate Facing Customer Experience – Karen BrownBest Internal Customer Experience – Alan OrmesherSupport Services Department of the Year – Credit ControlManager of the Year – Clariss SkeltonKey Account Manager of the Year – Rob RichardsOnsite Biller of the Year – Danielle AveryTemp Biller of the Year – Colette SmithPerm Biller of the Year – Fred EwingBranch of the Year – Wakefield Next A-Z Branch of the Year – ExeterOnsite of the Year – HelloFreshMeridian Ambassador Awards – Lana Bennett & Danny HardingChief Executives Award – Steph SopjesLong Service Award - 10 YearsPiotr NaroznyNatalie LomaxFrancesca WoodsfordLong Service Award - 20 yearsTom AndrewsCathy KendrickAnton GleaveCath HaslamSteve PittWe also had a special award to present at the end of what was an amazing evening of celebration addition to the Meridian Hall of Fame this year. The Hall of Fame welcomes people who contribute to the foundations of Meridian and uphold our company values, and this year's recipient was our Financial Director, Jeanette Barrowcliffe.The day concluded with dinner and dancing following an exceptional day and a raffle to raise money in aid of Leonard Cheshire. Congratulations to all of our winners and thank you to our sponsors, the AV team, the organisation team and the Carden Park staff for helping us to celebrate in style!

I’m Tom and I have recently started as Labour Co-Ordinator for the North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands, and I’m based on the Mechanical and Engineering team at our Manchester Head Office. A large part of my job is to fill vacancies for clients that need plumbers, electricians, and pipe fitters onsite. I also keep my team informed of who is becoming available and who is currently onsite. Prior to working at Meridian, I went straight from school to playing football full time for Altrincham until I had a knee injury that led me to getting an actual job. From there, I worked as a sales executive before deciding to travel around Europe. I spent two months back home in Avellino, Italy where most of my family are from and after that I travelled around lots of different places including Santorini and Iceland.Shortly after starting at Meridian, I took part in several induction sessions with Head of Learning & Development, Jamie Abbot, where we were also joined by our CEO, Derek Skelton. I have learnt a lot from the sessions with Jamie, and the most important point I have taken away is how much Meridian look after you and they will always be willing to put you through more training if you ever wanted to. The attraction to recruitment came from a financial perspective - money is a key thing for me. If you put hard work in and maintain good relationships, you can make a good career, and earn quite a lot of money! Plus, working for a large company like Meridian can help me to spread my name across the industry. However, my main reason for wanting to work at Meridian was to learn about recruitment, build good relationships with people in the office and to just enjoy being back in work again.​To see how Tom can help you with your next position, contact him at tom.bagnara@meridianbs.co.uk or call 0161 929 3860

Well, what a week it’s been! I’m Sophie and I am delighted to have been welcomed with open arms into the team at Meridian Business Support. I am already thrilled to be here as Content Marketing Executive within the Marketing Team.Having only graduated from Liverpool Hope University in 2019, I am still very new to the working world in my eyes, with a couple of ‘grown up’ jobs under my belt up to now. However, starting at Meridian has opened my eyes to a brand-new sector that I am super excited to learn more about.Meridian Business Support is one of the largest privately owned, multi-sector recruitment companies in the UK, celebrating 30 successful years in the recruitment industry, with extensive network of branches provides over 4,000 temporary staff on a weekly basis and places over 1200 permanent candidates each year and around 210 in-house staff.This week I was introduced to a small number of the team based at head office in Manchester – due to the sheer delight of Covid restrictions, sadly not many of us are in at the moment – however, the team that I have met so far have been super welcoming and I am so thrilled to be working alongside such a positive group of people - very much matching my loud, chatty personality (and ability to get a conversation out of a brick wall!)Meridian has a structure of induction sessions in place for all new employees, I joined the ‘Welcome to Meridian’ session, which involved an introduction from all the new staff, including myself and 11 new members of the branches from across the UK, all the way up to Meridian Business Support CEO, Derek Skelton & Head of Learning and Development, Jamie Abbott. Just getting the hear the genuine enthusiasm coming from the long-standing members of staff and new members was so inspiring to be a part of. Meridian very much keep their staff at the heart of the business and in doing so, retain staff for great lengths of time, as I have seen with people receiving their Long Service Awards - very telling of how much people love working at Meridian! It only takes a scroll through the company Instagram, Meridian Life to show you the support shown to the staff and from the staff in raising money for charity, the celebration of key events in the lives of staff members and the great fun that the team at Meridian Business Support across the UK get to enjoy. All this fun, whilst working hard and providing staff to companies across the UK in need of roles filling in industrial, health, office & professional and so many more roles.Our second session involved a much more detailed introduction to Meridian’s products and services with so many positive notes to pick up on about how the company runs across each of its sectors and how each individual team works to fill the job roles for our clients. With the recruitment sector being worth around £42.3bn, getting the best staff for our clients is key, with over 85 nationalities currently represented within Meridians external staff, but finding internal staff who work well together and enjoy their jobs, also a key aim for Meridian.My time here has only just begun, and I am SO excited for what the future brings for me here at Meridian Business Support. Now onto a few weeks of getting involved in the final planning for the annual MBS conference and another step up in my marketing career.

​●       The award recognises Meridian Business Support for the way they support small suppliers by paying at least 95 per cent of their invoices on time and within 30 days or less, consistently over the last 12 months.In a great start to the year, Meridian Business Support has been awarded the Good Business Pays ‘Fast Payer Award’, which recognises large companies that have demonstrated excellent payment practice to their suppliers over the past year. Meridian Business Support is an award-winning recruitment agency that operates in multiple specialist markets throughout the UK. We specialise in temporary, permanent and contract recruitment across four key sectors, Built Environment, Health, Office & Professional and Industrial.Analysis of the latest information submitted under the Duty to Report Regulation, shows that Meridian Business Support joins the likes of United Utilities Water, Aviva and Severn Trent Water who were the first to receive the award in October 2021 in paying invoices within a fast timescale.The Good Business Pays ‘Fast Payer Award’ was established in 2021 to recognise businesses that pay at least 95% of their invoices on time and within 30 days or less - in line with the government’s guidelines in the Prompt Payment Code - consistently over the last 12 months. Jeanette Barrowcliffe, Finance Director at Meridian Business Support, commented: “We are delighted to have been awarded the ‘Fast Payer Award’ from Good Business Pays. This is a huge compliment to the Finance team at Meridian Business Support, who are making sure payments are made on time, ensuring our suppliers are looked after. They are a credit to the company.” The Good Business Pays campaign is calling on business leaders to speed up their payments and re-evaluate their standard terms to ensure smaller suppliers are paid when they need it the most. Terry Corby, Chair of the Good Business Pays campaign commented: “I’m delighted to be awarding Meridian Business Support with the Good Business Pays Fast Payer award. The award recognises the big businesses that are supporting their small suppliers by making responsible payment practises a business priority.“Unfortunately, there is still a way to go to make faster payments standard practice. We’d like business leaders to take note and start making changes to their payment practises by complying with the Prompt Payment Code, created to help protect small businesses. Paying invoices faster has never been easier with technology enabled systems available, so there really is no excuse.”Backed by Federation of Small Businesses, the CBI, manufacturers group Make UK, the BCC, IoD and the Creative Industries Federation, the Good Business Pays movement was launched in May 2021 to encourage the UK's largest companies to fast-track payments to small suppliers, helping them bounce back and inject vital capital into the economy.A study carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) in 2021 estimated that if small businesses invoices were paid on the day they were submitted, their revenues would increase by over £40bn per year. This could provide a significant income boost for small businesses, helping them play a stronger role in the UK’s economic recovery. To find out more about the Good Business Pays principles, pledge support for the campaign and explore the CEBR study, visit goodbusinesspays.com.​

​Temporary working and short-term contracts have a lot going for them and may be the right solutions for many workers. Choosing temp work can be a lifestyle choice that enhances your work-life balance if you do it right. That said, temporary working isn’t always an option at all, and for others, it only makes sense in the short-term. The important thing is to consider whether this is an option that works for you.​Temporary working is a permanent choice for many businesses and workers.What we mean by that is the requirements of the working world have changed for many businesses. It is not uncommon for a company to work with temp working as a permanent operational choice. Project work and the rise of the ‘gig economy’ approach means employers sometimes simply do not need the traditional 9 – 5 workforces anymore. As a result, there are some excellent job opportunities available. Temp working is about your lifestyle as much as the available work. Work-life balance matters because it is important for your emotional and physical wellbeing. Temping puts you in control of where and when you work—assuming that the work is available where and when you want it, of course. Undoubtedly, the biggest worry people have around temping is the concern of the available roles suddenly drying up. Yes, that is possible, and it has happened before, but right now, the opposite is very much the case. If you are thinking of temp work, then the first thing to do is speak to your recruiter about what is available around the hours and jobs you want to work in. It gives you time back. Many people choose the temporary option if they are in a situation where working the usual hours is difficult or not possible for them. Caring for others or childcare requirements are two very good reasons for wanting a job that supports your other commitments. For some, though, it is simply that they want to focus on other aspects of their life such as building a new business, travelling, charitable work or just less stress so you can spend more time with the family, relax more and take the dog for a walk. Temporary jobs pay more over the short term. We need to be very clear about what this means, though. While it is true that some temp roles pay more per hour than permanent roles, there is a downside. In the run up to Christmas, for example, you may be able to build up cash very quickly by temping, but the time you can do that for will be limited. If you have periods of not working, the overall pay for a permanent worker soon catches up. Temping could allow you to decide on your actual career. If you are unsure of where your career path is heading, temping offers the opportunity to experience different jobs and work environments. It isn’t unusual for people to temp until they find something they are really interested in. It could ease you back into the workplace if you have been away for a while. If you are returning after a period of illness, giving time to childcare or any other reason, and you want to ease yourself back into the workplace, temping is a great option. So, there are a lot of benefits to not having a permanent contract. The freedom it offers alone makes it worth considering. As we said at the start, though, it isn’t for everyone. Permanent may well be less exciting and less flexible, but it does have security and consistency. The guaranteed pay packet at the end of the month and the long-term job are not things to be discarded lightly, particularly if you have a partner and children to consider. There is also the long-term advancement and training that often comes with permanent working to throw into the mix. In the end, the decision to become a temporary or permanent worker is about how it fits with your lifestyle and budget as much as it is about the available work.