Office & Professional Jobs

​There’s no denying that remote work comes with a number of perks employees can enjoy. No commute means there’s more opportunity for a lie-in, similarly, meeting no one face-to-face allows many to complete their work in their pyjamas, making for a far more relaxed start to the working day.And these are just some of the ‘lockdown confessions’ employees have stated they have enjoyed, as well as fibbing about lack of internet connection to avoid video calls.In research commissioned by supermarket chain Tesco, a study of 2,000 adults discovered that 78% admitted to a minor naughty slip up this year. It found that the average person has committed seven misdemeanours each, with 13% admitting their naughty tendencies had increased in the past 12 months.​For 16%, this including cheating on a virtual quiz, while more than a fifth admitted to staying in their pyjamas all day and 19% slept when they were meant to be working. A further 16% also told a white lie about their internet connection to avoid taking part in a video call, and one in 10 inadvertently walked onto a call while dressed inappropriately.Despite these confessions, 43% of respondents stated that after this year no one should feel guilty for doing small naughty things.Speaking on the findings, Alessandra Bellini, Chief Customer Officer at Tesco, said that due to the drastic adjustments that have been made to working and living, it’s unsurprising that this behaviour has taken place."2020 has seen the nation adjust to new ways of living, working and shopping, which has led to some less than perfect, but perfectly understandable, behaviour,” she said."As we enter the festive season and begin to reflect on the year gone by, a quarter of us have confessed to feeling guilty for these minor slip-ups.”Bellini added that due to the uncertainty surrounding 2020, Tesco is urging staff to forgive themselves for any naughty behaviour that may haven taken place this year.She added: “At Tesco, however, we believe Christmas is all about spreading joy and this year, we’re encouraging everyone to forgive themselves for their naughty slip-ups."After the year we’ve had, we all deserve to treat ourselves and so we say there is no naughty list (but parents, we’ll let you decide whether you tell your children that or not).”Top work-related lockdown confessions revealed:Wearing the same pair of jogging bottoms a few too many times.Working in their pyjamas.Having a lie in when they were meant to be working from home.Cheating on a virtual quiz with friends or colleagues.Staying in bed all day while working.Only dressing in work attire from the waist up while working from home.Making out their internet connection wasn't working to get out of a virtual meeting.Changing their background to a filter to hide that they weren't really working from home (e.g. working from the park, beach, etc).This isn't the first time employees have confessed to naughty behaviour while working from home. For example, Mind Gym revealed earlier this year that employees had admitted to getting away with more than two hours’ less work each day while working from home.​Source: Executive Grapevine

​During the winter months, employees can become quite lethargic and may start to count down the days till they can switch off over the Christmas break. The same can be said for those seeking new employment, however, the festive period is in fact a great time to tackle a job search.In fact, according to Sharon Patterson, Chief Human Resources Officer for LHH, the talent development and career transition division of recruitment firm, The Adecco Group, revealed this to be true.She said: “My advice around the holiday season is to keep the search active,” reported Fast Company. She pointed out that many businesses have budgets for 2021, and therefore want to find new recruits to join their forces in the first few months of the year.However, this year of course isn’t a normal year. Those seeking employment have many new factors to consider, including the coronavirus pandemic, a recession and fierce competition between other jobseekers, making the job search even more challenging. Therefore, it’s worth considering how best to stand out this winter when looking for a new role. To help, Executive Grapevine has listed five key ways, as reported by Fast Company, below:Keep up habitsSome tried and tested methods should still be remembered in this winter’s job search. For example, remember to research a company, check out who the interviewer will be, study the job description carefully and be prepared to talk about yourself fully. However, career coach ErinBlythe Sanders advised that jobseekers should remember to follow up after an interview to ensure they stand out in the crowd.Get savvy with virtualCurrently, face-to-face interviews have been halted, meaning many interviewers and employers are struggling to get a real feel for who a candidate really is. To manage this, they are turning to social media profiles to understand who someone is, as well as looking for previous work online. It’s therefore time to tidy up any profiles and consider creating an online portfolio to showcase any work.Showcase skillsOne thing employers want to assess is the skills a candidate may have, with particular onus on transferable ones. This allows potential employers to gauge how fast a new recruit can settle in and adapt in a new role. It’s therefore worth highlighting each of these on a CV and in online work, to ensure hiring managers are aware straight away.Understanding ATSApplicant tracking systems (ATS) were designed to assist hiring managers in their search for new talent, however, they can prevent a CV from reaching their hands altogether if relevant words are missing from an application for example. It’s crucial to ensure a CV mirrors the words or phrases used in a job ad, as well as expressing the transferable skills you have to beat an ATS.Prepare for videosLastly, as mentioned earlier, due to a lack of face-to-face interaction, video interviews are now the norm for securing a job. To nail this, it’s worth doing a quick assessment of tech beforehand to ensure everything is working as it should and finding a quiet spot indoors with good lighting. This is your one chance to make a good first impression, so remember to prepare.​Source: Executive Grapevine

​The current jobs market looks quite frightening for candidates looking for their next role. And while employment figures are slightly improving following the dramatic dip earlier this year since the pandemic unfolded, the job search pool can still look intimidating.Office for National Statistics (ONS) research revealed that the employment rate in the UK rose to 4.8% for the quarter ending September 30 signifying promising changes for the jobs market. With the stats looking promising, those seeking new opportunities should look at ways to kickstart their job search for 2021.To highlight how, career and recruitment experts shared their insights with Go Banking Rates, including how to update CVs, utilising videos and the importance of getting organised. Below Executive Grapevine has taken an in-depth look into five key tips.1. Getting organisedBefore any job search can commence, it’s critical you get organised. To start with, create a checklist of things that you need to do to prepare. This may include updating your CV, creating a cover letter template, researching the role/industry you are looking to venture into and whether you know any contacts you can reach out to. Alongside each task, set dates when you hope to complete them to keep you on track. This will ensure you are prepared by the time you come to apply for a role.2. Ready your interview spaceDue to the pandemic, the majority of interviews are being conducted over video. While the pros to this mean no travel costs, it also means that potential employers will be able to see your home environment. Therefore, the challenge here is getting your environment correct. To get this right, position your screen in a well-lit area of your home, so the interviewers can see you clearly, plus it’s also crucial you check all your tech is working properly so you don’t come up against any technical issues. Lastly, remember to dress smart. This includes your top and bottom half to be safe.3. Ignore qualificationsSpeaking to Go Banking Rates, Ellen Mullarkey, Vice President of Business Development for Messina Group, shared that while jobseekers shouldn’t apply for every job opening, if a job comes up at a company they want to work for but their skills aren’t quite right, they should still apply. She explained: “Sometimes, applying for jobs that you aren’t qualified for can help you get your foot in the door. Maybe you aren’t a good fit for that position, but you are a good fit for another position that just opened up. Just by applying, you’ll put your name out there and let the hiring manager know who you are.”4. Create several CVsWhen applying for several roles, it’s likely that each job criteria will differ. Due to this it is worth creating several different CVs that reflect the skills you have that the job will require. Janou Pakter, Founder and CEO of Executive Search firm JANOU LLC, echoed this notion. Pakter said: “The different variations of your resume would emphasise the key experiences and traits that specific roles and industries would focus on. You can then use tailor-made base templates depending on the roles you are pursuing.”5. Using nepotismThe positives of nepotism can be huge when it comes to securing a new job, therefore it is worth asking friends or family to refer you to people they know. Remember that the bigger the network, the more chance you have at landing the job, something that is particularly crucial in today’s competitive market.Source: Executive Grapevine​

Standing out in a job market is notoriously difficult, particularly in current times as jobseekers are up against redundancies and job losses on a regular basis due to the coronavirus crisis.However, it seems that one way to stand out it by showcasing one crucial soft skill. According to Fast Company, there is a growing appetite among employers for candidates who demonstrate more advanced soft skills, as these tend to be harder to teach.And a recent study carried out by LinkedIn has discovered that communication was the most commonly required skill in job opportunities posted to the platform in June and July this year.It seems this trait is far more important to roles that wouldn’t necessarily deem communication an important skill to have. For example, communication skills would likely be considered more important to industries that were customer facing, such as sales, however there is now a growing emphasis on the importance of these skills in any corporate role.Dan Brodnitz, the Head of Content Strategy for LinkedIn Learning, said: “Communication is core to how people interact, and therefore it’s core to how people do business effectively. Anything that involves more than one person depends on communications.”LinkedIn’s Brodnitz also believes that the pandemic has accelerated the appetite for communication, due to the traditional lines now being blurred as a result of increased tech usage. Plus, the number of courses related to communication has also spiked. Over the past six months, the number of hours that users dedicated to communication-related courses on LinkedIn Learning increased. Of the platform’s 16,400 online courses, four of the 20 most popular deal directly with communication skills training.“In a moment of change that affects how we communicate, you’re going to see a heightened need for training,” Brodnitz continued. “As our interactions become more complex, the need for higher-level communication skills becomes more obvious and essential.“In our research, we found that 92% of hiring professionals tell us that soft skills are just as important as hard skills. That means how people work is just as important as their technical ability and ability to deliver on the work.”While the pandemic has exasperated this need for communication skills, Brodnitz believes that this will continue even after the coronavirus crisis eases, as employers identify the importance of this soft skill.

​Coronavirus has had a huge effect on all businesses, with many now struggling due to the financial impact that isolation and lockdown has had across the globe. Worker behaviour, along with customer behaviour, has changed dramatically, and as a result, many specific industries such as aviation and high street retail have suffered colossal losses, both financially and in terms of staff numbers.However, there are some sectors that have seen a surge in profits and overall business because of the pandemic, with an increase in demand in certain industries from both a public and business perspective due to new regulations, and with market share open to those who have learned to adapt.So, which industries are predicted to continue experiencing success after the pandemic?AutomationParticularly within the manufacturing industry, automation has seen a huge spike in interest, with machinery taking the place of humans within development processes in factories and warehouses.COVID-19 has pushed businesses to transfer many job roles from workers to machinery to ensure that the tasks at hand can be carried out safely, while also being more efficient than manual labour. This shift has also made social distancing easier within many workplaces, ensuring that businesses can meet current Government guidelines.Whilst these changes have meant less people are needed for the manufacturing process itself, it’s suggested that many individuals are being saved from doing repetitive and sometimes dangerous tasks, with 62% of chief executives, according to KPMG, saying that this change should in turn create more jobs for people than it eliminates.Digital transformationA recent survey of CEOs conducted by Fortune and Deloitte showed that 77% of CEOs reported that the COVID-19 crisis accelerated their digital transformation plans, showing the demand for IT and digital specialists to aid businesses to transition and continue to grow.Businesses have been forced to turn to technology to deliver their services remotely. The pandemic has brought about a shift in thinking from leaders and managers, pushing the digitalised way of working to the forefront. This has had positive benefits on the efficiency of services, as well as a simplification of processes, allowing them to become clearer and quicker to execute.E-learning resourcesWith many schools having to close due to local lockdowns and students exposed to the virus having to isolate, online education resources have become a necessity for students of all ages.A survey carried out by Times Higher Education found that when asked about the future of technology in education, 63% of university leaders predicted that prestigious universities would have full university courses available for online study by 2030 to keep up with demand and transition to an online way of learning.In addition, the increase of demand in the online education sector is supported by analysts, who, according to research conducted by KPMG, predicted before COVID-19 that the online education market was predicted to be worth £250billion by 2025. But now with the unpredicted surge in online resources, this is estimated to be higher. Online food shoppingThroughout the pandemic, online food shopping has spiked massively, with the demand for home delivery becoming a necessary lifeline for vulnerable and shielding households, as well as those infected.Recent research by Futures found that one in four consumers now buy food and essentials at least once a week online, while more than three-quarters order at least some of their regular household goods from supermarket websites – up from 61% last year.Additionally, Ocado has suspended new orders to their online site until they have cleared a backlog of orders, due to a mammoth increase in custom this year, showing that the new way of doing the weekly shop has changed permanently.Digital comms toolsWorking and socialising via online technology is part of everyday life in 2020, with the tech industry remaining to be the fastest growing sector in the UK. Figures published by The Guardian show that video conferencing app Zoom has seen its shares grow by over 120%, with communications platform Slack also experiencing a rise in shares by 25%.The rise is online communications sites shows that many businesses are adapting to a new way of working that is shifting the traditional nine to five. Not only are online chat applications helping remote working become easier, but they are also helping people to remain connected while lockdown restrictions remain, making scheduling family video chats part of many people’s regular routines.​

​Whilst many have managed to return to the office, at least briefly, over the past few months, the Government’s announcement of an ongoing lockdown throughout the month of November, and speculation about further lockdowns over the Christmas season mean that most professionals will likely remain at home for the foreseeable future.And whilst monitors balanced on books, using kitchen counters as desks and creating a crude workspace, only to have to pack it away at the end of each day worked as a stop-gap for a while, now is the time to properly optimise a place in which to be productive for the sake of your mental and physical wellbeing.Yet according to new research commissioned by High Speed Training, more than half (53%) of workers have not been provided with the office equipment needed to enable them to work from home safely and effectively.More than 2,000 people took part in the research nationwide, revealing that many have had to purchase office items themselves, such as a chair (29%) or a desk (27%), and one in five have even had to invest in expensive electronic items such as a printer (19%) or a laptop (18%). The findings revealed that a third (33%) feel neutral, unhappy or very unhappy about their home working set-up.Research earlier in the year by the Institute of Employment Studies noted how evident the risk to injury can be without a well-thought-out physical working environment. 55% of those surveyed reported aches or pains in their back, 55% have had headaches or migraines and 58% have had aches and pains in the neck.So, how can you optimise your remote working space to stave off these negative effects?MonitorEnsure the monitor is central on the desk and within easy reach with the user when sitting in a neutral position. Eyes should be level with a point on the screen that is 2” to 3” below the top – this allows for head, neck and shoulders to be relaxed.ChairChairs should be padded, free-moving, and stable, with adjustable height and lumbar support for the user’s lower back. The user’s feet must sit flat on the floor or propped up on a comfortable footrest.MouseThe mouse must be positioned close to the user so that they do not have to stretch to use it, allowing for the elbows to rest at a slightly open angle. If the user is using a laptop, a plug in USB mouse is preferred to allow for the best shoulder posture.KeyboardThe user must sit so that elbows are at a right angle when typing. Shoulders, back and arms must be relaxed to not place extra strain on important muscles and joints. As with the mouse, the keyboard should be placed within easy reach of the user, so they do not have to stretch and so that their wrists are supported on the desk.EnvironmentDesks should have adequate height underneath to accommodate legs with plenty of room left over. Desk surfaces should not be made from materials that cause constant reflected glare to the user’s eyes. The room should be well lit, preferably with natural light, to aid eye health and prevent eye strain caused by screen time and a constant room temperature kept to prevent bad posture.​​​

We’re still here for you Meridian has been increasingly busy since the first national lockdown in March, despite the fact that 46% of our clients have been closed at some point we have been supporting our clients in the NHS, food production and retail industries, who have played a crucial role during the pandemic proving an essential public service. As we find ourselves in a second national lockdown, we just wanted to reassure all our Clients that for Meridian it is very much business as usual. We are still here to help and provide you with much-needed stability in these turbulent times. Our teams will continue to work safely, from home wherever possible and we will continue to assist you with your recruitment needs, be it high volume temporary labour, permanent placements or ad-hoc supply. Even though we can’t have any face to face meetings, we are always available for virtual meetings via Odro, Zoom or Microsoft Teams. As always, our staff are available on phone or email for any requests/support. We have a dedicated team reviewing guidance, updating our policies and procedures on a daily basis so you can be assured we will react quickly where necessary. Your local account or branch manager should be in touch with you over the next few days to ask about your own plans and see what support we can provide, so that we can all work together to ensure the continued health and safety of our teams and communities. Thank you for your continued support during these uncertain times. Wishing you all good health. Derek Skelton | Chief Executive Officer ​

​Number of job adverts rises to 1.36 million for first time since early March, but regional disparities are clear​1.36 million active job adverts in the UK in the first week of November, passing levels seen in early MarchSix of the 12 nations and major regions now have higher numbers of job adverts than in March, while six still have fewerRecovery led by north-west England and Wales, but London lags behindRoles in construction, logistics and food and drink have recovered strongly, while hospitality and leisure remain at significantly lower levels than in MarchIn the first week of November, as the new England-wide lockdown was introduced, there were 1.36 million active job postings in the UK. This is the first time that figure has been passed since the second week of March, just before the first lockdown was announced. However, as the REC’s latest Jobs Recovery Tracker highlights, this recovery has not been evenly distributed across the different regions and sectors of the UK labour market. Job adverts in north-west England recovered at the quickest rate, passing their March levels in early August, with Wales not far behind. In October, six of the 12 nations and major regions of the UK had recorded higher numbers of active job adverts than in March, led by north-west England (+36.8%), Wales (+33.4%) and Northern Ireland (+22.1%).​​However, six regions of England continue to record lower numbers of active job postings than March. London’s labour market is lagging furthest behind, with 18.7% fewer job adverts than March, followed by the West Midlands (-9.3%) and Yorkshire & the Humber (-6.8%).Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the REC, said:“Unemployment and redundancy numbers earlier this week showed that this is a tough moment for our jobs market. But we also know that there are always jobs being created by those businesses who can, and as this data reveals, there is hope to be found in many places and sectors. What we need to do now is support businesses who can to create jobs, and help people who have lost work to transition into those new roles. With the stark difference in demand across different regions, avoiding a skills mismatch will require serious planning. Recruiters, with their intimate local and sectoral knowledge, can play a central role in this effort.“Government can also help by reducing barriers to creating jobs through tax policy and regulatory change – like keeping the online right-to-work checking we have moved to in the pandemic. Broadening the apprenticeship levy would also allow workers to train and fill skill gaps in the longer-term. Some hard-pressed sectors with high demand – like food manufacturing – also need the new immigration system to reflect the severe shortages they are facing.”More must be done to avoid a skills mismatch in different sectors and regionsSix months on from when theJobs Recovery Trackerstarted tracking hiring hotspots during the pandemic, the analysis has also identified discrepancies in how occupations in different sectors have recovered. Job postings for care workers have remained at a relatively stable level from March to October, due to heightened demand for staff in care homes. By October, the number of adverts for nurses had increased to 39.0% above the level of March, in preparation for a tough winter ahead.After significant falls in the spring, roles in construction, logistics and food and drink manufacturing have also seen notable growth in postings through the summer and autumn. The number of adverts for food and drink processing operatives (+53.2%) and LGV drivers (+43.3%) significantly increased as we headed into the winter. Seasonal demand will also have affected these numbers, as the retail sector prepared for Halloween, Black Friday and Christmas.There have also been rising job adverts for carpenters (+37.2%) and other construction occupations as the sector opened up through the summer. And while job postings for skilled, white collar occupations like software developers and accountants fell during the first months of the pandemic, demand has recovered and there are now around the same level as we saw in March.​​At the other end of the spectrum, it is no surprise to see that roles in hospitality and leisure have fared the worst over the past eight months. In October there were 48.7% fewer adverts for bar staff than in March, despite a notable recovery during the summer months. Job postings for chefs (-45.6%) and fitness instructors (-36.8%) also remain significantly lower than before the pandemic hit the UK.With unemployment levels rising across the country but demand varying significantly by sector, many people will need help transitioning into a new role or industry. Recruiters can provide vital support, helping with CV writing, highlighting transferrable skills and opening both candidates’ and employers’ eyes to what is available.Matthew Mee, Director, Workforce Intelligence at Emsi said:“I wholly agree with Neil’s comments – particularly the urgent need for focus on re-skilling parts of the workforce to enable speedy transition into sectors that are in growth mode. With discussion this week around a potential Covid vaccine coming closer to fruition, and the rise in confidence this brings, it will be interesting to see how this impact hiring activity in coming weeks.“One of the most interesting developments we are seeing in terms of employer demand is the ‘London Lag’, which is seeing the capital return to pre-Lockdown levels at a much slower rate than other regions of the country. Whereas the likes of the North West and Wales in particular have seen job postings rise considerably since May, London has been much flatter and is still well below the volume seen in March. When we couple this with the fact that furlough take-up has been higher in London than elsewhere, and that the highest rise in Claimant Counts has been in the London commuter belt, it seems that the restrictions since March may well have had a greater proportionate impact on the capital than on other regions of the country.”​ Source: The REC, EMSI​

​It’s debatable that now more than ever in the history of business has it been more essential to concentrate on development. This doesn’t just mean personal development, although all leaders have either learned to adapt and progress through this onslaught of swift change propelled by the advent of the COVID pandemic, but also team development.Agility has been key; not just to keeping business running as usual, but to evolve and actively thrive through the most challenging period in business’ evolution. Jobs have changed; the Government itself has drawn much attention for noting that not all professions are currently perceived to be ‘viable’, whilst surviving redundancies and furloughs has put the onus on staff to invest in the running of their ship like never before.And, of course, even before the pandemic, the emphasis placed on the development and honing of soft skills amongst the workforce was considered a key proponent of future business success – this has only become more evident.However ironically, when businesses go into crisis mode, learning and development are so often the first elements of leadership to fall by the wayside. Yet these things are not ‘nice-to-haves’, they may well define which companies continue to operate in the uncertain future, and which simply do not survive.But how exactly has the pandemic reshaped professional development? In conversation with Fast Company,  Michell Parmlee, Deputy CEO for Deloitte Global, told Fast Company that these changes sit on five key pillars.Learning in the ‘flow of work’Professional development takes on many forms, however, it is likely that pre-pandemic, it was defined by dedicated time, either via a learning management system or via learning seminars. Now, the onus is very much on workers to shape and define their earning in whatever way they can. This may come with general encouragement from leaders, however with the move to remote working and a reshuffle of corporate priorities, one of the biggest changes felt in the world of work is the investment in trust. It’s up to you to keep up with your working day, it’s up to you to manage your wellbeing and mitigate burnout and it’s up to you to ensure that you’re on your own track of personal development.Capabilities firstWith each passing day, learning and professional development becomes about more than just gaining technical skills, which are always changing – especially as technology advances. Now it’s about fostering and nurturing the capabilities needed to adapt and thrive in a fast-changing workplace and world. It’s about equipping employees with the skills they need to track down relevant information, apply previous knowledge, and work within and lead diverse teams. After all, these are the building blocks of more technical skills. A digital-first approach Gone are the days of travelling to a learning centre to delve into days of technical training. For the moment, workers are likely confined to the safety of their homes, meaning that any additional training must be digital first. This may come in the form of webinars, streamed seminars or workshops via Zoom or Skype, but the majority of workers, especially for those juggling the balance between working and home life, prefer to learn via centralised learning systems that allow them to conduct learning at their own pace, and potentially in their own time.Structured communicationFor managers, allowing development to fall by the wayside should be viewed as completely unacceptable, even in times of hardship such as these. This means implementing a clear structure to workers that allows them to stick to KPIs and targets in the knowledge that these will be assessed, and not just left to fizzle out. Communication has been a key talking point throughout the pandemic but wellbeing isn’t the only element of comms structures that must survive the move to remote working. It may be up to workers to devise their own plan for personal development, but it’s still very much the job of a manager to oversee it and ensure it’s taking place.Time not just to develop, but to step awayEveryone is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in their own way. Some may have found that the move to remote working has dramatically upped productivity as the stress of the office and commuting becomes a past memory. However, others are struggling mentally and physically with the change. As such, leaders must promote positive wellbeing as well as personal development. In fact, taking time away fro L&D when feeling overwhelmed is just as important as doing it in the first place. It’s essential not to forget that, however, ‘business as usual’ the new normal feels for you, for others this is a time of struggle, and processes may well be impacted by this.​Source: HR Grapevine

​The Institute for Employment Studies have released their latest Labour Market report today and it makes for interesting reading. Some of the Highlights are:Redundancies reached a new peak in the three months to SeptemberHiring and vacancies likely being held back by spare capacity in firms as furlough unwound, and by continued economic uncertainty.The significant falls in employment appear to be due to lower self-employment amongst menConversely there are significant rises in full-time employment for womenSigns that young people are bearing the brunt of the crisis – with youth employment down by more than 300 thousandProgress in narrowing the employment gap for disabled people has stalled during the crisisThere are signs that vacancies had started to recover more strongly in September and OctoberClick here to read the full report.