Let Q4 commence!
The HQ team are working hard to ensure that they achieve their financial target for 2008 by meeting their Sales Target for the last quarter. The team agreed an ambitious growth in turnover of 35% from last year at the January conference that was held at the Hilton Hotel in York at the beginning 2008. Managing Director Sarah Pullan comments "2008 has been a busy year so far for the HQ team, but Q4 will be a challenge as not only are we keen to hit our Sales targets but we are also being assessed for Investors in People. With only 12 weeks left until Christmas, everyone here is really focused on making sure that we achieve our objectives. The team will then be keen to celebrate their success and then enjoy recooperating over the Christmas period ready for another busy year"
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Business Manager appointed!
We are delighted to announce that Gillian Moran has joined the Wetherby team as Business Manager with immediate effect. Gillian, a Graduate, has over 6 years experience of the Recruitment Industry and joins the Wetherby team to provide support and guidance to our consultants and admin team. Managing Director Sarah Pullan comments "We are delighted that Gill has decided to join the team. Gill's knowledge of the Recruitment Industry will be extremely useful, and as she has also worked for a Recruitment agency that has been successful in gaining the Investors in People accreditation she will be able to provide support and guidance to the rest of the team" Gill will be responsible for ensuring that the Wetherby team receive the support that they need, and will also be responsible for developing new business relationships.
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HQ's half year conference - Saturday 26th July 2008
The team are looking forward to their next conference which will be held this Saturday at Hotel du Vin in Harrogate. The team will be analysing the companies performance in the first half of 2008 and looking at the targets for the latter part of the year. Managing Director Sarah Pullan comments "The credit crunch has dominated the news for most of 2008, but we are pleased to report that the majority of our customers have reported little or no impact on their businesses. We have seen a significant increase on both temporary revenue and permanent placement revenue compared to our first half of 2007 results" As HQ are being assessed for the Investors in People accreditation in October 08, we will be spending considerable time with our mentor Andy Richardson, discussing our progress so far. HR & Training Manager Jane Brown comments "The Investors in People Standard has long been acknowledged as a business improvement tool, helping organisations of every size to gain more from their people in support of business goals. Organisational changes made by Investors in People, recognised employers are twice as profitable as changes made by other companies. As our financial results show, we are already reaping the benefits of working towards Investors in People" The team will then be dining in Hotel du Vins bistro and will no doubt enjoy a glass of wine (or two)!
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HQ hit target!
The HQ team had a great time at Celebrity Chef Raymond Blancs Restaurant in Leeds on Thursday 3rd July 2008. The team were set an ambitious Sales target at the HQ conference that took place in York at the beginning of January 2008, and the dinner was to reward the team for overachieving on this target. A limo picked the team up from our Wetherby office, and drove us to a bar for Cocktails and then on to Brasserie Blanc where we all enjoyed a 3 course dinner and several bottles of wine. Watch this space for photos of the evening in our on line photo gallery!
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National Temporary Workers Week - 2nd to 6th June 2008
Every week 1.4 million temporary workers are keeping business in the UK moving. National Temporary Workers Week is REC's annual campaign to promote the contribution of the temporary workforce and demonstrate the broad range of professions and industries that temps work in. With attitudes to work changing and variety and flexibility increasingly seen as key indicators of job satisfaction temping is becoming the choice of more and more workers. HQ Personnel celebrated National Temporary Workers week by visiting all of their temp workers and taking them a goody bag to thank them for their contribution. Julie Orsborn was awarded a bottle of bubbly and a certificate as she was awarded our Temp of the Year award. Julie has temped through HQ at a large company in Thorp Arch for 6 months, and has just been placed through HQ on a permanent basis at another local company. A picture of Julie and our Temporaries Consultant Natasha is shown in our on line photo gallery.
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The Diary of HQ's Managing Director
Our MD Sarah Pullan was delighted to be part of the May addition of the Recruiter publication. The recruiter is the principal magazine for the UK Recruitment Industry. Every fortnight it delivers the latest recruitment industry news, advice, analysis and features and has a circulation of over 29,000 recruitment professionals. Sarah comments "I was delighted to contribute my diary to the Recruiter Magazine. It does cover what my typical 4 day week as Managing Director involves. As a company we are keen to receive press coverage and as we are expanding it is a good way to raise our profile to both clients and future candidates / consultants. To see Sarah's diary log on to www.recruiter.co.uk and have a look in the features section.
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RACE FOR LIFE HUGE SUCCESS!
The HQ team thoroughly enjoyed the Race for Life event which took place on Wednesday 28th May at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate. Although it did rain slightly, everyones spirits were high and the team raised £775 for the event. It was great to see so many people turn out for the event despite the miserable weather! The HQ team have a charity target of £1,750 this year and support both Cancer Research and Motor Neurones disease. Watch out for our next charity event which will be held in the 2nd half of the year!
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Minimum wage increase
The national minimum wage will rise to £5.73 an hour in October 2008 Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced. The figure will increase from £5.52. This amount has increased by 60 percent since the policy was introduced by the government in 1999. The hourly rate for 18 to 21 year olds will increase from £4.60 to £4.77, while the statutory wage for 16 and 17 year olds will go up from £3.40 to £3.53 an hour. In December the TUC said it believed 150,000 workers were still being paid less than the statutory minimum. The government now want to crack down on those employers not paying the correct amount. HQ are fully up to speed with the latest legislation, and these cost increases will be communicated to our clients in due course.
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HQ Internal Promotions
We are delighted to announce that Helen Isle and Cassy Gill have been promoted to Senior Consultants with immediate effect. The consultants have been working towards this for several months and in addition to working with our own HR & Training Manager to gain these promotions, have also completed 2 in house training sessions with a specialist external recruitment training consultant. Helen Isle will be deputising for Louise whilst Louise pursues new business opportunities for the Harrogate team, and also in Louises absence. Cassy Gill from the Wetherby team comments "I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to progress within the business and am looking forward to the challenge" Congratulations to both consultants.
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REC QUALIFICATION.
Jo Montagu and Sam Mazza are getting ready to start their REC course which starts in February 2008, with the examination taking place on Saturday 14th June. HR and Training Manager Jane Brown explains "This is a four tier qualification framework which covers the four key elements of a recruiters role. These are Understanding the Recruitment Marketplace, Essential Legislation, The relationship with the Business Community and the Relationship with the candidate.We have always invested this money into ensuring that our Consultants are offered professional training so that they can give our clients and candidates a first class service. As our branch administrators play a vital role in our business we decided to also offer this training to them. We are aiming to gain the Investors in People accreditation later on in the year, so it is important that all of our staff are offered continuous training and development in their roles"
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HQ Race for life!
The HQ team have entered this years Race for Life which is being held in Harrogate on Wednesday 28th May. All of the team at HQ are taking part in this event, and the training has already started as many of the team are aiming to complete this 5k run in under 30 minutes. Managing Director Sarah Pullan explains "We are all looking forward to completing the run again as we really enjoyed it in 2007. HQ have a charity target of £1750 this year for both Cancer Research and Motor Neurones disease so we are hoping to raise over £750 for this event" Watch out for the team whizzing (we hope) around the course in their bright orange tee shirts! Various photos of the team at this event will be available to view in our photo gallery so keep your eyes peeled!
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New addition to our expanding Harrogate team!
HQ are delighted to announce that Emily Jefferson has joined the HQ team as their new permanent consultant. Business manager Louise Gove comments "We are delighted that Emily has joined the Harrogate team. 2008 has been extremely busy so far with both vacancies and candidates coming in at an astonishing rate. Emily will be looking after a proportion of our Harrogate clients and will also be responsible for some business development for the area" Watch out for a photo and description of Emily in our "about us" section over the next few weeks. Apart from Motor Racing (!!) we are just waiting to find out what Emily gets up to on a weekend! Welcome to the HQ team Emily!
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Annual Conference
The HQ team enjoyed their annual conference that took place at the Hilton Hotel in York on Saturday 12th January. The team reviewed the companies' performance in 2007 and agreed the targets for 2008, and also discussed various Sales & Marketing Ideas to attract both clients and candidates. MD Sarah Pullan explains "The conference was an excellent way of discussing the targets for 2008 and some of the various plans for the business. The team are working hard to achieve their team target for the first six months, as our incentive is another Limo trip taking us to a Box at York Races on Saturday 12th July. I think that the girls are getting used to being chauffeur driven whilst drinking champagne!"
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Let the Radio campaign commence!
HQ Personnels radio campaign goes live on Stray FM on Tuesday 8th January 2008. The advert mentions that we have offices in Wetherby, Harrogate and York and specialise in office and accountancy recruitment. Business Manager Louise Gove comments "We had great fun choosing a jingle that would make our advertisement memorable for any candidates listening to the radio. Most of the team have been singing it (very badly I add) over the last few weeks. In 2007 we gained most of our candidates from advertising our positions on the HQ website or from referrals from candidates that we had placed in both temporary and permanent positions. We only needed to use newspaper advertising once in 2007 for a specific client that needed 60 temporary staff. However, we did use radio advertising and it proved to be hugely successful, which is why we chose to invest in radio advertising again for 2008"
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HQ Gallery on-line at last!
We are pleased to announce that our HQ gallery is up and running at last. This will be updated on a regular basis and will show the HQ team at various events. Check out the pictures from our Investors in People meeting which took place at The Hilton Hotel in York followed by a long long lunch at the Blue Bicycle! Thankfully no photos were taken at the various venues that the team frequented in the evening! Click on the link on the right hand side of the screen to have a look at our latest pics! Check out the latest pics of the HQ team drinking champers in a Limo on the way to their Christmas party in York. We had a fantastic laugh and didnt spill a drop!!!!!
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REC Qualified Consultants!!
We are delighted that both Helen Isle and Natasha Elvidge have completed The certificate in Recruitment Practice, which is developed by our governing body the REC. The consultants received a Merit and a Pass respectively. Well done to both consultants!
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