Louise's UK Recruiter Blog

Fast Track Recruiters

Here is a bit of nice news to take us to Christmas.  The Times Fast Track 100 league table came out at the start of the month.   20% of the fastest growing companies last year were recruitment companies, representing the largest industry grouping to demonstrate that growth.  On reading further, the majority are niche recruiters.  Obviously many recruiters are still struggling badly at present but this shows that if some firms can achieve superb growth there is hope for all. 
 

AlljobsUK.com, Online Recruitment Index

Every week, since August 2000, the volume of vacancies advertised on Britain’s most popular job boards (and you can find who they are here) has been monitored by AlljobsUK.com.

As they say.... "because we monitor a range of of websites, we are able to more accurately reflect the state of the UK online recruitment sector. Whilst the Monster recruitment index will tell you the experience of only one job board, we are able to track the ebb and flow of the market as a whole. The effects of the current recession are all the more dramatic, when seen in visual form."

And here is the chart:

So, for 2009 the decline in job postings seems to have been halted.  We've had little peaks and troughs throughout the year and now are into the "Christmas dip".  I don't feel great about sharing bleak news in the run up to the festive period - but it's all there in black and white (and colour).

APSCo Annual Ball

Sadly I wasn't able to attend the annual APSCo ball which took place a couple of week's ago.  However, Fiona Lander kindly held back on the imbibing in order to write one up for us!

This really was an enchanted evening. Greeted by handsome and beautiful Gondoliers singing opera and plying champagne, the evening, sponsored by 1st Option, boded well for the APSCo Venetian Masquerade Ball in aid of ChildLine at the Intercontinental Hotel last Friday. Five hundred glamorous guests were ushered off by Gondoliers (aka ChildLine Volunteers) to choose exotic masks; fabulously feathered or gorgeously sparkling and even Nasone Style for those brave enough!

Once masked, more champagne sipping in the reception room (later to be transformed into a buzzing casino) followed. Soon everyone moved into the marvellous banquet hall bedecked with colourful silk garlands of purple, red and green, Venetian statues and a scene depicting a canal in Venice with a real gondola as the backdrop for the stage. Dazzling table decorations featured bejewelled glasses and gorgeous ostrich feathers reflecting the colour theme with flashes of bright orange giving the ambience a carnival feel.

The festivities burst into action with the announcement of the 2009 Awards for excellence sponsored by SmartWork.com. The worthy winners were: Innovator of the Year - OrangeGenie, Recruitment Sector Service Provider of the Year - Lander Associates (commendation Parasol), Recruitment Company of the Year - Hobson Prior (under £20m), CBS Butler (£21-£100m) and Volt Europe (over £100m), Individual Contributions - Francis Lewis (partner at Blake Lapthorn) and APSCo Chairman Richard Herring. Ann Swain APSCo CEO received a standing ovation with her well deserved award for her 10 years of successfully leading APSCo from its inauguration to the key position it holds today.

Next, a delicious 3 course dinner with luscious litres of Italian wine flowing. Relaxed and ready for more, guests, splendid in all their finery, then participated in the Champagne Diamond Draw, a raffle and an exciting Charity Auction where competitive philanthropists battled it out for prizes including a Caribbean holiday and a long ‘five star’ weekend in Venice.

Dazzling after dinner dancing was complimented by visits to the casino, a karaoke studio and a stroll round the silent auction prizes which included an original lithograph by Picasso.

In all a phenomenal £60,000 plus was raised for the NSPCC’s ChildLine, thanks to the generosity of the guests. Gondolas were called at 2am and a surprisingly large number of the guests were still there till the end which is always a sign of a fantastic evening that people didn’t want to end. Sera fantastica! Non lo abbiamo desiderato concluderci!

Winner of Best UK Recruitment Blog of 2009

Thanks to all of you for voting in this year's Best UK Recruitment Blog Awards.  We've had the most votes so far this year. We've now counted up the votes and I am pleased to announce the winner of The Best UK Recruitment Blog of 2009 is the Hire Strategies Blog written by Peter Gold.

Peter will receive two fabulous bottles of champagne personalised by our sponsors: Harbour ATS.

Peter also won this award the last two years so it's great to see him do that hat trick! 

Congratulations to the runners up who were: Sirona Says by Andy Headworth and the Picture More Recruitment Blog. 

Sending Christmas Greetings

If you can't decide whether to send Christmas Cards or ecards this year (and that subject certainly sparked some discussion on our forum recently) why not send a very personalised greeting.
 
All you need is a photo of yourself and you can create a Dancing Santa Card.
 
As when I wrote about "elf-ing yourself" a few years ago I decided I didn't want to mock myself so have used a photo of the same friend.  I think he looks rather fetching!   

PS, I first spotted the dancing Santa on an email from a very good copywriter I know