In percentages, 28% of those surveyed worked 50 hours or more with 15% saying they actually worked 60 hour plus, sometimes including the weekends.

Big investments and the stress of creating business success is taking its toll on SME owners.

Here some tips on re-working your long working hours situation:

1. Ask yourself, what does your job include? Do you run the social media, accounts and finance?

Axis can help you hire talented individuals who can share your work load. Think how much time you’ll save and spend on important business meetings and new clients, if you had a new PA, Administration Assistant or Marketing Executive. The immediate cost of a new salary will be outweighed by the positive changes you’ll see in your business and the time you’ll get back.

2. Stop checking your emails every five minutes. Procrastination in the form of email checking is costing you time and money. Set aside an hour of the day just to answer your emails, people can wait and hour or two. Perhaps set an automated reply detailing that you will get to the emails by the end of the day and all immediate business needs should be dealt with over the phone, leaving your new PA’s direct number.

3. Planning is key, we all like to think we can tackle everything at once. Plan in an hour every week were you have a team meeting, communication will help tackle business issues and deem which ones are the most important. From this meeting email your team with all the issues you will be tackling this week, then planning ahead to a month or 6 monthly.

Don’t forget Axis Recruitment are here to help you find your business balance with recruitment. We’ll take the stress of advertising and screening and present you with only the best candidates. You’ll thank us for the time you get back by hiring new team members!

Here’s some questions you should avoid asking:

What does your company do?

This shows lack of research, which the employer will not take lightly. Make sure you send an hour or two researching the company and the role. Check out their website, and see if they have any articles written about them and look what they are doing on social media.

Instead, you could say, I saw that your organisation was involved in charity work etc. Can you tell me more about it?

Is there a chance for me to move to a different department?

This type of question will set alarm bells ringing. It shows the client that you are just looking for a way in, not that you actually want this vacancy.

If you don’t think that the position is for you, cancel your interview with plenty of notice. Explain to your recruitment consultant that you are looking for something slightly different after you’ve researched the company and role, you never know, they may be able to secure you a new interview.

Instead of that question, you could ask, what are the promotion prospects? 

How much sick pay do I get?

This tells the employer that you are already planning your first sick day, no employer will want to see this.

If you do have a condition or illness, discuss your options with our consultants before you go to interview.

Leave this discussion about sick pay to when you look over contracts, not at interview stage.

Is there anyone I won’t like in the team?

Asking this will make you seem like a negative person, but it will also put the employer in an awkward situation, no client will want to down talk a current team member.

You should ask, how many people are in the team, what kind of culture is there in the office?

How did I do?

Candidates are eager to receive feedback, but let your consultant speak to the client first.

Instead, ask when feedback will be arranged and how they will be in contact.

Discuss what questions you should ask with your recruitment consultant, they will always be happy to help and give you valuable information.

1. Check The Dates Here

The World Cup starts on Thursday 12^th of June, see which matches are of the most interest and make time to watch them with the office. Hire or bring a large TV to the office, or additionally stream the programme to laptops and computers.

2. Get your kit… on!

A simple way of involving staff member is asking them to dress up in a team’s kit. If you don’t have the kits, just pick the countries colours to add to your outfit. If all else fails, face paint could be a fun option!

3. Eat

Half time pizza will get the office salivating! Dominos are expected to deliver 6 million pizzas during the World Cup, they’ll surely have half-time offers on, so treat your staff to a slice!

4. Masterchef

Do you have any cooking fanatics in the office? Invite them to have a ‘cook off’ where two or more team members compete for the title of ‘Best Brazilian Inspired Dish’. Its source of entertainment and you’ll also get to eat the results.

5. I Don’t Speak your Language

For a prize, get the office involved in a Brazilian Language Quiz. Print Brazilian words and the English equivalent on large cards and see which team can match the most correctly.

6. Sweepstakes

Make the game more interesting with an office sweepstake. Click here for a helpful page with a free downloadable Excel sheet to keep the bets in order.

7.  Fancy Dress

Run an office competition for the best fancy dress, give the men of the office the chance to dress up like their favourite players. They could also choose the funnier alternative of dressing up as a Brazilian carnival dancers, extra points for extravagant head dresses and the best shimmy’s and shakes during the day.

We hope you and your office enjoy the World Cup, we will be!

Why not take the 10 minutes at the end of ‘Have you got any questions?’ to find out more about the interviewer and their company. Asking questions makes you appear inquisitive, eager to learn and keen to understand the roles expectations.

Here are some questions you can ask:

What are your short and long term goals for the role and the candidate you choose to fill it?

Your personal career needs are important, find out if your short and long term goals can be achieved and worked to in this role.

Can you tell me the daily tasks of the previous person in this role?

Job specs aren’t always as detailed as we’d all like, take this chance to find out as much as possible about the day to day expectations of the role.

Who are the primary team members I’ll be working with?

You’ll need to know what kind of managerial structure is in place, along with the different kinds of personalities will you be working with. Ask yourself, do you see yourself working well in that environment with those types of staff?

What do you think are the hardest challenges facing the individual in this role?

Employers will want to sell the role but not every role is as rosy as it seems. Find out if you could work on the hardest challenges and tackle them head on.

Hopefully after a few questions from you, you’ll full understand the role and know if it’s the right fit. Good luck at your interviews!

Here are our steps to a professional way to resign:

• Be sure – Make sure you have confirmation of your new role, print it out and keep it safe.
• Check the rules – Try and find your original contract or handbook for your current role, have a look at notice periods and extra entitlements like holidays.
• Be prepared – Fingers crossed your current employer will be happy for your new venture but just in case, back up all your contacts and files on a hard drive, you never know when they might become useful in future.
• Be courteous – A letter of resignation should be professional, no matter what your feelings to the company or team. Be clear on your termination dates, perhaps state your positives about the role and a short, polite reason for your career change.
• Don’t brag – Don’t give your boss or colleagues a reason to criticise you, don’t gloat about your new job. A reputation will proceed you, so keep positive but humble about the new role.
• Reflection – Your current role has given you the experience to be able to successfully achieve that new role, so perhaps reflect on what you learnt. This might come in handy for new projects or goals.

Axis would like to congratulate you on your new job, you should hopefully be leaving on a good note after these tips, with your bridges intact.

We, Axis Recruitment, use online tools to help us in recruitment drives, LinkedIn and job sites are just the beginning of our database tools.

So is the traditional CV dead? We’d like to think not. Even though we use these high tech methods to forward our business and find clients, we still monitor CV’s.

Our team believe that the first impression counts and an impressive CV is more likely to further your job search and help you secure a job.

Companies still want to see experience and knowledge of their industry sectors on paper. Yes, we agree LinkedIn recommendations and highly connected business profiles are a way of displaying your knowledge but it’s that initial detail and personality that comes across on your CV, that will blow us and the client away.

Here are our tips on a successful CV:

1. Tailor-made

Read the job description and see if you can further describe your experience to meet the needs of the potential employer.

2. Current

Regularly update your CV, include new life experiences, extra qualifications or work experience if you feel it is relevant.

3. Keywords

Scan the job description and see what keywords they use, if you feel they fit you, add and change your CV to fit these.

For more in-depth CV tips and advice, please contact us for access to our download library.

Generation Y is the new generation that has arrived and embedded itself in the work environment, which is why you, an industry contender, needs to understand the correlation between Gen Y and the workplace to stay ahead.

Born between 1983 and 1995, this group of people now represent a significant percentage of the working and labour industry market. They followed Generation X, also known as the ‘Baby Boomers’, who have now started to retire, settle down and leave the labour force. According to the 2010 census, Gen Y comprise of 11.3 million people, which equates to 18% of the working population.

HR departments of your business and recruitment agencies, like ourselves, need to understand how this generation fits into your roles. You need to understand what the Gen Y desire and the useful skills they have, these will be the majority of applicants that Axis can source for your company.

Over 1000, 18-30 year olds were surveyed. To give you an idea of their status, 49% were in full time work and 14% were in part time roles.

When asked what they would like from a career; Gen Y wanted interesting work, this scored 60%. Of those who were surveyed, 47% desired an element of job security and 38% wanted to acquire knowledge and expertise.

What this means for your business is, specialised job roles that are of interest in the industry and also offer training will get snapped up quickly.

The top 5 factors when a Gen Y is deciding on whether to apply to a potential company were stated at: 53% training, 41% benefits, 37% flexibility and 29% defined career plan.

We, at Axis Recruitment, can offer support when it comes to defining and meeting your needs when it comes to aspects such as these, which you and the candidate are looking to meet.

To discuss how we can help you successfully recruit a member of the talented and career hungry Gen Y, please contact us.

*Source: Hays Gen Y and World of Work

Information Sections

Summary
This is displayed at the top of your page, making it an ideal place to make your first impression a positive one. You can added a small paragraph explaining your field experience and job roles, but don’t make this overly detailed. You can leave detailed explanation of the responsibilities further down under the experience sections. The person reviewing your profile will use this to quickly judge if you are suitable for the role.
Experience
This section will map out your work experience, you must correctly fill out sections noting the companies you have worked for, including dates, roles and websites. Here you can explain fully what your job responsibilities are, make sure the most important and often used skills are first. Perhaps leave out unnecessary additions, like photocopying, answering phones, unless they are needed for a future role.
Volunteer Experience and Causes
41% of businesses surveyed said they valued volunteer experience as much as job related experience. Have you worked for any charities, sponsored a good cause or donated your time? This section is where you can impress.
Recommendations
Positive recommendations can be that push that secures you a role. Employers want to see you can work well with others. The easiest way to receive recommendations is write them for others, they will appreciate this and hopefully reciprocate. You never they could get in touch again for further business in your new role if you both leave positive feedback.

Extra Tips
No Nicknames – it’s not professional!
Add a Serious Photo – wear appropriate attire.
Optimise Your Location – people will be interested to see how close you are to their business.
Customise Your URL – this helps in Google searches, only use you name, not nicknames etc.
Manage Your Endorsements – these can help you appear in searches, so make sure your best skills are listed at the top and people have endorsed them.
Make Yourself Contactable – we need your number and so might the employer, make it easy to find.
Join Relevant LinkedIn Groups – this makes it look like you follow industry news, employers like up to date candidates.
Turn Off Activity Broadcast – if you don’t want your current employer to see you are updating your profile, address this by turning off the activity broadcast in the settings.
Don’t Use Over Used Words – ‘responsible, creative and driven’, are the most commonly used descriptions of a candidate. Try something different to stand out.
Employ Visuals – only do this if you are confident, make all the images, videos and any other relevant media in similar sizes to make it aesthetically pleasing.
BE ACTIVE – This is the most important step to a successful profile. Right appropriate updates, link articles and write endorsements and recommendations.

Be sure to follow our LinkedIn page.

Since signing up as one of the Phoenix’s principal sponsors last year, Axis Recruitment has been in a strong period of growth resulting in them moving to a much larger city centre office. Larger premises supports the recruitment group’s growth and allows them to drive forward their internal recruitment plan as they expand and continue to position themselves as the go-to recruitment specialists across their sector specialisms.

When speaking to the Cheshire Phoenix about continuing their sponsorship, it was clear that the Phoenix also have strong growth plans in place for the next 2 seasons, including this season seeing the team include some of the most reputable players ever to have played for the side.

Axis is fully behind the Cheshire Phoenix in this year’s push for their biggest and best year ever, with Axis hoping for the same!

Axis MD Glen Walsh said “There is strong synergy between Axis and Cheshire Phoenix’s passion for success and growth. We really support any local growth and community initiatives as they have a strong impact on the region. We are proud to be supporting them for another year.”

Faster growth of permanent and temporary appointments… The number of people placed in jobs by recruitment consultancies rose at a strong and accelerated pace in July. Permanent placements increased at the sharpest rate since March 2010, while temp billings were up at the fastest pace in almost two-and-a-half years.

…as demand for staff strengthens further Supporting higher appointments was a further rise in demand for staff during July. Overall job vacancies increased at the strongest rate in six years.

Pay growth gathers pace… The rate of inflation of permanent staff salaries quickened in July to its highest for over two years. Temp pay rates rose at the sharpest pace since January 2008.

…reflecting lower staff availability Recruitment consultants indicated a decline in the availability of candidates to fill job vacancies during the latest survey period. Lower availability was signalled for both permanent and temporary staff, with the former registering the sharper fall.

Regional and sector variation Higher permanent staff appointments were signalled in all four monitored English regions during the latest month, with the fastest expansion recorded in the North.

The strongest rate of expansion was indicated for Engineering workers, as has been the case throughout the past four months. The slowest vacancy growth was recorded for Blue Collar staff.

REC chief executive Kevin Green says:

“The jobs market continues to skyrocket with permanent employment and temporary placements at three and two year highs, and vacancy growth accelerating to a six year high. A combination of confidence returning to the UK economy and higher employer demand have contributed to this impressive set of figures.

Starting salaries accelerated in July reaching the highest for 26 months. This is an early indicator of increased competition for candidates and skills shortages in a growing number of sectors. In addition to this, hourly rates for temp workers increased at the strongest rate since January 2008.

We anticipate starting salaries increasing over the coming months as the economy strengthens and competition to secure talent hots up.” 

Source : The Recruitment and Employment Confederation.