An update for businesses

We wanted to give you an update on what’s happening here at BTB. We have a few bits of news!

New senior consultants join us: 

It’s been a very busy week here, welcoming Jessie Jackson and Louise Smith to the team.

As most of you will know by now, knowledge is highly valued here at BTB; it’s how we can deliver on the high standards we believe in. Like many of our consultants, Louise joins us with first-hand industry experience, having been in agency Account Management in London and the Midlands. After several meetings, she agreed to bring the principles of excellent account management into BTB, to join our client services and delivery team, alongside Sam Ray, who leaves us soon to have a baby (the first BTB baby – we're so excited!). 

Louise will look after all client servicing and delivery – integrated and digital, in-house and agency. If it's Account Managers, Producers, Product Owners, Project Managers, and/or 'Heads Of' all of those wonderfully organised, multi-tasking people that you need to enable your business to thrive and grow, please get in touch with her.

We are also over the moon to welcome Jessie! We’ve been waiting far too long for a highly experienced and knowledgeable consultant to dedicate themselves to our Marketing sector. Jessie comes with 9 years' experience within marketing recruitment, B2B and B2C, and with a fabulous reputation for delivering exactly what her clients need.  So, if you are a business looking to trust a consultant with your marketing needs, at whatever experience level, please do get in touch with Jessie.

We're finalists for Small Recruitment Agency 2020 – NORA Awards!

The NORA Awards are now in their 20th year, and champion excellence in the Recruitment Industry. We were taken by surprise to be notified that we had been nominated by businesses and candidates in the Best Small Recruitment Agency category, where over 160 recruitment agencies were nominated for their online experience;  and we’ve made the final 8!

What we really love about this is that the nominations were under the radar. We had no idea! Having been part of, and witnessed, other recruitment awards where often the more time and money you have to PR and generate nominations, the better chance you have, we are really impressed that the approach the NORA’s take does not discriminate, which creates a really level playing field!  

The winners will be announced on 10th November. It would be amazing to win, but if we don’t then we are super happy to have been rewarded as a finalist! You can have a watch of the recent webcast, where Stephen O’Donnell, who runs the NORA’s, invited us to talk about our website, it’s purpose and features, and the importance of specialist recruitment.

The market – sharing useful info for businesses  

Since we last sent an update out, we have seen a steady increase in recruitment projects through July, August and September. After all the doom, gloom and change, it appeared many businesses were very busy and could not wait to crack on with their growth plans. The sectors and disciplines that appear to have fared well are Ecommerce, Healthcare, Internal Communications and Corporate Communications, Engineering, Software and Tech. Not exclusively so, but in the main.

• In PERMANENT recruitment, we have seen a large demand for roles that cater to a significant amount of content focus. Therefore, Copywriters, Proofreaders, Videographers, Online Artworkers and Designers (UX and UI). Also, on the growth enabling side including senior Marketing, Digital Marketing, and Innovation/Strategist roles.

• With FREELANCE placements, we have seen a significant amount of Content focus, so Copywriters, Proofreaders, Videographers, Online Artworkers and Designers (UX and UI); and freelance Creatives and Designers that are experienced in certain sectors, who have been brought in on pitch projects.

• FIXED TERM: Many of our clients have chosen to take on Account and Project Managers on a project basis to manage perhaps unexpected peaks in workload (given the climate) at the same time as being cautious to bring on permanent team members in such an unpredictable market.

The last few weeks have been somewhat worrying, given the lead up to, and the announcement of this current lockdown. After all our hard work to keep the business as safe as we can, and after witnessing our clients' also getting back on track, our hearts sank for both us and those we know.

However, and reassuringly, after much discussion with our clients and our broader network, it’s apparent the business world really wants to crack on, if it can. Everyone has got used to the new ways of working, and whether a business thrived well through the last few months, or pivoted and refined their offering, no one wants to go backwards and the general consensus is to forge ahead. With that in mind, we are too!  

Things you can take advantage of:  

On our website, there is a free Freelance Guide for businesses who want to use freelance resource and really need to get it right. We have also added content to our advice pages on how to recruit well if you are choosing to try your own recruitment temporarily, and really want to avoid the significant cost in time, money and disruption by running a less than perfect campaign. In fact, on that note, we have just published a piece specifically about the cost of a wrong hire.

Beyond The Book is here to raise the standards of recruitment, whether that is using us to run campaigns (as standard), helping clients recruit themselves, or working together. See our range of services, which we align with your expectations and needs.

We hope everyone is well and happy.