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Becki’s growth journey at JHR Becki started with JHR in January 2016 with 18 months experience under her belt and worked extremely hard to achieve three promotions within her first three years with the Jo Holdsworth Recruitment. Progression Journey: Joined Jo Holdsworth Recruitment as a Recruitment Consultant in January 2016 Promoted to a Senior Consultant in October 2016 Promoted to a Managing Consultant in January 2018 Promoted to Divisional Manager January 2019 Promoted to Company Director January 2020 Promoted to Partner January 2023 Jo Holdsworth says.. Since joining JHR Becki has been hugely successful and has become a pivotal part of our success and growth. It has been a pleasure to see Becki grow during her time with JHR, she has consistently added value by exceeding my expectations time and time again, Becki has high levels of natural commercial acumen and has taken our business forward by influencing a great deal of positive change. Becki is extremely fair and team orientated and always considers the team and the business when making decisions. I am very excited about Becki’s growth at JHR and look forward to our continued partnership and her own personal professional develop ment.

As the war on talent continues companies that can attract and retain the best talent all have one thing in common, psychological safety, but what is it and why is it so important? Dr Amy Edmonson of the Harvard Business Review who originally coined the phrase ‘psychological safety’ shares that psychological safety is the belief that you won't be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. In the workplace, it gives employees the confidence to speak their mind without the fear that their teammates will embarrass or reject them, and it creates an environment which fosters creativity. Psychological safety has a huge impact on how employees feel on Sunday night before returning to work on Monday morning. Organisations which lack psychological safety will find employees less likely to share ideas or voice concerns for fear of embarrassment or rejection and it can lead to increased turnover and lower employee engagement. Whereas those companies who create a safe space for employees to share ideas and bring their authentic selves to work will be rewarded with increased employee engagement, better team collaboration and a more creative workforce. ** So now we know why it is important, what can we do to create psychological safety in the workplace? ** It all starts with transparency. If you are a business leader or manager you need to be utterly clear and transparent with your team in order to build trust. Employees want to know the vision of the company, any challenges the business is facing and have a clear understanding of the company goals. Ask for feedback and reassure team members that their opinions and ideas are important and will be listened to. Be proactive and ask people for their opinions, then be respectful when they speak up. Be mindful that everyone processes information differently and while the extroverts in the team may be quick to volunteer their thoughts and ideas, the introverts may need more time to think about the question or process the information, so give people options of ways they can communicate. Encourage people to take calculated risks and reassure them it ok if they don’t succeed or make mistakes. Own up to any mistakes you have made as a leader and share what you have learnt from that. Then ask your team to share anything they have tried which hasn’t worked out as expected, and what they have learnt from it. Show value and appreciation of ideas. Establish an environment where all ideas are welcome by respecting the voice and opinions of others. Thank people for sharing their thoughts, you don’t have to act on all ideas put forward, but the more you acknowledge people for sharing their thoughts the more likely others will be to contribute. Get to know your employees, ask if they are ok. Show you care about them as people, and you will build trust which will give people the confidence to contribute. Follow through on your commitments and be precise with your expectations and information. To build trust your team need to know they can rely on you so set clear expectations and adhere to your commitments. Explain reasons for change and allow people time to process the change. Where possible, include your team in decision making. This will make them feel valued and you will get less resistance to change. Champion your team. People thrive with regular positive praise and recognition, instead of criticising things that have gone wrong, praise the things which have gone ri ght.

Part 1 | The business perspective  The UK employment market has faced a lot of turbulence over recent years. From mass layoffs to mass hires, ‘the great resignation’ to an economic crash. Businesses owners and leaders have had so much to contend with over the past 3 years and the everchanging demands of managing a workforce has been a huge part of that. The initial reaction to receiving a resignation you weren’t expecting from a valued employee can often be “what can I do to retain you”. In fact, more than 50% of employees who resign are presented with a counteroffer (which is also why it’s SO important to put your best foot forward when making employment offers to new employees. The days of negotiating and ‘seeing what you can get them for’ are over!). But there is a staggering pattern between employees who accept a counteroffer and those who go on to leave within a short timeframe thereafter, usually within 6-12 months! Does that mean you shouldn’t counteroffer as a business? Not necessarily. The key if you decide to present a counteroffer to an employee is to listen, truly listen, and react. A counteroffer shouldn’t just be throwing more money at your employee or giving them a flash new title. Those elements can be important, but you need to establish why it’s necessary in the first place and react to those factors. Let’s take a deeper look… ❌ Promoting an employee because they feel their career has stagnated, but not backfilled their original role, in fact meaning the person now has a higher workload ✔️ Work on a collaborative plan to enhance an employee's role and potentially those around them at the same time to open up new challenges for your entire team, increasing engagement along the way ❌ Giving an employee a pay rise because they feel overworked for the money they are on ✔️ Understand how the employee has got to the point they feel overworked. What can you do to ease the pressure and/or offer more support ❌ Increase their holiday allowance because they want more flexibility or time ✔️ Look into how the business can better work towards integrating with employees home-lives and offer a genuine level of flexibility which goes beyond needing to introduce new benefits or incentives These are just some top-level examples of the dos and don’ts surrounding how to make a counteroffer work for your business. If your initial reaction is to panic and offer more money to employees who resign, you perhaps already recognise there’s more work that needs to be done surrounding employee engagement and wellbeing in your workforce. That doesn’t mean you have a bad business, with how much the last few years have thrown at us all it is so incredibly challenging to keep up with demands and new market trends! What’s important is that you take the time to listen and react in a proactive manner, which could prevent the need for any counteroffers at all! Get in touch for consultative support on navigating the world of employee retention and engagement.

In 2023 JHR and Terryberry joined forces to develop awareness amongst our clientele surrounding the ever-growing importance of focusing on employee engagement. Simple low-cost changes can help to strengthen retention and attraction in the demanding climate we continue to face. Together our teams are helping to advise how combining recruitment hires with employee engagement strategies can have a whole host of incredibly powerful outcomes, and at the highest level strengthen commercial gains, productivity and profitability. Want to learn more about Terryberry and our joint partnership? Get in touch with our colleague Davina on 0113 2337769

LBU and JHR have teamed up as local enterprises with a shared common interest, which is to better align graduate expectations for employment and opportunities available for Graduate hires. The aim is to improve aligned thinking for our future generations. So far, we have uncovered that there can be some misalignments between what opportunities are available with employers and what University Graduates expectations are and we’ve identified a need for improved awareness and education amongst upcoming graduates, to better prepare them for the world of work and what opportunities are available to them. Together, we are working on a joint ongoing programme to deliver guidance, coaching and education to the students at LBU, as well as insights to Leeds-local employers to develop long-term business growth and engagement strategies.  Interested in the resources provided or want to take part in our local employer projects? Reach out to our colleagues Becki or Davina on 0113 233 7760 for more information.

Part 2 | The candidates perspective In the HUGE candidate shortage the UK employment market has faced over recent years, most of us have been approached about several jobs on an ongoing basis and it can be really tempting to engage in conversation. You’ll likely find you’re in one of 3 categories as a candidate: You’re desperate to find a new role and open to considering all opportunities. You ignore everything sent to you because you’re super settled and not remotely interested in moving company. You keep an eye peeled on a tentative basis and engage with new opportunities occasionally. If you’re in category 1 it sounds as though you have some deep routed issue with your current employer and it could benefit you greatly to move on to your next opportunity. If you’re in category 2, don’t fix what isn’t broken! Health and happiness in the workplace are so important, if you already have this, it’s worth bearing in mind the grass isn’t always greener. If you’re in category 3 this article is for you! It’s important to understand your own personal motivators for engaging with prospective new opportunities and react to those factors in the best way. It’s often helpful to ask yourself “Do I really want to leave my current employer”. If the answer is no, consider sitting down with your line manager and addressing what could be improved for you in your current role. See how they listen to you and react and take it from there. However, it’s always worth taking in some solutions and suggestions to conversations with your Line Manager to show proactivity and cooperation on your side. If the answer is yes, take the time to understand why that is, and factor it in to questions in interviews you have with potential new employers. It’s also worth being conscious of these factors in case you’re tempted with a counteroffer further down the line, be in a position to protect yourself from being bamboozled by the money! Let’s take a deeper look… ❌ Accepting a promotion on the basis things will be different and you will have new responsibilities ✔️ Accept a promotion on the basis your original role is being backfilled to ensure you don’t end up doing 2 job roles! Be sure to get a full new job description and have the confidence that your employer is going to make adjustments ❌ Accepting a pay rise as an easy option and hoping it will mask the other issues you have ✔️ Accept a pay rise in fully understanding what your line managers expectations of you are with this increase, but this also needs to be alongside other developments being made ❌ Accept an increase in holiday allowance and a promise of better flexibility ✔️ Understand how your employer intends to support you moving fully with the flexibility you need and what they are putting in place to ensure these changes are successful for you both, otherwise it could just be empty words! There’s usually so many factors to contend with when deciding if it’s the right time for you to move on from your current employer, whether to accept a new employment offer or whether to accept a counteroffer, and there really is no right or wrong, but there are things you can do and measures you can put in place to ensure the best possible chance of success for yourself with whichever avenue you choose to go down.

As part of our commitment to developing a more sustainable working environment, we’ve partnered with Tree-nation and are growing our own Jo Holdsworth Recruitment Forest in Tanzania. We plant new trees monthly on behalf of the clients and candidates that work with us each month. That means when you work with us and secure a new job or employ a new colleague, you’re directly supporting the growth of our forest in Africa! Our commitment to sustainable working: We will only ask you to travel for in person interviews where it’s necessary, in most instances, unless you would prefer to see us in person, your interviews with our team will be remote. We work from home for part of the week and by engaging with the travel plan network it means our colleagues have access to sustainable travel solutions for their commute, for when we are in the office. We are a paperless office and with the help of dual monitors we no longer need to print for cross checking purposes. Electronic CVs – Our investment in technology means our registration process is completely digital and we don’t require paper CV’s.  Electronic timesheets – Equally, we’ve digitalised our temp timesheet process, so all our colleagues and their hiring managers have the ability to complete their weekly timesheets and submit back to us at a click of a butto n.

Understanding how your holiday pay and entitlement works as a temporary employee can be confusing! Your agency should have a process in place to easily be able to provide you information on how much you have accrued to date and we have pulled this guide together to provide some insights: In line with Working Time Regulations (1998), all PAYE temporary agency workers are entitled to paid annual leave. Here’s a basic guide to understand how it works: 28 days annual leave (or 5.6 weeks as sometimes referred to) per year to include the 8 statutory bank holidays Holiday accrual is calculated as 12.07% of your hourly rate, for each hour that you work The 12.07% relates to the statutory annual leave you’re entitled to. If you divided 5.6 weeks’ holiday by 46.4 weeks (both combined equalling the 52 weeks in a year) you get 12.07% As per most permanent employment contracts: Annual accrued whilst working on a temporary basis is to be used within the holiday year and cannot be carried over to the following holiday year Your holiday year will be specified when you receive a booking confirmation from our team You will only be able to claim holiday pay if you have accrued enough within your holiday year to cover the time off you have requested. For example if you have requested 5 days annual leave but have only, to date, accrued 3 days annual leave, you will be paid for 3 days and will take the other 2 days unpaid If you’re temporary assignment ends and you still have some holiday entitlement accrued, this will be paid out to you when we issue your P45 at the end of your employment with us FAQs How do I take holiday pay? As with any employment, your annual leave needs to be approved by your line manager, at which point you must also inform us as your employer to ensure we are able to process the correct pay for you. What happens to my timesheet whilst I’m off? You do not need to input anything on your timesheet for the days you are on annual leave. As long as you have followed process and informed us in advance, we manage this for you and ensure you receive the correct pay. What happens if my contract ends and I haven’t used my accrued holiday? Any outstanding accrued holiday you have remaining at the end of your contract will be processed to you at the end of your employment when we issue your P45 If I don’t want to take annual leave, can I request my holiday pay? Unfortunately not. You can only request your holiday pay for periods of annual leave, or at the end of your employment contract. If permanent colleagues in my team are entitled to more annual leave than is statutory, will I receive the same? Yes, once you have hit your AWR qualifying period (from week 13 of your employment), you will be entitled to the same perks and benefits as someone in the same job as you in the business, which will include holiday entitlement. We keep on top of this process for you and request the necessary information from whichever business you are working within and will adjust your annual leave entitlement accordingly as well as inform you of any changes. Hopefully this article helps clear up a few mysteries around holiday pay and entitlement for temporary workers! If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact your consultant, refer to your booking confirmation or call us on 01132337760

Sustainable growth starts with your leadership team. This is a phrase we hone in on to emphasis the importance of having the right people in the right roles, especially as you get further up the chain of command. Attrition at any level causes issues and develops strain within a team / business environment, but when your leadership team or board of directors begin to move on, it can often cause a ripple effect in the business as well as drastically increase the workload for you and your most valued employees. So wouldn’t you agree it’s important to focus on retention right from the outset through enhancing recruitment processes? Our Executive Search division are passionate about delivering against our retention model that so many agencies overpromise on. What does this mean for you? Upfront consultancy to ensure the role on offer is attractive with the best chance of securing top talent 6 – 12 month rebate periods with retained campaigns Support on developing interview and assessment techniques 3 monthly employee reviews for the first 12 months with placed employees We’re committed to delivering on our partner promise and work to remove as many obsticles as possible in the recruitment process. Want us to go that step further? Our team of experts can support with or fully facilitate employee engagement workshops centered around feedback and benefits benchmarking in your business. Contact our Executive Search Director, Davina Cooke, for more information on our retention model.

While the pandemic had a lot to answer for, it did prompt the biggest acceleration in digital transformation our country has ever seen across workplaces in the UK. Our business was no different, and as a result saw a transformation in more effective and efficient temporary workforce management through the use of technology. We developed our own online portal accessible via our website, which allows complete access and control for our temporary workers and clients to manage weekly timesheets (and much more!) at a click of a button. No more paper-signed timesheets or email trails to get authorisation. What else? • Digital registration for all candidates with continuous access to their profile to update documents/details as necessary. • Temporary workers have instant chat access to their consultant via their online portal. • E-signed employment contracts for all workers including digital P46s. • Full digital identity / right to work checks managed in house by our compliance team. • Online timesheet approval which automatically pulls through to client invoices. • All employment references managed, captured and stored digitally. • Online payslips and P45s for all our temporary workers. Want to learn more about how our temporary recruitment practises could support you or your business? Get in touch with our temporaries division today on 0113 233 7760 .

Employment fraud is increasingly on the rise and it’s important you know how to spot the signs! What is employment fraud? Employment fraud is when scammers and fraudsters contact you posing to be a recruitment agent or agency and offer you the chance of employment. More and more, fraudsters are stealing the identify of established recruitment agencies and using their brands in their outreach, making it appear legitimate and harder to detect fraudulent activity. Employment fraud comes in many different shapes and sizes, but here are some examples of how it could occur: • Being asked to pay for DBS checks or other employment checks. • Being asked to pay upfront for travel / accommodation / relocation costs. • Being asked for personal details that aren’t relevant to the job seeking process. The gov.uk website released come guidance on how to spot signs of job scams and employment fraud: • Poorly written job adverts • Suspicious contact details • Unrealistic salary • A job offer without an interview • Being asked for money before starting a job • Illegitimate companies or email addresses • UK domains Certainly in the UK employment market, it’s incredibly unlikely that any recruitment agency, especially those accredited by The Recruitment Employment Confederation (REC), would offer you a potential job with no phone calls, no interviews or virtual-video screening. Our practises At Jo Holdsworth Recruitment we only make contact with you through means where consent has been provided. For example, if you have contacted us directly, applied for an active vacancy or are actively registered on a job board we partner with and you have given consent to the job board for your details to be visible to recruitment agencies. Under no circumstances would we make initial contact via WhatsApp. At no point during your journey with us would you be asked to part with your own funds. Our support and services to job seekers are completely free and we cover the costs associated with securing new employment for you. Our website and LinkedIn profile are kept up to date with our current employees for reference. If you have received any suspicious communication we would strongly encourage you not to engage or respond, not to provide any personal data and not to part with any of your money. Please call or email our team for clarification on any attempts of contact if you’re unsure, we’d be happy to help. How to report If you believe you have fallen victim to an employment scam or any other cyber crime, you can report it to: www.actionfraud.police.uk