Category Archives: Recruitment

Recruitment, Recruitment News, Tech, Technology

New research reveals flaws in tech recruitment process, with one in four candidates being hired without required skills

  • 74% of businesses failing to conduct competency tests for technical hires
  • Ineffective recruitment practices exacerbate UK’s tech skills shortage

 

While worrying UK tech skills shortage headlines continue to dominate the news agenda, a survey released today reveals that a fractured recruitment process is hindering businesses’ access to the right tech talent; 74% of businesses are failing to complete any relevant testing and a further 32% are relying on non-technical specialists to hire tech talent. One in four (24%) candidates are also being hired without the right tech skills.

The research – conducted by Mobilunity, a global provider of remote dedicated development teams – surveyed senior decision-makers across UK startups, scaleups and enterprise businesses industry-wide. Key findings revealed that applications for technical roles are healthy – with firms across the board receiving an average of 15 applications per role, with startups topping the average at 18 per role. But despite this, the process to filter relevant candidates and validate skills is failing – 34% of decision-makers reveal they do not have a separate recruitment process for technical hires.

 

Additional key survey findings:

  • Over a quarter (27%) rely on standard interviews, which fail to assess candidates’ aptitude and technical skills for a role
  • 59% of technical hires can take over a month to complete, while one fifth of technical hires can take up to 6 months; the technical hiring process is too lengthy for firms that need to deliver at pace.
  • At least half (50%) of businesses are putting up to 60% of technical candidates through to the next stage of interviewing; a process that’s wasting time and money
  • Only 7% said that new technical hires can hit the ground running and deliver value immediately, while nearly half of new hires (45%) demonstrate they don’t have all the right skills, with businesses having to invest further in them once hired.

While the Government’s most recent Employer Skills Survey (2022) confirms 10% of UK businesses do in fact have a skill-shortage vacancy, up from 6% in 2017, these findings from Mobilunity’s report suggests that poor recruitment practices may hold back employers from identifying the right skills for the right role when it comes to technical hires.

 

Cyril Samovskiy, Founder of Mobilunity, said: “The fact that nearly half of candidates impress at interview stage, but underperform once in the role, is no surprise given the apparent absence of testing and skill-validation. There’s clearly an urgent and growing need among businesses for tech expertise, and our survey findings suggest that the reasons behind the much-documented shortfall may not be as simple as saying ‘talent is lacking’.

“The results highlight that companies are not utilising technical specialists to validate skillsets, with many bypassing any testing beyond a standard interview and putting an excessive amount of candidates through to the next stage. The result of this? They are  taking too long to recruit technical hires, who are then unable to deliver quickly on projects, risking their bottom lines and competitiveness in the market. Yet another worrying risk to business is recruiting the wrong people for the wrong roles. It’s a broken process costing businesses critical time and money. Especially in unpredictable economic times, where the trend for project work is overtaking retained work, change in the processes for hiring technical talent is long overdue.”

 

Offering advice to businesses looking to recruit tech talent, Cyril adds: “To avoid the pitfalls, those in charge of technical hires must have a dedicated approach to recruitment. This means a combination of technical platforms that assess and matchmake skills relevant to needs, and interviewers who know the right questions to ask.

“By putting in smart steps to validate the competency of candidate skills and really getting to know your projects and roles required before you start the process, you can massively improve the process, and deliver accurate hiring outcomes that will deliver value from day one.”

News, Recruitment, Recruitment News, Tech, Technology

Leeds tech firm sees revenue double

A Leeds technology recruitment firm has seen revenue leap from £3.3m to £6m over the last 12 months. SPG Resourcing’s team grew from 11 to 16, and it launched a US division as part of its growth plans.

SPG Resourcing helps companies and organisations across the digital sector find the talent they need. It operates internationally from offices in Leeds and Newcastle.

The company also made a key hire in January to support expansion in 2024, with Harrison Foster joining the group as a business development manager.

Commenting on the expansion, Sam Hameed, co-founder and managing director of SPG Resourcing, said: “There is no doubt that the current business environment is challenging, but the team at SPG has helped to deliver strong growth by focusing on the needs of clients taking a holistic approach to the technology challenges they face.

“Our new team members will help accelerate our plans to grow in the UK and globally. Companies worldwide are seeking more flexible ways of working to achieve their goals, and we are ideally placed to support them.”

SPG Resourcing is part of the Solution Performance Group, a technology change organisation which includes SPG Transformation and SPG Software. The group structure allows the company to tackle complex technology challenges by providing planning, talent acquisition and development capabilities under one roof.

The company works with a wide range of businesses, from financial services to healthcare and legal sectors.

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Pictured: Sam Hameed.

International News, Marketing, PR and SEO, Recruitment, Recruitment News, South East England News, South West, USA, Web Design, Wiltshire News

Recruitment expert aided in US expansion by creative agency’s new brand and website project

NOTTINGHAM-BASED recruitment agency Distinct has been aided with a push into markets further south and in the US by a redesigned website and an updated brand.

Distinct, which specialises in recruitment for roles within finance, HR, marketing, IT and office support and supply chain and procurement, is opening an office in London to mount an expansion into the south and is about to open another in Boston to capitalise on its rapid growth in the North American market. It turned to Wiltshire design agency Milk & Tweed for its new brand look and an upgraded website with functions to help both clients and job hunters.

Milk & Tweed, which has offices in Chippenham and Brighton in Sussex, is building a reputation for excellence in website, brand and logo design and digital marketing.

Distinct Marketing Director Amy Robinson-Nunn said: “We’ve got exciting expansion plans in both London and North America, whilst also pushing to stand out in quite competitive markets. So, one of the things we wanted to do was make sure that our brand and our website supported this strategy.

“We wanted something that was fresh, confident, clean and modern, whilst still retaining the core of what the brand has always been – I think that’s been achieved here.”

Milk & Tweed’s design team refreshed the Distinct logo to give it a more modern feel, sharpened the colours and used cleaner typography. “While it’s not been radically transformed, these changes have made it look totally different,” said Ms Robinson-Nunn.

The agency’s website has been redesigned and features two new user-friendly tools. “For a candidate being offered a job, one of the first things you want to do is work out your take-home pay, so we’ve got a salary calculator where they can insert their wage and then the tax, student loan and pension deductions are calculated to leave the exact amount they’ll receive in their bank account,” said Ms Robinson-Nunn.

“On the flip side for our clients, we’ve got a wage insights tool which uses live data from the last 12 months, so if they are advertising a job in a particular area, the tool will display the going rate for that job title in their chosen location.”

She said the agency is delighted with the new site. “The development team in particular have been incredible,” she said. “Milk & Tweed’s Web Manager Jon Mynette has been leading the way for us from a development point of view and he’s been fantastic to work with.

“I think they’ve created something that I am genuinely proud of and would recommend them to others.”

She said the new website is particularly important, given Distinct’s ambitious expansion plans. “We’re really taking hold in the US and we’re working in roles within the public accounting and legal sectors,” said Ms Robinson-Nunn.

“We started off in New York and have since moved into Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Illinois, Florida, Connecticut and Ohio, so we’re opening an office in Boston to further strengthen our operation in the US.

“Our refreshed brand and new website help us to stand out from our competitors and will certainly support our new strategy and exciting expansion plans.”

Milk & Tweed Web Manager Jon Mynette said: “The project was amazing to work on and the team at Distinct were great to work with because they were so organised, driven and ambitious. It really pushed us as a team and I’m very proud of the work we’ve done and the results we’ve achieved.

“Distinct had some amazing ideas around how they wanted their site to be presented and perform. It meant we had to push the boundaries of how we usually build, which I always enjoy. I must give a special mention to the lead designer Jon Francis and lead developer Sam Jones, who have both done fantastic work on the project. Without them we wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we have.”

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Pictured: Recruitment agency Distinct turned to creative agency Milk & Tweed to help prepare it for an expansion into the south of England and further into North America

HR, HR News, Recruitment, Recruitment News

DATA: State of Global Hiring, data from 300k+ job contracts

2023 felt like the year of layoffs. But as we kick off the new year, new data from global HR company, Deel’s annual state of global hiring report reveals that terminations in the first half of January alone are outpacing the end of 2023. In December 2023, about 40% of all contracts ended were terminations, and that figure is hovering at around 60% so far in January.

In spite of this, the report, which aggregates tech data from Deel’s 300k+ contracts and 20,000+ customers across more than 160 countries (as well as over 500,000 data points from third-party sources), shows that there are still opportunities in the UK market. 

 

The data reveals that:

There are opportunities for job seekers in the UK 

    • Whilst the latest ONS data shows signs that the jobs market is stalling, the hiring of UK talent by international companies increased by 8.4% in 2023
    • Salaries are continuing to rise globally, but not always in the roles you may expect. Teaching saw the largest increase in salary in 2023 with a 24% rise, whilst sales teams saw an 8% pay increase.
    • In the UK customer success saw 56% increase, teaching 25% rise and marketing saw a 16% increase.

As businesses look to keep pace with the acceleration of new technologies like AI, we’ve seen a shift in the most sought after roles

    • Data Analyst, Tutor, Software Engineer, Software Developer, and Back-End Developer are some of the most sought-after roles by UK companies, according to the 2023 report
    • But as competition for job roles rises, employees are going to be laser-focused on upskilling programmes

Taking advantage of remote working, talent is also on the move. 

    • In 2023, the UK ranked as the fourth most sought-after destination for visa applications, behind the UAE, Netherlands and France
    • UK talent was mostly likely to be hired by companies in the US, UK, Sweden, Canada and France
    • London maintained its position as the most popular city for international workers, ahead of Toronto, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, and Madrid

 

Matt Monette, Country Lead & Head of Expansion UK & Ireland at Deel, said:

“2023 was not an easy hiring market to navigate  – with economic uncertainty, large rounds of redundancies and a lack of long-term market visibility causing a stir in the labour market.

“While many are hoping 2024 will be a year of building, we’ve already seen that terminations in the first half of January alone are outpacing the end of 2023. That being said, in the UK we’re seeing some signs to be optimistic –  salaries on the up and  we’re seeing ample opportunities for jobseekers in roles such as Data Analyst, Software Engineer and Software Developer. 

“The challenge ahead will be in how people leaders find the skills needed for these open roles. We’ll see more hiring managers turn to hiring from abroad this year to help close skills gaps in critical areas like AI and data analysis. And, as hiring managers look to update their hiring practices, it’ll be important that UK businesses look to widen the talent pools they’re searching from and that they’re implementing tailored learning and development programmes to support in upskilling and retaining existing top talent”. 

 

Agri Tech, Recruitment, Recruitment News

The most popular agritech roles and how to recruit for them

It’s been a busy 12 months in the agritech world as the sector continues to grow as an interesting, exciting and rapidly expanding space.

Recruitment wise, that means it’s also become increasingly competitive. The need to transform food production across the globe in a way that is better for the environment, and in line with net zero targets, has led to new developments, new investment and funding streams – and not surprisingly,  an explosion of new jobs.

With a rising number of opportunities in areas such as AI, precision farming, smart irrigation, vertical farming and reducing chemical usage, there’s plenty on offer as an exciting new career path.

As recruitment experts with more than 45 years of experience, we’ve seen a variety of sectors emerge and evolve over the years and alongside renewable energy recruitment, agritech is undeniably a sector where that change is happening at pace.

As a business, we’ve significantly grown our agritech recruitment services throughout 2023, including opening an additional office within the Agri-EPI Centre in Telford to bring us closer to the agritech community which is in demand of new staff.

As we approach our first year anniversary in the centre, we’ll be looking to further build on the excellent foundations we’ve already laid in matching growing agritech businesses with the skilled workers they need to achieve their goals.

In demand roles in the Agritech Sector

Some of the key agritech roles that are growing in demand include:

Data scientist and STEM biased roles

This particularly relates to roles involving an analysis of large volumes of data to provide feedback and insight to farmers and the wider industry. It includes jobs such as embedded software engineers, functional safety specialists, web-based developers, Java EE developers and Python coders.

Design engineers

These are the people who turn all the innovative ideas into reality. They plan and evaluate new projects and consult with appropriate parties to determine the design requirements.

Industrial, manufacturing and process engineers

Engineers with these specialisms continue to be in demand to take products from the concept stage to manufacture and production. They are required to apply their specialist knowledge and skills to specify, predict and evaluate results from the implemented processes and systems.

Software, Artificial Intelligence and robotics

With a surge in manufacturing output and revolutionary developments in the agritech industry, automated solutions can be the key to maintaining a competitive advantage. As a result, this is an incredibly popular recruitment area.

Sales and marketing managers

As innovations are developed and new technologies rolled out at scale, sales and marketing managers are needed to assess demand for company products or services, as well as industry competition and prices. They identify new customers and develop strategies for increasing sales or market share.

Finding the right people for the job

The challenge as always in a period of rapid and sweeping transformation, is finding skilled staff in the numbers needed.

Whether you’re a start-up trying to launch a new innovation, or a larger more established business which is growing and improving by embracing agritech, recruiting skilled candidates in this sector can be tricky. It often requires an open mind, the willingness to explore those with the desired skills from other sectors and the foresight to capitalise on a genuine shift in what motivates a candidate.

Role fulfilment, life balance and eco-awareness have really jumped up the priority list for a lot of candidates, and this is something that many agritech roles can offer, it’s just a case of knowing how to promote the benefits effectively. Our previous article on changing perceptions of agritech careers explores this particular topic further.

As well as promoting roles effectively, and to the right audience, successful recruitment in a candidates’ market relies on knowing where to look for people with transferrable skills.

Thanks to our 45 years in industry, we have a vast amount of experience – and contacts – to draw upon. For example, we tend to find strong pools of candidates for agritech roles in areas such as energy, healthcare, vehicle and component manufacture, banking, IT and finance.

You can read many more tips for a successful agritech recruitment strategy here, as well as this specific example of how we matched one start-up business with a desperately needed design engineer.

Working with Jonathan Lee as your specialist recruitment partner

We take the time to understand your project’s current and future needs and provide insights that will help you achieve your business growth goals.

Using our vast experience and huge network of contacts, we’ll help you find the people you need to turn your vision into reality.

To find out more about how we can support you, contact our agritech recruitment specialist Matt Johnson on 01952 987033, or email matt.johnson@jonlee.co.uk.

 

 

 

 

 

Bristol, Construction, Recruitment, Recruitment News, South West

Acorn by Synergie appoints Harry Lambert as Divisional Manager for Trades and Labour in the South West

Acorn by Synergie, one of the UK’s leading recruitment firms, has appointed Harry Lambert as its Divisional Manager for Trades and Labour in the South West.

An experienced Construction Recruitment Consultant, Harry is well placed to provide skilled and reliable personnel in an honest and professional manner within the Built Environment.

Previously an Associate with Kingston Barnes, Harry has spent the best part of a decade developing key relationships within the recruitment sector regionally, having also worked with Daniel Owen Ltd and Setsquare Recruitment previously too.

Now he will draw on the multiple working partnerships he has fostered within that time to spearhead Acorn by Synergie’s Labour and Trades activity across Bristol and the wider South West region.

On his appointment, Harry said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining Acorn by Synergie and in doing so, progressing on to the next stage of my career. Since I was given a first-class introduction at our Newport headquarters, I’ve been doing what I love best, which is being out and about, supporting our candidates in person and generally being present to our clients’ needs.”

“I’m really excited to see what my future with the company brings, but in the short term I’m just keen to get the ball rolling and the word out that the Acorn by Synergie team is here to support businesses across the South-West with all their on site needs.”

Acorn by Synergie is a multi-specialist recruitment agency that has been named top recruiter in Wales and ranks in the top 1% of all recruitment firms in the UK.

Bernard Ward, Managing Director at Acorn by Synergie, said: “We are over the moon to have welcomed Harry to our team at Acorn by Synergie, and I can’t wait to see him put the extensive experience he brings with him into action for the sake of our loyal clients in the South West.

“Given the depth of knowledge and the relationships Harry has built up working with firms of all sizes across the region over a number of years, we’re excited to see how he will lead the Trades and Labour division and help the wider business continue to go from strength to strength in the process.”

Acorn by Synergie has received multiple awards for its outstanding services. It’s been recognised as the Best UK Recruitment Firm, and more recently won Wales Business Award for Wellbeing at Work. Since its establishment in Newport, South Wales, in 1992, Acorn by Synergie has successfully placed approximately 2.7 million individuals into jobs.

For more information visit www.acornpeople.com

News, Recruitment, Sustainability

UK’s first battery strategy ‘step in the right direction’ for energy recruitment

The Government’s first battery strategy for the UK has been welcomed as a step in the right direction when it comes to addressing the significant skills challenge facing the battery sector.

The document sets out how the Department for Business and Trade plans to achieve its vision for the UK to have a ‘globally competitive battery supply chain that supports economic prosperity and the net zero transition by 2030’.

Energy specialists at Midlands-based Jonathan Lee Recruitment say the extent of the skills crisis can’t be underestimated, and warn the whole strategy could fail without a robust plan for long-term recruitment.

Of the 69 pages, one and a half pages focus on skills, acknowledging that ‘a thriving UK battery industry requires a productive workforce with skills along the entire battery value chain and at all levels’.

Lee Elwell

Lee Elwell, Associate Director and Energy Specialist at Jonathan Lee Recruitment, said: “Demand for workers in the battery industry is already high; our business has seen a 22% increase in energy recruitment here this year.

“We use various methods to match businesses with new employees, such as identifying where similar skillsets exist, effective targeted recruitment, benchmarking salaries and benefits and by using our extensive network of contacts built up over 45 years.

‘Robust long-term recruitment plan needed’

“However, when you’re talking about an industry that needs hundreds of thousands of workers over the next decade, even the best strategic recruitment can only take you so far. This vision of a globally competitive battery supply chain could easily fail without a robust plan for long-term recruitment.

“The Faraday Institution estimates that meeting domestic demand for electric vehicles alone would boost UK employment by around 270,000 jobs by 2040. That’s without factoring in jobs needed for the battery storage element that is also essential to meeting net zero targets.

“Therefore the strategy had to contain grassroots plans for more education and more training, and while there’s only one and a bit pages on skills, and one out of 15 action points linked to that issue, it’s a promising start at least.

“Recent investments in identifying and addressing skills gaps, followed by the implementation of new vocational and technical training initiatives, such as the Battery Workforce Training Initiative by University College Birmingham here in the Midlands, are significant and welcomed.”

“As well as encouraging young people to choose battery manufacture or electric vehicle technician type roles as a career choice, we also need to make it as easy as possible for workers from the automotive sector to reskill into EV roles.

“We need to make sure that businesses in these sectors are aware of the training on offer, both for upskilling of existing workers and by linking up with colleges and training providers to access some of the newly qualified recruits as they’re coming through.

“That’s something we can help businesses with as part of our recruitment planning and strategy services. When you’re competing for staff in a candidates’ market, you have to be strategic in your recruitment. That means exploring all avenues, being creative, being willing to compromise and knowing where to pitch salaries and benefits in order to attract the best people.”

Many automotive workers will ‘transition to EV technology’

The Battery Strategy was published alongside the Advanced Manufacturing Plan and included the Government’s commitment to over £2bn in new capital and R&D funding being made available for the manufacture and development of zero emission vehicles, their batteries and supply chain from now to 2030.

This is in addition to industry investments from the likes of Envision AESC in Sunderland, and Tata, which has committed to a new UK gigafactory for Jaguar Land Rover. There are also plans for the world’s largest battery storage scheme to be built in Manchester by Carlton Power, while Pulse Clean Energy intends to invest more than £1bn (with support from the UK Infrastructure Bank) in the deployment of grid-scale battery energy storage systems across 20 sites in England, Scotland and Wales between 2023 and 2026.

The strategy says that many automotive workers will transition to EV technology, but comprehensive reskilling and upskilling programs will still be essential to ensuring the availability of the required workforce at the right time and place.

Research carried out by organisations including the Automotive Council Skills group, the Faraday Institution and HVM Catapult estimates production staff in the core process elements of cell production make up around half the workforce, requiring qualification levels of L2/L3. A further 30% are maintenance and engineering technicians requiring L3 to L6. Remaining positions in a gigafactory are highly skilled, often needing degree-level qualifications or higher.

In addition to £3.2m given to three universities to deliver Level 2-3 training in batteries, the Faraday Battery Challenge is funding the National Electrification Skills Framework and Forum to champion the need for electrification workforce development programmes across all skills levels.

The Government committed £50m to the delivery of a two-year apprenticeship pilot which explores ways of stimulating training in growth sectors as part of the Autumn Statement.

The Government’s new Battery Strategy Taskforce will continue to meet to advise on the delivery on the strategy.

To talk about recruitment for your energy enterprise, please contact Lee Elwell (Associate Director, Energy) on 01384 446154, or email Lee.elwell@jonlee.co.uk.

Agri Tech, Marches, News, Recruitment

Agritech merger welcomed as further boost to Telford recruitment firm

Plans to merge three of the UK’s centres for agri-tech into one super hub for innovation and investment have been welcomed by agri-tech centre members, Jonathan Lee Recruitment.

The recruitment specialists are members of the Shropshire-based Agri-EPI Centre and have an office in its Newport headquarters next to Harper Adams University.

It was recently announced that the Agri-EPI Centre, which focuses on engineering and precision agricultural technology, will merge with Ciel (the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock) and Chap (Crop Health and Protection).

As one single entity, the centres will be able to have a more joined-up approach towards innovation in farming.

The merged centres have also been invited to develop plans to establish an agritech Catapult. There are nine existing Catapults in the UK which are independent, not-for-profit, private organisations set up to transform the UK’s capability for innovation in sectors of strength.

Establishing an agritech Catapult would be an anchor for investment, enabling all the agritech sectors to draw on ground-breaking research across the Catapult network and beyond.

Jonathan Lee Recruitment joined the Agri-EPI Centre earlier this year when it opened a Telford branch, in addition to its existing offices in Stourbridge, to be closer to the agritech community it serves.

‘Fantastic news and real boost to UK’s ambitions’

The firm’s agritech recruitment specialist, Matt Johnson, said: “This merger is fantastic news and will be a real boost for the UK’s ambitions to become a science and technology superpower.

“It means those representing all sectors of agritech will be able to join forces to leverage investment, access ground-breaking research and crucially, deliver support to the many large and small enterprises across the country that are developing the technology and innovations which are transforming the food production industry.

“We’ve seen first-hand the level and quality of support that is provided by the Agri-EPI Centre and the businesses in our building alone are doing some truly remarkable things.

“The industry is booming with innovation and we’re really enjoying being at the heart of this community, helping firms find the skills and expertise they need to develop their ideas.”

Solving agritech recruitment challenges

Matt continued: “Although the rapid growth of the sector does mean there’s a shortage of candidates, we’re able to draw on our 45 years of experience in technology and engineering to find people with transferrable skills from other sectors and to develop creative and targeted recruitment strategies.

“We’re also working with start-ups who need help getting their businesses off the ground and mapping their future recruitment needs as they grow and evolve.

“Being members of the Agri-EPI Centre has introduced us to lots of businesses who need our help and on an individual level, we’re hoping the merger will open the door to many more opportunities as the members all come together to create a nationwide network.”

The newly merged business is expected to be launched in April next year.

The proposed Catapult will build on the success of the agritech centres’ work over the past seven years during which time they have worked on 350 collaborative research and development projects involving 500 businesses – from start-ups to global corporates – and delivering a value of £100m to the sector.

The agritech sector is expected to be worth £13bn to the UK economy by 2027.

To find out more about how Jonathan Lee Recruitment can support agritech businesses, visit www.jonlee.co.uk, or contact agritech recruitment specialist, Matt Johnson, on 01952 987033, or email matt.johnson@jonlee.co.uk.

 

 

Animals, Job Opportunities, Jobs, News, Recruitment, Recruitment News, Retirement

Homesitters launches campaign to find home and pet sitters to join them in 2024

Homesitters UK, the UK’s leading home and pet sitting company, is on a mission to recruit new homesitters in 2024 to meet increased demand for its service. The company is particularly interested in individuals who are retired or not in full time employment and looking for part time work or people with portfolio careers.

The company wants to attract the growing band of part time workers in the UK. According to analysis Office for National Statistics (ONS) data by Rest Less[i] there has been a 12 per cent increase in over 50s working part time in the last two years, a 26 per cent rise in the last decade and a 56 per cent increase since 2003. Two thirds of people (66 per cent) who were still working past 65 were part time, as well as 40 per cent of people aged 60-64.

Ben Irvine, Director of Operations at Homesitters said: “2024 is set to be a busy year for us. People are travelling again, there has been a huge growth in pet ownership since Covid and demand for our services has risen. We want to hire couples and single people interested in a part time, flexible role that gives people a sense of purpose, a chance to spend time with animals as well as opportunities to travel and boost their income.

“January is always busy with applications but this year we expect this to hit new levels as older people want to continue working to help with cost-of-living challenges. Homesitters are employed directly by us and benefit from the safety net that comes with working with a trusted company, including comprehensive insurance and 24/7 support for people when they are on assignments.”

 

Homesitting couple Tim and Rosey Mackervoy, both 60 years old, were introduced to home and pet sitting two years ago and couldn’t be happier with their decision to embrace this flexible job.  When Tim’s 40-year career in the construction industry came to an end in 2021, and Rosey, a former child minder, decided to step back from work as well, they were excited by the prospect of starting a new chapter homesitting to keep busy in retirement.

Tim says, “We have stayed in some beautiful places, from Grade II listed properties to new and modern homes, and looked after some incredible pets and had lots of fun doing it. Homesitters check in with us when we are on assignment and always arrange preliminary meetings with clients which we find really useful, so we know exactly how the house works and the pets’ routines before we start.”

The Mackervoys are both animal lovers who have owned two border collies and two cats in the past, but they felt that the timing wasn’t right to commit to owning more pets.

Rosey says, “We now have the opportunity to stay in new places we would never have thought to visit. We miss having our own pets, but doing this job we still can enjoy taking care of animals, which we love. It’s a really great way to get the best of both worlds.

Discussing the other perks of homesitting, Tim says, “We also make savings working as homesitters and have seen lower bills due to our time away on assignments.”

Tim calls their homesitting earnings their ‘pocket money,’ emphasising that all the money they make goes towards paying for their annual holiday.

For Tim and Rosey, homesitting isn’t just a way to fill their time; it’s a lifestyle that combines adventure, animal companionship, and financial benefits.

Homesitters is keen to hear from people interested in home and pet sitting. Ideal candidates are responsible and reliable people, who are good listeners, and will be sensitive to clients’ requirements. Proven pet-care skills and a genuine affinity for animals are also a bonus.

For more information and to apply to become a homesitter visit: www.homesitters.co.uk

Animals, Job Opportunities, Jobs, News, Recruitment, Recruitment News, Retirement

Business is booming for Homesitters Ltd – recruitment drive for 2024

Homesitters UK, the UK’s leading home and pet sitting company, is on a mission to recruit new homesitters in 2024 to meet increased demand for its service. The company is particularly interested in individuals who are retired or not in full time employment and looking for part time work or people with portfolio careers.

The company wants to attract the growing band of part time workers in the UK. According to analysis Office for National Statistics (ONS) data by Rest Less[i] there has been a 12 per cent increase in over 50s working part time in the last two years, a 26 per cent rise in the last decade and a 56 per cent increase since 2003. Two thirds of people (66 per cent) who were still working past 65 were part time, as well as 40 per cent of people aged 60-64.

Ben Irvine, Director of Operations at Homesitters said: “2024 is set to be a busy year for us. People are travelling again, there has been a huge growth in pet ownership since Covid and demand for our services has risen. We want to hire couples and single people interested in a part time, flexible role that gives people a sense of purpose, a chance to spend time with animals as well as opportunities to travel and boost their income.

“January is always busy with applications but this year we expect this to hit new levels as older people want to continue working to help with cost-of-living challenges. Homesitters are employed directly by us and benefit from the safety net that comes with working with a trusted company, including comprehensive insurance and 24/7 support for people when they are on assignments.”

Homesitting couple Tim and Rosey Mackervoy, both 60 years old, were introduced to home and pet sitting two years ago and couldn’t be happier with their decision to embrace this flexible job.  When Tim’s 40-year career in the construction industry came to an end in 2021, and Rosey, a former child minder, decided to step back from work as well, they were excited by the prospect of starting a new chapter homesitting to keep busy in retirement.

Tim says, “We have stayed in some beautiful places, from Grade II listed properties to new and modern homes, and looked after some incredible pets and had lots of fun doing it. Homesitters check in with us when we are on assignment and always arrange preliminary meetings with clients which we find really useful, so we know exactly how the house works and the pets’ routines before we start.”

The Mackervoys are both animal lovers who have owned two border collies and two cats in the past, but they felt that the timing wasn’t right to commit to owning more pets.

Rosey says, “We now have the opportunity to stay in new places we would never have thought to visit. We miss having our own pets, but doing this job we still can enjoy taking care of animals, which we love. It’s a really great way to get the best of both worlds.

Discussing the other perks of homesitting, Tim says, “We also make savings working as homesitters and have seen lower bills due to our time away on assignments.”

Tim calls their homesitting earnings their ‘pocket money,’ emphasising that all the money they make goes towards paying for their annual holiday.

For Tim and Rosey, homesitting isn’t just a way to fill their time; it’s a lifestyle that combines adventure, animal companionship, and financial benefits.

Homesitters is keen to hear from people interested in home and pet sitting. Ideal candidates are responsible and reliable people, who are good listeners, and will be sensitive to clients’ requirements. Proven pet-care skills and a genuine affinity for animals are also a bonus.

For more information and to apply to become a homesitter visit: www.homesitters.co.uk