HR Integrated Solutions is a qualified, talented and visionary team of Human Resources and Training professionals, who specialise in offering flexible, bespoke and quality solutions, working in collaboration with your business.

With a combination of over fifty years’ experience in HR, Training and Employment Law; their experience has been gained from working extensively at the sharp end of business and at a strategic level. They are genuinely passionate about delivering exceptional service in a sensible, direct and comprehensive manner.

Local to you, they are practical, flexible and accessible when you need them, even seven days a week. Their approach is to save you time to concentrate on your business, your budget and your profitability.

The highly qualified and experienced team can support your business from recruiting your first employee right through to managing the HR function for a large team of employees.

They offer the best integrated solution for your business from telephone advice, delivering your specific project requirements or alternatively, attending on site, on a regular basis to support and deliver your Human Resources function.

The solutions they offer are practical and workable, in plain speaking terms on all client issues; this can be anything from dealing with one off ad hoc queries such as discipline or absence control to coaching and supporting managers through the human resource processes. They also endeavour to transfer their skill and knowledge base to your supervisors and managers giving them the confidence to deal with the human resource issues as they arise.

The aim of HR Integrated Solutions is to provide the perfect integrated solution that match your current and future needs at a fraction of the cost involved in employing a HR team directly.

The price on an advertisement is exactly what it says; it is what you will have to pay to acquire that product. So why do candidates applying for jobs online believe that the salary advertised is a starting point for negotiation? When applying for a role, there are a number of matters you would probably consider – job title, job content, location and salary. You wouldn’t apply for a job and then turn round and ask for the job to be based somewhere other than the company’s offices, or ask that it is called something else.

Titles, content and salary are all things that clients and recruitment consultants discuss in depth and agree on so that there is a good response to the advertisement to increase the chances of filling the role. If the salary states negotiable, then fine; if there is a monetary trade off for non-provided benefits, then fine. In exceptional circumstances, and only at the very end of the recruitment process, you may find that the salary package changes due to a change in scope of the role.

But to apply for a job at a stated salary and then immediately demand more money smacks of greed and a lack of understanding of how the recruitment market works. Decide what salary you need or want and apply for jobs at or above that salary; there are plenty of people out there who will work for the salary advertised, so please do us all a favour and stop wasting both yours and our time. That way, you will get the job you want at the salary you want and us recruitment consultants won’t have to stand screaming in darkened rooms.

December is traditionally the month where recruitment grinds to a halt as everyone looks forward to their Christmas Party (remember them?) and puts any career plans on hold until the New Year. However, we are in the extremely fortunate position to be recruiting for a number of clients who are already planning for next year. It does mean that I have spent quite some time in hotels, assessing the quality of the Christmas decorations in between meetings. Most have been extremely tasteful, but I have noticed one major thing – every hotel has the same Christmas CD playing over the sound system. Seriously, I am waking up in the middle of the night with “Another Rock ‘n’ Roll Xmas” going through my head, and it’s beginning to drive me mad.

So, in this season of goodwill to all men, if you see someone rocking gently on a comfy sofa in a hotel of a major chain, probably near a motorway, weeping as Shakin’ Stevens plays in the background, please spare me a thought. And buy me a drink………………..

According to this article in Insider, Chancellor George Osborne is set to unveil credit easing schemes which could release £40bn in loans to small businesses.

It is speculated that the government could underwrite banks’ borrowing with loans of £20bn involved at first – though this could double. The small business scheme is said to be focused on companies turning over under £50m.  It is also reported that Osborne is set to announce a multibillion-pound infrastructure investment programme with cash coming from British pension funds and Chinese investment though up to £5bn could be paid for from further public spending cuts.

John Longworth, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said: “The credit easing package is a big shot in the arm for Britain’s real economy.  As the BCC’s latest economic forecast shows, the UK’s prospects for growth remain shaky, and measures of this size and scale are urgently needed to sustain a credible recovery.  Credit easing measures must be implemented quickly in order to boost business confidence and increase the flow of finance to viable and growing companies.”

My problem with this is pretty straightforward – where has this money suddenly come from and why wasn’t it available earlier?  Why have small businesses had to suffer for the mistakes of the banks and the unwillingness of government to get involved?  If, as Margaret Thatcher once said, Britain is a nation of shopkeepers, surely those people, the lifeblood of the UK economy, should have been protected and supported before the fat cats in the city.

I fear that this is not the answer, but merely an attempt by an unpopular, unelected Chancellor to prove that he is taking positive action on the economy; worst of all, how can we be sure that this money exists?

It claims that “the UK labour market faces a “slow, painful contraction” with firms delaying recruitment of more staff”. Furthermore, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) predicted the jobs market would worsen in the medium term amid global economic “turmoil”, and that employers were adopting a “wait and see” policy towards the economy, which involved reduced recruitment as well as fewer redundancies.

The problem with any report such as this is the length of time it takes to compile. Let’s be fair, the CIPD apparently contacted 1,000 employers, but the chances are it took a month to target the clients, a month to get the results back and a month to put the report together. So the chances are, the views reported are probably three months old and not representative of what is actually happening.

Our take on the market is that clients have decided that they need to take control of their own destiny, and are recruiting now to prepare themselves for the challenges that lie ahead. The CIPD report is a snapshot of the mood some months ago, not now.

We should be encouraging entrepreneurship, carpe diem, whatever you want to call it, not spreading doom and gloom. My advice – don’t believe everything you hear on the news!

The last few months had seen a lot of clients deferring recruitment until the future was clearer, but it now seems that these same clients are taking control of their own destiny and seeking to strengthen their staffing to take advantage of the opportunities that are being presented to them. Regardless of how long this “crisis” continues, and let’s be fair we have been living under a cloud for nearly four years now, there are good businesses out there, making stuff, selling stuff and making profits. There also seems to be a willingness on behalf of some banks, though not all, to invest in really good opportunities.

All this should be positive for candidates and clients alike. There are more, better candidates looking for new roles; previously, many had been wary of leaping into new challenges, fearful of leaving “the devil you know”. Candidates in work looking for new jobs creates its own momentum; after all the jobs they leave will need filling.

Most importantly there seems to a collective lifting of the gloom, almost a Dunkirk spirit emerging whereby business leaders are not wringing their hands in despair, but instead shoving two fingers up at the naysayers and European doom mongerers, and getting on with the matter in hand, namely growing their companies and making money.

“Small and medium-sized businesses are owed a record £33.6bn in late payments, according to new research by payment company Bacs.

The amount owed is a rise of 10 per cent in the past 12 months and the highest figure since records began in September 2007. The report said that small companies are owed an average of £39,000 and are waiting up to two months to get paid.

Mike Hutchinson, head of marketing at Bacs, said: “The issue of late payment is continuing to get worse for SMEs in the UK at a time when they need to be able to plan ahead for growth and ensure a strong cashflow.”

Bacs said the worst offenders for late payment are large companies, which are behind 48 per cent of SME late payment debt. The hardest hit sector is retail and distribution which is owed £16.6bn.

The report added that half of all UK small companies are currently experiencing late payments.”

It’s not the Greeks who are affecting the UK economy, but the banks who are not releasing funding to help small companies expand, and bigger companies directly affecting the cashflows of smaller ones. It has a knock on effect all the way down the line, so why isn’t there legislation in place to stop it happening?

September is the month we support the British Heart Foundation; we hold a golf day and the raffle proceeds are matched and donated. At Christmas we support Marie Curie Cancer Care, primarliy through our Christmas cards. In November, we support prostate cancer and testicular cancer initiatives through the growing of unnecessary facial hair.

We don’t ask for donations to any of these causes (although we would never turn any away, and would match any we received pound for pound) but instead pladge a percentage of all invoices raised during the appropriate month to the respective charity.

Recruit someone in these months and, in addition to solving your own staffing issues, you will be doing your bit for these incredibly deserving causes.

Icon Business Solutions offers a different approach to business growth consultancy, and rather than lecturing a business owner on the right of wrong way to do everything, they focus instead on measuring where a business is now, where the owners and leaders want it to be and what steps are needed to secure the required level of success.

That practical approach is reflected in their very first contact with a business, starting with a free Business Health Check.  This contains practical advice on ways forward for a business and giving ideas on the ‘headline’ activities necessary to drive greater profitability, work-life balance and efficiency.  It’s a useful, no commitment way for both the business and Icon advisors to judge the potential for effective partnership working.

If a business wants to proceed beyond that, and their advisors assess that the levels of growth being targeted are realistic, then a programme is started. Typically lasting between 6 and 12 months, these programmes are again based on practical, proven activities that move the company from the base line at the start through to the milestones of success identified by the company. And this is perhaps a key differential for Icon – their advisors don’t define the targets – the business does.

Mike Nixon can be contacted via mikenixon@iconbusinesssolutions.com, and his profile can be viewed at www.iconbusinesssolutions.co.uk/uk/contact_ibs/contact_an_advisor/profiles/Mike Nixon.pdf

Managed Recruitment Solutions – offering businesses different solutions

In its latest UK economic outlook published today, the Institute of Directors forecasts UK GDP growth will be just 1.2 per cent in 2011.

The IoD lists five economic influences that combined will weaken GDP growth prospects. These factors are falling household real income, a flat savings ratio, upward interest rate expectations, the fiscal squeeze and anaemic broad money supply growth.

A spokesman for the IoD, said: “In 2011-12 we think there is more of a risk to the economy from a mistake in monetary than fiscal policy. Raising interest rates when the money supply is so weak could undermine recovery and risks a double-dip.

“The spending squeeze should proceed as planned and the MPC should avoid raising interest rates. In fact, broad money supply statistics suggest there is a case for an extension in quantitative easing if anaemic monetary growth continues.”