Blog

As we head into the final few weeks of 2023, we’ve certainly seen our fair share of changes in both the economic and recruitment market, especially this year! To help you better understand what changes to expect as we look to next year, here’s our recap of the top news from November and what it means for you.

In recent years, many of us have been looking at our policies and hiring practices to consider how we can improve diversity within our team and foster a more inclusive work culture.

Mental Health Day does more than just bring awareness to mental health. It helps businesses like ourselves recognise when we need to do more, both for our team and to support the businesses we work with. We wanted to understand the mental health landscape as it stands today and see what the impact is on employees and employers. And the results are shocking!

Economic pressures are adding to challenges across the market, but the news isn’t all doom and gloom. We delve into the data from KPMG and REC on the latest for the jobs market and what it means for you.

It’s been really interesting to see how the working world has changed since the pandemic, in more ways than one! And in a recent survey from Softworks, it seems more people are finding it harder than ever to take sick days whilst working from home or remotely.

There’s plenty of interview advice out there for candidates, but what if you have limited interview experience as an employer? Read our useful tips which will help you get the most from your interviews and ensure your candidates walk away with a tip-top impression of your business.

Research published by the ONS last year revealed that a shockingly low number of autistic adults are in employment. Only 22 per cent of those with autism are in full-time or part-time work, the lowest employment rate of any disabled group.

Last month, we asked our clients to share details of their employee benefits packages, so we could review what's on offer to help employers with their attraction and retention strategies. 17 clients across several sectors (including professional services, manufacturing, automotive, technology and education) responded.

You’ve heard it a thousand times. And it’s true. Your people are the most important asset of your business. So when the time comes to hire, it makes sense to pick the candidates who are the best possible fit for your vacant roles. Not always easy. In sectors where demand for specific skills exceeds the supply of candidates, finding the right person for the job is a challenge. Job-seekers can play employers against each other, cherry-picking the best offer. The good news? A few tweaks to your recruitment process will put your business in the best position to snap up in-demand candidates, before your competitors do.

It’s not just prospective employees who need to give the best account of themselves at interview. Those on the other side of the desk should be striving to leave every candidate with a positive impression of your business. In fact, it’s crucial. And remember the recruitment process isn’t just the interview, it’s the end-to-end process. This means that your speed of response to applications; quality of your feedback; and overall engagement with candidates throughout the whole process also plays an important role in how your employer brand is perceived by candidates. Here are four reasons why.

Exeter is expected to be the city with the fastest growth in Q4 2023 with resilience to the cost-of-living crisis recession, and 1.3% annual GVA growth forecast. This is up from 0.9% growth estimated in Q4 2022, and puts Exeter in eighth place on the city tracker table for GVA growth in that quarter. 

Over the summer, Clodagh and I decided we should use a bit of structure to get to know each other better.  We engaged the services of the wonderful Jo Redgrave who took us both through Insight Discovery Profiles.  So good was the insight we gained about each other, that we decided to roll it out to the SLT here at Cath Apps.  How very, very interesting!  Having worked with some of my team for more than 17 years I thought I had them fairly well sussed, particularly on what drives and motivates them, but I learnt a lot!  We all came together last week to share, learn about our colours and team build - it really was great. I can safely say it was the best team investment we have made (not just financially, but emotionally too) and we will be rolling this out to the wider team early next year.