Back in April 2018, we sponsored a CIPD event ‘How to build personal resilience’ with inspirational speaker, trainer, coach, and author Steve Head. It’s a topic we’re passionate about and in this month’s blog we wanted to revisit the topic due to these challenging times and in the hope that we will help people who are possibly worried about their future career.
The ONS revealed recently that unemployment stands at 4.8% in the UK which although is nowhere near as high as the 8.5% in 2011 following the global financial crisis, it is still is a big increase when compared with pre-COVID-19, so in this blog we’d like to give some ‘food for thought’ to those who may be struggling and not feeling optimistic about the future.
‘Bouncing back’ and being able to adapt to an ever changing world and environment takes mental and inner strength. Seeing failure as an opportunity to learn and grow personally is a positive attribute, and demonstrates personal resilience. In the process of looking for a new job, most people have ample opportunities to develop it, but those who are optimistic, confident, and emotionally intelligent are more likely to succeed in securing a new role.
In our current and projected future jobs market, resilience is not just important – it’s essential. The business world was in constant flux before and now there is an even higher amount of uncertainty; people within business need to be able to deal effectively with change and adjust appropriately. We are witnessing competition on the increase for many roles, therefore job seekers who can demonstrate resilience will most definitely stand out from a crowded job seeker market.
Building resilience early on in life enables people to fight the battles worth fighting throughout their entire careers. Hannah Heath was made Finance Director of JoJo Maman Bébé by the age of 30 and is currently Finance Director for SA Brain, she says: “I had to fight for my role here; there was a perception I was too young, but I had already proven I was capable of the job and managed to convince the board I was ready.”
Hannah was fortunate enough to have good roles models at home, school and in her early roles with PwC and HBOS, but not everyone gets the encouragement they need to achieve their ambitions. We urge job seekers to seek out a mentor, someone they can talk to and who can support them in the search for a new role. The good news is, we are happy to coach and support our candidates during their job search and can share information that will make them more aware of their own personal resilience.
We found Matthew Syed’s short guide on Building Personal & Team Resilience really inspiring where he tells us that people who are mentally tough tend to be ‘optimistic, confident and learn from experiences’, it’s definitely worth a read over your morning coffee!
So whatever lockdown and COVID-19 has thrown at you, we believe we can take these experiences and learn from them, and therefore build our personal resilience and be mentally prepared for whatever comes next. Use this difficult time to focus on what you can do to make positive plans for the future, take control of it and do not be afraid to ask for help and support from those who offer it; this is a sign of inner strength NOT weakness.
Ultimately, resilience is necessary because failure is inevitable at some stage in your career. As Batman responded when his father asked, ‘Why do we fall Bruce?’: ‘So we can learn to pick ourselves up again’.
Ita took the time to ask about our business, our culture, the role and really understood what we were looking for. This resulted in a really straightforward recruitment process. All of the candidates put forward were of exceptional quality and I would definitely recommend Sitka to my colleagues and network.
Sometimes in recruitment it is a case of being able to look behind the written CV and Karen was able to pull out experience that I had overlooked so that we were able to recruit the right person for us.
I chose to work with Sitka as I know them to be open minded and creative in their approach to recruitment. Ita was able to pin down the most important parts of the role and understand our needs quickly and clearly. Ita then joined the dots between her understanding of the role with the perfect candidate. I have recommended Sitka to colleagues and I will continue to do so.
I was recommended Sitka by a mutual contact who thought Karen and Ita would understand our requirements and our organisation. I met with them and I definitely felt they were the right agency for us. The recruitment process was seamless, they made it very easy for me.
In a difficult market, Sitka were able to introduce us to several candidates who were suitable for our vacancies. Karen was so passionate about making sure both Drive and their prospective candidates got a great service and I knew she’d do an excellent job when future roles came up.
I have always dealt with Karen and have found the recruitment process generally excellent. The calibre of candidates has always been strong and the candidates also show enthusiasm towards the job and company they are interviewing for. I am very happy with the service we receive from Sitka and we have always appointed from the first round of interviews.