Empowering Agency Workers

It isn’t long before the summer holidays will be upon us, we got thinking about how on earth young people (school / college / university leavers) could get started on their first ever job search.  It’s a familiar quandary because employers often want experience, but coming straight from education people may not have work experience so where do they start?  We chatted with career coach Hannah Salton who shared her insights and loads of top tips including:

This is an episode that is jam-packed full of practical advice specifically for people leaving education and taking their first step into employment.  It can seem monumental but it’s important to get started, especially as you can take small steps and build momentum.

Four years ago, after 8 years working in HR & Graduate Recruitment for global corporations, Hannah followed her dream of becoming a career coach.  She had experienced both successes and setbacks during my career, and for many years Hannah didn’t think she would have the courage to make the career change – but she eventually did.

Using the experience of overcoming her own limiting beliefs, alongside her commercial recruitment experience, Hannah helps high-potential and motivated individuals understand their strengths and personal preferences, in order to put a structured plan in place to create their ideal career.

Contact Hannah on LinkedIn here:      Check out Hannah’s website here:

Book reference: ‘The Two Hour Job Search’ by Steve Dalton

Today we’re talking to Keith Rosser who is a man on a mission to protect workers from the increasingly complex scams that deliberately target vulnerable job seekers.  He is an long standing friend of the show, and we caught up with him to find out about the latest job scams, the impact on victims, and to ask what exactly is being done about it?

Here are just a few of our key insights:

It’s not just the immediate financial cost to victims, which ranges from £50 to £10k, but there is also possible longer term damage caused through identity theft and fraudulently taking out loans in victims’ names.  Listen in to receive the latest information on exactly what cons these criminals are coming up with now, what you can do to protect yourself, and what action is being taken more widely through the government and other bodies.

Importantly, we also chat about the launch of a brand new initiative, JobsAware, which provides free help and advice to UK workers who have suffered from job scams or unfair working practices.  JobsAware works closely with BEIS, the Home Office, HMRC, law enforcement and DBS amongst others.  You can find out more here.

Keith has been the Chair of SAFERjobs for over 10 years. He is a Group Director of the world’s largest family owned recruitment business, REED, and is Director of Reed Screening, a large pre-employment vetting business within the group.  He Chaired the first cross-Government committee on the flexible labour market, the Association of Compliance Organisations (ASCOR).  Keith was appointed to the Advisory Panel on UK Government’s response to the Good Work Plan, advised the Name Blind committee chaired by then Prime Minister, David Cameron, and received a Commendation Award from Home Office for services to the labour market in 2018.

Keith also Chairs several trade bodies and industry committees within the labour market, including the Criminal Records Trade Body (CRTB) with the DBS, Disclosure Scotland, and Access Northern Ireland. Keith is an Advisory Board Member at Cifas, the UK’s leading fraud sharing database. Keith is also Chair of Release Scotland which works with Scottish Government on criminal record reforms.

We know that the pandemic has caused an increasing number of people to enter the jobs market unexpectedly, and we also know how overwhelming it can be to suddenly find yourself needing to find work.  For that reason we chatted to Maxine Hart from Wote Street People to create a podcast episode packed full of help and advice on how to get started.  We cover everything from working out what role might suit you, to structuring your application, and how to give yourself the best possible chance of success.

Just a few of the top insights include:

Some people might have been out of work for a while due to being furloughed, so we also spent some time discussing how to present gaps on CVs.  Similarly we also talked about how to sell yourself if you are someone that has closed your business and now back on the jobs market for the first time in years.  This really is a truly practical episode with lots of useful help that you won’t want to miss!

Mind the Gap, read more here

Where Are They Now –  Previous Temps Flourishing, read more here

Maxine has some 20 years recruitment experience, and she loves it!  She is also a career practitioner, employability mentor at her schools education & business partnership and is a trustee at her local jobs club, so is the perfect person to help us today.  Maxine meets people of all backgrounds every day and is still interested in what they have to say about themselves.  You can contact Maxine here:

When searching for a job, whether it’s your perfect career move or a temporary stop-gap, it’s likely you will face rejection at some point as all the best candidates do.  The current jobs market is very competitive meaning that rejection is even more likely, so we chatted to the brilliant Tamzin Louise, Interview Cheerleader about how to find your inner resilience.  Dealing with rejection is hard at any time, but particularly so when applying for jobs because working and earning income matters so much.  So Tamzin shares with us her thoughts on what we can do to remain confident, believe in ourselves and be ready for success in the future.

Top insights include:

10% discount on Interview Cheerleader courses, 1:1 services and downloadable PDF guides.

Simply use this code: iworksuccess

which is redeemable on the Interview Cheerleader website https://tamzinlouise.vipmembervault.com

Tamzin has a background in business psychology and she is an author with over 20 years of recruitment experience.  She is passionate about sharing her knowledge and experience to support you to achieve the career of your dreams.  You can contact Tamzin here:

In the second of a two-part special we chat to Meredith McCammond from the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG), as she’s the lead-author of a newly published in-depth report examining the UK’s umbrella industry.  The report pulls together data from lots of different sources and provides an independent overview of the sector.  LITRG’s research included talking with sector experts, reviewing umbrella company offerings and posts in contractor forums and mining the group’s own query database for evidence.

The resulting report explores the benefits and complexities of umbrella companies.  In today’s chat, we’re covering:

If you missed part 1, you can listen to it here:

Meredith is a Chartered Tax Advisor and has been with LITRG 8 years. Prior to LITRG, Meredith was with a Big 4 firm specialising in expat tax.  As a Technical Officer at LITRG she has specialist knowledge about issues affecting agency workers, intermediaries, umbrellas, payroll, gig economy and false self-employment.  She volunteers for TaxAid.

Download the LITRG report here.

Contact the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group via these links: