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Complete our HR survey and find out how others are coping with Covid-19

Kate Allen, Executive Chair and Marketing Director, Allen Associates

These are testing times for all of us. Our challenges may be different but our stresses and pressures are similar. In the face of so many unknowns, we have launched a short HR survey to try to help businesses to put their own experiences into some kind of context.

In ‘normal’ times, we know it can be difficult to encourage senior business people to engage in surveys. However for most of our clients, it is not business as usual and many of them have told us that now more than ever, they would find it interesting to know how others are coping. This survey will not only identify the main HR issues businesses are dealing with, but will shed light on how they are responding and the best ways to collaborate and support one another now and in the future.

You can contribute to the research by answering 10 multiple-choice questions here and we will then share our survey findings with you.

Adapting to changing circumstances

I’ve been working in the recruitment sector for almost 35 years and during this time, our industry has endured recessions, market unrest and huge changes to working practices. The recruitment businesses that have weathered these storms have been resilient, commercially astute and totally client and candidate focussed.

Since setting up Allen Associates in Oxford over 20 years ago, we have survived all these challenges and although trying to make sense of a global pandemic is beyond anything we’ve dealt with before, we will get through it. It won’t be easy – it never is – but thanks to technology, our fantastic team of people and the strong relationships we have developed with our clients and candidates across Oxfordshire and London over many years, we feel confident about the future.

So what are we doing differently? We have refocussed our energies in two ways. Firstly, by responding quickly to our clients’ needs for high quality, immediately available temporary workers. We have temps working in a large number of organisations – of different sizes and in different sectors – across Oxfordshire, and we’ve been using technology to facilitate remote interviews, introductions and on-boarding as required.

Secondly, we’ve been in daily contact with a growing number of candidates looking for new job opportunities and assessing their suitability for roles at all levels within HR, marketing and communications, finance, PA and admin. We interview every candidate we register so our clients can be assured of quality and relevance and we can match them with roles as they become available, taking into account cultural fit and any other factors. By taking these steps now, we will have a strong database of candidates ready to introduce to clients when they are in a position to recruit again.

Overcoming challenges, gaining insights and sharing best practice

It’ll be interesting and useful to find out from our survey how other businesses are faring. We know from talking to our clients that they are keen to understand what others are going through, find out more about the HR issues keeping other businesses awake at night and hear about how they are overcoming some of the challenges.

So why not complete our short survey and tell us about your experiences – and we will share the results with you. We will also enter you into a draw to win one of five luxury hampers from The Oxford Cheese Company.