News

A recruitment drive to hire staff for the Department of International Trade has been called a
total failure and waste of tax payers monies.

The details have come to light after Labour peer Lord Adonis addressed parliament about the
use of government monies to recruit staff for the Brexit department.

This figure,which was spent solely on external recruitment agencies and headhunters, is a
source of embarrassment to the government. It is believed that the
organisations have only managed to recruit a handful of people following the
costly recruitment drive; in fact, according to reports from Whitehall, only
one appointment has been confirmed.

As Brexitbegins, the government will require skilled negotiators to deal with the
complex legal and economic ramifications of the split with Europe. The
headhunters were tasked with finding suitable candidates in the international
market with experience in this field; however, it is understood that there are
few people qualified internationally to undertake such a task.

According to Lord Adonis, the recruiters were unsuccessful as potential candidates were
unwilling to compromise their professional reputations on a series of
negotiations that were unrealistic and unlikely to succeed.

SER Ltd are of course attempting to contact the powers that be within the Department of
International Trade to see if they would be willing to use our experienced Head
Hunting team on a success only basis!

Its important that at the very start of the interview and job hunting process that you consider the chance that you are going to get counter offered, if and when you hand in your notice to your current employer. After all good people are hard to find, so to your employer its worth paying a bit more just to remove the need to recruit your replacement.

But that's it, that's the only reason why they have counter offered you, and you should remember that the limit to your current employers valuation of you. If that wasn't the case they would have been working with you to resolve your issues way before you had to threaten them with resignation.

Most employers think that employees resign because they have been offered more money and that's a mistake. While new opportunities tend to result in increase remuneration and rewards it's not normally the real reason for an employee's unhappiness. The fact is that in the majority of cases, it's about a broken down relationship, between line manager or company views and goals.
Its good practice at this early stage to make a note of the reasons why you are considering new roles, not only will you have a good set of answers when asked at interview stage, you can refer back to this if the Counter Offer does appear.
WATCH OUT FOR THE HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR
Under a sudden barrage of emotional pleas, flattery and coaching against your new offer you are at risk of forgetting why you wanted to leave in the first place – especially if your boss or other management team member are a good "Hostage Negotiator" – because let's face it – you have just taken your boss hostage, in their minds at least! You're leaving and their profits are at risk (not to mention the cost of replacing you that has to be allocated somewhere) – you effectively have a gun to their head and they will do anything to talk you out of it.
If you're not careful you will forget that people rarely change and that if you don't like your boss now you won't like them next month either. You will temporarily forget how horrible you have been feeling.... And like a victim of an abusive partner, you are at risk of falling for the promises to change, the pleas to forgive and give them another chance. They will slowly but surely try to make you doubt yourself and in that moment they will come at you with a counter offer.
Why is it a mistake to accept a counter-offer?
Because the counter is not about YOU! It's about THEM! The counter offer is never about the individual – it's about the situation. Your boss does not need the headache of another vacancy to fill. They really don't need a drop in their staff retention figures. They definitely don't need a loss of bonuses due to a loss of fee income or indeed the extra workload of managing your work and recruiting another staff member

• So be warned!
• Yes, they will flatter you
• Yes they will make you feel good
• Yes they will give you a counter offer to make you stay....FOR NOW.
• And if you do accept a counter is only FOR NOW, because I can assure you this relationship is now over.

Your boss no longer trusts you. Your boss won't change and the minute you reject your lovely new offer you will regret it. Why will you regret accepting a counter offer?

• Because literally from day 1 you will have one eye on the door wondering what could have been.
• Because your boss now doesn't trust you and will be following your every move, email and call.
• Because you will slowly realise that your boss hasn't changed.
• Because you will see (almost immediately) that your business is moved or changed in some way to accommodate your back-up replacement. Sometimes this will be disguised as having a Trainee to Manage, but what your Boss is really doing is getting you to train your replacement. Because guess what? They know it's only a matter of time now too – but guess what – now it's on their terms.

So before you even start to consider a counter offer:
• Sit down and write a list of the original reasons for you wanting to leave
• Score them on a scale of 1-10 for how miserable they were making you
• Now write a list of the reasons why you want to accept your new role
• Score them on a scale of 1-10 for how happy each element will make you
• Now look at your counter offer. How many of the reasons to leave are you actually really confident will change? How valuable are they to you?
• To accept a counter offer you need to be 100% confident that your boss is going to keep their word and that you won't regret losing your original offer

SER Limited – Technical and Engineering Recruiters
www.serlimited.com
T: 01254 781300
E: info@serlimited.com

Life safety industry "must try harder"

Some 95% of life safety installers think that the industry isn't doing enough to provide training for the next generation of professionals, according to new research from Hochiki Europe.

With recent figures from the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) suggesting that the shortage of electricians, such as life safety installers, is at its highest level for four years, the skills gap is a pressing issue across the built environment, posing a risk to the industry's future growth.

The study of European fire safety and emergency lighting installers carried out by the leading life safety system manufacturer, found that only two fifths (39%) of respondents work for a company that offers an apprenticeship programme. Just 17% reported that their employer offers a graduate programme to attract university leavers to the industry.

Speaking about the findings, Ray Turner, general manager - operations at Hochiki Europe, commented: "The skills gap both in our own sector and across the built environment has been a pressing concern for a number of years but, as the survey shows, our industry is doing too little to address the issue.
"If the industry is to continue to grow into the future, it is imperative that manufacturers and installers create the training opportunities necessary to equip the next generation with the skills they need to build a fulfilling career as life safety professionals."

Another major cause for concern for installers that was highlighted in the study was the lack of enthusiasm among school leavers for the life safety sector as a potential career avenue.

Four fifths (78%) of respondents felt that young people don't know what jobs are available in the life safety sector. A further two thirds (68%) worried that young people don't view the industry as an employment option. Some 93% said that the sector had a responsibility to educate secondary school pupils on the range of life safety roles available to combat this issue.

Ray Turner concluded: "At the same time as creating great apprenticeship and graduate programmes to attract people to the sector, we need to do more to reach out to students while they are still at school and thinking about their future careers, and highlight the benefits of working in the industry.

"Working closely with schools and universities - as individual companies and in partnership with others in the industry - will be crucial to help promote the array of career options, and the paths into the sector. Taking this kind of action now, we can ensure we have the expertise we need not just to thrive today, but to face new challenges tomorrow."

Clive Couldwell, the editor of AV Magazine, talks in AV Magazine about the AV effect.

He states that, "without AV there wouldn't be multi video displays for real time content sharing and collaboration; 'global' corporate presentations; video capture and on demand video playback; 4K presentation and distribution; presentation and collaborations, as our Market Analysis on workspaces reveals."

He comments that, "thanks to AV, spaces are changing from dedicated to multi-purpose, with flexible working and learning environments now becoming the norm. Multifaceted AV technology supports flexible spaces that can be used in many ways. What was once just a boardroom may now operate as a boardroom, conferencing room, or overspill office."

"AV is a tech business and has achieved amazing things, as our AV Awards show each year. But technology is merely a tool in the hands of those with the imagination to inspire."

Clive closes by saying, "At a time when fresh approaches to spaces are needed more than ever, it's time to step up and open up our minds to new ideas.

Here at SER you are the key - the all important factor that allows us to be successful. Without you we don't have a business.

So why pick Quantum Physics – well we have picked it as a reminder that recruitment isn't a quantum physic, but it can change people's lives and here at SER we never forget that.

Recruitment doesn't have to be confusing and it doesn't have to be a maze. We can help make the process easier for you.

Each day we aim to engage and interact with people in a way that allows us to make a difference to their lives.

If you are standing at the start of the maze, and you are struggling to find your way through, get in touch with us today.

Tel: 01254781300
Web: www.serlimited.com

Your Career, Your Future,
Your Choice.

In the Modern Building Supplies magazine, June issue, there is an article that looks at gauging the trends in the UK air-conditioning market.

The article outlines that it is the rise and fall of projects nearing completion that causes the rise and fall of building-services products.

The market in 2016 was quite variable, as summarised below:
• Office new-build sector was down, especially in the key London market.
• Completions in the retail new-build sector were also lower than expected.
• Office refurbishment held up and saw the same level of completions by value compared with 2015 throughout the UK and the key London market.
• Hotel new build and refurbishment increased by completions.
• The residential tall-towers sector in London saw an increase in the number of buildings completed.

In 2015, the market performed as expected.
For completions in 2016, the situation changed as tenant demand decreased (1) for office new build, caused by global economic trends and then Brexit. Plus availability of stock increased, which was caused by the high number of new starts by floor space in 2013 and 2014.

All of this was happening against the backdrop of business-rates increases in 2017. Developers did not want to complete jobs, as they only get three months' business rate relief for a vacant property, so practical completion dates were pushed back (2). The trend is that the construction cycle is extending. Retail new build saw the same trend.
So the expected rise in completions in new build in new build in 2016 did not happen.

Read the full article here: http://www.modbs.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/16987/Gauging_trends_in_the_UK__air-conditioning_market.html 

In 2016, the European pro AV market was worth $42 billion, according to a new InfoComm International study.

This is a drop of 4% from 2015, says HIS Markit, the analyst firm InfoComm hired to conduct the research.

The study predicts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4% through 2022, which is approximately an additional $10 billion in revenue.

Contraction finally gives way to growth

What's changed since the 2014? A lot, starting with the recession's effect on spending.
"In 2016, industry value contracted in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Western Europe," the report says. "Relative to the industry's 2014 value, Central, Eastern and Western European revenues shrunk by 7%, 7% and 4% CAGR, respectively.

"Scandinavia is the only European sub-region to have grown from 2015 to 2016. Scandinavia's monetary independence, coupled with its intrinsic propensity to adopt new technologies, largely explains the sub-region's ability to buck neighbouring, contractionary trends."

The report predicts that through 2022, the rest of the European sub-regions all will resume growing. Although Western Europe will continue to drive about 70% of the region's proAV market, its CAGR through 2022 will be 3%. By comparison, Central and Eastern European AV revenues will have respective CAGRs of 7% and 9% through 2022.

A variety of factors are driving those numbers. Besides general economic trends, there are also industry-specific ones. For example, declining flat panel prices are helping grow the digital signage market.

"So we have a relatively bright outlook," Tom Morrod, the HIS vice president overseeing the reports, told InAVate.

Flat panel segment grows at projections expense

"The single largest technology evolution is coming from the replacement of projectors by professional-grade flat-panel displays," the report says. "Between 2014 and 2017, while the video displays market grew by 26%, the video projector market lost 40% of its value. The loss of $3 billion in projector sales was only offset by a gain of nearly $800 million in display sales."

The sector is still bottoming out, but there's light at the end of the tunnel because display sales continue to boom.

"We're going to start seeing a lot more displays in a lot more places because the price point can drop so much lower than the projection price point," Morrod says. "Projection will become very niche."
Services opportunity remains strong.

Services are another opportunity, with the report predicting compound annual growth of more than 4%.

"Through 2022, we anticipate that lighting systems will grow by 24% on average, year on year, driven largely by installations in retail, consumer high-end systems based around smart home and more complex systems in education and care environments," the report says.

Continued demand for energy efficiency and the rise of smart buildings will spur a lot of that growth.
"There's very, very significant investment that will run at least through our forecast period," Morrod says.

The rest of the report can be seen in the June copy of the InAVate magazine – the rest of the report outlines other areas of industry growth and where the growth is coming from.

P is for People

SER operate in a line of business where people really are key, whether that be our clients, our candidates or our consultants.
We are going to break this down into those 3 people in our process and explain why we are different.

Candidates

As a candidate you have a choice so why choose us?

We all know that finding the right job can be at best – time consuming but at worst stressful and incredibly demotivating. Trawling through a list of jobs and getting no replies can often seem like a complete waste of time.

How about we flip it on its head, change the system and update the process so you no longer have to spend hours of your time seeing no results.

It becomes our job to do that for you through our consultants – they will take the time to understand you, what makes you different and what you want to do and then find you something that is just right, and we do this at no cost to you.

Clients

We build up a lasting professional relationship with our clients, we understand the type of people they want to work at their companies and we help them find it.

Recruitment truly is a partnership and it is our consultants who link that partnership together.

SER & Clients partnership + SER & Candidates partnership = Client & Candidates Partnerships

If you would like SER to help you find the right job or people for the job submit your CV or register a vacancy.

Your Career, Your Future,
Your Choice.

Opportunities can come along at any time, and this is the chance to progress from where you are now to where you want to be and maybe you don't even know where that is now.

You could be happy in your job and not looking at progressing anywhere, but there is a chance you have become comfortable in your current situation – and we know it is easy to do.

Although opportunities can appear at any time, it doesn't mean they appear everyday so you need to take the opportunities or at the very least, consider the opportunities when they arrive.
Remember that every conversation is worth having – you don't know who you are speaking to, and what they know about opportunities that could be right for you.

"It's being in the right place at the right time and taking advantage of your opportunities." Lee Majors

Submit your CV today, and let SER present you with the opportunities that could be right for you.

Help us to help someone you know, if you know someone who may be interested in one of our roles, refer them to us – we have a referral scheme in place – read about it here: http://www.serlimited.com/referrals-rewards/candidates/referral-awards