This month has really been about the Kickstart scheme

October was another busy month at Isme People, with two groups of Kickstarters now having weekly coaching sessions and filling up places for a third group. I put a post out to my network on Linked In at the start of the month to ask for guest speakers to come along and talk to these 18-24 year olds about their career journeys and I was delighted that so many people came forward offering their time. Some of these were people I had worked with many moons ago and it was great to catch up over zoom and hear how their careers have gone in many different directions since we worked together.

I look forward to these sessions each week and watching how these young people have grown in confidence and knowledge throughout the time we have known each other. My first group are coming to the last two months of their sessions and have passed the halfway point in their placements, we talked this week about what they wanted to focus on in the remaining weeks and the ‘c’ word was brought up by one of the group, we’ll be wearing Christmas jumpers and having a bit of fun at the last session before we break for Christmas.

The contract for my very first Kickstarter, Nathan was due to end in December but I am delighted to say that he has accepted an extension to this. He has been a huge asset to the business and has grown his knowledge and experience of the industry. I know he will continue to go from strength to strength.

I spoke last month about my middle daughter breaking her ankle and being at home, I’m glad to say she is almost fully healed, and we are hoping the support boot will be off next week. I think I jinxed us by saying I was hoping October would be healthier and all children would be back at school and preschool,  two weeks into the month our household was hit by the dreaded sickness bug that is doing the rounds, I have a sickness phobia which I have had since I was a child so this is my worst nightmare but hey at least we have checked that box for now and all we need now is to get hit with the dreaded Covid.

Outside of the Kickstart scheme our normal recruitment business has been picking up, many of our clients are hiring again but there is certainly still a shortage of candidates in the market, we are having to work 3 times as hard to source candidates and Nathan spends hours searching databases and contacting potential candidates for our live vacancies. It certainly feels harder than ever to track down talent and I think this is most certainly a knock-on effect of the pandemic, people nervous to move, lots of people setting up their own businesses or changing careers. We have however seen a slight increase in candidates applying for roles during November, so it does look like things are slightly improving.

December tends to be a quieter month and it’s always a great time to get all our plans ready for the New year, I have a business planning session towards the end of the month and I’m looking forward to having a day with my business coach to really focus on setting goals for 2022. 2021 has been a great year in lots of ways and has felt like we have been rebuilding after to storm of Covid, feeling excited for the future of Isme People.

“I look forward to these sessions each week and watching how these young people have grown in confidence and knowledge throughout the time we have known each other. ”