It goes without saying that everyone has been impacted in some way by COVID-19, some personally, some professionally and for a lot people, both. Atkinson Moss has been no different and we are still very much trying to adjust to a new normal, I think the same can be said for a lot of businesses. During the first week of lockdown, it felt like everything would stop completely.
This was somewhat understandable, with our clients navigating through their new home working set up, ensuring their teams were fully functioning and understanding the support available from the government. So in those first few weeks of lockdown, we saw a massive decline in recruitment, however we still had plenty of candidates actively looking with a lot of questions around how the process would now work and whether employers would still be prepared to interview them.
These conversations were often quite fraught and included a few horror stories where previously issued job offers were retracted and in some cases the candidates had already left their previous company!
Interestingly, Atkinson Moss also made a job offer to a new starter just before the full impact of COVID-19 was clear. Seeing what was happening to our workflow and hearing what was happening in wider marketplace made us think long and hard about how to move forward. We were adamant about maintaining our ethics and principles in the face of adversity, the future will be different but it can still be bright. We believe hiring new talent is still key to the success and growth of our business – even in tough times.
This brings me on nicely to the introduction of Laura Ward. Laura officially joined us on 4th May 2020 and we are over the moon!
Laura has worked in recruitment for just over 8 years and specialises in Professional Office support. She will be working alongside Claire Pitt to support all our clients and candidates with Administration support/Secretarial staff, Personal Assistants, Executive Assistants, Customer service professional, receptionist and many more
Recruiting through this time has not come without its challenges though. Imagine your first day on the job is taking place in your living room! This isn’t your average onboarding experience., Instead of walking into a new office, you are sitting on your sofa, juggling Zoom calls and Microsoft teams!
Atkinson Moss have had to rise to this challenge and so far so good! I have to admit, I can’t take the credit for this, Graham has risen to this challenge, embraced remote onboarding and has done a fabulous job.
We are so pleased that we have been able to onboard Laura and cannot wait for our team at Atkinson Moss to be together again.
Next week you can hear from Laura herself about how she is finding working for a new business whilst on lockdown.