Katherine Wiid, Director of Recrion, is pleased to announce that an additional £2.8 million has been allocated to the project which has already supported over 10,000 people to learn new skills, find employment or become self employed.

“We have helped hundreds of employees in a wide variety of businesses to identify their transferable skills and adapt their job search in the current economy.  The R2R fund gives everyone the opportunity to have 1:1 careers advice and training resulting in over 67 per cent finding new employment within 13 weeks”.

For more information on how to access the support and funding, visit www.recrion.co.uk/free or telephone 01780 484910.

Attitudes and trust in senior management seems to be at an all time low, and largely due to poor communication during the redundancy consultation process.   Download the free report here.

Employee engagement is really quite simple – so why can't organisations get it right?  It comes down to 2 behaviours – transparency and communication. Studies on the science behind human motivation show that humans are motivated in the workplace by 3 main things – autonomy, mastery of their role and purpose.  Money comes stone last.

By not communicating and being transparent, the 3 key employee motivators are directly impacted.  Rumours, meetings behind closed doors, a CEO that no longer walks the floor and looks employees in the eye are interpreted as BAD news.  The normal Open Door of a senior manager, slams shut in the face of adversity as they only want to hear good news, not any news.

It's tough being on both sides of the door.  So why not reach out for expert advice on how to manage redundancy as positively as possible?

The Response to Redundancy scheme is a good place to start – and free in the East of England – find out more at www.recrion.co.uk/free.

Katherine Wiid is a People and Career Management Specialist who has worked with hundreds of employees during redundancy situations.  She can be reached on 01780 484910 for confidential discussions.

A number of 50 something managers facing redundancy have been to see me for career coaching.  They arrive feeling low, worthless and wondering if they have what it takes to compete with young professionals for the few jobs in the market place.  One client refers to himself as a "grey hair" and yet looks extremely youthful.

It is all in the mind.  In the mind of the interviewer and interviewee.

I found a great article that gives older candidates a good checklist on how to compete for the best jobs.  The key is to ensure that you are up to date with the skills you need to do the job and are able to communicate how you can add value to the organisation.

If you are facing redundancy and living in the east of England, you might be eligible for the Response to Redundancy scheme that will fund a relevant training course of your choice.  Visit www.recrion.co.uk/free to find out more.

That's right, stop spending your whole week job searching and instead spend part of your week doing something completely different. And I don't mean watch TV or 'doing lunch' with friends.

If you've been made redundant in recent months, you may be low on cashflow, confidence and job opportunities. But one thing you do have is that commodity we all crave: *TIME*.

Instead, go and do something of value, something that would make a difference to someone else.  By spending more time helping others, and less time on your own search, you'll actually find that you improve your chances of finding work.

If you're out of work, here are 10 suggested projects you could do:

1.  Volunteer your time and skills to a charity or non-profit organisation
2.  Start a blog and share your opinions on a topic or subject you care about
3.  Teach your kids, neices or nephews something of value (e.g how to manage money, how to cook)
4.  Learn how to play that musical instrument you've always wanted to learn – and then entertain a small audience for free
5.  Enter a charity walk or run
6.  Give a talk at a local college or university about a subject you are an expert in
7.  Share everything you're learning about job searching with other job seeekers who are out of work
8.  Teach your parents/grandparents how to use the internet, email and text messaging (it will give them a new lease of life)
9.  Help an immigrant family to improve their English. You'll help improve their lives and enable them to make a bigger contribution to the community and wider economy.
10. Create and share something that would bring joy to others – e.g. a poem, a script, a dance, a sketch, a sculpture or a painting maybe

The costs to you?  Nothing.

All that's required is your time, some focus and the right intention.

The benefits to you?

• You'll have a sense of purpose and achievement each week (something that's difficult to achieve if your whole week revolves around chasing leads, applying for jobs and handling rejections).
• You'll consequently see your self esteem increase (which often gets crushed when you get laid off). Increased levels of self esteem improve your chances of securing a job.
• You'll meet new people and widen your network. The wider network improves your chances of finding a job (particularly in a recession when a large percentage of roles are being filled via contacts and referrals)
• You'll have a unique answer to that interview question: "So what have you been doing with your time since you finished your last job?"
• You'll become a much more interesting person to be around – after all, there's only so many times friends and family can ask "So how's your job search going?"
• You'll develop some new skills (e.g. speaking, writing, mentoring, teaching) which can give you another edge in the job market
• You'll develop some new hobbies and interests for the future
• You'll look back at this period with few regrets. You'll know that you didn't waste the time you had between jobs and that instead did something of value.
• You'll enjoy some good karma. What goes around, comes around.

The benefits to the world? Huge.

Just think what would happen if every single person that was laid off invested part of their week (or month) to at least one of the 10 projects listed above? And then inspired other people to do something similar.

I speak from experience!  In the downturn we at Recrion are actively promoting the Response to Redundancy scheme in the East of England to help those at risk of losing their jobs.  Our career advisors give up 2 days a week to provide free career coaching to anyone who is eligible and we love doing it!

Visit www.recrion.co.uk/free for more information or call 01780 484910 for a confidential discussion.

In a recent article in People Management, John Philpott the CIPD's Chief Economist says that the numbers of calls to their legal helpline has not showed any signs of slowing down.

So many HR managers I speak to fear that they will have to embark on another round of redundancies and find that performance levels are dropping as employees fear the worst.  Fortunately, I am able to offer free advice and training to the employees they are letting go thanks to the R2R scheme in the East of England.

In the last 2 months, I have counselled many individuals at risk of redundancy and HR managers have described the support I am able to provide as "manna from heaven".  What is even better is the lack of red tape involved!

Take a moment to find out more about the Response to Redundancy scheme and call Katherine on 01780 484910 if you would like a confidential discussion about how to access the funding.

Some of the people we advise are fortunate to be part of the R2R scheme and find our practical and insightful one-to-one career coaching sessions helpful.  R2R provides up to £1000 per employee to cover career guidance, skills assessment, explore career options, training funding, vocational qualifications and workshops to help candidates match and market themselves to new and hidden opportunities.

To be eligible, individuals whose jobs are at risk need be living or working in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk or Suffolk.

Thank you for coming over last week to see us all. I know that the others found their meetings with you useful and positive. For me, you asked some simple questions that made me stop and think quite hard. I’m eager to keep going and feel that I can plan my future more productively.

Antony who partipated in the R2R scheme

If you don't live in these areas, we are still able to help by offering Career Evolution Workshops and career coaching sessions.  Call us on 01780 484910 for more information.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has recommended that 270,000 fewer posts should be included on its list of occupational shortages, determining which skilled workers employers can automatically bring in from overseas. Construction managers, quantity surveyors, and social workers who deal with adults have been taken off the list, while restrictions on other care workers and chefs have been tightened.

However rising unemployment does not eliminate all skills shortages. Medical consultants with long training periods and high integrity pipe welders will still be needed from overseas.  MAC is paying particular attention to maths teachers and engineers to see whether skills gaps are being filled by laid-off financial services staff.

Skills training services such as Train to Gain are getting ready to fill the gaps.  I personally have taken advantage of their leadership training scheme and grant of £1500 and have been impressed by the flexibility of their approach.

Another great scheme is R2R (Response to Redundancy) which is available to employees being made redundant in the East of England.  Funding up to £1000 is available to help make candidates more marketable – for more information on how to access the funding please visit www.recrion.co.uk/free

The Harvard Review has a great article on the subject.  Communication is the key to keeping your workforce working with you to achieve business goals.  A great one liner on engagement I came across today was "Engagement is when there is no them, it is all us, us, us."

A great way of sending a positive message to those left behind, it is make sure you treat those facing redundancy well.  A lot of small businesses don't have the budgets for outplacement or employee assistance programmes which is why Recrion has partnered with the European Social Fund and EEDA to promote the Reponse to Redundancy scheme.

R2R enables employers to offer their employees free careers advice and training up to £1000.  Find out more on www.recrion.co.uk/free.

Recrion creates Real Action in the Workplace – visit www.recrion.co.uk to find out how!