After my two week holiday in Italy at the end of July (which felt more like holidaying “on the sun” as opposed to “in the sun” with the scorcher of a heatwave which arrived from Africa lol, it was straight back to the office to catch up with the team and my clients before swiftly switching hats and moving into fund raising mode. Those who knows us well will remember that our company founder, Grant Mead sadly lost a long battle with his mental health in July 2021. We have since partnered with Mental Health UK and are holding our first fundraising event on 9th September (a family fun day) I’ve been busy promoting the event on line, drumming up sponsors and subsequently running around Bedford like a mad thing collecting gift hampers, gift vouchers and lots of other goodies from our wonderfully supportive business community. Photos attached (hoping that my grey hairs don’t show up!)

Some exciting stuff going on right now! We kicked off the month by welcoming a “bright young thing” to the team in the shape of Maya and have been busy inducting her into the crazy, fast paced and ever-changing world that is Recruitment. We’ve also made the plunge and moved to larger offices on a prominent business park in North Beds. We are looking forward to meeting “the neighbours” in the coming weeks.

My pet project this month has been teaming up with one of our largest clients, Barracuda Networks who are a global leader in network security. Having completed a high volume RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) campaign for Barracuda in 2022, Erin Furlani, Barracuda’s Worldwide Director of Talent and I have formed a tag team and pulled together an application which we submitted yesterday to the REC – The Recruitment and Employment Confederation who hold annual industry awards. We have entered under the business category “Client transformation through exceptional recruitment services” detailing our fantastic story and success from last year. The anticipation of joining the glitterati of the recruitment industry at the coveted Awards Dinner later this year… however will we wait until the end of August to find out whether we have been nominated? Watch this space for news and hope that Maria doesn’t bite her nails down to the elbow in the meantime!

During August 2023 I took the opportunity to spend a week working in Glasgow. As part of the trip, I went to meet with Kingdom Technologies to see their innovative robotics creation and discuss their upcoming expansion plans. Looking forward to supporting them in the coming months & years as they are poised to go through a period of substantial growth!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65683046

Terrible news for so many reasons:

1) It will make studying in the UK for overseas students less attractive if they cannot bring family with them (for emotional and financial support)
2) Those overseas students who do graduate will be less likely to stay in the UK to work, taking their skills and expertise elsewhere
3) Universities will be financially impacted by reduced numbers of overseas students who effectively subsidise UK students
4) Huge knock-on impact to those businesses which rely on the labour of the dependent visa holders - ranging from those which struggle to attract enough staff such as the care sector, right through to those highly skilled including many whom I have helped place into STEM roles.

I could go on...

AND ALL THIS just so the PM and this weak government can satisfy the right-wing of their party and appeal to a minority of the electorate by making them think they are doing something about net immigration, when they openly admit that this will only address 135k of the 700k last year!

We should be welcoming the 'brightest and best' into the UK, encouraging them to contribute their knowledge, skills, and taxes, whilst at the same time supporting those in the UK to develop into the workforce we need both now and in the future.

August 2023 started off with a bang as I attended Bassfest in Sheffield…start as you mean to go on, they say, and this month has done exactly that. Filled with enough excitement and opportunity to last the year!

The end of our second week saw the formation of a relationship with a new client in Northeast Lincolnshire – a result of some in depth and hands on business development (BD) training provided to me by our Maria – our MD. Maria and I spent some time together honing my business development (BD) skills – that in turn has brought us new clientele. Proving just how valuable BD is within the recruitment industry. This new prospect is particularly exciting for me as it is my first, personal contact since starting at Alliance in June.

In between sourcing candidates for our new client and furthering my BD development – I have been able to enjoy some lovely weekends away, including experiencing boomtown festival for the first time. It was an amazing weekend spent with old and new friends that allowed us to all catch up. Keeping those relationships close is something that is practices in and out of the alliance consulting world – as is seen with our long-standing clients that come back to us time after time, no matter how much time has passed since our last contact.

My First Month at Alliance Consulting.

5th June 2023 marked the start of a new chapter in my career with the Alliance Consulting Group as Recruitment and Marketing Officer. The month following my start has been jam packed with all kinds of new challenges and opportunities to learn. Having never previously worked in recruitment before, I felt I was going to be out of my depth, but within my first two days I was on the phone to potential candidates with no trouble at all. While I will take a small amount of credit for this and being a fast learner – this definitely would not have been achievable without the support of the team. Maria, Dan, and Reda have welcomed me with open arms and shown me just what I am capable of with the right support behind me. Alongside making candidate calls, my first week also saw me attend my first client visit - to a local client in St. Neots. I was able to witness Dan in action! and get a much better idea of the sorts of questions to ask to find exactly what our clients want in a candidate. I have attended two more client visits since my first week, each one nothing like the last. The variety of clients has given me a real insight into just how adaptable we need to be within recruitment to ensure the best outcome for our clients.

The marketing side of my role has so far entailed helping to organise our first ever charity fundraiser in honour of our founder, Grant Mead, who sadly I never got the pleasure of meeting – but seeing and being a part of the brilliant company, he created. Alliance Consulting have partnered with Mental Health UK to help raise awareness for such a prevalent illness. We can’t wait to welcome you all to our event on 9th September at Thurleigh Sports and Social Club and showcase just how generous our community and clients are. It’s been all systems go ever since my first day at Alliance Consulting and alongside the many client visits, I got to witness of the start of a brand-new chapter in the Alliance Consulting story as we moved to a new office space! Friday 30th June, we made the move across Bedford to our new, bigger office space in Elms Farm Industrial Estate. Sadly, marking the end of our 17-year residency in Kempston, but opening doors for new collaborations and friendships with local businesses.

I think it’ll be hard for this first month at Alliance Consulting to be topped with everything that’s been going on, but I know for a fact they’ll try!

Post Covid-19, we have all seen and read a great deal in the media regarding prominent businesses moving to smaller premises, major corporates implementing hybrid working and even organisations abandoning permanent offices altogether in favour of complete remote working.

Like all businesses considering their future, Alliance Consulting undertook a similar thought process and held several team “thought showering” exercises on this subject. However, our conclusion on total remote working was a firm no. Our reasons were the fear of isolation and a potential lack of team collaboration on a day-to-day basis. It was a hearty yes from us all to keep the Mothership!

In fact, it was more than a yes. With the recent addition of a new team member, we decided to move to a larger office!

We are excited to announce that we have moved to one of Bedford’s most prominent Business Parks and are networking with and adding some more local businesses to our already eclectic portfolio of both national and international clients.

If you are a local Bedfordshire based business with Engineering or Technical requirements, please contact us on info@alliance-recruitment.co.uk

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) provides legal advice, business support and training for UK recruiters and recruitment businesses and celebrates the individuals involved in this industry which contributes £43 billion to the UK economy. When a recruitment business bears the REC corporate logo, which Alliance Consulting does, it is a sign of quality and means that we have passed the Compliance assessment and adhere to the professional code of conduct.

The REC annual awards dinner is the most prestigious event in a recruiter’s calendar, celebrating the best in UK recruitment. The event hosts various awards open to both individual categories such as best newcomers, business leaders, agency stars and company categories.

Alliance Consulting alongside their hugely valued client, Barracuda Networks, submitted an application under the category “Best client transformation delivered through outstanding recruitment services” following a hugely successful recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) campaign in 2022. We are delighted to have recently found out that we have been shortlisted for the award and will be attending the ceremony in November where the winners of each category will be announced. #batedbreath

We look forward to being “papped” and to sharing photos of us dressed in our glittering best at the event. Watch this space!

If you would like to discuss outsourcing your recruitment, please contact Maria Mazzei on maria@alliance-consulting.co.uk or 01234 355317

The Alliance Consulting team are looking forward to kicking off their first fundraising event for new charity partner, Mental Health UK, on 9th September 2023.

Mental Health is of huge importance to our business following the loss of our company founder, Grant Mead, who sadly lost a long battle with his own mental health in July 2021.

We will be hosting what promises to be a fun packed day from 2pm at Thurleigh Sports and Social Club in Thurleigh, Beds, Grant’s home village to raise funds and awareness for this important and ever continuing cause.

The children can expect to be entertained during the afternoon with various activities including face painting, games, funfair, pamper stations, dessert van and bouncy castle. We are already receiving wonderful donations of restaurant vouchers, hampers, and other attractive prizes from a number of local sponsors for a raffle and our vendors will all be donating a portion of their proceeds to the cause. Later, the “grown-ups” can enjoy dancing and a sing song with our terrific resident DJ. purchasing “Dutch courage” from the bar of course. Thurleigh Sports and Social Club will be donating a portion of their bar takings for the day to Mental Health UK.

We look forward to welcoming you all.

For those who cannot attend, we would welcome your donations via our justgiving page featured below.

https://www.justgiving.com/page/r-mead-1688554188972?newPage=true

We would also welcome further sponsors who can donate prizes for our raffle. For further information, please contact maya@alliance-consulting.co.uk

Maria approached me in relation to a prospective role with Munters. She had an in-depth knowledge of the role and also the company. Throughout the process Maria kept me fully updated . Thankfully my application was successful and now I work as a service engineer with Munters Ireland. Thank you, Maria, for all the help during this process.