There’s been a lot of negativity about the economy in the media following our EU referendum. The pound has dropped in value, the stock market has taken a hit, but for the vast majority of us, life must, and will, go on.
There are stories of big businesses cutting plans to hire in their London HQs and drawing up contingency plans to move whole departments to places like Frankfurt and Paris to better weather any coming economic storms. But these companies, while they arguable have the most at stake should we lose some access to the European market, don’t really represent the majority – certainly not in Stockport anyway.
Despite the headlines, we’ve not noticed too many changes in the plans of our clients. In fact, last week we’ve had more new jobs on our books than in any other week, at least in the last 12 months. And they’re coming from new clients who have never used us before, as well as some of our regulars. Companies in Stockport still seem keen to expand their workforce even in the face of the challenges ahead.
Perhaps many businesses simply see an opportunity when faced with this so-called crisis. Or perhaps they don’t believe some of the forecasts will apply to them. Or maybe it reinforces the theory that we become more open to risk taking when our future prospects don’t look so good.
Here, we’re thinking positively about the future. And we’d advise more people to do the same, whether you’re unsure about hiring new staff, or looking for a new job yourself.
We discourage our clients from asking about a candidate’s weaknesses in an interview – it often invites and gives more weight to negative thoughts about an otherwise strong candidate that in every other respect. Likewise, we’re put off by jobseekers who are negative about previous employers or about certain types of work they outright refuse to do (especially if they’ve never tried it before).
So, when everything is more uncertain, now might be the best time to put your doubts to one side and think positively about the future and take more risks – be that in looking for a new job, or taking the opportunity to seek out new clients for your business.
