2020 review

Having just re-read my review of 2019 and revisited the plans we had for 2020, it’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry!  Targets missed, plans ripped up, survival mode implemented, office re-opened, office closed again, still no Brexit deal – it’s been a strange year to say the least. I’ll try my best to summarise what has happened in the Think Specialist Recruitment business in 2020 but then I’ll probably do my best to forget a lot of it!

We got off to a flying start in January with a strong opening month to the year.  Clare Baker joined us in February to launch our Accountancy & Finance division and she got off to a strong start in her first two months in the business.  It’s hard to believe that the company started 2020 with a record-breaking quarter before the enforced lockdown brought the business to a near grinding halt. Having spent much of February hoping that Coronavirus was not going to spread to the UK, March arrived and we all found ourselves in lockdown - confined to our homes and wondering when normality would return.

When the UK government rolled out the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in late March, we were pleased to help as many of our Temporary workers as we could by placing them on furlough and continuing to pay them weekly. It was nice to be able to help so many people in need of financial assistance and it was just a shame that we did not have the capacity to continue placing those out of work into new jobs when most businesses stopped hiring and vacancies all but dried up.

I was also pleased to provide my staff with reassurance that we would ride out the storm and all of our employees returned back to work in July to do their best to pick up where we had left off in March.  It was great to have our team back in the office and return to some form of ‘normality’. I’ll be honest to say that I found working from home incredibly difficult and, but for my wife taking charge of all home-schooling, I would undoubtedly have struggled to maintain a positive frame of mind throughout lockdown (thank you Louise!).  

Congratulations to Alex Montgomery (nee Ellis) who welcomed a baby girl in June which was some positive news amongst the negatives of lockdown!  Beth Merralls stepped up to take on Alex’s desk covering her maternity leave and we were pleased to provide Beth with more responsibility which she has been more than capable to take on.

Although we saw business pick up considerably in our Hemel Hempstead office across the Summer, we sadly made the decision at the start of September to close our Uxbridge office. It was a nigh-on impossible task to generate enough business for the operations to continue but I would like to thank Van for trying her best in the most difficult set of circumstances and wish her the best in her new role. 

I am pleased to confirm that we have retained the rest of our employees throughout the pandemic and made the decision to invest in adding to our Hemel team in August, with experienced Accountancy & Finance recruiter Craig Collis joining Clare to run and grow the temporary desk within our finance division. We are pleased with the progress we have made in growing the Finance division and have ambitious plans in place to continue that growth in 2021.

The established team we have in place have been incredibly patient, resilient and determined in their approach post-lockdown and I am proud of how they dealt with the set of circumstances thrust upon them.  All being well with the market, we have an established and experienced team who are ready to take the business forward in 2021 and I look forward to continuing our growth plans next year.

We are an independent company and, like many other businesses, have felt the impact of COVID-19 across the course of 2020. Thankfully we have ridden the storm fairly well but that is due to the ongoing support of our clients and the hard work/dedication of our team of Consultants.  We are really thankful to head into 2021 in a strong position and the business still intact!

The ongoing support from our clients, candidates, friends and family is incredibly important to a business of our size, especially over the last 9 months or so. It means a great deal to me and the team here that our clients have continued to come to us for their staffing requirements and that candidates are quick to recommend our services.

Ordinarily our team would have been out dropping goodies to our clients during the festive period but it just hasn’t been the right thing to ask of them this year. But I do hope that we get to visit you all soon with some treats when the time is right!

Thank you again for all of the support we have received in 2020 and we look forward to hopefully experiencing a more positive 2021!

I hope that you have a lovely, well-deserved Christmas break and a prosperous New Year!

Kind regards

Chris

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