Important update from BTB

 It’s been a few weeks since we were in touch to let everyone know our situation and what we can do to help during this unique period. Here is a further update, and we hope you find it useful. More than anything, we hope that you’re ok! 

The market 

As much as we can, we have been busy watching, reading and listening to people in our industry, in-house and agency, about the impact that the past few months has had. Whilst our findings are not exhaustive, and only captured at a moment in time, we can say that the sectors that seem to be busy, and doing ok currently, are in the healthcare/pharma, financial services, manufacturing, construction, mail order, ecomms, distribution and engineering sectors. 

The agencies faring well or ‘ok’ have clients in the above sectors and/or are offering products/services that are in demand, such as internal comms, ecomms, online media, brand strategy/positioning, tech/software development, as well as those who work with large corporates at enterprise level, such as corporate comms agencies. 

Without doubt, and unsurprisingly, the hardest hit have been the leisure, hospitality and retail (high street) sectors. However, many are aligning themselves accordingly, so focussing on on-line, or developing new products - moving temporarily into Covid19 signage and comms for example.  

The good news is that many businesses seem to be busy, however in terms of recruitment spend we believe that a lot of recruitment will be on hold until:

1. People are able to spend time in the office (and hence meet candidates face to face, allow candidates to absorb the culture, or onboard properly). Remote interviewing and onboarding are working, and perfectly for some, but many would prefer an ideal process.

2. The world is a little more stable - It is inevitable that when the world feels uncertain, many businesses will be careful with their longer term spend until a period of general confidence emerges.

We are anticipating a spike in freelance as an initial response, and we may see June and July starting to really pick up for freelancers.  We will certainly be there when this happens, but all in all, let’s hope for a balance of speed and safety from July onwards.

1:1 Support 

We are aware that there are people who could really do with personal 1:1 advice right now, and although there is always an element of this as we work with individuals who apply for our roles, we want to be able to offer a much more bespoke and in depth service.

Therefore, we have launched our Additional Support for Candidates, which includes Career Coaching and Bespoke CV or Portfolio advice for anyone, at any level.  This takes the form of 1-1 telephone or video coaching sessions, designed to help provide you with career clarity and focus, plus a practical action plan. We have various packages available and all are competitively priced.

Anna Smith is leading this initiative and, with over 26 years’ experience in this industry and 1000’s of hours career coaching, she has already added great value: 

"A one-to-one session with Anna was a good investment for uncertain times. She offered clear, intelligent, relevant, up-to-the-minute advice and ideas. She pinpointed what I wanted to do and how to get there, listening all the way. Emerged re-energised - the Joe Wicks of careers advice!’"

Please go to our Additional support for candidates, or email if you are interested.

Software, learning discounts and freebies  

We have been hard at work collating links to free or discounted products and learning courses for those that would welcome the chance to skill up during this period. You can view here.

Remote interviewing  

If you find yourself interviewing for a role in a virtual environment, please have a read of our tips to make the best impact you can. 

We hope you’ve found this update useful and that, as our network of passionate and hard-working people, you are doing ok. If there is any subject matter you’d like to know more about, please email and we will get back to you. Please also take advantage of all our insight and advice.