What a year! When I receive something called ‘The Positive News', I note that it’s a very strange experience, as there is no scare-mongering and no bad news within it. Sometimes the media seem almost to challenge our adrenaline with negativity and, actually, positivity is often less exciting. I wonder what this says about the human condition.

The themes for this year, work-wise, have been preparing for a new era – one of hybrid working, and utilising technology for the upside rather than the downside. This hasn’t been a big change for us, and we’ve been able to help our clients do what we did some twenty years ago, with respect to remote working. There are many advantages to working from home, but psychometrics indicate that this can be very difficult for some people. It’s useful to know whom you have recruited, as well as the needs and motivations of those who have been working with you for some time, so that the hybrid working model can be utilised for staff in the right way.

I suspect that heightened adrenaline and ‘expecting the worst’ has led to increased mental stress for a variety of reasons and this does not seem to have abated. Mental health and well-being are going to be continuing themes, as they have been throughout 2021. I have noticed that more people are undertaking coaching, as well as entering into therapy, to work through issues that have reached a point where boundaried external intervention can help.

The most exciting thing for us this year was being awarded HR Consultancy of the Year. Having started as one person, alone, drafting documents from morning until night, we have turned into a full-service HR consultancy over the years, reaching right across the employee lifecycle with a range of wonderful clients in many sectors, including, education, life sciences, arts and media, digital technology, financial services, pharmaceuticals, architecture and design, biotech and health.  It’s extraordinary how broad we have become - working mainly client-side, but not exclusively - applying best practice and mechanisms for growth in all the work we do.

When consulting, it is very exciting to win tenders and also to receive positive feedback from clients.  It is also appreciated when our work is noticed by third parties as adding value.

Timeliness and open mindedness will be our maxims for 2022, as I hear my friends and colleagues say: ‘where has this year gone?’.

Until then, I realise how difficult it must be as the Covid Omicron variant seems to be spreading rapidly and hitting large numbers of staff, including, of course, HR departments.  If you need any help over the Christmas/New Year period, please get in touch. Often, waiting means that the issues will grow bigger or more critical, so please don’t hesitate to contact us.