The first National PA Day 15th September 2011

Here at YouYou we love support staff and know how valuable they are to companies. Tomorrow is the launch of an annual National PA day which has been launched to celebrate the contribution PAs make to organisations throughout the UK.

With the slogan 'We make Britain's offices work', the day aims to highlight the increasing importance of the estimated 600,000 highly skilled PAs working in offices across the UK and to promote the profession to well-educated young people seeking an exciting and stimulating career.

Henrietta Barker, one of the founders of YouYou, was quoted

‘I think National PA Day is a fantastic idea. A day like this is so needed within our industry and a great way for PAs to get the recognition they deserve.

To find out more about it then do visit the site by clicking here.

Launch at Office* in Earls Court

You haven't heard from us for a while because we have been really busy getting YouYou ready for you!

We are so excited about our launch tomorrow, 15th September, and we will be at the Office* show in Earls Court to launch our new website.

We are at stand 4021 so please come and say hello if you are going to be at the show.

If you haven't got tickets to the show then please click here

Having a secure job is paramount for our well being!

The Office of National Statistics has been busy as usual weighing up each and every area of our lives and recently it has been busy measuring data pertaining to our well being as a nation! This research revealed that relationships with families and health are essential to our emotional well being but so is job security!

Do you feel secure in your job? Badenoch Clark recently revealed in their studies that employees are less and less trusting of their employers when it comes to business performance and that this mistrust means that many of us are not feeling secure in our jobs.. or even satisfied..

We spend approximately one third of our waking lives in the workplace and so let's hope that we are all enjoying it!

If you happen to be looking for a new secretarial job then do have a look at our revolutionary website - www.youyou.co.uk

MERRY CHRISTMAS! With best wishes from The YouYou Team!!

Good news on the job front!

The demand for new workers in the private sector is increasing (hopefully this will accommodate those in the public sector who will shortly be looking for a job as was stated when the cuts were first announced) and this increase has spread across a wide range of sectors including banking and financial services. The number of job openings in the UK rose by four points in November... This, together with the fact that the Salaries Index rose by two points this month, is really good news!

The job demand has reached its highest level this year in a number of sectors including technology which is so encouraging and London, which of course is the area that all of us are concerned with, reported a nine point increase to a high of 110 - again, good news!

And the meaning of all this is - that employers are building for the future and this will affect all of us! Sustained economic growth is what this country needs and things are looking up. This is a great way to draw this year to a close... not that it's over quite yet!

With best wishes
The YouYou Team

How do you feel?

I've been reading a great deal about how people feel about their jobs recently and there is absolutely tons of research done in this country on the workforce...

I recently read that almost half the people in employment are remaining in jobs that they are unsatisfied with because they feel that they have no other option and that only 53% of people feel valued in their job.

This tied in with some news a couple of weeks ago about how PAs feel about their bosses.

Research done in the secretarial/administrative sector revealed that almost 20% of PAs who were asked wanted more respect from their bosses - it doesn't cost anything for anyone to be more appreciative and polite!!

We agree!
How do you feel?

Recruitment moving away from human beings!

On Friday the recruiter news bulletin published the above statement made by Peter Searle, the CEO of Addeco UK and Ireland, which means that here at YouYou we are the forerunners in what is now the trend in recruitment!

Our website, www.youyou.co.uk, provides what traditional recruiters are against. It removes from the recruitment process the ‘human element’, which means that instead of using what traditional recruiters use which is gut feeling and relationships, we here at www.youyou.co.uk, have moved the recruitment process towards a more impartial, entirely non-judgmental method by which candidates are considered.

Skills and experience are the most important selection factor on our site and the recruiter, the intermediary with their personal opinions and prejudice is therefore no more! This is, in fact, more in line with employment law which is supposed to have done away with the bias in terms of background and appearance that traditional recruitment engenders leaving the company themselves to decide who is appropriate to their vacancy.

Dr. Barbara Lond responded to the statement made by Peter Searle with this statement,

‘Research among Senior women bankers (directors) actually found that some thought recruiters actually add to the lack of diversity within the banking profession: "You just see the same old CVs from the same people circulating" was one comment in my research. Bias and stereotyping is rife, and unless aware, very difficult to control. Indeed, it is why professions are staffed with one kind of person. This then becomes the 'fit' both organisations and recruiters look for, or 'cloning'. Feedback is never given, and that is because clear criteria is not used, but rather, some subjective or 'gut feeling'.

Indeed it is the same within any sector, including the secretarial one. Here at www.youyou.co.uk clear criteria is what we too are interested in!

Here is another response to Peter Searle's statement,
‘Comments like this demonstrate a fundamental lack of knowledge about what the new recruitment methods are. The latest trends simply utlise technology to deliver a faster, more accurate delivery method for the actual relationships between the recruiter and the candidate to take place.’ Darren Revell, Recruitwise Technology Ltd.

You can’t argue with that!

‘Expecting candidates and clients to wait while the recruitment industry catches up with technology is like asking a man to sweep back the morning tide with a broom.’ Darren Revell, Recruitwise Technology Ltd.