300 North are delighted to provide this guest blog, written by Baskar Sundaram at Bacchu RAIN, market development and strategic research specialists for the built environment. We would like to thank Baskar and his team for providing these insights to our clients and candidates in the Facilities Management sector.

The team at 300 North like to do our bit for the community. Every year we take on a new challenge to raise money for a local charity or one that is close to the hearts of our team. Throughout 2020, to support our wellness and charitable aims, we are raising money through a number of sport and health based initiatives to support Smart Works Leeds.

The Smart Works mission is to help unemployed women regain the confidence they need to find success at job interview, secure employment and transform their lives. The service harnesses the transformative power of clothes and confidence. By providing interview coaching and donations of high quality interview clothing, the Smart Works charity are able to change the trajectory of another woman's story.

Welcome to Joe Firth who we're delighted has joined the growing 300 North team as a Principal Recruitment Consultant.

To introduce Joe and allow everyone to get to know him, we asked him a few questions to start us off:

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

I am a very friendly chap who likes to have a good craic with my friends, colleagues and family. I enjoy helping others and adding positive contributions where possible. I have worked in recruitment for 8 years since leaving University, it’s a demanding job but rewarding! Having good colleagues and a good working environment makes all the difference!

This is the first in a series of blogs with a focus on diversity and inclusion. A hot topic at this year’s Facilities Management Show and other industry events, it’s also an issue we come across regularly as recruiters within Facilities Management (FM).

We begin by looking at the role women play in FM; a sector perceived (rightly or wrongly) to be dominated by men.

We're pleased to report that our Office Manager Katie Ashley is now qualified as a Mental Health First Aider, which is vital in enabling us to provide support to our internal team and also our candidates and clients in the Facilities Management and Construction sectors. As a recruitment company, we're dealing with people everyday, many of whom may need support. According to The Mental Health Foundation, 1 in 6.8 people are experiencing mental health problems in the workplace.

It’s time to talk legislation. Specifically, IR35, and the impending changes to the private sector planned for April 2020.

Our aim isn’t to overwhelm you with information and jargon; we simply want our clients and candidates to understand how the changes could affect you and how the team at 300 North can help.

Last year 300 North announced that we are sponsoring Callum Hall, International Wheelchair racer in his bid to reach qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.  We asked Callum to do a guest blog to update us on his progress over the last quarter and here's what he had to say...

We wanted to take a minute to introduce our new team member Amy Bell and say a huge welcome to 300 North! We're all delighted that Amy has joined the Newcastle office as a Recruitment Administrator supporting the team, our clients and candidates in the North East and Scotland. Already having a good knowledge of the Facilities Management (FM) sector, Amy has got stuck in straight away and we're loving having her!