‘There is a shortage of employees to fill vacancies across all sectors’
Ant Milnes is a director of Leonard Curtis, having joined the Bury office in 2009. As Leonard Curtis expanded, a Leeds office was opened which Ant became involved in growing and he is currently in the process of setting up a new office in Huddersfield, to benefit clients and businesses in the locality.
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The best thing about the job is the feeling you get from successfully helping a variety of businesses and business owners achieve what they desire with their business.
This could be expansion of a business where funding is needed, or it could be business turnaround where a business is struggling financially and it is always a good feeling when you can rescue a business and preserve the employees’ jobs.
Often, a company in financial difficulty causes the directors significant stress and it is rewarding to see that within the first few minutes of an advice meeting with a director, the directors’ stress is completely alleviated as they now have a clear plan in place going forward.
Over the next year there is an opportunity to work closely with local businesses in Yorkshire to guide them through these turbulent times.
The energy crisis has resulted in a sharp increase in overheads for many businesses and interest rate increases are resulting in increasing borrowing costs.
There are also other factors causing difficulty to businesses such as inflation, reduced consumer spending and supply issues.
There is an opportunity to guide businesses through this perfect storm and help them to flourish as the economy returns to some normality, hopefully over the next year.
One of the largest challenges I am seeing across all sectors, including the financial sector, is the recruitment of staff.
Despite unemployment being lower than it has been for years, there is a shortage of employees to fill vacancies across all sectors.
There are a number of reasons which could have caused this, obviously there was some migration of workers to Europe due to Brexit but I think the main issue has been the affect the Covid pandemic and lockdowns have had.
Many people spent longer at home over the pandemic, whether this was due to furlough or working from home and have re-evaluated their work/family balance with many bringing their retirement plans forward or going back to work part time.
More than one part time employee is required to fill a full-time role which means businesses need more employees, this and the fact that retired people are not classed as unemployed is partly the reason why the unemployment figure is so low but yet businesses are struggling to fill job positions.
It’s not just the supply of staff which businesses are struggling with but also the supply of materials has not been sufficient as we bounced out of lockdowns.
The staff and materials shortage causes bidding wars between businesses to a certain extent which has added fuel to the inflationary fire.
One of the biggest changes in the sector over the last 5-10 years has been the introduction of the new insolvency rules which came in in 2016 and then implementing the technical changes to the procedures.
The introduction of deemed consent procedures and dispensing with creditors’ meetings, unless they are requested by creditors, have made the insolvency processes more streamlined whilst ensuring that stakeholders are engaged and the process is transparent and clearly explained.
Within the last few years, the Covid pandemic has changed the landscape in the sector which has seen unprecedented Government backed lending from banks, followed by a general reluctance and nervousness from many banks to lend to businesses.
The impact of a reduction in available lending facilities coupled with rising interest rates means that borrowing is becoming more and more expensive for businesses.
One vitally important approach which Leonard Curtis adopts when dealing with matters is good communication with all parties at every step of the way.
This is very important to ensure that matters are progressed in a timely manner and that the relevant stakeholders and professional advisors are involved and appraised at all stages.
An important phrase which is good advice for all business owners is “don’t bury your head in the sand” and have conversations at the earliest point in time.
Once a solution is discussed to the problem, people tend to feel much better and what was an insurmountable problem becomes something which can be dealt with.
Dealing with a problem as it arises is always better than trying to deal with it some time later when it may have got worse and/or be more difficult or impossible to fix.
Prior to my professional career I learnt that hard work always pays off in the long term and that has stuck with me throughout my life and into my professional career.
Early in my professional career I learnt that helping people in business is always beneficial and people remember the help that they received and then often can unexpectedly reciprocate that assistance and goodwill at some point
down the line, even if it is just by way of a positive recommendation.
I have worked for and with many great people over the years at Leonard Curtis and I have gained technical knowledge and learned many other skills from these people.
It is inspiring to see people start off as graduates at Leonard Curtis and work hard to flourish into inspirational leaders, taking teams forward and in turn inspiring the rest of the team.
This builds great morale in the teams as the junior members of staff can see that there are opportunities for progression and that with hard work and the support on offer, they could be the next leader to take Leonard Curtis forward.
Away from work I like to relax and spend time with my family, although this is not always as relaxing as I would hope!
Holidays are great, whether it is an activity holiday or a sunbathing beach holiday, downtime with the family is always important, although I rarely manage to completely switch off from work.
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