Specialist recruitment consultancy Prescient Group is celebrating doubling its turnover in its second year of business and its move to a new office in Nottingham. The firm, which has further branches in Manchester and London, was formed during the pandemic in 2020 by seasoned recruiters Joel Fletcher, Charlotte Churm and Ed Robinson. With a specialism in office professional, Prescient Group has experienced rapid growth since its inception, with turnover growing by over 50% in 2022 compared to 2021. The company is also on track to reach a £1m turnover by the end of this year. The company has grown to eight recruitment professionals, with the recent appointment of Georgie Leech as temps account manager and Daisy Owen as permanent consultant, and recruitment continues across its three offices, which will take its headcount to 15 by the end of 2023. The expansion of the team and continued demand for its recruitment services – which cover office, supply chain, marketing, finance and HR – has led to the team taking the lease of a new, larger office on Bridlesmith Walk in Nottingham, having previously been in Atomic House on High Pavement. Director, Joel Fletcher, said: “We set up Prescient Group to quite simply provide our clients with an honest, ethical and first-class service and truly work in partnership with them and our candidates. “We have worked hard to define our offering, invest in technology and build a team of skilled and passionate professionals. This collectively has enabled us to be agile and provide the very best service to our clients and enabled us to invest out time to provide bespoke advice and coaching to our candidates. “Charlotte, Ed and I are over the moon with how the business is performing and the difference we are making to people’s lives. The impact of people being placed in the right role for them cannot be underestimated and that is why we love what we do.” Over its 20-months in business, Prescient Group has built up a portfolio of 65 clients, added executive search to its offer and expanded into the international market. Joel continued: “From the outset, we have reinvested our revenues into company development which has enabled us continually to recruit the best of the best. We empower our people and deliver bespoke training, so they have the skills and confidence they need to deliver. As a team, we are incredibly excited to be on this growth journey and want to thank our clients and candidates for choosing to work with us.”

Shining the spotlight on the region’s property and construction businesses, raise the profile of your firm, developments, and reward your people by submitting a nomination for Business Link’s prestigious East Midlands Bricks Awards 2022 before entries close on 19 August! While winning an award at the Bricks will add considerably to a company’s or individual’s brand and enhance their commercial reach significantly, the business that clinches the ‘overall winner’ award will also take home a year of marketing/publicity worth £20,000. A highlight in the calendar, winners will be revealed at a glittering awards ceremony on Thursday 15 September, at the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground – an evening that will also provide plenty of opportunities to forge new contacts with property and construction professionals from across the region. The event will additionally welcome John Forkin MBE DL, Managing Director at award-winning investment promotion agency Marketing Derby, as keynote speaker, as well as award-winning mind reader, magician, and professional mentalist Looch, who will bewilder and astonish guests during the evening’s networking. To submit a business or development for the East Midlands Bricks Awards 2022, please click on a category link below or visit this page. Thanks to our sponsors:                                      

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Hopkins Solicitors on 20th of July 2022, saw a landmark judgment in favour of their music teacher client, Mrs Lesley Brazel, by the UK Supreme Court. This decision follows her case being heard before an employment tribunal (in 2017), the Employment Appeal Tribunal (in 2018) and most recently the Court of Appeal (in 2019). The UK’s highest court confirmed the rights of part-year and zero hours contract workers to the full 5.6 weeks’ statutory paid holiday provided for under the Working Time Regulations 1998. They rejected the argument from the school that the entitlement of such workers, should be reduced on a pro-rata basis. Thanks to the judgement, it will no longer be possible for employers to argue staff who don’t work all year are only entitled to pro-rata holiday based on the hours they work. Today’s decision is also good news for anyone working irregular hours or on zero-hours contracts. From now on, all workers will be due the same legal minimum of 5.6 weeks (28 days for full-time employees), even if there are months during the year when they don’t work. Example: The Supreme Court judgment ensures leave must be paid at the rate of an ordinary week’s wages (or if pay varies every week, then an average of all the weeks worked in a year). Annual leave calculations are based on weeks, as a person can work a full week or part of one. The law says that someone working a full year is entitled to at least 5.6 weeks of annual leave (28 days for anyone working full-time hours in a week and this can include the eight bank holidays). The judgment means that an employee working all year, but say, for just two days a week is entitled to 11.2 days a year (2 x 5.6 weeks, so 2.24 weeks or 11.2 days). Lesley Brazel, the part time music teacher, said: “After an eight year legal process I am pleased to have finally secured a basic employment right in accordance with the law and as stated in my employment contract. I would like to thank the Incorporated Society of Musicians, ARAG Insurance, and the legal teams at Hopkins Solicitors and 3PB Barristers, for their outstanding professional, legal and financial assistance throughout. “I am an alumna of the Harpur Trust and I have worked for them as a visiting music teacher at Bedford Girls’ School and it’s legacy schools for 20 years, pursuing a career which I am passionate about. Emotionally it has not been an easy journey. I am indebted to my family and friends for giving me the self-confidence to see this through and for their continued encouragement and support throughout this time.” 3PB Barristers were instructed in this appeal by Hopkins Solicitors LLP to act on behalf of clarinet and saxophone teacher Mrs Lesley Brazel, who teaches at the independent Bedford Girls’ School run by the Harpur Trust. She was supported over several years of legal action by the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) and ARAG who provide legal expenses insurance to the ISM’s members. Mathew Gullick QC of 3PB said: “This judgment gives clarity on the method of calculating holiday pay for people in Mrs Brazel’s position working on permanent ‘zero-hours’ contracts and who are not required to work every week of the leave year. The judgment will be of particular interest to term-time workers at schools, colleges and universities, as well as many other types of workers whose working patterns do not fit the traditional ‘full-time’ model.” Partner Carl Wright at Hopkins Solicitors said: “We are obviously delighted with both the outcome of the appeal and to have been able to clarify the law for the benefit of all of those workers who, like Mrs Brazel, work on term time only contracts. As a consequence of this decision, term time only workers will be entitled to the same minimum annual holiday as those that are contracted to work all year round.”