​As experts in recruitment we often get asked for advice by clients about how to spot potential leaders.Identifying candidates with leadership abilities is important for companies looking to secure their long-term ambitions. But setting up a talent pipeline takes time as there is no one-size-fits-all approach. While there are obviously industry-specific requirements in all of the sectors we operate in, one attribute that applies increasingly across them all is emotional intelligence, as the ability to recognise your own and other people's emotions is vital in today's diverse and ever-changing business environment. The term is largely associated with Daniel Goleman and it challenges the traditional narrative that IQ is the sole measure of a person's ability. In recent years it has become increasingly linked to professional success, as those with high emotional intelligence are seen to consistently outperform their colleagues. "Without it, a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind, and an endless supply of smart ideas, but [they] still won't make a great leader," Goleman wrote in the Harvard Business Review. So how can emotionally intelligent staff improve a workplace? They can form personal relationships Being able to communicate with fellow workers on a personal level is very important in any sector, as companies want to have staff who are approachable and can connect with co-workers. Dr Travis Bradberry, co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, thinks that likeable leaders "communicate on a very personal, emotional level [and] they never forget that there's a flesh-and-blood human being standing in front of them". Giving people your time and attention is vital for creating a positive working environment and cultivating a strong culture. They are self-awareCompanies are always trying to find out their strengths and weaknesses, so having staff who can do this on a personal level makes progression much easier. Not only will this be important for their own long-term professional development, but self-aware people are also very good at seeing how decisions will affect others. Brent Gleeson, CMO of Internet Marketing, said in Inc: "In order to reach your maximum potential, you must be confident in who you are, understanding the good with the bad. Those that have a strong understanding of who they are and what they want to work on can improve themselves on a regular basis."They have empathyThe ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people, and being able to treat people according to their emotional reactions, is key for delivering a first-class client service. This is very important in both the food and horticultural sectors, as companies rely on long-term relationships with clients and customers. According to Goleman, there are three reasons why empathy is so important - the increasing use of teams, the rapid pace of globalisation, and the growing need to retain talent.They can self-regulate Being able to control your emotions in the workplace is very important, as no one wants their judgement to be clouded by moods or impulses. For example, if a piece of work is not well received, emotionally intelligent employees will choose their words carefully, avoid sweeping judgements and look to see what lessons can be learned from the process. By turning negatives into positives, they also make sure that morale is not affected.They are effective communicators Poor communication can lead to misunderstandings in the workplace, so employees need to be comfortable expressing their opinions. "Failing to communicate effectively in a workplace leads to frustration, bitterness and confusion among employees. Effective communication can eliminate obstacles and encourage stronger workplace relationships," Gleeson stated. Good communication also means everyone understands the direction and vision of the company, and what their role is in the process. Operating in the UK food sector is always going to be tough and ultra-competitive, so those with emotional intelligence will always be in demand. However, this is a quality that can be worked on and improved over time - it's something that should be on the personal learning and development agenda for any aspiring 'leader' who's looking to stand out from the crowd and take control of their future.

​When a new year begins, we all tend to be more motivated to make resolutions, whether it’s to exercise more, detox from alcohol or join the increasing numbers taking part in Veganuary. It’s also the most popular time of year to start looking for a new job, especially when it gets a few weeks into the year and you’re not feeling any more inspired about your current role. We have definitely seen evidence of January jobhunting motivation with an increase in visitors to our website and the number of applications coming in. After the uncertainty around politics at the end of 2019, it’s a positive trend to see that people are no longer putting things on hold and seem keen to just ‘get on with it’. With so many people jobhunting at once, how can you stand out and keep ahead of the competition? Avoid the scattergun approach You may have made the decision to move on, but it’s important that you spend some time thinking about what that new role really looks like, rather than just applying for anything you see advertised. Think about whether your goal is to progress in a similar type of role or if you need a change of sector or working environment. Ask yourself some questions - what are the company values that are attractive to you and align with your own? Do you have specific companies in mind? What sort of manager do you want to work for to help you succeed? Will the role you are looking at help you move towards your longer term aims? If you’re unhappy in your current role, it’s easy to skip this step in an attempt to escape as quickly as possible, but you don’t want to be back in the same situation in six months’ time. Spruce up your CV If you haven’t reviewed your CV since you were last jobhunting, chances are it’s in need of a bit of a facelift. Recruiters see hundreds of CVs every week and they all look very similar, so spend some time perfecting your personal profile to demonstrate your key strengths. Try to incorporate the outcomes from the questions you asked yourself above to make it clear exactly what you’re looking for next. If you identified values that are important to you, give examples of how you embody these to show that you would be a good cultural fit for the business. This will also mean that you’re tailoring your CV to each role and this will instantly help you stand out to the person reading it. Read the 10 top tips from the MorePeople team to help you get your CV in shape.Nail the interview Once your efforts have got you shortlisted for an interview, keep the momentum up. Do your research about the business – confirm who will be interviewing you and find out what you can about them, clarify the type of interview you can expect and prepare yourself. Is it an informal chat, a competency-based interview or a formal assessment? Think of a wide range of examples from your career history that demonstrate key skills such as teamwork, problem-solving, handling conflict, using your initiative, etc. In a stressful interview situation, it can be hard to think on your feet so the more time you spending practicing these beforehand the more likely you are to remember them at that key moment. Often burning questions will come to mind as the conversation develops, but it’s always advisable to think of a few before you go in to avoid any awkward silence when you’re asked at the end if you have any questions. Not sure what you should be asking? Read our advice hereMoney talks When you get offered a job, negotiations over money can be a bit sensitive. If you’re using a recruitment agency, your consultant will handle this for you to remove any stress. Be honest with them about your expectations and what figure you would be willing to accept. If the salary is quoted in the job advert, this is not likely to be open for much negotiation. Where an advert states the salary is ‘dependent on experience’, be ready to give examples of times that you’ve taken on additional responsibility at work or that prove your drive and ambition. If you need more in-depth advice on any of these subjects, call us on 01780 480530 for a confidential chat.

​MorePeople are delighted to be sponsoring the City Food Lecture for the second year in a row, including the Future Generation Student Forum where a group of food students have the opportunity to experience a day full of career-enhancing experiences. This prestigious invitation-only event is a well-established feature of both the City of London and food industry calendar, and takes place on Thursday 20th February at Guildhall, London EC2V 7HH. The lecture is organised and promoted by the seven food related Livery Companies with support from the Corporation of London. We are very much looking forward to hearing from this year's Keynote Speaker - Professor Louise Fresco, President of the Wageningen University & Research Executive Board. Wageningen is one of the world’s leading academic agri-food organisation and research and development centre based in Holland and Louise is a highly influential thinker and commentator on global food issues. Her career includes senior roles at the Agricultural Markets Task Force in the EU Commission and as Assistant Director-General at the FAO of the United Nations. She has also served on the Advisory Boards and/or as a Trustee of the likes of Shell, Rabobank, Unilever and Syngenta. The title of the 2020 City Food Lecture is ‘Fish nor Flesh or Both? Foods for the Future’ and will seek to answer some of the following questions:Food is a source of great confusion: what should we eat in times of climate change, obesity and animal welfare? Should our diets be local or global, vegetarian or flexitarian? Can cities restore their link to the countryside where the food comes from? And to complicate these essential questions, what will science bring us for the future in terms of new proteins, intensive and vertical agriculture and personalised nutrition? Following the lecture is a Question and Answer session with a panel of food industry specialists, which is always a lively debate!Guy Moreton, CEO of MorePeople, explained the motivations for being involved in the City Food Lecture:"As a market leader in recruitment for the food sector, we are proud to be sponsoring this exciting event. It is such an important event for the industry and the keynote speech always provides a lot of 'food for thought'!"He continued:"We were particularly keen to support the Future Generation Student Forum aspect of the event as part of our mission is to inspire young people to work in the industry, raising their awareness of the dynamic and exciting careers on offer and giving them invaluable time with industry thought leaders."To find out more about the event and watch the highlights from 2019, visit www.cityfoodlecture.com.

​Returning from the Christmas holidays can be a struggle for many people, not least surviving countless conversations along the lines of “Yes, Christmas was great thanks”, “No, not long enough!” or “Yes I did get some nice presents, please stop asking!”. Having an excuse to get out of the office can really help and, luckily for most of our Agriculture team, we had planned a trip to the NEC to visit Lamma – the UK’s leading agricultural machinery, equipment and technology show. Since the change of venue from the chilly outdoors of the East of England Showground to the slightly more temperate NEC, we were keen to see if there was more to it than just a new location. Here are some of my thoughts and observations about what was definitely a very modern and ‘bigger than ever’ Lamma Show…There was a large growth in suppliers around the fringes and on the smaller stands - from agribusiness consultants to farm traders and everything else that you might typically find at Cereals (the leading technical event for the arable industry). These stands were situated alongside the established large machinery brands and dealerships, which provided much more variety when looking around a show. Rather than gazing from one well-polished machine to another, you felt that you were attending a show that covered most agricultural sectors under one roof. For us, as an agricultural recruitment business, this was great. Being able to put names to faces is really valuable when you deal with businesses all over the UK, so it was a great opportunity to meet a number of clients in one place for a catch-up and chat about recruitment plans for 2020.After a soggy and Somme-like Cereals event in 2019, we left wondering if Lamma could become the event of choice for most agricultural businesses, both large and small. Anywhere that attracts the footfall of agricultural professionals that Lamma does is a place any agri-business will want to exhibit at. Not to mention the confidence that your stand and visitor numbers will never be subject to weather challenges. Coupled with the transport links to Birmingham, I feel that Lamma could be set to grow even further in years to come with ‘beers and lunch in the sun’ at Cereals becoming a distant memory. But part of me hopes not! We’ll certainly be attending Cereals again this year and keeping our fingers crossed for sunnier skies. The agriculture team at MorePeople covers technical, commercial and rural business recruitment in the sector, ranging from Farm Managers to Agronomists to Rural Professionals, and everything in between. The beginning of the year is always one of our busiest periods. If you want to talk to us in more detail about how we can help you as a business, or a candidate looking for a new role, call us on 01780 480530 for a confidential chat or email info@morepeople.co.uk.

​MorePeople's CEO, Guy Moreton, took part in 'Decembeard 2019' to support Bowel Cancer UK. He has raised over £3,000, which is incredible and will help stop people dying of bowel cancer by funding vital services and lifesaving research. For anyone who doesn't know Guy, in all his years he has never had a beard, and the longest he has ever grown one for was seven days as a student over 35 years ago! Before Will Thomson joined MorePeople, Guy also hadn't ever employed anyone with a beard, and once sent an employee home to have a shave when he came in with a weeks' worth of stubble!True to his word, Will returned to work after Christmas beardless having reluctantly agreed to shave his beard off if Guy Moreton completed the #Decembeard challenge. While Guy had never previously had a beard, Will hasn't been clean shaven for 10 years! The MorePeople team are all very proud of both of them. If you would like to find out more or can pledge a small donation, visit Guy's JustGiving page. Thank you to everyone who has already donated.

​MorePeople's Miranda Webster and Morten Andresen attended the Rural Business Conference 2019 on 28th November. Over 500 landowners and rural businesses attended the event, which discussed opportunities to grow and maintain business with new markets alongside political uncertainty. Miranda gives her account of the day:The event brought together people from across the rural business community and we were able to hear from a number of inspiring speakers who offered first-hand experience of how they have explored different business opportunities both at home and abroad. The speakers and discussions ranged from hands on farming businesses who have successfully grown abroad and the journey they undertook, estate owners offering an insight into a variety of business opportunity ideas, plus social, environmental and conservational prospects. Being a tortoise owner myself I particularly enjoyed hearing from The Countess Sondes from Lees Court Estate who has gone outside of the box by breeding tortoises as part of new business venture on the estate. She has also explored other areas such as non-food crops and archaeology projects which provide environmental, social and personal benefits. Another highlight was Joe and Julia Evans from Whitbourne Estate who are involved with care farming, which is something I had limited knowledge about before attending the conference. I was inspired and humbled by their hard work and the huge benefits this had for the land owners and young people who attended the care farm. As a specialist recruitment business for the agricultural industry, it is important to us that we understand the markets that we specialise in and that we are up to speed with ever-changing trends in the industry. This knowledge means that we are better equipped to assist people with their next career move, connects us with people in our area of work and helps us to identify what “great” looks like. The CLA conference was informative and a great opportunity to network within the agricultural pool that we work within and I already look forward to attending again next year. You can read more about the event on the CLA website.

​This time last year we carried out a Salary and Benefits Survey to obtain some quantitative data about salary ranges, the benefits the people most value and what motivates people to work in our sectors - fresh produce, food, horticulture, agriculture and garden & leisure. The findings were very insightful and generated a lot of interest, so much so that we've decided to repeat the survey annually to generate comparative data and find out what, if anything, has changed. In order to do this, we need as many people as possible to complete the survey, which will only take about 5 minutes of your time. As an incentive we're giving away a free iPad to one lucky participant*! If you manage a team, please encourage your staff to complete it as well. Click here to take part*Prize Draw Terms and ConditionsQualifying EntrantsTo be entered into the prize draw you just need to complete your basic contact details at the end of the survey - name and email address. Only one entry per email address is allowed. We will not use your contact details in the results of the survey, all data will be anonymised. The deadline for entries is 31/01/2020. Prize DetailsThe winner will be chosen at random on 03/02/2020. The winner will be contacted on this date to arrange delivery of the prize. Claims for prize must be made within 28 days. Failure to claim the prize within this time may result in selection of an alternate winner. The prize is a 2019 Apple iPad 10.2", A10, iPadOS, Wi-Fi, 128GB. The prize is non-transferable and there is no cash alternative. MorePeople reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value at any time.

​For the ninth year in a row, MorePeople were delighted to support the IFST Student LaunchPad events, which take place every year in the autumn. The aim of the events is to support food science students by providing them with the opportunity to strengthen their perceptions of the food sector beyond the university setting, offering valuable insights about possible careers in all aspects of the food chain. Various members of MorePeople’s recruitment team attended events at Leatherhead Food Research, University of Reading and Sheffield Hallam University, presenting to students on behalf of the food and fresh produce industry with tips for how to stand out from the crowd. The presentation sessions were followed by speed mentoring sessions where the students moved from table-to-table to seek more in-depth advice from industry mentors. Here we were able to answer questions about CV’s, specific companies who regularly recruit graduates and different career paths that food-related courses can lead to. Andrew Fitzmaurice, Managing Director of MorePeople, explains the reason why we get so involved:“By providing mentor support for students, we are able to engage with the next generation of talent, offering guidance on what employers are looking for and bringing a valuable sense of realism to their career ideas.”“These initiatives are so important for raising the profile of careers in the food and fresh produce sectors. Most of our clients don’t have spare resources to attend careers events themselves, so we try to act on their behalf to raise awareness of breadth of opportunities in the industry.”

​In all industries we are encouraged to attend networking events to connect with people in similar businesses, share experiences and make useful new contacts that can help either in our current role or in our future career. Some people look forward to these events and some absolutely dread them. Some use them just to catch up with old friends and some come away with pockets full of useful business cards. Whichever of these scenarios matches your experience of networking, there are things you could (and should) be doing to make sure that the time you spend at these events is a good use of your time. At our Autumn ‘Women in Food & Farming’ networking evening, Katie Hart of Rhetonic delivered a workshop which outlined some key elements for success: 1 – Be prepared Most event organiser will send out a delegate list in advance of the event so you can see who’s attending and work out who you might like to speak to. If they don’t send anything, it’s worth asking. Even in the days of GDPR people still find delegate lists incredibly useful, so most people attending a networking event will agree to their details being shared. If you end up with a long list of people you would like to meet, plan your time, think about priorities and set yourself some objectives for what you want to get out of the event. This will help keep you focused. 2 – Breaking the ice It can be very daunting when you arrive in a room full of people who are all busy in conversation. Where do you start? A great tip is to look for groups of odd numbers. It is much easier to join a conversation when there’s an odd person who may be able to break away from another conversation. 3 – The all-important elevator pitch Even if you’ve been in your role for a long time, it’s likely that you haven’t really thought about how to introduce yourself in a succinct and informative way. Think about the following questions and try to answer them in order to build a great elevator pitch: • Who benefits from what you do? • How does it benefit them? • What do you do? 4 – Ending conversations At any networking event there will be a mixture of people who are useful to know and some who have no relevance. Nice as these people may be, it’s important that you are comfortable ending conversations to ensure that you have time to achieve those all-important objectives you set yourself. An effective way of doing this is simply to introduce them to somebody else and subtly exit the conversation. 5 – Make time to follow up Having made some really useful connections, follow up on anything you agreed to do in a conversation or at least get in touch to say how good it was to meet them, and try to do this within 24 hours. You can do this by email or social media. A useful tip is that LinkedIn has a ‘nearby’ tool which can be used while at the event to quickly build up your LinkedIn connection. Find out more about the 'Women in Food & Farming' group