News & Events

​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 almost £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!So this was a big challenge for Guy and the MorePeople team are all very proud of him. 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