News & Events

​MorePeople held a networking dinner in partnership with Freeths LLP at one of England's greatest coaching inns, The George of Stamford, at the end of April. The intimate dinner was attended by around twenty food leaders who had the invaluable opportunity of hearing from the Groceries Code Adjudicator, Christine Tacon. The evening began with a presentation about the key lessons learnt since Tacon started the role back in 2013 and an overview of her role as Chair of MDS (Management Development Services Ltd). Dinner was followed by a relaxed Q&A session where guests were encouraged to share their own experiences of working with the retailers covered by the Groceries Supply Code of Practice. Guy Moreton, CEO of MorePeople, commented:"We have known Christine for many years as both a client (when she was CEO of the Co-op Farming business), as a candidate and a friend. She has spoken at a number of our events in the past and is always enlightening. We were delighted to be able to facilitate this evening for a number of business leaders in the industry."Andrew Fitzmaurice, Managing Director of MorePeople, said afterwards:"We’re fortunate to be a well-connected team at MorePeople, although we work hard at it! This means that when we organise industry dinners, the calibre of the guests in attendance is always excellent. The evenings provide ample opportunity for networking and for us to to learn about the challenges that our clients are facing; we appreciate that business leaders are often time poor so it’s important to make the most of the occasion. As ever, the dinners aren’t all work, work, work. We’ve managed to strike a nice balance between the social and the businesslike - understanding the cultures of our clients and candidates has always been, and always will be, a crucial part of recruitment too."

​Following on from our article about answering the difficult interview question 'what is your biggest weakness?', another one that can catch people out is 'Have you got any questions?'We've all been there - you can tell the end of the interview is in sight and you just want to wrap it up and get out of the door. But there's one thing stopping you: the dreaded Q&A.If you don't have questions ready when the panel asks, you risk giving out the message that you're not really interested in the job or haven't bothered to sufficiently prepare, neither of which are great scenarios.In fact, there have been many cases in which employers have been found to be automatically rejecting interviewees who don't have questions of their own to raise.The simple truth is that you should aim to have at least two questions primed and ready to go. But they have to show your interest in the position and the company - you shouldn't ask them where the canteen is and if they finish early on a Friday, for example.So, what kinds of things are acceptable and demonstrate that you're an A+ candidate?A great example is 'can you tell me what my day-to-day responsibilities would be?'. This proves that you've thought ahead and could envisage yourself in the role, but it will also help you to gauge if it's the right sort of job for you as a person.Another good one is asking the person or panel to describe the company culture, as it suggests you're interested in their values and the wider world.You might want to query the biggest opportunities the company faces at present and how their previous employees have progressed in their careers, too.When you're satisfied that you've asked enough to look engaged, wrap things up by asking 'when can I expect to hear back from you?'.Remember to avoid questions that result in yes or no responses - and don't go the other way and get out a reporter's notepad full of material with which to grill your panel either. They don't want to be in that room any longer than you.As you can see, with just a little preparation you can stroll right through what some people see as the most awkward parts of an interview - and that could help you race ahead of your competition.

75% of people in Technical roles have moved employers in the past 0-5 years​A relatively high proportion (almost 75%) of technical respondees in our recent Salary and Benefits Survey have moved employers over the past 0-5 years. How many years have you worked for your current employer?Does this speak to some of the churn in technical or the demand for such candidates? Certainly we find the shortage of good technical candidates to be pronounced. Running concurrently with this, however, is the fact that the same respondees have worked in their respective industries for over six years (over 75%). The nature of the specificity of their skillsets may mean that taking candidates from outside the industry is difficult. Or, and we very much expect this to be the case based on our work with universities and bodies like the IFST, the industry isn't attracting enough new talent. Download our full Salary and Benefits Survey report

​Agri-business is a natural add-on to our agricultural experience and we now have a recruitment consultant who is dedicated to supporting this sector. Miranda Webster has joined us from the property industry, most recently working for Strutt and Parker. Her remit covers roles from junior to senior level as land agents, rural surveyors and related positions.We invest a lot of time and energy in finding candidates through strong relationships with relevant universities where we regularly attend careers fairs and networking events, supporting trade events to network with those already in the industry, running online advertising campaigns with the leading job boards and maintaining a comprehensive database of pre-interviewed candidates. The strength of our candidate network will save you time and money in finding the right people for your business.Whether you have current vacancies that we can help you to fill or you would like an informal discussion about how we might be able to support you in the future, you can contact Miranda on 01780 480530 or miranda@morepeople.co.uk.

​Every interview is hard. If you've applied for a job, then the chances are you really want it and are keen to show your interviewer just what you can do. That makes for a nerve-wracking situation and is clearly not something you can just sail through stress-free (unless you're completely unflappable!).However, some parts of the interview are harder than others, including the dreaded question about weaknesses. With a bit of preparation and thought beforehand, this doesn't need to be as daunting as many candidates believe. Trust us, you can get through unscathed and still demonstrate that you're the perfect person for the job.So what should you do the next time you're asked 'what is your biggest weakness?' in an interview?Let's face it, the last thing you want to do when you're trying to imply you're the best thing since sliced bread is admit that you have some kind of flaw. You don't want to give your interviewer any indication that you can't do the job by saying something like 'I'm not a morning person and struggle with 9am starts'.The problem is that you also can't tell them you don't have any flaws, because a) it will look arrogant and b) the panel knows that everyone except Mary Poppins possesses them.And these days, you can't fall back on the old favourites 'I work too hard' and 'I'm too much of a perfectionist' because they're over-used enough to be completely clichéd.So, what can you say? Well, the main thing to remember is that you have to turn a negative into a positive. Before your interview, start by thinking about areas of your professional life that you haven't found easy yet have worked on.Your potential employer wants to see self-awareness and self-improvement, so look for times when you made a mistake and corrected it or got praise from a manager for turning something around.Have you ever enrolled in a class or applied for workplace training or workshops, for instance? This would indicate that you had identified a weakness and worked to make it better.One great example would be something many people struggle with: speaking up in group situations. You could mention this and then say you have taken part in public speaking groups or open mic nights (as long as you have), or that you have made an effort to raise at least one point in meetings.You can then conclude by explaining that this has helped your shyness and boosted your professional confidence.To nail this question, remember that good candidates are always looking for ways to improve themselves and taking the initiative to ensure it happens. As long as you're self-aware and can show that weaknesses lead to improvements, you won't scupper your chances.

​A group of 35 food students and staff took part in the Future Generation Student Forum at the City Food Lecture 2019. This invaluable experience was enjoyed by students studying food or related studies at undergraduate or postgraduate level from the following institutions:City University of LondonHarper Adams UniversityIFSTAL (Innovative Food Systems Teaching and Learning co-ordinating body)Kent University Business SchoolLondon South Bank UniversityNewcastle UniversityOxford UniversityReading UniversityRoyal Agricultural University CirencesterWarwick UniversityWrittle University CollegeThe group started the day with a visit to the McDonald’s headquarters where they were introduced to key staff from all areas of the business, before taking part in a product sensory session. There was also the chance to ask questions about different careers within the business.On arrival at the prestigious Guildhall, the venue of the City Food Lecture, the group were then hosted in the Chief Commoner’s Parlour where they were given a history of the event and the livery movement in London by the Chairman, John Giles. As sponsors of the Forum, MorePeople’s Andrew Fitzmaurice then gave a brief overview of recruitment in the industry, outlining the types of businesses and breadth of roles that students could aspire to.He highlighted the range of opportunities that are available in supermarket supply chains where many suppliers are not branded household names. Part of MorePeople’s motivation for supporting the event was to raise awareness of these businesses as, in a generally low margin operating environment, they often don’t have the resources available to promote what the sector has to offer.Andrew said afterwards: “MorePeople have always been closely involved with the next generation for the food industry, so we were thrilled to support this amazing City Food Lecture student initiative. It was really rewarding to see the students asking questions of the panel and seeking to make the most of the opportunity. One of them even had the confidence to ask a question of the panel after the main lecture!”The students then had the chance to meet and question the three panelists involved in the evening lecture – Minette Batters (NFU), Professor Corinna Hawkes (City, University of London) and Rishi Sethi (representing Rabobank) – followed by a preview from the keynote speaker, Dominic Blakemore (Compass Group). The Q&A session raised some interesting discussions on topics such as Brexit, sustainability, food safety and flexitarianism.Photo courtesy of City Food Lecture 2019