News & Events

​Back in early May, I was almost lost for words after witnessing the impact that the pandemic was having on people and businesses, including our own (read that article here). Recruitment all but ground to a halt, whether because clients had been forced to temporarily close their businesses or were just too busy coping with the unprecedented increase in demand. Fortunately, despite the lockdown lasting longer than any of us expected, hiring became a priority again as things started to calm down and people were keen to ‘get on with it’. Video interviews and virtual onboarding became second nature and life started to feel more ‘normal’ as lockdown measures were gradually eased. We found ways to thrive as a team despite remote working, but it was great to have everyone back together in the office. Having gone to great lengths to make the office ‘Covid safe’ with screens between desks, hand sanitiser everywhere and new office ‘rules’, we were extremely disappointed when the guidance changed again so quickly. No more office camaraderie for a while, which is what I will really miss. So, now that we’re all back to remote working for the next four weeks, it would be easy to feel like we’re back to square one, but I really don’t think we are. It feels very different this time – we’re better prepared, more savvy and determined to keep the momentum going. We’re lucky to be part of a really great sector with clients who are innovative, hands-on and excel at solving problems. And our team are all set to help wherever we can with that problem-solving. I’ve seen lots of posts sharing tips for surviving another lockdown, so I won’t try to add to those. If you want to run every day, that’s fine. If you want to hibernate and watch Netflix, that’s also fine! Personally, I’m looking ahead to 2021 and feeling positive as we restart our business growth plans and look to strengthen our team. Stay safe everyone. As you probably know, I love to talk, so am here if you need to!

​MorePeople has been in business for 20 years! As part of our celebrations for hitting this milestone, we’re asking some of our valued clients and candidates from over the years to look back at some of their highlights and challenges and make predictions for the next 20. We spoke to Tony Reynolds, Managing Director of Reynolds Catering Supplies:1. What do you see as your biggest accomplishment of the last 20 years?Building a scalable company that is 100% family owned and has built several different teams of management over the years to try and achieve the best possible results. 2. What has been your most memorable career moment of the last 20 years?Moving to Waltham Cross in 2005 was a massive step-change. We came out of Spitalfields Market on the Saturday and started delivering from our new Warehouse on the Monday.3. What’s the biggest challenge you have faced in the last 20 years?Every day is a challenge if you want to get better. Like all businesses we’ve had our fair share of setbacks but without these experiences we wouldn’t be the company we are today.4. If you could go back to the year 2000, what one piece of advice would you give yourself?I’ve been really lucky but probably trying to act with more facts and less emotion may have been good advice.5. What do you predict will be the big trends in the food/fresh produce industry in 20 years’ time? Technology in how we operate, whether that is the way we communicate or make smarter supply chains.6. What do the next 20 years look like for your business?As long as people want to keep eating fresh food outside the home, then we want to keep helping our farmers and customers sell more fresh produce. 7. What is the best piece of advice you could give to a 20-year-old candidate just starting their career in the industry?Don’t be afraid of failure. You learn more from your defeats than your victories.Be prepared to surround yourself with people that are better than you.If you want to be the best never accept second best. Always aim for the stars.Always show integrity with your leadership and be prepared to make big decisions, especially regarding people.Try to turn negatives into positives, glass half full.8. How long have you been a client/candidate of MorePeople?Many years!!!9. Where/how did you meet MorePeople? Guy was my first contact.10. In 20 words or less, how would you describe MorePeople?I’ve always enjoyed building good relationships with people. Guy has always given me respect and that reflects in the culture of MorePeople.Thank you Tony, it's a pleasure working with you![Read Guy Moreton's Q&A]

​MorePeople has been in business for 20 years! As part of our celebrations for hitting this milestone, we’re asking some of our valued clients from over the years to look back at some of their highlights and challenges and make predictions for the next 20. To kick off the campaign, our CEO, Guy Moreton, tells his story…1. What do you see as your biggest accomplishment of the last 20 years?I’m very proud of the fact that MorePeople have made it to 20 years! But, more importantly, that we’ve stuck true to our original vision, built a strong brand and a great team. Back in 2000, Peter and I set out to create a specialist recruitment business that was run by industry experts who fully understood the sectors and the challenges that our clients faced. This is still very much how we operate the business today and why we employ the people that we do. 2. What has been your most memorable career moment of the last 20 years?I love every day at work, but I think one of the most memorable and significant moments for me was the day that we appointed Andrew Fitzmaurice as Managing Director around 10 years ago. With his experience in building and managing high performing teams for large recruitment businesses in London, he gave us the strategic thinking that we were lacking to really grow the business. 3. What’s the biggest challenge you have faced in the last 20 years?Despite the challenges that the current Covid-19 pandemic has thrown at us, the recession of 2008 had a bigger impact on the business. Job vacancies dried up for a period of about four months because everything literally ground to a halt. It didn’t matter how good we were at recruitment when there weren’t any jobs to fill! Fortunately, this was followed by six REALLY good months, so we quickly got back on our feet. 4.If you could go back to the year 2000, what one piece of advice would you give yourself?I would tell myself to take more risks in life and be more ballsy! As the saying goes, ‘Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.’5. What do you predict will be the big trends in the food/produce/agri/garden industry in 20 years’ time? I’m excited to see how the move to more sustainable methods of agriculture develops. We’re already seeing innovations in this area, driven by a new generation of more commercially minded farmers. In the shorter-term, it seems that Covid is making us more health conscious, so there’s likely to be increased consumer interest around where food comes from, which is great for the fresh produce industry. Personally, I’m looking forward to the food service comeback and restaurants thriving once again. 6. What do the next 20 years look like for your business? We had ambitious growth plans pre-Covid and aim to get these back on track as soon as possible. Our focus has always been on how we can add value to our clients, helping them to solve problems and providing an ongoing talent service.7. What is the best piece of advice you could give to a 20-year-old candidate just starting their career in the industry?The same advice that I recently gave my own children as they started their careers:Work hardGo the extra mileBe enthusiastic and positiveDon’t be afraid to ask questionsIt’s ok to make mistakes, but own up to themSay yes to opportunities – you never know where they might leadDo what your boss says!8. In 20 words or less, how would you describe MorePeople?MorePeople are a leading recruiter in the agri-food space and passionate about adding value to all our candidates and clients.

​At MorePeople, we take a functional approach to recruitment and one of our teams is dedicated to Operational roles. The team recruit for operational roles in the food sector day-in-day-out so have a thorough understanding of the types of roles, skills and challenges that are involved. Here are our 5 tops tips to make your CV stand out: 1. There are certain keywords in the world of food manufacturing that any employer will be looking for on a CV. Continuous Improvement is a big one and, in very simple terms, is a never-ending strive for perfection in everything you do. Lean Production goes hand in hand and focuses on removing as many waste activities from processes as possible. There are plenty of others – agile production, 5S and OEE to name a few! 2. Qualifications and relevant on-the-job training are really important in Operational roles. Include dates and details of any training you have done that relate to the keywords mentioned above and how you’ve applied learnings in the workplace. 3. Don’t just mention the keywords, explain how you’ve used them to add value in your career so far. What cost savings have you made? How have you improved productivity levels? Decreased waste? Made a process more efficient? Transformed a dysfunctional team? 4. If you are quite new to the world of work, you may not be able to demonstrate any quantifiable achievements. In this case, include projects that you’ve been involved in and the part that you played/what you learned. 5. A mistake that many people make is to basically repeat the job description in their CV. Whether you’re applying for an Operations Manager, Production Manager, Line Leader or Factory Manager role, there will be many crossovers in the job descriptions. Just listing these responsibilities will not make you stand out. If you are looking for a new role within food manufacturing, visit our jobs page to see a list of current vacancies or get in touch with Will or Lawrence on 01780 480530 to see how they might be able to help. We recruit for roles from Line Leader and Production Supervisor up to Factory Manager and Operations Director.

​For many people in the UK, 2020 has been the year of remote working, and there’s no sign of a change to government guidance around this any time soon. There seems to be a real divide between those who prefer working from home and feel more productive doing so and those, on the other hand, who are desperate to separate work from home life again and return to an office environment. So, once the pandemic is finally over, will there be a rise in flexible working? Despite reports of businesses making plans to move away from traditional office working, a recent survey by the Office for National Statistics* showed that 67% of British firms do not intend to keep home working as a permanent business model. That said, many companies have reported little impact on their productivity levels with staff working from home, so a review of flexible working options will definitely be on the cards. Certainly from conversations we have been having recently with candidates, the pandemic has raised awareness of the potential benefits of flexible working and it is now becoming more of an expectation and a key part of negotiations around job offers. When you think back to life pre-COVID, there was something of a stigma around flexible working in that it was only really an option for women and was likely to hamper career progression. Widespread home working seems to have challenged this view, with many men now also feeling the positive effects of being able to pick their children up from school on a regular basis and not wanting to relinquish this benefit. In terms of recruitment, we’re also noticing a change in candidate attitudes to travel to work time where many are now willing to consider a longer commute if a role offers flexible working options. The extra travel becomes less of an issue when it is only a couple of days per week, rather than five. Our 2020 Salary and Benefits Survey, carried out late last year, revealed that almost 30% of respondents were offered flexible working as a benefit, up 6% on the previous year. This increase led us to wonder if there was a trend starting or if it was just an anomaly, but the pandemic is likely to exacerbate the trend. So it seems that companies who don’t offer flexible working in the future may start to suffer in terms of their talent acquisition and retention. Advice from the CMI is that flexible working should be offered to employees from day one and not just exist in a flexible working policy that employees have to request or even earn. The challenge for managers is ensuring that all staff are kept motivated and engaged wherever they are working, and much of this is down to good communication. Is your company flexible working policy likely to change as a result of the pandemic? *Business Impact of COVID-19 Survey

​With ever-changing lockdown measures forcing us to continue spending more time at home, it’s becoming increasing likely that some of the key consumer habits developed during full lockdown are here to stay. Scratch cooking is one area that has seen a huge growth, which is great news for the fresh produce sector. Market research* presented at the recent FPJ Live virtual event demonstrates this trend:77% of people bought more fresh produce during lockdown than they did previously.50% said that they’ve become more health conscious as a result of the pandemic.46% said that they’re now eating more fruit and veg.53% are doing more scratch cooking. UK grown produce, supporting local farms and eating seasonally also showed a growth in popularity. *Research carried out by England MarketingLockdown saw an initial surge in people baking banana bread and turning their hands to making sourdough to fill the extra time that working from home or furlough created but, as time went on (and on, and on!), the focus moved to home cooked meals. Consumer insights presented by Kantar at FPJ Live highlighted how spending five months at home in lockdown had changed where we eat and drink with 26% of consumers cooking and eating at home more during this period. Young people in particular (18-24 and 25-34 age brackets) developed a new enthusiasm for cooking with many families using the time together to learn how to cook. Even MorePeople’s CEO, Guy Moreton, taught his 20-something son how to cook during lockdown, giving him some useful life skills and hopefully inspiring him to buy a house of his own in the not too distant future!After the last recession, the scratch cooking trend continued for around two years after life returned to ‘normal’, so it’s expected to continue for some time post-pandemic. This can only be helped by the renewed consumer focus on healthier lifestyles and protecting immune systems. Kantar reported that if the fresh produce sector continues to grow at the current rate, the UK is on track to be averaging 5 portions of fruit or veg a day by 2025.So, with no end to the restrictions in sight, people continuing to work from home or flexibly and self-care becoming more of a priority, scratch cooking could well be a food trend that’s here to stay. If you are looking for an exciting new role in the fresh produce sector, visit our jobs page or call a member of our recruitment team on 01780 480530.