Author: Lorraine Piggott- Brown

GRS Recruitment have always been at the sharp end of recruitment in Cyprus and Malta and for the last 15 years have used a UK based recruitment CRM system called Bond Adapt.  GRS Recruitment have been the pioneers of recruitment in Cyprus due to many factors, but one major factor has been “staying ahead of the game”.

Steve Slocombe, Founder said “Technology is such an important and powerful tool within any business and is advancing rapidly, it was evident we needed to consider our options to ensure the business was using the latest and most efficient industry software available on the market.  We wanted to be confident the software we are utilising is enabling us to remain smart, compliant and current.  Our goal was to choose a cloud-based system which is constantly being updated and evolving ensuring we stayed ahead of the game moving into 2021 and beyond”.

With so many systems out their GRS Recruitment employed the vast international experience of its team to create a list of several providers and started the journey during lock down of reaching out to these companies to line up initial discussions.  The process then began, and the final four providers were sent RFI documents to complete and second demonstrations were arranged with a wider group of senior employees within GRS to gather their feedback.  After a long journey and matrix mapping the benefits of each system by the Director Steve Slocombe and Senior Operations Manager Lorraine Piggott-Brown a final decision was made.  The aim was ultimately to have a great system but as GRS are a business with strong core values, they also wanted to guarantee their  preferred partner mirrored their ethics and outlook so as to create synergy and intelligent collaboration on all levels.  GRS Recruitment are pleased to announce that while the rest of Cyprus were on a holiday and celebrating Epiphany day, GRS Recruitment were “Going Live” after migrating all of their data to a new recruitment CRM named “Firefish”.

Firefish is a company who have just reached 10 years in operation and was founded by Wendy McDougal who herself for may years was a recruitment consultant and therefore understands the industry inside and out.  They are now a multi-award-winning software business providing their Recruitment Software CRM system to hundreds of market leading recruitment businesses across the globe.  The new system not only allows the GRS employees to manage the portfolio of client’s and candidates effectively it will also have many additional new features previously not available to their customers who are hiring or seeking job opportunities in Cyprus and Malta.  These new features include job alerts to job seekers ensuring they receive real time notifications when a relevant job is posted, a Candidate Portal where job seekers can view and update and their core preferences managing their profile themselves and ensuring data is accurate and an Employer Portal where hiring companies can register vacancies.   At some time in the near future GRS will also be offering co-branding microsites to key clients where those who do not have the internal resource with both manpower and an applicant tracking system can advertise with their brand and colours and have GRS manage all the back office recruitment behind the scenes.  More information will be available on this last extra service later and for any questions please feel free to call the head offices +357 25342720 or email info@grsrecruitment.com

All jobs can be accessed and applied for via the link https://jobs.grsrecruitment.com/ where you can create your user account as a job seeker.

The whole team at GRS are excited about the launch of this new advanced and agile system and everything it will offer to both our Clients and Candidates. With such a technological upgrade there is a positive belief that this will maintain GRS’ position as the No1 recruiter in Cyprus throughout 2021 and beyond.

Individual’s tax return for 2019 is now open for completion. Individuals are now able to complete their tax returns for 2019 online through the Taxisnet portal. The deadline for all individual taxpayers to fill out the online forms is October 30, 2020.

If Individuals have not already done so from last year, they must register with the Tax Department and proceed accordingly with the completion of their tax return.

The following Personal income tax rates apply to individuals:

In the case that the calculations come out to you having overpaid your taxes after submitting your form, a tax refund will be processed by the Tax Department in due time.

Please ensure that your IBAN number and Swift code of your Bank are properly included on the relevant field on the return.

In the case that the calculations conclude to a tax payable, you will need to proceed with the settlement via the Tax portal.

Important Note: According to Circular 46 of Income Tax Legislation (dd 20/08/2020) as of 2020 any individual with any income is obliged to submit an Individual’s Tax Return personally revising via taxisnet by the due date, which going forward will be the 31^st of July following the year of the assessment.

Fairfax Yeaman, a GRS Group Company can simplify this process for you and your staff.

Explore the benefits of engaging the Fiarfax Yeaman team to assist your personnel through this process by contacting them on +357 25558025 or at accounts@fairfaxyeaman

COVID-19 – the game changer for home working.

In the 1980’s Economists began to imagine the change in the relationship between home and work as new waves of technological advancement made the opportunity to work outside the conventional boundaries of the ‘Office’ possible. New IT & Telco systems and hardware would revolutionise the way we worked and change the Corporate world. Thus, giving the workforce the opportunity to be free from the stresses of the daily commute, of heavy traffic, cancelled or overcrowded trains and buses, enabling a better balance of work and family life.

While working from home has become a reality for millions of us globally in Cyprus only 1.2% of the workforce worked from home prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, which is one of the lowest in the EU who had a home working average of 5.2%. In the UK 5% of the labour force worked mainly from home and  25% of the workforce there having had some experience of working from home.

However, with advent and spread of Covid -19 this has proved to be a game changer for home working. Over the last few months home and remote working has dramatically increased as a result of the lock-down measures implemented to tackle the spread of the Virus. Like many companies we at GRS & Fairfax Yeaman began working from home in mid-March once the Government had announced the closing of schools. Our reasoning was both pragmatic and based on our Corporate Social responsibility; 80% of our employees are  female and we have a large proportion of working Mothers who are primary care-givers to their children, but also we wanted to do our bit to help prevent the spread of the Virus in Cyprus.

Fortunately, due to previous events in Cyprus we have a strong disaster continuity plan which means that all of our team  are connected to our servers and CRM systems through a secure VPN and at a moment’s notice we can all work remotely.

This  is exactly what we did! We switched off on the Friday from the Office and switched on Monday morning, from  our Sofa’s, Couches, Kitchen tables, spare rooms and gardens! With everyone having Company Laptops, Mobile Phones and What’s App groups it was a seamless transition from the Office to home -working. Like for many companies this has been a huge experiment for us as while we had done some homeworking on an ad-hoc basis in the past it was a complete step into the unknown.

While homeworking has been around for a while many organisations are resistant to remote working and have avoided it for fear of  lack of productivity from their staff. A workforce in the office can be directly monitored and managed at close quarter however managing at a distance poses new challenges. Working from home requires your staff to have self-motivation, discipline; the ability to work unsupervised and without the camaraderie of Colleagues and Managers, while also doing all of this in a domestic setting (which in itself can be a huge challenge). How do you explain to a two-year-old that Mummy is in the  kitchen making a cup of coffee while talking on the phone to a client or candidate and she can’t be interrupted to see their lovely painting of the dog that  they have  just produced!!

As the situation of the Corona Virus unfolded we have seen a more accepting and accommodating atmosphere and culture in the working world and environment. We are all now familiar with the sounds of children in the background as we have a call with colleagues and clients, sometimes laughing sometimes crying ( I mean the children) ! But I believe we have all become accepting of this as for the moment and maybe in the future this  is going to be the way of the world of work. Indeed, a recent Zoom meeting with our Lawyers and Accountants was made hugely entertaining as my eight-year-old son’s face appeared mid -way through the meeting -having  logged on to the meeting by mistake through his own Laptop. An eight-year-old now familiar with Zoom, Skype, Showbie and Power Point presentations as his schooling has been transformed by the situation .

It has been a huge challenge for all Companies across Cyprus and at GRS & Fairfax Yeaman I have to commend our team for their  amazing achievement of not only managing the balance of working from home and maintaining work output and performance but also having seen a large  increase in productivity  levels throughout the business. Without the daily commute stuck in traffic which can be very frustrating and time consuming and the distractions that come up in the office (talking about the next big Netflix series – Joe Exotic The Tiger King series etc) we have seen many of our team excel in working from home and they have reported that they feel more productive and more focused.

From our perspective and I am sure for a great many other companies this will change how we work and how we think about the workplace. Moving forward it will be essential to review and incorporate the opportunity for staff to work remotely from home. The challenge maybe to see how people can transition from working from home full time to working from home part-time. Indeed, one of my colleagues on recently returning said it had taken them most of the morning to re-adjust to being back in the office. While others have found it a complete godsend not having to balance the domestic and work environment from their spare room.

It will throw up questions about Office Space -will we still need large offices ? A great many global business leaders are saying the days of the big Corporate HQ’s are nigh. Do we still need the space to accommodate all of our personnel at the same time ? Or can we reduce the office space we have as half of the team will be working form home at any given time ? There are no easy answers to these questions and each organisation will need to respond accordingly to their needs as they have responded to the challenges thrown up in these unprecedented times.

Personally I have to say considering the unprecedented time that Covid -19 has presented to all of us and the fact that none of us had time to prepare for this I have been amazed at the adaptability, tenacity, self-motivation and can -do attitude of our team at GRS & Fairfax Yeaman. Not only  in their ability to thrive and succeed in this unchartered territory but also to prosper.

As I am sure you are aware it is business as usual for us at GRS & Fairfax Yeaman and on behalf of all of us stay safe and stay well.

Written by Steve Slocombe – Director of The GRS Group – May 2020

With the situation the world is currently facing with Covid-19 we are currently coordinating most interviews via online video platforms in Cyprus and Malta. As some of us are new to this we wanted to put some hints and tips together to help you perform during an online video interview and secure your next career move!

1. Be Ready with an Account – Ensure you have accounts set up with as many platforms as possible so when you are requested for an interview you have a profile to connect with your future employers platform of choice. The most common are Skype, Zoom, Viber, WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams.
2. Check your connection – Carry out a test run prior with a friend to make sure at the time you have your online interview you have a strong signal with a clear picture and audio.
3. Make sure you are in a quiet place. This will allow you and the interviewer to concentrate on the task at hand.
4. Professional and Presentable Surroundings – Ensure you check what is in the cameras frame, try to create a home office with your computer/laptop/tablet on a desk at your eye level and there is nothing inappropriate in the frame.
5. Remove all distractions. Make sure that you remove anything in the room that may cause distraction.
6. It is still an interview so Dress Appropriately – First impressions still count, let your interviewer see that you are treating the call with professionalism and importance by dressing as you would to a face-face interview.
7. Keep eye contact with the interviewer – It can be very easy to look at yourself while on the video call so make you are making good eye contact.
8. Smile – This will make you feel calm and ease  your nerves.
9. Perfect hearing– If you have headphones or earbuds then connect them to your media and use them. This way you will be able to hear the interviewer clearly and enable you to give the best possible answers.
10. Have questions prepared – These are to find out more about the job and the company/team, not how many days holiday or the salary on offer.

For any further information or clarification speak to your GRS Consultant or call Cyprus: +357 25342720 or Malta: +356 21680800

Good Luck !!!!!!!

The Covid-19 coronavirus presents challenging times for Cyprus, and, indeed the world.  Humanity has not faced such a situation for over 100 years and the Virus impacts every person of every nation and every business in the world.

We think it’s important to share some of the steps we’re taking at the GRS Group to keep things running as normal as we continue to provide our usual Recruitment and Payroll Services whilst working within the parameters and latest announcements  of the Cyprus  Government and the European Union.

We’re making decisions and acting quickly as we gain new information from official directives and and our primary objective is to protect the safety of our Team, Candidates, Clients and the Community  at large. While this is an uncertain time, we want to reassure you that it is ‘Business as Usual’ as there is still a very strong underlying demand from our clients and our candidates for our services. Meetings and interviews maybe conducted by Skype, Zoom, What’s App, Viber and the good old telephone but we are seeing that business continues!

With our advanced and secure IT infrastructure all of our staff are able to function and operate as they would if they were based in the Office but are actually working remotely from home to help combat the spread of the Virus. Our IT security systems are such that the confidentiality and integrity of all of our Servers and Database are 100% secure regardless of our field or location of operation.

We will continue to monitor and reflect government advice and will update you as the situation changes via our website and social channels.

We’re going to carry on doing what we do best as we work and  engage with you through our Recruitment & Payroll Services. To all of our Clients and Candidates we would say continue to be your best, stay connected, stay responsible and act with kindness.

Thank you for your Business and we wish you the very best during these unprecedented times.

Thanks,

Steve

Steve Slocombe -Founder GRS Group

On 19^th and 20^th February 2020 the European University in Nicosia held a Career Boot Camp for their students.  Over the 2 days there were speakers, round table events, CV Clinics and Mock interviews. The aim of the event was to give students key skills to enter the job market after graduating.  On the first day GRS’ Senior Operations Manager Lorraine Piggott-Brown delivered a 45-minute talk on “Why the Human Element is More Important in the Digital Era” which is an ethos that the GRS Group believe in and promote.  Later that day GRS’ Senior Consultant Nasreen Kawash held a Round table event giving the students a more intimate and interactive session enabling them to “Pick the Brain of a Recruiter”.  Other Speakers over the 2 day event included; Marios Melanides Director, Human Capital PWC, Cyprus and Marios Hadjiyiannakis, Chief Executive Officer, Cyprus Renaissance Capital.  This collaboration marks a continued successful cooperation between the European university and GRS Recruitment which will continue for many years ahead.