That wasn’t the longest January we’ve experienced, thankfully. Usually there’s a ‘how many months does January actually go on for’ feeling, but not this time. Why not? Age? Mindset? Maybe a bit of both. Have you been remembering to write 2024 on your correspondence? It’s takes a while to get into the swing of remembering we are in a new year.
It’s been a stormy old start to the year, to put it mildly, but it could get a lot worse for some if you forget to put the appropriate plans in place for Valentine’s Day; you have been warned! We have some suggestions to help you out, later in the newsletter.
PeopleSource sponsored two great events in the last few weeks…
ACA Annual Dinner – with over 700 people in attendance, and some excellent speakers, the Institute has already produced this short highlight video from the night.
ACCA Christmas Lunch - here are some fabulous photos from the ACCA Christmas Lunch, another great event and we know how much everybody loved to find themselves in the rogues gallery. Our own Rachel Tubridy features, including some shots of her at the podium (she pretends to hate it!) in her role as sponsor. We’re also quite pleased here at quite how often our PeopleSource banner managed to sneak into the shots.
The march to the digital age is inexorable, but it’s good to acknowledge that it doesn’t suit everyone, and that those in charge are listening. 2024 could be year of growth for ATM locations and the circulation of cash. We can’t remember the last time we used cash but we find our parents are much more comfortable having it in their wallets.
The Indo hit the headlines with reports of another round of voluntary redundancies following challenges in both print and advertising sales. Tough times in the ‘traditional’ news sector, leaving us open to a slew of questionable ‘news’ sources! Just ask Taylor Swift. How awful, imagine that happening to you, your sister, daughter, friend?
Smoother sailing, or should we say flying, for Shannon Airport with a 29% growth in passenger numbers in 2023 taking them back above pre-pandemic levels and their best year since the ‘crash’ in 2009.
Speaking of flying, the recent visit of Chinese Premier, Li Qiang opened up huge trade possibilities for Ireland, particularly in the agri-sector, and of course shone a spotlight on human rights issues. However, most of the chatter, and coverage, that we picked up, was typified by this this report from the BBC which focussed on the fact that he arrived in the biggest passenger jet ever to land at Dublin Airport.
Finally, US politics will be interesting over the next year. In a country of over 150 million people, the two candidates running will be ‘internal’ candidates. It seems incredible. If this was a company, you’d be asking, where is the succession planning?
Some websites for you to peruse over your lunch or cuppa…
- As promised earlier, some Valentine date suggestions
- For the not so romantic and if you have an interest in M&A activity across Ireland, sign up for the weekly Renatus newsletter
- Have you a transition year student at home who should learn how to cook?
- Oscar nominations 2024 how many of the movies have you seen, this too could be a nice date night idea?
- Plan your staycation weekends for 2024 – 10 best town in Ireland to visit, also something that could be done this Valentines day!
- The very latest news for tech geeks and early adopters.
A slightly narcissistic infographic to start the year as we revisit some of our own survey question responses from 2023 – some surprising results in there!
While in the topic of narcissism, we are in the process of updating/grading our website and would love to be able to put a few testimonials on there from candidates, (we have lots from clients already!), if you like what we do or have used our services, if you could email no more than two lines as a testimonial, that would be really appreciated! We don't mention any names on our website. If that doesn't work for you but you like the newsletter and like what we do, a five start google review would be ace too! If you google PeopleSource, when the page pops up, on the right hand side you will see 'add review', one click is all it takes and it means a lot to us! Thanks so much.
For most of our readers, the risk of their employer’s company being struck off by the CRO is negligible, however, last week’s headline that they have 32,000 companies in their sights is a startling revelation. Covered here, by the Irish Independent the story outlines a surprisingly lax state of affairs in the running of tens of thousands of companies (mostly SMEs, but not exclusively, you can be sure).
What might be a more challenging question for our readers regarding this headline is; do you have customers and/or suppliers among the companies facing strike off? Enforcing contractual terms, getting payment for goods and services or discovering your payment to them has ‘unsecured creditor’ status can be a very nasty surprise. What’s worth bearing in mind also is that Revenue have designated 2024 as the year when they finally try to tie down thousands of companies to repayment plans for their Covid-related supports (running to serious amounts for many). This year could be a tough one for the small and medium sector – have you run the risk profile of your customer and supplier base lately?
Entertainment news…
It’s always hard to get away from the Oscars news when the season is underway and we won’t try. We’ve already provided a link above to all the nominees above. Great news story for the Irish production company Element Pictures with their 11 nominations for Poor Things and of course Cillian Murphy for his best actor nomination for Oppenheimer (hard to believe it’s his first nomination). We loved reading about how he celebrated in his parent’s house in Cork when the nominations came out by having a slice of his Mammy's home-made sponge cake!
Have you seen Poor Things, the multi-nominated ‘Irish’ movie for which Emma Stone has been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar (considering she got one for LaLa Land, she must be a shoo-in here!)? By all accounts it’s as mad as a box of frogs, a dark comedy with the emphasis far more on dark than comedy we hear. Notwithstanding its Irish credentials we’re going to recommend another movie for you to see, The Holdovers, reviewed here, on movies.ie. What’s not to love about a Christmas movie that comes out in January!? If you want any more incentive, it has Paul Giamatti in it, we’ve loved him ever since Sideways!
Let’s sign-off this section with a nod to our friends in Waterford Whispers own unique Oscar nominations.
Sports roundup…
It’s all kicking off with the naming rights to the ‘Supervalu’ stadium! The big issues the GAA will face regarding stadium names are how embedded in community and tradition the organisation is, alongside the fact that most of the grounds are already named after somebody.
6 Nations time again (we love it here at PeopleSource)! Big up to Andy Farrell who got the nod as Lions coach. Ireland kick off in France for the bi-annual tricky away game that will have a huge say in the repeat grand-slam! Following the world cup exit and the retirements of Sexton and Earls, how many people would have put money on Ireland being led out in Marseille this weekend by Peter O’Mahony?
A disappointing stat caught our eye last week when we read that almost 60% of people have never attended a women's sporting event. Let’s hope we see that statistic improving during 2024! Congratulations to the Women's Ireland Sevens winning the HSBC Series tournament this weekend.
Three shorts to close – McIlroy wins the Dubai Desert Classic stirring hopes (again) that 2024 could be the year he adds to his tally of Majors; his Ryder Cup form was certainly dazzling. Roy Keane for Ireland manager? It would certainly mean some very lively press conferences; and finally, not a sport we have ever featured before, but this 16 year old lad Luke Littler has been taking the darts world by storm, and he can’t even have a pint while he’s playing!!
Research undertaken by LinkedIn (OK, so they’re slightly biased), and reported on by our good friends in Business Plus suggests that record numbers of us (almost 3 in 4) will be looking for a new role in 2024.
Here at PeopleSource, we can certainly back up that story; we have already seen a lively beginning to the New Year with interest among finance professionals ‘testing the market’. If you are among those considering pastures new, give us a call here for a confidential chat.
We’ve also spoken to a number of clients already this year, looking to add at least five hires to each of their finance teams. We know the roles will be coming up and are therefore always looking to potential candidates to join these companies. We also have a number of Top 20 Practice firms, always looking to hire at all levels. If you want less/more flexible hours, to work closer to home, in a smaller environment, then perhaps we have something suitable?!
Competition time…
Each month we ask our readers to answer a question for a chance to win €100 One4all voucher.
Our question for the December newsletter was:
Are you planning on taking the latest Covid vaccine? And the results were;
32% - Yes
68% - No
There were mixed reactions here at PeopleSource HQ with these results. Some people are now viewing the need for a Covid vaccine in the same way as they viewed getting a flu jab pre-Covid, while others are very much still worried about hospital overcrowding and vulnerable people in society. These results are slightly different to those shown on our infographic, due to some late entries shifting the dial.
And the winner of our €100 voucher is – Trisha Igoe – we’ll be in touch!
Our question for the January newsletter is:
Have you attended a women’s sporting event in the last 12 months?
a) Yes
b) No
The winner will be chosen at random and will receive a €100 One4All voucher. Enter here to be in with a chance to win.
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PeopleSource is a specialist finance & accounting recruitment firm.
If you would like regular updates follow our LinkedIn company page.
PeopleSource is a specialist finance & accounting recruitment firm based in Dublin.
