Recruitment

CMA Temp of the Year 2020

2020 was a year of huge demand in interim and temporary workforce requirements in businesses across the South. We saw record numbers by the end of the year, significantly higher than pre-Covid levels.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget the value that temps have, especially during a pandemic when their support is vital to see a business through a period of volatility or change. Temporary workers will often drop everything last minute and cancel plans to help businesses out. Last year was particularly challenging given the social distancing rules and ever-changing market, so we felt it was right to acknowledge and celebrate the value that temporary workers bring.

CMA Temp of the Year 2020 celebrates these workers on the CMA register for the work done in the past 12 months. We received a number of nominations from across CMA’s five offices. The successful nominees were those interim workers who have demonstrated to have truly brought value to their team, company and role. 

Introducing our winner

After much deliberation we are proud to announce the CMA Temp of the Year 2020 winner is… Sarah Venables!

Sarah has been working with us for more than seven years and undertaken numerous interim assignments through CMA. She always gives 110% but her outstanding performance was clearly highlighted in her recent assignment, where she supported a corporate organisation through a business-critical finance systems project.

Once we had the nominations, CMA conducted interviews with all of the nominees’ line managers, to find out more about how they have brought business-critical support and truly added value to the company during their assignment. Following a first class recommendation from Sarah’s recent assignment her line manager said: “Sarah is always available; she took action and did actions and never said no. She had some real challenges and stepped up to deliver. A big team player who will crack on to achieve the outcome. She delivered the project in full and on time, and as the business moves on to Wave 2, they would like her to stay on and help with the delivery.”

 “She earned a lot of credibility across the business and is now seen as a subject matter expert. She holds things together, is honest, with strong ethics and is well respected.”

Lindsey Edwards is Sarah’s consultant at CMA. She says: “I’m absolutely delighted for Sarah. In the past seven years she has been a fantastic ambassador for CMA, always professional, diligent and committed, with a great work ethic and a team-focussed approach. Well done Sarah – a very well deserved award!”
We are delighted for Sarah and look forward to working with her in the future. Sarah’s prize is an engraved bottle of champagne and £250 in John Lewis vouchers.

An honourable mention

The CMA team also wanted to give an honourable mention to a temp who went above and beyond; this goes to Cheryl Samson from Carnival UK (P&O Cruises & Cunard). Whilst on sabbatical, Cheryl kindly helped the CMA HR division in completing an assignment for a local SME business, going above and beyond, before returning to her permanent role.

Zoe Martin from our HR division supported Cheryl in finding the temporary assignment whilst she took a short break from Carnival UK. She says: “Cheryl is more than deserving of an honourable mention for all her hard work and the fantastic feedback we received. She really went above and beyond and our client couldn’t have been more complimentary.”

CMA Director Aran Purewal says: “It’s wonderful to see these hardworking and flexible temporary workers recognised. 2020 was a really uncertain year for everyone but we know it was an even more worrying time for our temporary workers. Despite the challenges, they really stepped up to support local businesses and aid business recovery during the pandemic.”

For more information about how the interim workforce has supported businesses during the pandemic please read our article ‘COVID-19 drives demand for temporary and interim workers’.

CMA Temp of the Year Awards 2020 Sarah Venables