leadership & entrepreneurs
December 2021/January june/july2022 2019 business edge
Staff retention – 8 tips for retaining staff and building teams In September HRH The Princess Royal visited Electronics Contract Manufacturer Time 24 in Burgess Hill to present long service awards in recognition that 52 of their 98 UK staff have amassed over 900 years’ service between them. What’s their secret? David Shore Director, Time 24 Ltd
1 Never be afraid to employ: - In my view one of the biggest reasons small companies remain small is a reticence to employ. If you want to grow and develop your Company there comes a time when you must loosen hands on control, recruit, delegate and develop. It is a risk and there will be times you get it wrong, but you will hamper your growth if you don’t. 2 Catch people doing something right: - It is the style of many Managers to wait for someone to do something wrong and then come down hard on them. But what about catching people doing something right - the compliment, recognition, a thank you, a reward. Simple but effective. 3 Recruit with Teams in mind: - You can have the best Striker in the world but if nobody wants to pass to them then they won’t score many goals and indeed they can make things worse. Sometimes it may prove that the best qualified may not always be the best team player. 4 If you get it wrong sort it out quickly: - Recruitment can be a lottery and it will happen to all Managers at some time in their career that they have not made the right selection. If you have recruited someone who is having a negative effect on the culture of the Company and the morale of the team is being damaged, then it is essential to sort it out quickly. 5 Listen- let people have a voice: - Over thirty years ago we created the Time 24 Consultative Group enabling representative staff to discuss anything but wages/salaries which we believed should always be done on an individual basis. Over the years we
have addressed many issues important to our staff and this forum has become a highly effective vehicle for us to listen. Equally an open-door policy, although sounding a bit of a cliché, lets people know that they can come and talk about all issues. 6 There is no need to reprimand a good employee: - because they are already doing it to themselves! If a good employee makes a mistake, then going over the top serves no purpose because a good employee is often already concerned, worried and keen to do the best job they can. An empathetic discussion on how not to make the same mistake again and recognition of all the good things they do is often far more effective. 7 Kill the ‘hand grenades’: - I have often been copied on emails where, in the emotion of the moment, someone drops a
“Over the years we have addressed many issues important to our staff and this forum has become a highly effective vehicle for us to listen. Equally an open-door policy, although sounding a bit of a cliché, lets people know that they can come and talk about all issues.”
24
www.sussexchamberofcommerce.co.uk
provocative, critical or derogatory comment – ‘a hand grenade’. Newtons law of equal and opposite reactions then kicks into place and the email is returned with equal caustic vengeance and suddenly it stops becoming about sorting the issue in hand and becomes about turf protection and ‘don’t talk to me like that’. If you want to develop good teams then step in whenever you see it, coaching people handling skills and getting your teams to use fair wording and not ‘hand grenades’. I often encourage people to pick up the phone if people are engaging in e mail tennis. 8 Treat everyone with the utmost respect, with fairness and equally: - We spend an average 90000 hours of our lives at work which means we often spend more time with our work colleagues than we do with our families. Creating an environment where staff are happy to go into work, are happy mixing with colleagues, feel valued, are respected, and treated fairly is absolutely crucial.
About Time 24 Ltd Formed in 1987 Time 24 employ 200 staff based in the UK and the Czech Republic. Their Assemblies are used on Trains, Aircraft, Simulators. Radiotherapy Machines and Chip making Equipment. David Shore is Co-founder and joint MD of Time 24.
tel: 01444 259 259
