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HOW DOES INVESTING IN PEOPLE REALLY IMPACT BUSINESS GROWTH?

EMPLOYMENT AGENCY ER RECRUITMENT SHARES HOW BUSINESSES ARE RE-EVALUATING THEIR PRACTICES FOR ATTRACTING AND RETAINING TALENT, AND WHY THEY’RE FOCUSING ON PEOPLE INVESTMENT FIRST

Business leaders are having to look at their people strategies in order to attract and – more importantly – retain top talent to aid the continued growth of their firms. Despite this, the numbers from workplace accreditation company, Investors In People, are stark.

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■ 85% of employees aren’t engaged at work

■ 73% would think about leaving if the right opportunity came along

■ 1 in 3 staff members are bored

If you are an employer with a business that needs to run productively (and therefore profitably), then these stats matter. Raising productivity enables people to get what they want faster, or get more in the same amount of time. It can be achieved in business through investment in technology, increased automation, and other mechanisms. But it can also be achieved by building and maintaining a workforce that is engaged and committed to growing the organisation that pays everyone’s wages.

Productivity has been a fundamental challenge for the UK economy for some years now. ONS data shows the UK lags behind the US, France and Germany. It’s clear why the UK Government is interested in how productive our businesses are: it has a huge impact in determining the nation’s standard of living.

The CIPD has identified investing in people management as one method of boosting business productivity through those workers. A key question though is: how can organisations that have recruited new talent, keep them focussed on the delivery of the task in hand – growing the business to the benefit of all?

Hire Leaders Who Value Strong Culture

Successful leaders are there to set the strategic direction of a business. To deliver against its targets and achieve organisational outcomes. But they are also there as a cultural barometer of their organisation, setting standards and creating environments in which the business’s people can thrive.

The best leaders understand that organisational success lies with the people within. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, for example, said: “Building a very strong company and a very strong foundation of talent and culture in a company is essential to making great products.”

To achieve cultural strength, employees need to trust and believe their leaders can see the big picture and want to move them towards that goal.

RECOGNISE PEOPLE AS AN ESSENTIAL ASSET

Many businesses will possess good leaders and a strong and distinctive organisation culture. Team members – as human beings – still need to feel supported as individuals and recognised for their own contribution.

Many studies have shown that recipients of any reward perceived as genuine reciprocate with the intention to work harder for their organisation. Recruits and apprentices bring new ideas, skills and creativity to the workplace, while your veteran team members hold invaluable knowledge and experience that cannot be replaced.

Ways to harness this is of course through salary, bonus, and benefits. But so are organisational processes which establish processes that ensure fairness. To enable everyone to know what they need to do in order to progress. And to celebrate their contribution when they do. For example, studies have shown that investing in upskilling employees leads to higher engagement levels from staff, resulting in improved morale and output performance. Your employees will be evermore confident and motivated in doing their jobs, driving forward towards better outcomes.

What’s more, training has been linked to improving retention rate among staff, creating a cycle of improved engagement levels and positive working environment. Some employers feel that uptraining employees poses a risk that they may move on to other companies. Despite this, they will add value to the organisation before they do so – and if the culture is right, it will be less enticing to leave.

Recognition And Rewards Are Important

The relationship between a well-structured salary and bonus system, and productivity in both individuals and teams is clear. People will still look at the salary before the holiday entitlement. Yet lifestyle benefits such as flexible work hours, additional days of holiday, or remote work opportunities can all go a long way towards demonstrating recognition and encouraging retention.

Additionally, investing in tangible rewards for people, such as paid parking or complimentary tickets to a sporting event, can help make a job harder to leave. Taking the time to reward employees’ efforts helps foster job satisfaction, boosts motivation, and increases productivity. But salary and bonus are not the only forms of recognition – and not always the most effective either. Research shows that financial gain is more effective for work that is measured quantitatively. Yet much of what is required of modern workforces is qualitative: in creative work, for example.

In some sectors, employees are motivated by work they consider to be aligned with their own identity. If you can find these people – and they align with your organisational culture – then work becomes about values, rather than transactional. It may be a genuine ‘thank you’ is all that is asked for.

Communication Is Essential For A Healthy Workplace Culture

Developing effective communication channels is key to building workplace culture, sharing messages, and stimulating growth. Comms empower your people to not just understand what they are doing and why (thereby increasing productivity) but also enable workers to identify new opportunities on your behalf.

Effective communications avert conflict and optimise outcomes. People in modern workplaces expect to be able to speak their minds and express their concerns. This must work across physical locations and other barriers.

Reducing friction everywhere maximises output. The same is undoubtedly true of internal comms. What’s more, it doesn’t need to be expensive. It costs next to nothing to formulate a policy. Meanwhile, there are multiple digital tools which can be used at little or no cost to send out: newsletters highlighting successes, staff surveys building two-way dialogue and team-building events to boost camaraderie.

Finally, what may be a small part of a leader’s daily diary will be a large focal point in the week of the team member. Giving people allocated time for 1-1 conversations and regular appraisals to listen to what they have to say and to feed back to them will reinforce your appreciation of them. Invest in time to listen and reflect on those who are doing the job – they are your core asset, and they will help your business grow.

Words by Kerry Smith

HOW DOES INVESTMENT IN PEOPLE IMPACT BUSINESS GROWTH?

AND

WHAT WOULD YOU PRIORITISE IN RELATION TO PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT?

David Pearson

David Pearson Director of Partnerships at East Midlands Chamber

We all know that our people are what makes a business tick and grow. As important as this is, I believe that you also need to enjoy what you do at work and the only way that you can do this is by interacting with other people. AI might be very clever these days, but you still can’t have a bit of banter, or even share a smile with your computer. People are so important in everything we do.

Investment in people doesn’t have to be purely financial – other benefits packages, days off for community work, or giving staff their birthday off all add to the overall investment in a member of staff. But those simple things that we all know about, and probably don’t practice as much as we should, like saying thank you or well done are vital.

It is important for every individual to have some sound personal values and to put them into practice. For me, the most important value in business is to have integrity. No matter how funny or interesting you might be, if you don’t operate with integrity in your daily life then you will get found out very quickly.

Enjoy what you do at work – remember those old words “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” (Confucius).

Phil Houlder

Phil

Houlder Director at Glenfield Electrical

Investment in people is key, as a business owner you can try to do everything yourself but

1 You’ll never be able to do it all, you’ll go mad or have a heart attack

2 You’ll never be as good as the people passionate about their role

Glenfield Electrical had grown steadily year on year but it’s only when I truly trusted and empowered our team and especially the management team that our growth really took off.

Lots of formal training for your team is good whether it’s awaydays or courses but the most powerful thing for personal development in our experience is being clear with your expectations.

If you want an employee to develop a certain skill, whether it’s a critical hard skill or a softer one, you have to be crystal clear on your expectations and exactly what you want from them, Set out where they are now, where you want them to be, give them examples, give them the training and the trust they need to get there.

We realised we wanted our Contracts Managers to comprehensively develop their sales skills. It wasn’t something on their radar and that was entirely our fault - we hadn’t been clear that this was an area we wanted to improve on, it wasn’t going to happen by magic.

We gave them formal training, internal training through a workshop and started setting clearer targets which has helped push us on even further.

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