INVESTMENT IN PEOPLE IMPACT BUSINESS GROWTH?

AND WHAT WOULD YOU PRIORITISE IN RELATION TO PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT?

Tom Bates

Sales Director at The Printers

Investing in people, through training, development and empowerment programs, has a massively positive impact on business growth. By increasing employee satisfaction and motivation, it can lead to higher productivity and better performance all round creating a powerful culture. This not only increases profit margins, it can enhance customer satisfaction through a better service delivery whilst reducing staff turnover and therefore lower recruitment costs.

In terms of personal development, I feel it is important to prioritise the following areas:

■ Technical/Professional Skills - to remain relevant in one’s field and increase job performance.

■ Communication Skills - to enhance relationships and collaboration with colleagues.

■ Leadership Skills - to take on more responsibility and drive business growth.

■ Emotional Intelligence - to improve decision-making and relationships with others.

■ Adaptability/Agility - to effectively navigate changes and uncertainty in the business environment.

Investing in employee development and well-being can lead to a more engaged, productive, and loyal workforce, which will contribute to the long-term success of a business.

NICKI ROBSON Managing Director at Breedon Consulting

The best thing that any business leader wanting to grow their business could do, is to invest in their team. Most, if not all businesses have competitors who do roughly the same thing, and what differentiates you from those competitors is your people, what they do and how they behave. So developing employees to be the very best they can be will only serve to improve the performance of your business and put you on the path of sustained success. If you think about the companies that you’re loyal to, it’s those who have great staff who know their stuff, treat you well and build ongoing relationships with you. It’s not rocket science, just the way the world works!

It has another great benefit too, and that’s the positive impact it has on employee engagement and retention rates. Staff who feel valued and who are given the opportunity to grow with the company are much less likely to look elsewhere for work. So you retain skills and experience which allows you to focus on growing the business rather than needing to constantly replace people.

Where to start? With the management team. This is the group who can have the most impact, both positive and negative, but who are often promoted into a management role by virtue of their success in their technical role, without any management training being provided. They can be the glue that keeps everything together, so get that part right and the rest will soon follow.