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Creating a talent pathway for long-term success
July 4, 2023
Grow Your Own: How to attract, develop and retain a talented team
Northumbria University & North East England Chamber of Commerce
Businesses are nothing without their people.
But in a world of increasing financial demands and shallower employment pools, many are finding growth goals stymied by their inability to source and retain suitably skilled staff.
However, with challenge comes opportunity, and the Grow Your Own: How to attract, develop and retain a talented team seminar, held by Northumbria University alongside the North East England Chamber of Commerce, provided a blueprint on how to nurture and strengthen teams for long-term success.
From attracting staff and fostering their development, to creating a pipeline of future leaders and flexing with technological and social change, the conference featured Dr Helen Charlton, Northumbria University head of apprenticeship for leadership and HR management, and John McCabe, North East England Chamber of Commerce chief executive.
Held in partnership with North East Times Magazine, and hosted at Newcastle Eagles’ Vertu Motors Arena, the event also included insight from Vahid Walker, Walker Subsea co-founder and technical director; Alix Bolton, Walker Filtration group head of HR; and Paul Blake, Eagles’ owner and managing director.
WHAT DOES THE NORTH EAST’S EMPLOYMENT LANDSCAPE LOOK LIKE AT PRESENT?
With rough financial waves adding to lingering pandemic choppiness, the labour market finds itself caught in a perfect storm.
“Recruitment and retention is one of the most important issues impacting businesses in our region today,” said John McCabe, chief executive at the North East England Chamber of Commerce.
“Some businesses have already stopped recruiting due to cash pressures, and only four in ten across the North East tell us they’re working at full capacity.”
And companies’ ability to make hires, said John, is being equally affected by a dearth of talent, which is exacerbating a pandemic exodus and further health-related attrition.
He said: “We have a higher number of people out of work due to caring responsibilities and early retirement following COVID-19, and the region also has 43 per cent more people inactive due to ill health, relative to the national average.”
WHAT ACTION CAN FIRMS TAKE TO ADDRESS SUCH CHALLENGES?
With talent conveyor belts thinner and some businesses more able than others to match employees’ rising financial demands amid the cost of living crisis, John urged companies to take a “proactive approach to growing their own”.
This, he said, would bypass contemporary shortages and lay pathways for longer-term expansion, creating a twin effect of strengthening workers’ roots with an organisation while preparing the ground for saplings.
He said: “Businesses are facing incredibly harsh pressures, but if they can invest in developing their workforces, they will see the benefit before those that choose not to.
“It makes business sense; if a firm has to look externally to fill a senior leadership vacancy, it will have a measurable impact on performance.
“But if someone who has progressed through that organisation takes the role, they are much more likely to share its ethos.
“And by becoming a company known for developing employees, that business becomes a clear option for jobseekers.”
And John said such pre-emptive measures will provide great momentum in an employment landscape primed to expand thanks to headline-grabbing private investment and a proposed £4.2 billion north of the region devolution deal.
He added: “The North East had the best job creation record from private sector investment of any region outside London last year.
“And the opportunity isn’t over yet, with Fulwell73 and Recharge Industries promising the largest job creation in the North East since Nissan came to Sunderland.
“It means there will be even more demand for talent – so businesses must create a strategy to retain outstanding employees while developing more of them.”
HOW CAN BUSINESSES ENSURE DEVELOPMENT ROUTES ARE STRONG?
A key element, said Dr Helen Charlton, head of apprenticeship for leadership and HR management at Northumbria University, is education.
Citing the university’s suite of vocational courses, which include the senior leader higher apprenticeship and the senior people professional higher apprenticeship, Dr Charlton said: “Our executive education provides an opportunity to develop managers in organisations at customisable scales to their needs.
“And it is very effective; a leading accountancy firm in the region refocused from graduate recruitment in favour of our three-year chartered manager degree apprenticeship, for example.
“Our courses lead students to chartered qualifications and provide businesses with workers who are steeped in their culture and equipped to lead.”
Vahid Walker, co-founder and technical director at Wallsend-based offshore engineer Walker Subsea, took the discussion further, highlighting the importance of passageways for employees to take more steps with an organisation.
“If people finish their training but have no opportunity for progress, then you have less chance of retaining them,” said Vahid, whose company has hired a number of graduates from Newcastle and Northumbria universities.
He added: “It’s a little bit like sport; you don’t really want to make your best player the team’s coach and have them sign timesheets all day.
“But that does happen in business, and we offer a slight variation to counter.
“Our managers remain engaged thanks to our flat company structure.
“If a project comes up that suits a certain person, they take the lead and select a supporting team.”
RETAINING SUCH A HANDS-ON APPROACH, THOUGH, IS ONLY ONE ELEMENT OF MANAGEMENT. IS INDUSTRY DOING ENOUGH TO ENSURE LEADERS ARE SUITABLY EQUIPPED TO OVERSEE INDIVIDUALS’ AND TEAMS’ PROGRESS?
Citing management as a “tricky profession”, Dr Charlton warned of ‘accidental managers’, a CMI description of those who are experts in their field, but not professional people managers.
She said: “It means we can have underqualified and inexperienced people leading organisations’ most valuable asset – their people.
“We need to tackle that.”
Vahid agreed, referring to the suppleness of his business that allows for quarterly appraisals and the instant raising of skills flags through training managers sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with staff.
And they were both united in the need for bigger companies to improve upskilling mechanisms.
Dr Charlton said: “The problem with larger organisations is that management culture becomes quite complex to manage.
“They don’t have the luxury of sitting in the room and seeing what level of damage they may be experiencing through under-equipped management.”
Vahid added: “If a firm’s training department is so remote it requires a survey to find skills gaps, then maybe it’s a bit too far removed.”
AMID TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES AND COVID-19’S LEGACY ON WORKING PATTERNS, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT EMPLOYERS AND SKILLS PROVIDERS KEEP PACE WITH THE CHANGE?
Fitness commitment counsellor; algorithm bias auditor; data detective; cyber calamity forecaster – all jobs that are becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s world.
And, said Alix Bolton, group head of HR at Birtley-based Walker Filtration, such evolution – which she told audience members will see posts like cashier and telemarketer continue to fade – must be greeted with a change of thinking around work, training and management.
She said: “Eighty five per cent of jobs that will exist in 2030 don’t exist now, and 65 per cent of children entering primary school now will hold a job that doesn’t yet exist.
“Employment is changing, and it’s so important we think about new skills around creativity, innovation, risk-taking and leadership.”
DOES THE RISE OF TECHNOLOGY, SUCH AS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, THREATEN FUTURE PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT?
Both Alix and Paul Blake, owner and managing director of Newcastle Eagles basketball club, spoke of finding a balance between software and human activity.
Highlighting an opportunity to redefine workers’ skills for the betterment of business departments, Alix said: “Technology works well where you can redesign repetitive areas of operations.
“For example, we’ve just invested in robot cells at Walker Filtration, to take over some manual work in the building of products.
“And that has given us the opportunity to think about the skillsets we need to redeploy people across the business.”
Calling artificial intelligence an “opportunity and a threat”, Paul added: “I remember the days of sending a letter and waiting two weeks for a reply.
“Technology – certainly the way we sell tickets and market events, for example – has completely changed things, but it has unfortunately impacted on job roles too.
“And the next step is to see the extent to which artificial intelligence moves things on.”
HOW IMPORTANT ARE HYBRID WORKING CONDITIONS AND COMPANIES’ COMMITMENTS TO AREAS LIKE SUSTAINABILITY A FACTOR IN ATTRACTING, RETAINING AND DEVELOPING TALENT?
Citing Office for National Statistics findings, which highlight flexible hours and home working as prime factors in job searches, John said: “Employee demands are changing and we know, from talking to young professionals, that more are considering job options based on the work/life balance than ever before.
“But firms must also be aware of inclusivity.
“Ill health, mental wellbeing and lack of accessible opportunities are all barriers to people who have so much to offer the workplace.
“Taking proactive steps around these areas will undoubtedly lead to a pool of untapped talent.”
Alix agreed, arguing for the removal of certain “out-of-date” customs and the wider introduction of sustainability drives and four-day weeks, for example, to make for “really positive experiences”.
She said: “We would be going backwards if we reverted to completely office-based working again.
“We need to leave some old-school thoughts in the past – like the more than 100-year-old Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm routine – and take good bits for the future.
“We sit around the dinner table telling our children they can work in whatever field they wish.
“But we’re in danger of that generation coming into the workforce and saying, ‘what is this!?’, if we don’t create conditions that make for really great places to work.”
Paul reiterated the benefits of flexible working.
He added: “Specific members of staff have sales targets, and I don’t mind where they make calls or have meetings as long as they’re reaching their targets.”
AS CHALLENGES CONTINUE, WHAT ARE THE KEY PROCESSES LEADERS CAN IMPART ON STAFF TO ENSURE UNITED TEAMS AND FUTURE SUCCESS?
Referencing his Eagles’ contemporaries, Paul hailed farsightedness and a democratic structure.
He said: “We have a very egalitarian team, and it’s all about imparting vision to them – and that should never stop.”
Highlighting the phrase ‘followship’ as a key strut in any leadership model, Alix added: “There isn’t a list of essential leader qualities, rather a list of feelings of a follower.
“And, if we take those into our practice, we will attract, grow, retain and develop talent in our brilliant businesses in this brilliant region.”