Best Year to date for Staff Development Company – York Press

We’re so proud of our achievements this year and York Press wrote a lovely article about us which we wanted to share with you here:-

A YORK company specialising in staff development has enjoyed its most successful year to date with a three-fold increase in turnover off the back of a major project with the Government.

Launched three years ago, Wilberfoss-based Pro-Development was a finalist this year in the Training Journal Awards with founder Michelle Mook shortlisted as Learning & Development Professional of the Year 2014 following the successful completion of a project wit the Cabinet Office.

Mrs Mook said after enjoy the busiest year since its launch in 2011, Pro-Development is set for further growth into 2015 as more companies start to make the connection between employee engagement and tangible results.

She said: “Companies with a factory full of expensive equipment that is fundamental to their business have a maintenance plan and budget in place. Regular service checks ensure that equipment remains at optimum productivity levels and downtime is kept to a minimum.

“Yet so many companies that rely on people as their most valued and important asset have no such ‘maintenance programme’ in place to make sure their teams are working at their best and ensuring the business remains productive and profitable. By engaging and developing their people, businesses can benefit from a real productivity boost.”

It was this thinking that led Mrs Mook and her colleague Suzanne Courtney to realise a career-long ambition to create a programme that would help managers become more effective in leading and engaging their teams.

The six-month management development programme they created has seen delegates abseiling, caving, orienteering, raft building and fire walking, among other things, all in the name of learning.

Mrs Mook said: “We know from two decades in learning and development roles that people learn best when they experience something, and so we set out to create a course that would enable our delegates to experiences some incredible things that would help them develop themselves as well as their skills and knowledge.

“The results have been fantastic, and we’ve had rave reviews from everyone who took part.”

On the back of the programme’s success, and demand from other local businesses, Pro-Development is currently recruiting for three more programmes that will run in 2015.