Is every day a school day?

As the children return to school the nights are drawing in, the leaves are turning with conkers in plentiful supply. To me as a farmer’s daughter this marks the end of the farming year – we take stock of the harvest and what we have achieved – we learn from our mistakes and we plan what investments we need to make now, which areas of land we need to do more work on - to nurture and top up with nutrients to ensure that we are in the best place possible to flourish next spring and in turn be more profitable.

It’s hard to do when there is so much to get through in the day, but we need to take that time to celebrate our achievements and plan wisely for the future now.

This got me thinking about the businesses we work with at Pro–Development …

• Are you making the time to reflect and take stock?
• Are you thinking about what investment you need to make in your most valuable resource – your team?
• Are you creating and environment in which people feel:
• a sense of belonging
• valued by their manager and by the organisation
• surrounded by a team that cares about them
• Have you created a culture of learning development and growth, a culture in which your staff team feel engaged within your business and see the potential to advance their career with the company?
• Are you ensuring that for your teams, they continue to develop and be in the best place possible to flourish and grow and accept the opportunities and challenges that the next year will offer.

If you haven’t thought about these things already then now is the time to start. We know from our employee engagement surveys that if people are not getting the opportunity to learn and develop or to be stretched and challenged and don’t see the opportunities to advance in their role, they start to look at businesses that will fulfil their requirements.

And unfortunately, it is usually our gifted and talented people who go first.   Remember, most people don’t leave for the money, they go because they don’t always see a future.  Losing good staff of course is always a concern for any business. Research conducted by Hay Group estimated it can cost between 12-18 months’ salary to replace an employee!

So investing in your teams training and development, supports retention, reduces turnover of staff. supports engagement, Improves creativity and innovation and overall productivity and profit.

If you have been taking stock and thinking about what’s next for your team, then we may be able to provide you with the ideal solution.  We have a great range of programmes coming up over the winter months from a one-day workshop in “Holding difficult conversations” to a “6-month Management Development Programme”.  Or we can work with you to tailor a programme that meets the requirements for you and your team.

Henry Ford was quoted to have said :

“Anyone who stops learning is old — whether this happens at twenty or at eighty. Anyone who keeps on learning not only remains young but becomes constantly more valuable “

If you would like our help to keep you and your team flourishing, learning and young (!), then this flourishing, young team is here to help provide the training and support you need.

And currently if you are based in York, North Yorkshire or the East Riding, you might also benefit from the fantastic 40% funding we have access to.