Yorkshire’s Guide to Keeping Your Talent: Engage your team – the Yorkshire Way

Hello again from sunny Yorkshire. (It is actually sunny today!) I’m sitting here with a cup of hot Yorkshire tea reflecting on the brilliant experience I’ve just had attending our monthly Employee Engagement (EE) Workshop here at Pro- Development Towers in York. If you haven’t heard of us, we’re Yorkshire’s finest Training and Engagement Company and what we don’t know about engaging and retaining your people isn’t worth knowing!

You might have already read Michelle’s blog earlier this month where she shared some insights into the challenges and some of her tips.  But, read on for even more top tips and gems of information I’ve heard at the workshop today, but before you do, let me offer a warm invite to you as my guest to attend one of the upcoming workshops – you definitely won’t regret it. It’s not often you get something for nowt!

Here’s why you must come:

Existing clients talk about the amazing changes they have seen in their business because of including staff engagement in their strategy. They share actionable, achievable, tangible tips that make this whole engagement thing seem not only possible, but also exciting.

This, mixed with a range of other local businesses – all top Yorkshire people –  sharing their experience and challenges helps you to see you’re in great company and have a wider support network than you might think. It’s just great to be around so many inspiring local people all wanting the same thing as you.

There is always lots of idea sharing on HOW to increase engagement and everyone takes away actionable tips that they can implement to immediately start making a difference.

And did I mention the proper gorgeous free grub?!

Earlier this month, Tracey wrote in her blog about some of the benefits and successes our clients have seen following a staff engagement survey. We love supporting our clients with this, working alongside them, getting to the nitty gritty of what’s holding them back, creating bespoke action plans and supporting the implementation of this. We’re in it with you, guiding, supporting, holding you accountable, cheering you on and providing biscuits and tea with a loving kick up the proverbial when the going feels tough!

And here are the top tips I promised earlier. Read below and you might see the common theme – clue: its often one of the lowest scoring areas in engagement surveys and best of all, it doesn’t cost anything to improve!

• First stop – check in with yourself and your leadership team… are you engaged as leaders?
• Discuss how you lead by example, consistently show up at your best, inspired and inspiring others.
• Challenge and support each other to increase your own engagement and cohesion.
• Check in with the wider team. Talk to them, ask them great questions and really get to understand what engages them. Find the key to each person’s motivation. Do you know their aspirations, strengths and challenges? Everyone is different and if we have this information, we can use it to bring out the best in each person. This also helps us to recognise the disengaged people and know how we can manage this in the best way.
• Do you have a clear vision/goal and strategy and most importantly, have you communicated it in a way that everyone feels aligned and understands their role and has a sense of purpose?
• Look around, does the culture and environment support a highly engaged team? Ask ‘what is it like to work here?’
• If you haven’t guessed, the key is communication, and the last tip is to keep talking! People want to know what’s going on! Do you have regular check in points? People want feedback on how they’re doing, they want to know when they’re doing well and want to be recognised for this. They also appreciate feedback to support them to develop. When left to their own devices for too long, people get disengaged.

Engaging people is all about talking to them – open and honest 2 way communication can have a huge impact on engagement and its FREE!

We can’t wait to give you a proper warm Yorkshire welcome at our next engagement workshop. Dates are below, Please let our lovely Steph know which one you’re coming to so we can order enough Yorkshire delights for you and of course, a bit of cake.

Next dates:

Dec 4th

Jan 22nd