DriveSpeed Group provide tailored vehicle solutions to clients across a range of industries from a base in North Yorkshire. The business has grown significantly since its incorporation in 2011, and has doubled in size in the last three years, with over 20 staff at their office on Fishergate in York.
In 2020 the dental industry was shut down for a couple of months, but Swallow Dental Supplies adapted its PPE product range and are now growing rapidly through their sales of bone regeneration material and other surgical dental supplies.
“The coaching was the best part of the course. I thought Janette was universally excellent. She was supportive and listened brilliantly whilst never letting me off the hook for where I needed to take more responsibility. The extra literature she provided has made an immediate and positive impact on my business already. I enjoyed all the workshops, working with people with different skills and personalities but similar values was rewarding. Both Sue and Janette were excellent, really enthusiastic and supportive throughout.”
“We worked with Pro-Development on our staff engagement survey towards the end of 2017 and found them very friendly and helpful in their approach and have really valued the quick and helpful responses we had when needed. The process has been extremely helpful and the meeting to discuss the results gave some great insight from an independent view on how well we were doing and what we could work on. We were proud to achieve such a fantastic engagement result and as a result of the project, we have identified that the work already done in regards to vision, values and teamwork is working with some improvement actions to maintain momentum and progress. Our review process, both performance and financial has already improved with set dates throughout the year and the business improvement ideas collection and team input was another key area for us to work on throughout 2018 and onwards, which can only improve results throughout the team and company. Thank you – it has been a pleasure working with you.”
“As a long standing business, we had grown comfortable as a working unit and we wanted to explore how we could challenge this to improve engagement, motivation, efficiency, communication and productivity with and within our teams and locations. The experience of working with Pro-Development has been positive, challenging and enriching through support and guidance to take a step back and look at things in a different, less obvious way. We had a positive response from our teams to the engagement survey and resulting activity we have undertaken and were able to carefully assess the benefits and rewards for our teams other than just salary and bonuses. The process was challenging for the leadership team but encouraged us to plan ahead for the benefit of our teams and our clients. The guidance, advice and openness has been invaluable and the gentle reminder and nudge has helped us maintain our momentum. The ability to grasp our issues, create a culture of staff engagement and suggestions of positive ideas to form an effective Action Plan has been most worthwhile. We would strongly recommend a conversation with Pro-Development.”
“Working with Pro-Development on our employment engagement over the last few years has been brilliant! We have transformed the way we interact with our staff, improved on so many areas year on year. The benefits to the company have been huge; employee retention, fully engaged in our vision, work to our values, reduced sick days etc…all of this can only improve your business! Our latest score of 96% is fantastic and we couldn’t have done this without the help of Pro-Development”.
“Sue designed and delivered our Future Leaders Programme, working closely with us to provide a tailored and engaging programme for 26 aspiring leaders from across our university. The detailed session plans Sue produced for each part of the programme enabled us to review and discuss what would work well ahead of each session and adapt accordingly, based on the group and our requirements. Participants fed back that they particularly enjoyed the interactive and practical nature of the sessions and appreciated Sue’s engaging approach, knowledge and valuable insight throughout. A brilliant programme for our future leaders”.
“Yorwaste has undergone several years of change both in terms of business structure and growth via acquisition. This generated a rather fractured culture and poor communications thus reducing business effectiveness. Yorwaste met Pro-Development and after some initial meetings and scoping exercises engaged with them on a management develop programme. This initially just looked at the Executive and Senior Managers but has recently expanded to include the Future Leaders of the business. Pro-Development have been outstanding in their efforts to understand Yorwaste which has allowed them to tailor their approach and delivery focused training packages. The Pro-Development team have now run 4 courses for us and what we particularly like is their ability to link each training package with another thus generating continuity across the management structure and reinforcement of lessons learnt. Since first working with Pro-Development 6 months ago, Yorwaste has noticed significant improvements in communication within the business. Greater staff engagement and therefore trust within the business. We have also seen many of the staff grow in confidence. If I had to single out one key benefit of working with Pro-Development it is their ability to understand our business and tailor their training to meet our needs, the personal touch”.
Loved it! I never expected to find so much out about myself and to have so many actions to take back to my job role. Michelle was fantastic – really engaging and an excellent facilitator. Loved that we were made at ease to ask questions throughout. Keen to attend the ‘Honest Conversations’ workshop! Really nice to have a small group as allowed people to open up more and share experiences – kept it very engaging. Thank you!
An excellent day which has provided me with a lot of tools and structure to increase leadership skills. I will be planning in time to work on my action planning when I am back in the office.
“A huge thank you from me Sue for all the support you have given throughout our period of coaching sessions. Not only have you given me the tools to influence in my role, your support has enabled me to be true to myself in being brave and just being my true authentic self in the delivery of my work through people. I am now more equipped with a toolkit of resources to support me. It has been an absolute pleasure working with you, and I hugely appreciate the efforts you have gone to in making our journey as a team a success with the combination of delivery with the coaching sessions and experiential off-site days. You have truly been a gift to each and every one of us, and we have some great memories and for that I thank you, and extend to you my Pure love”.
“On reflection, I’d probably attended several of Michelle’s webinars before realising that she worked in the York area. In anticipation of my own relocation to York, I first contacted her, before meeting her in person at the York Business Show 2018. I’ve since learned that, in addition to running her own business, Michelle is the current Chair of York Professionals, and has been instrumental in organising daily People Panel Zoom calls for York business leaders, members of the City of York Council, and other professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic. There are not many people I’ve met who are quite as enthusiastic as Michelle. In all of my dealings with her, I’ve found Michelle to be extremely generous, considerate, positive, personable, sincere, fun, and thoughtful. In my opinion, Michelle is a real asset to the York community, and have no doubt that her selfless-commitment, boundless energy, and authenticity will be remembered long after the last COVID-19 patient leaves York District Hospital. I regret that I don’t yet know the staff at Pro-Development, but do know that Michelle cares passionately about her staff, and is an outstanding role model to lead York Professionals.”
