Research has shown that nurturing talent within your company is likely to have a positive impact on both culture, growth and commercial success.
A nurtured team is engaged, loyal and productive and will help make any business successful as it drives towards its ultimate goals.
In the NatWest Women in Business Podcast hosted by June Sarpong, Rosie Gindlay founder of Miss Macaroon, explains how she set out in business not just to create beautiful food, but to be able to give young people the opportunity to work and progress in the food industry.
As part of her business plan she knew she wanted to create a space which enabled young people to develop and grow their professional skill set.
“Kitchens are an amazing place to create structure and nurture people to be able to put a lot of time and effort into them,” she explains. “We want our trainees to become passionate, knowledgeable and be able to transfer those things to our customers as well.”
It should be easy to nurture your team, right? Not always. In fact, many companies can over complicate talent development strategies and instead of identifying and then nurturing talent, it has the opposite effect resulting in staff churn.
Identifying the natural talent in your team is the first step in being able to nurture their talent and enable them to grow.
“No matter what size your business from less than 6 staff to over 100, nurturing talent will be the difference between successful growth and stagnation,” says team development specialist, Sylvia Baldock.
This doesn’t just mean keeping the lines of communication open, but also ensuring they feel you’re helping them to professionally progress helping them improve, hone and develop their natural talents.
“The modern business is one where it has engaged employees, as engaged employees are more productive, have more ideas and will help your business to grow,” she adds. “A strong business leader needs to identify the natural strengths of their employees and then engage those people in the right field.
“A good leader will communicate often with their team and will ensure their team feels motivated, valued, respected – this ensures a high level of emotional intelligence on behalf of the business leader which in turn, results in a highly engaged and motivated team,’ says Sylvia.
A 2016 poll by performance-management consulting company Gallup showed just 13% of employees working for an organisation were engaged which indicates more companies need to create more nurturing cultures within the workplace.
“Nurturing talent is the only way for businesses to truly reach their full potential, because a dis-engaged team will not be productive or motivated,’ explains Sylvia.
“I always recommend business leaders do profiles of their staff so they can understand the natural talents of each individual. If you excel in one area, but your role is in another, you will feel demotivated by being in a role which doesn’t suit your natural skillset. A good leader will recognise this and implement changes.”
Deborah Holmes, has been director of multi-million pound businesses for over 25 years. Her latest venture, Sandersons, a boutique department store in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, opened two years ago. With 26 staff and an annual turnover of £2m she has managed to buck the UK-wide slump for retailers on the high street and she believes having an engaged and nurtured team has helped her achieve this.
Her venture has been shortlisted in the Drapers Independent Awards for Best New Business 2018.
“The people who go on the business journey with you are vital as they are at the forefront of your business. It’s really important to transfer your vision to the people around you so they can share it. Investing in the talent in your team is vital, if you reward hard work and commitment you are rewarded with loyalty, new ideas and commitment in return.
“This gives you a solid platform to drive the business forward with people around you who are as enthused and excited by the venture as you are.
“If you interact with your staff regularly and are on top of the businesses performance it becomes very clear where the talent lies. It’s part of your job to spot the untapped skills of the staff pushing them in the right direction for the business and of course for their own fulfilment and job satisfaction.
“Nurturing talent is about knowing your team and enabling each team member to play to their own strengths by offering the appropriate training and opportunities.
If they enjoy their work they tend to grow with the business which creates a stable environment to move forward and grow the company.”
To discover more about how NatWest could support you in your business goals, visit www.natwest.com/Boost
To learn more about employee engagement, watch NatWest’s Spotlight on Business session hosted by Mary Portas and featuring Deliciously Ella, Perkbox and Severn Trent here