Juggling priorities as a small business can be a challenge. Where do you find the time to develop your talent? And yet recruitment and skills development are recognised as vital to the success of any company. This is where Gateshead College is establishing itself in a lead role as business development director Ivan Jepson explains how they work differently.
Over the years we’ve learned that a one-sizefits-all approach to helping businesses develop the skills they need to succeed just doesn’t work.
All companies are different, made up of people with different strengths, with different issues to resolve and opportunities to grab. They’re also busy on their day-to-day operation so recruitment and training are often areas where an experienced, helping hand is needed.
We know we can help take some pressure off by making time to listen and understand what’s going to make them work better; how we can help them grow and make their business a success. We try to take the grief and hassle away from employers.
A big challenge facing any small business owner is how to juggle the demands of running a business with hiring and developing talent and incentivising the workforce. I’ve come across many companies that are reluctant to invest in staff training because they don’t have the time or resources – and that’s where we come in.
Take Norseal, a provider of door seals, grilles and vent covers in Prudhoe. They were looking to make their warehousing operation more efficient, so we spent time with the team on the shop floor chatting with them to understand their challenges and what training would improve things. It was the team, rather than the management, which drove the whole project and we were there to design a training course tailored exactly to their requirements.
The results speak for themselves: the warehousing operation is more efficient; the jobs of the warehousing staff have been made much easier and the team has been brought closer together by having a shared goal to work towards. The training has also given them the confidence to share and try out new ideas, an approach which allows them to find novel ways of improving the business.
At Gateshead College we work with hundreds of small businesses, from quirky furniture manufacturers to an events company that organises party nights for people across the country. What’s so striking about all the businesses we work with is their uniqueness.
That’s why we make it a priority to get to grips with each individual company and get under the skin of their business.
We aim to be a critical friend as well as a trusted partner; we’re not afraid to ask questions and challenge them. This enables us to develop a training programme that’s totally geared to helping their business grow.
For more information, please visit www.gateshead.ac.uk/employer
