attracting & retaining top talent seminar 23


Engagement is the key to ‘Attracting & Retaining Top Talent’


Scores of Thames Valley businesspeople gathered at the Madejski Stadium, Reading, at the end of February to hear about talent – and there wasn’t a footballer in sight


Left from top: David Bloxham Bill Burton Mark Brooks Phil Dudderidge


Right:


Tamsin Napier-Munn with the speakers


The Business Magazine staged a key breakfast seminar on ‘Attracting & Retaining Top Talent’, with expert presentations from recruitment firm GCS, psychometric testing specialist Thomas International and business training and leadership skills experts Dale Carnegie.


Hosted at the Royal Berkshire Conference Centre by The Business Magazine’s projects manager Tamsin Napier-Munn, the audience heard how, in the “most candidate-short jobs market of recent years,“ it was vital for employers to understand how to attract and keep the best.


David Bloxham, GCS managing director, said: “The Thames Valley is pretty close to full employment. It’s a very confident market – and there are more jobs than people to fill them.” That was why it was important for an employer to create a ‘brand’ and sell the company as an exciting opportunity, a great place to work.


Working environment, training and recognition were key elements of this. In a recent GCS survey, 71% of employees placed having a “fantastic working environment“ top; 70% wanted flexible working arrangements; and 60% wanted to be upskilled.


Bill Burton of Dale Carnegie said an engaged employee was 87% less likely to leave their job. He pointed out that companies with engaged employees outperform others by 47%-202% – engagement being the “emotional and intellectual commitment of employees to deliver high performance”.


His presentation included practical advice on how to tell whether staff are engaged, and to what extent; and emphasised the importance of inspirational leaders and the qualities they embody that make for engaged working relationships.


Mark Brooks, senior client trainer at Thomas International, said: “64% of people have more to offer than they are currently being asked to demonstrate”. He illustrated heightened engagement through a personal example in Cornwall last year – a situation in which he found himself helping as an emergency flood-defence worker alongside a lawyer, dentist and truck driver. Each of them were giving of their best, he said, and he put this down to the work having real meaning; the people having a common cause; their effort making a notable difference; and the feeling of being appreciated.


Phil Dudderidge, chairman and founder of Focusrite, rounded off the sessions with the message that employee engagement, customer satisfaction and cashflow are the three measures that tell you almost everything you need to know about your organisation’s performance.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – APRIL 2016


www.businessmag.co.uk


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