getting more bulk purchasing schemes so they can get some discounts? Is it allowing them to work from home more, so they save the travel costs? Is it allowing them to work from the office more, so they save their home heating costs?
We’re doing some financial wellness sessions for people to help them manage their personal finances. We’ve put a salary sacrifice scheme in for electric cars. It’s about asking what else we can do in that whole package, it’s not just about giving more money.
Annette Weekes Purves Ali
to trust our own people, trust our quality of work and ensure that the quality we deliver to our customers is 110 per cent of what they expect. It’s helped with controlling costs and quality.
AW: There’s a lot to be done around Industry 4.0 and automation. At a time when we have got a skills and people shortage, if we can build in cobots and robots to help us, to allow us to use our people in smarter ways, that’s what businesses really need to be doing.
Professor Simon Bolton
I went make to the maker and they said, ‘You can’t have that, it’s unavailable, don’t even ask when you’re going to get it. You can have this, it’ll be £7,500.’ That’s where we are.
SB: In the businesses that are doing stuff, it’s about accelerated decision making.
AW: This is where Boost can really come in because that fast, accelerated decision making is where SMEs, who are small and nimble and can do that well have an advantage. It can support those businesses. That’s a really great opportunity.
What are the innovations that we are bringing to bear that are going to help us through this difficult time?
NM: Sustainable employment practices. Motivating and trying to keep hold of your staff, looking after your teams and engaging with them. Also giving them autonomy and in terms of decision making, allowing them to make decisions to build that expertise for them to one day replace us.
When it comes to processes and products, we’ve become vertically integrated. We’re going
It means we can increase productivity, we can increase how competitive we are and we can take those people and move them into interesting, better paid jobs and upskill them.
SB: All businesses need data literacy to establish value, demand and cost. Companies are going to have to have more effective customer engagement for upselling. And a third element, which is going to be even bigger, is the development of HR in medium sized SMEs.
SAR: We’re a very small business and we don’t have a high turnover of staff, but we look after our teams very well.
It’s really important that your team has one-to- one coaching, mentoring and that you develop those team members, and they also understand the vision and where the company is going.
During recent months, where we know that things are getting tight, we’ve made sure that everyone is spoken to together and that everyone understands the direction we’re going, the things that we’ve had to cut back on, what we need our teams to focus on.
As a company, we’ve reviewed lots of processes, where we can reduce costs, where we can improve services to customers.
JP: It’s about engaging people in conversations about what else you can do to help them. Is it
ZK: If you look at people, products and processes, the one thing you’ve got throughout is communication. People respond to how you communicate, if you do it badly, they’ll walk out of the door. They might have a tough job, but they’ll get on with it and they’ll do it well if you communicate with them well. Also, its about how you listen to them. How you effect change by taking what they’re saying into account.
LW: It’s values and wellbeing. That’s a massive part of business nowadays, especially after Covid. People are talking about their feelings what’s affecting them, and it’s how you listen to that and how you help them.
When it comes to values it should be a bottom- up approach. Don’t set the values, let your people design them.
It is all about agility, and the most innovative ideas also come from the bottom, not the top. The people that are working day in, day out on your processes, they’re the ones that’ll go, ‘I can do it better, this will work better, this will probably save you money doing it like this.’ It’s listening to them.
AR: Communication is key, but we’ve got to cut out the admin that people do not want to do. They don’t want to be entering data on stations around the factory that no one needs to know about, so we’ve got to find out what’s needed and what isn’t.
You’ve got to value staff and you’ve got to do it in a way that they realise they’re being valued. It has to be real. Give them a future, develop them as people and as workers.
PA: People have diversified, they’ve been resilient, they’ve moved on, they know what they’ve got to do and they’re just getting on with it.
They’re trying to give each other work, they are networking again, getting together, meeting each other, and that’s great. People are resilient. They aren’t moaning about rising costs like containers, they’re just getting on with it.
Would you like to see your business grow?
So would we.
Find out how our funded growth support service can help your business. Call our team today.
Call 0800 488 0057
or visit
boostbusinesslancashire.co.uk
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