A Talent Plan for Your Business Growth: As Essential as Your Strategic Business Plan
Read time: 5 mins Added: 20/09/2023
You wouldn’t dream of not having a well-thought-out plan for business growth – but expanding your team is typically key to delivering increased turnover, and it requires the same level of intelligent focus as a solid business plan does.
The UK's talent landscape is changing. A Gatsby Foundation survey1. of 502 small UK businesses highlights recruitment (43%) as a pressing concern, second only to rising costs (51%). Understanding 'why' and 'how' drives business success, so what are the critical components of a good strategy to buy and grow the skills you need?
While the UK's talent scene appears volatile, you can create your own roadmap. Align your hiring plan and skills development strategy with foundational principles, and you'll navigate the evolving market seamlessly.
Charting Your Course: 3 Essential Tips
1. Skill Development: Use free resources like LinkedIn Learning for spontaneous skill upgrades. Invest in affordable but powerful learning platforms (there are many options, simply search for “cloud-based Learning Management Software small business”). These platforms start from as little as a few pounds per employee per month and enable you to create your own training content, redraft generic content to suit your needs, and provide standardised training and development for your team.
This approach is key for knowledge retention and great in sectors where compliance assurance is important. You can also look at options for relevant apprenticeship programmes or collaborate with colleges or providers for bespoke courses for larger requirements.
2. Adopt Flexibility: The broader your flexibility, the larger the talent pool. Reconsider any hesitations against remote or hybrid models, especially for niche skills. Remember that hybrid still restricts access to within a commuting radius of your locations, so while it will widen your pool further by including people who don’t want 100% office-based, it won’t provide the breadth of pool that fully remote could.
3. Diverse Outreach: Initiate programs to source talent across different backgrounds. Research what you offer as an employer that might appeal to different demographics, ensuring alignment with their needs where possible through some quick research. It’s also important to be authentic in broadcasting that message.
Your approach to talent shouldn’t be isolated to leadership discussions. It needs to mirror your mission, ethos, and desired brand identity.
By aligning recruitment, skills development, and retention with your core 'why', you're not just striving for success but establishing a strategic business advantage over competitors who are working in a reactive way to manage their skills acquisition.
1.Recruitment concerns for small businesses – SME Business News
The information contained in this article is for general purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal or professional advice. You should seek specialist advice should you have specific queries. This article is prepared by/based on information from third parties and is believed to be correct. However, neither Bank of Scotland plc nor its employees, officers or agents warrants its accuracy or completeness or accepts responsibility for any losses or damages whatsoever caused by reliance on information contained in this article.