Businesses benefit from nurturing internal talent
Businesses throughout the UK are reaping the rewards of promoting from within, rather than looking to external candidates to fill roles.
The Rocket Marketing Group are a Brighton-based company that specialise in creating loyalty and membership programmes, sales promotions and consumer rewards. The company’s dedication to developing a culture of employee development that emphasises training, support and internal promotion has led to a substantial growth in incremental revenue over the last three years.
Alan Saunders, Operations and Marketing Director for Rocket, says that employee development has been one of the keystones of the company’s development.
He says: ‘It’s something that we’ve always done. As our business grows, we want people to grow with it, so as well as mentoring staff, we have brought in external trainers and provided support to help our employees develop skills in different roles.’
With many companies struggling to motivate their staff during difficult economic times, internal promotions and enlarging employee job scopes can help send the message that hard work will be rewarded with progression up the career ladder. Businesses can also develop a strong sense of staff loyalty, as employees feel they are working for a company that cares about their future, which can be vital for when the economy picks up.
However developing staff for promotion requires more than simply alerting them to upcoming roles. Promoting staff who lack the skills to succeed in a given role, or who are unprepared for an increased workload can be harmful both to the business, and to the employees career.
Alan is keen to point out that internal applicants need to have the right skills to succeed in the first place.
He says: ‘We do look externally and often measure candidates here against applicants from outside. It’s about seeing something in someone that you can nurture and bring on, and once they are in that position, we give them all the support they need.’
As more firms start to recognise the value in looking internally for candidates with the experience required to hit the ground running, the need for employee training at all levels is paramount. With this in mind, many savvy businesses are also providing an increased level of support for staff who are looking to develop their skills both in and out of the office.
The Rocket Marketing Group is no exception, and has been supporting staff who are juggling work and study commitments by developing a flexible working environment, and encouraging staff to develop their skills in the classroom.
Janine Riddell, who works as a Customer Service Administrator at The Rocket Marketing Group, is also studying a level 2 NVQ in Customer Service at Brighton College. She says that the support provided by Rocket Marketing has made a big difference.
She says: ‘I’ve been given time to work on college modules while at Rocket, they’ve been really flexible. I do most of the work in my own time, but Rocket have done things like letting me have meetings with my tutors in the office, rather than going into college to do it.’
In fact, Ms Riddell says that it was her work with Rocket that inspired her to develop her skills further through study. She also believes the company will benefit from giving her the help and support she needs to develop her skills.
‘It’s been great. If I wasn’t working here, I probably wouldn’t have found out about the NVQ in the first place. It’s beneficial to them to have someone with a qualification like that, and I think it builds loyalty between staff and the company because it makes me them feel they are being invested in.’
With support from Rocket, Janine has already passed three of her NVQ exams, achieving a distinction in the Technical Certificate section, and is now looking forward to putting the skills and experience developed in the classroom to use. The Rocket Marketing Group hopes that their continual support will help employee development both in their working life, and beyond.
As Alan says: ‘I’ve always said to people, if we can nurture you and help you grow, and you leave Rocket a better person, then I’ve done my job.’
