The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 32: Aug/Sept 2017 | Page 36

BUSINESS ADVICE WHAT MAKES A WINNING TEAM? To complement our Top 100 feature (pages 18-20), we asked Emma Summers, managing director of leading South West recruitment company Juice Recruitment for her advice on creating a winning team. Established in 1998, Juice Recruitment is now in its 19th year. It started with just two members of staff in a small office in Bath and now directly employs 26 members of staff and over 350 temporary employees across the South West. As well as its Bath headquarters, the firm now has branches in Bristol, Cheltenham, Trowbridge and their latest addition, Swindon. Emma who runs the company alongside her husband Andrew said: “A CEO of a very successful business once said to me- ‘surround yourself with exceptional people with drive and determination, just like yourself.’ I believe the key to a winning team is leadership, a common goal, a thorough plan and ensuring you have 100% involvement and inclusion from everyone in the business. “In a market where there is such a candidate shortage, investing in the retention of your staff is key. I believe wholeheartedly in looking after my team, recognising their contribution and achievement and rewarding their hard work. At Juice we impress the importance of staff recognition and reward upon our IN THE TOP 100? How to move your business to the next level clients. It’s an integral part of creating a successful business. “At Juice, the team always gets together sociably, every quarter to recognise both individual and branch achievements. Congratulating Juice members for their great contribution. This along with annual trips away, wind up Mondays over breakfast and wine down Fridays with drinks, is the real essence to maintaining a fun and vibrant culture and spirit of the organisation.” by Tony Botterill, Leading Lights Making it into the Top 100 businesses is a fantastic achievement and accolade. Motivation of staff is high, customers are singing your praises and competitors want to know your secret. So what’s next? How do you take your company to the next level and achieve even greater results? A significant factor in answering this question is the degree to which you really know your company and your people. The engine room of any business is the workforce and their capability and performance makes the absolute difference. It is they who are aware, within their own department, function or division, what’s working, what is not, the big issues and challenges impacting performance, and what ideas might lead to the next best-selling product. How do you go about harnessing this incredible potential? You will need to deploy a mechanism that enables you to collect this extremely valuable insight in such a way that the process itself is painless, efficient and rapid. Conducted in confidence, it should enable all involved to freely draw on their experiences within the business and to openly share their perceptions and opinions of the company, its leaders, its teams and other key stakeholders. An evidence-based approach is the most 36 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2017 effective way to take the ‘performance pulse’ of any organisation. Areas to explore include your vision, purpose and strategic direction; how you collectively lead, plan and communicate; the extent of your confidence and commitment; your accountability, culture and morale. “The engine room of any business is the workforce and their capability and performance makes the absolute difference” Once data is captured, trust in your staff’s ability by fully involving them in the analysis and reporting process. A facilitated workshop offers a superb environment for them to immerse themselves in the findings, engage in animated discussion to bring the issues and challenges to life and identify performance improvement priorities to be implemented. They will surprise you! This process, delivered effectively, can quickly generate alignment, momentum and results that dramatically increase success. Done well, the ROI of such an approach is off the scale and will pave the way for sustainable performance improvement for years to come. Leading Lights specialise in diagnostic assessment and performance improvement for organisations seeking to develop high performing leaders, teams and businesses. We provide expert coaching and hands-on support during critical transitions where failure is not an option. E8 DIAGNOSTIC For more info: www.leadinglights.com [email protected] 01672 540480