With the ongoing war for talent, one of the top priorities for any business should be their people and a great retention strategy is investing in their capability which ultimately, creates a successful business.

“In this job market you have to grow your own people, you need to be growing from within,” explains Tina Rose, Director of workplace training provider Education Unlimited. “It’s about supporting your people to strengthen their skills, empowering them to be the best they can be in their current roles, and also unlocking their potential to advance into other roles within your organisation.”

Tina and her team are experts in bringing out the best in people. They create bespoke training programmes, specifically designed to address each organisation’s unique needs. Need to improve literacy and numeracy levels within your team? Have some aspiring leaders you want to nurture? Want to boost employees’ digital capabilities or enhance workplace wellbeing? They do all that and more.

But how do you figure out what training to invest in, and what will have the most powerful impact?

“If an organisation is going to commit to investing in their people they really need to understand where they’re at. Then the training chosen is more strategic and not reliant on assumptions or particular opinions,” says Tina.

“When we start working with a business, the first thing we do is a learning stocktake (a.k.a. a needs analysis). It’s basically like taking a photo – it’s a snapshot of your workforce and gives us a really clear picture of where your people are at, both in regard to their core skills and also their appetite for training.

“We help companies identify the gold in their workforce – if you want to grow your workforce and develop your people, the only way to do that is to know who your people are and what motivates them. Once we’ve completed a learning stocktake, we have a really clear roadmap of what’s needed, and whether people are open to it.”

One of the many advantages of engaging Education Unlimited is that as objective outsiders, they’re able to elicit honest feedback from employees throughout the process. They’ll also work closely with managers and supervisors to ensure minimal disruption, and support employers to access any funding they may be eligible for.

One organisation that’s recently completed a learning stocktake is Finesse, a residential construction company focused on building strong and sustainable communities. As a business deeply committed to investing in its people, teaming up with Education Unlimited was an easy choice.

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“Investing in people makes great sense on so many levels,” says Finesse Corporate Services Manager Lisa Stafford. “If our people are happy, engaged and successful at work, it creates a positive ripple effect throughout our entire business. Longer term we want to be an employer of choice in this industry and continue to provide a great work environment.”

Having worked with Education Unlimited before, Lisa was “confident in their ability to engage with our people and help us create an amazing development experience”. And she wasn’t disappointed. After interviewing and assessing the entire Finesse workforce, Education Unlimited was able to identify skills gaps and develop training programmes that directly targeted these gaps. Literacy and numeracy were highlighted as key areas needing support – a result that came as no surprise to Lisa.

“I’m fully aware of the challenges in the construction industry around literacy and numeracy, and it has been interesting to see that residential build is no different to contracting in New Zealand. We will start with a literacy and numeracy programme and are delighted to have secured funding with Education Unlimited support. More companies should provide literacy and numeracy support. We hire the whole person and with this comes an opportunity to support people to be more confident and make big changes in their lives, both professionally and personally.”

The Education Unlimited learning stocktake has given Finesse a valuable snapshot of their workforce, and the knowledge they need to make training and development decisions for 2023 and beyond.

Adds Lisa, “This process has helped us to reflect on how we deliver information, particularly safety messaging and risk management.  The results are also contributing to the work being done around career planning, team development and succession planning.”

So before you launch into upskilling your people, take a leaf out of Finesse’s book and lay the right foundations. Take stock now and you’ll be well positioned for success.

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