LOOKING INTO 2017 - Highly Capable Staff

As we look forward into 2017 we ask our Directors and selection of associates to comment on the year ahead.

In 2017 as in previous years, the availability of highly capable staff is key to the success of any business to business organisation, where the strength of your relationships can make or break your success.
The ticking time bomb that many sectors are facing, where they are seeing a steady ageing of their most skilled staff, will continue along with the challenge they face of attracting the best of the new talent coming into the market – many of whom are being attracted to different employment lifestyles often on offer from newer, more vibrant, hi-tech organisations with more flexible working practices.
In attempt to bring more skilled employees into the workforce, in April 2017, the Government will introduce the apprenticeship levy, with a view to creating millions of apprenticeships across the UK. It is worth noting that whilst at first glance many will see this as only being relevant to large organisations – i.e. those with an annual payroll bill of £3 million or more – an employer with 100 staff on an average salary of £30k p.a. will be in scope.
Whilst this offers great opportunity for larger employers to target some real new development of new employees, there is a danger that the eye (and budget) could be taken off of the development needs of their existing staff, and yet for many employers, it is the development of their next generation of experts that is the burning platform.
Top Tips:

If you don’t know how the new apprenticeship levy will affect your business – take the time to find out. Try and ensure you make use of it rather than just seeing it as an additional tax on your business.
Don’t take your eye off of the wider development needs of staff across your business – whether this be improving sales and relationship management skills, core ‘technical’ skills for your business, or other areas of importance for you.
Don’t put off addressing how you are going to respond to the ageing of your highly skilled employees for another year – make a resolution to get a handle on this in 2017 and get started with a plan
Who are your experts and how much longer might they wish to continue working before retirement
Who are your next generation of experts and what are their current development needs?
How are you going to address these as part of a structure programme?

Author
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Alan Thompson

Director & Head of People Capability at Customer Attuned Ltd

Alan has an in-depth knowledge of capability development with extensive experience of designing and delivering blended training solutions for clients across several industries, making use of online, virtual and traditional classroom training methods.

Alan is a very engaging classroom tutor, and has enjoyed working with a variety of global clients over the past few years to deliver highly successful people development programmes.

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