Help to Grow Management Course

Queen's Business School hosted a Help to Grow: Management Course alumni event at their campus in Riddell Hall.

As part of this conference, Laura and Andrew Ussher, Director and Founder of Focused on Data Limited, both of whom completed the Help to Grow program in 2023, took part in a panel with the topic being Business Best Practice.

Laura and Andrew shared their experiences of changing and shaping culture within their firms, recruiting and developing talent, and building strong, loyal teams through trust, flexibility, and training.

Laura & Andrew discussed the challenges of creating and changing cultures within organizations. Laura talked about changing culture at Stephen Clarke Consulting, introducing new policies, flexible working practices, and recruiting a new generation of talent. Andrew reflected on the process of starting his business, forming and growing a team unique to his industry and organisation
 
Both Laura & Andrew spoke about the challenges of recruiting high quality staff and a competitive labour market, and the limitations of traditional recruitment and selection processes. To address these challenges, they refocused their approaches, targeting potential employees at an earlier stage in their careers, for example through placements, visits to schools, programs such as JobStart and exploring networks. This also allowed them to select potential employees based on cultural fit with the organization
 
Both Andrew and Laura discussed different approaches to building a strong loyal team within their organizations. For Andrew, this involved mentoring and support to grow employees and build a sense of family within the team. For Laura, this included listening and working with employees to create a collective identity, bridging generational gaps. Building trust through give and take was key in this process. Laura cited the organisation's founder whose adage is to “train employees so they are good enough to leave, but treat employees well enough so they stay”