— You will hear five short recordings about improvements in the workplace.— For

Growth for a new business like ours can be as much of a problem as a positive. You’re struggling to keep up on all fronts, and the people side of things can be a real headache. What we do is rather specialised, which means you can’t just take people on as and when you need them. That’s why making the skills building sessions available to more people was a good idea, as it means we can grow expertise internally.

If we want to stick to our plan for growth, then we have to make sure that we retain staff. We certainly can’t afford to keep taking on new people and training them up. I think we were right to drop the purely financial rewards for meeting targets - people are as interested in long-term security as in cash. But the prospect of moving up to the new team leader level seems to be a stronger incentive - a good decision.