Blog - Excelarate

Jul122022 by Christine YoungNo Comments

Self-Awareness

Brochure

We all have blind spots, we may even carry a deep-rooted unconscious bias of which we are blissfully unaware. As a leader, we not only need to understand others, but more importantly, we need to really know ourselves. Self-awareness is critical when understanding how others may see or engage with us. The pathway to being more self-aware is not just about self-reflection, it often involves other people and asking for feedback. “But where do I start? Is it healthy to open that pandora’s box? What will people think about me? Am I opening myself to judgement and criticism?” These are all-natural fears and barriers that could stop us from pursuing true enlightenment. That is why it is essential to engage someone you trust to have your…

Mar232022 by Christine YoungNo Comments

Red flags that indicate your top performers are about to quit

Brochure

Top performers. Every company has them. They're the ones who bill more, go the extra mile for the company to succeed, and demonstrate significant behaviours and values. It would be best to keep them achieving and hitting the company goals. But they might not be performing the way they used to? How would you recognise if they are unhappy or looking elsewhere? Are your companies' top performers showing any of these signs? It might be time to take notes and investigate. Lost the meaning of work It's clear the top performers are an asset to the company, but if they can't understand how they contribute, this can be an issue and cause them to lose meaning in their work. Employees should understand their position in the company but sometimes…

Mar12022 by Christine YoungNo Comments

Hybrid Working – Start with the end in mind

Recruitment, Wellbeing

Did the COVID pandemic force you into hybrid working overnight with little time for planning and preparation? If you are still considering your longer-term options you would do well to heed the advice of Stephen Covey to “Start with the end in mind”. This might be more than one thing, like saving money, retaining staff and ensuring good customer service…. it could be a minefield for the unwary. So how can you do this successfully? In 2014 I was part of a project team responsible for moving hundreds of employees who were office-based over to hybrid working. The skilled workforce had to be retained and customers could not see any impact on service. Lessons learnt were as follows: Spend a significant amount of time talking to managers about their teams…

Dec132021 by Christine YoungNo Comments

Wellbeing – What can you do about it right now?

Wellbeing

The definition of well-being…… “the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy,” BUT is this what people really mean when they talk about “Well-being-”? There is a confusing proliferation of items discussed under the umbrella of Well-being issues”. CIPD research shows that the main risks to employee health are now psychological, with mental ill-health and stress being two of the top three causes of long-term absences. If you are an employer, you should be paying close attention to this as this could seriously damage the health of your business, you also have a duty of care for the physical and mental health and well-being of your workforce. So, what can you do about it? Be observant If you are in the office, take a look around. If you are at home,…

Aug192021 by Christine YoungNo Comments

Why Rejected Internal Candidates End Up Quitting

Recruitment

Internal job applicants who are rejected end up quitting. Applicants are nearly two times as likely to leave their organisations compared to those who were either hired for an internal job or had not applied for a new job at all. So why is this? There is no better sigh of relief when hiring manager’s see the resume of an outstanding internal candidate land on their desk as they can fill the job immediately. The reason for this, current employees know the organisation, they require less coddling to get up to speed. There is no extra cost of external recruitment, making it cost-effective. It also promotes to other internal employees that they have the opportunity to develop within the organisation, making employees stay long term. Manager's can expect to receive an…

Aug182021 by June WalkerNo Comments

Building High Performing Teams

Our Work

Recently, I have been working on the design framework for one of our new leadership development programmes - “Building High Performing Teams.” While discussing with the client their objectives, expectations, and the impact they expected to see from our course, I found myself reflecting on my own journey of employing and developing some highly effective and successful teams. It wasn't easy. My first role as a Sales Manager (many years ago) was a role I inherited by being the most successful salesperson in the company for 4 years running. Back in the early ’90s if you excelled at something it was a natural progression to becoming a manager with the expectations that those you managed would be as successful as you. There was no training or support given on how…

Feb122021 by Anne-Marie HamillNo Comments

Our Next Big Challenge – Employee Wellbeing

Wellbeing

With the pandemic ongoing and a vaccination programme now being rolled-out most of us will be thinking about the future of our businesses, although we are still in the grip of Covid-19, it does feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel. But the question is, what will be the legacy of this year of social and physical lockdown and the fear, uncertainty and anxiety that we have all experienced? Employee wellbeing will I am sure, figure highly in what we do next. As part of our recent Engagement Survey programmes with a number of our clients across every sector, we have noticed an increase in concern amongst employees about their well-being. On average of all employees surveyed one third believe that recent events have adversely affected…

Nov272020 by Anne-Marie HamillNo Comments

Role Clarity – Our Survey

Our Work

Over the last few months, we have been working with a number of clients, reviewing the results of their employee surveys. The survey asked all employees to comment on eight critical areas for any business: Wellbeing; Communication; Role Clarity; Leadership; Business Direction; Culture; Flexibility; Business Direction. The organisations who participated come from a variety of industry sectors including manufacturing and professional services they have achieved between 78% and 100% participation levels, clearly their employees want their voices to be heard. So there is a strong chance that yours do too. We have combined the responses from each organisation to look for interesting trends, identifying key issues that might be useful for employers to review within their own organisation. Over the next few weeks, I want to share some of the…

Nov122020 by June WalkerNo Comments

Unconscious Bias in the Workplace

Recruitment

We try to be as objective as we possibly can when making those important decisions, especially when these relate to work. But we are human, we are all subject to unconscious bias in one way or another, but the more we are aware of this, the more we can potentially mitigate it. What is Unconscious Bias? Influences such as our background, our experiences and even environmental conditions can all play a part in our choices, whether we realise it or not. Most of the time, this is not a major issue, but we display unconscious bias when we begin to favour or discriminate against people because of these influences, without even realising it. Unconscious bias can have a huge impact on people-related decisions at work, especially when it comes to…

Nov52020 by June WalkerNo Comments

Mental Health Support During a Winter Lockdown

Wellbeing

For many of us, one of the only things that made the lockdown manageable and bearable, was the blue skies and sunshine over the last few months – and as the lockdown measures started to lift we were able to enjoy, to an extent, dining with our friends and family members, picnics in the park, and even holidays abroad. Now, the announcement of a second lockdown in England and the introduction of a tier system across Scotland through winter, how can we protect our mental health? Many of us dread the winter months with the shorter days and colder weather, and that was before we were dealing with a global pandemic and the prospect of a lockdown. However, we can take some lessons from countries like Norway, who go without…