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Our annual Keyline conference, which took place in February this year, covered all areas of our business, recapping to colleagues what happened in 2021 and outlining how we’re looking forward to a bright 2022 with our Focus Connect Grow approach.
A highlight from the fantastic content was by Regional Director for the South, Christina Dell, who spoke about recruitment and our investment in people. It was amazing to hear that there were 215 new starters in 2021 alone.
With the business continuing to grow, Christina laid out Keyline’s plans to increase the number of colleagues completing apprenticeship schemes in the business from 21 in 2021 to 150 in 2022:
“This year we want to increase the number of apprentices significantly and there are many good reasons for this. One is staff retention; those who join us on an apprenticeship are 50% more likely to stay with us than those who don’t, an amazing statistic, which is one very good reason for increasing the number of apprentices."
“Then, we want at least 25% of new starters to join us on an apprenticeship scheme and this in turn will lead to more of those colleagues staying with Keyline. As market leaders, we know we can make a difference.”
The business also had success with colleagues joining from the Government Kickstart scheme. As Christina outlined, “We had 10 new starters joining us on the Kickstart scheme in 2021 and five are still with us as full time colleagues. The great thing here is they’ve come from very different backgrounds and with different previous experience than we’ve attracted in the past, which can only be a positive for the business.”
There were also 60 internal promotions in 2021 illustrating the career progression on offer. It’s great to see so many colleagues furthering their careers with us, and that we’re retaining staff.
Engaging and retaining colleagues is the lifeblood of any business and Regional Director for the North, Gary Turner, spoke about the Keyline Employee Survey, Your Voice Our Future we implemented in 2021. Gary was very honest, not only highlighting positive colleague feedback, but also being alert to those areas colleagues felt needed addressing. As he said, “We wanted you to tell us how you were feeling; you did that and we listened and though there were many positives, there were negatives too.”
Positives included 96% of respondents understanding how to deliver great service and 93% feeling connected to Keyline’s success and understanding how their work contributed to it; but there were areas which needed improvement as Gary explained, “We’ve chosen five key areas, which were highlighted in the Your Voice Our Future survey to focus on for improvement and implemented a Working Group, to learn lessons and to support colleagues in improving those areas where there’s room for change.”
Good to see our business responding so swiftly and listening to colleagues.
It’s important that we listen and that colleagues know they’re heard. To grow, our business needs to be agile and adaptable. That's why it’s so important for us to keep everyone abreast of developments and for us to keep listening to all our colleagues.