The region’s fastest growing business of 2018, The NBT Group, is urging North East scale ups to put staff wellbeing at the heart of their future expansion plans.
After investing £500,000 earlier in the year and achieving its 2018 target turnover of £20m, Toby Bridges, CEO of the supply chain management company, has ensured staff care and wellbeing are a core pillar of the company’s growth plan.
Each year the company sets aside 10% of its annual profits to train and develop employees, cementing one of the company’s core values of staff care, which has been instrumental in its recent recognition as the North East’s fastest Scale Up business.
With a workforce of over 50 staff, and further recruitment on the horizon, Toby is keen for other businesses in the region to follow suit and put staff central to their scale up strategy in 2019.
Further demonstrating the company’s commitment to staff care, The NBT Group has also implemented a bespoke programme with wellbeing coach Bethany Ainsley offering monthly workshops and advice to staff on everything from financial wellbeing to nourishing the mind and body.
Toby Bridges, CEO of The NBT Group, said: “Our staff are instrumental to our growth – they are what keeps the wheel turning and we take great care to ensure we are offering the right kind of support; not just the right training and development for them as individuals but also the right physical, mental, social and professional support. This can be via anything from workshops, one-to-one training, newsletters to external speakers, and all within the working day.
“Our senior management team has worked hard to embed a culture of mentoring and have adopted an ‘Agile’ approach within the business to encourage autonomous working, which has seen our people come on in leaps and bounds.
“To any fellow North East business looking to scale my advice would be don’t overlook the importance of investing in your people, they are your most powerful asset and are what sets you apart from the rest.
“We have learned a lot of lessons along the way – good and bad – and I’m keen to speak to anyone facing growth challenges in their business, such as staff wellbeing and retention on their path to growth.”
