Leadership and management
Thriving at Work – Better Connect
Thriving at Work can help your business to recruit and retain staff as well as increase productivity by creating a working environment where all employees can thrive. This project has a particular focus on supporting inclusive workplaces. Flexible delivery is through specialist coaching, mentoring and training as well as lunchtime webinars and 1-to-1 support.
For more information follow this link or contact Emma Lyons, Thriving at Work Programme Manager via elyons@betterconnect.org.uk
For more information, visit: https://betterconnect.org.uk/our-projects/thriving-at-work/
The video below showcases the amazing work done by The Blue Dolphin Holiday Park near Filey with the support of Autism Plus to make their workplace inclusive for neurodiverse staff.
*Thriving at Work is funded by the European Social Fund and is managed nationally by the Department for Work and Pensions.
Careers Enterprise Company
Work with us to connect to your future workforce
We recruit high calibre volunteers from business to support schools and colleges to develop relationships between businesses and schools and to support young people with their career pathways.
If you are an employer who is looking for a dynamic way to ‘connect’ with young people, then get in touch.
How does it benefit your business?
- Builds skills and expertise in your employees, managers and leaders.
- Develop your corporate social responsibility to include an emphasis on education or provide more focus and structure to your recruitment strategy.
- Boost business and employee moral by making a real difference to the lives of young people through mentoring schemes, work placements and structured projects.
This Programme is part funded by the European Social Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.
Aspire2Lead
Run by The Opportunity Centre the Aspire2lead project can offer management and leadership support to businesses who want to lead by example and adopt gender inclusive policies and procedures with the aim to attract and build a more diverse workforce.
You can get help with:
- Supporting female staff returning to work from a career break, adapting job roles to provide more flexibility, or offering part-time roles
- Gender pay gap analysis activities to identify how your business deals with recruitment, promotion and staff development, and tackling specific business challenges/barriers to reduce gender pay issues
- Organisational Transformation which allows your business to examine and understand the impact of your working practices and environment on recruitment, retention, and progression of women
- Designing and delivering Sponsorship Programmes which you’re your senior male colleagues with junior female colleagues to champion their progression within your business
- Tackling Gender Stereotypes- Targeting SMEs in male-dominated sectors to design and deliver on action plans that address gender imbalance issues and increase the number of women within the workforce and in senior positions.
This Programme is part funded by the European Social Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.
Business Scale Up Programme
The Business Scale Up Programme can help SMEs realise their growth ambitions by supporting leaders and managers with flexible and tailored training and coaching that will;
- Provide online or face-to-face sessions in topics such as improving productivity, leadership coaching and feedback courses and learning when to ‘lead’ your team and when to ‘manage’ it.
- Support Strategy & Planning systems – to identify performance/gaps, create or review short, medium or long term business goals, develop a strategic action plan to deliver growth with guidance on implementation, roll out and review.
- Embed HR systems and processes that will enhance your ability to meet regulatory requirements around inclusive and supportive working environments. This includes support with, for example, addressing workplace bullying and harassment, diversity training and effective approaches to performance management.
In order to be eligible for support through this Programme you must:
- have business premises in the York, North Yorkshire, East Riding region (Craven, Harrogate, Hambleton, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough, Selby, York)
- be a Small to Medium Enterprise (SME): employ fewer than 250 full time equivalent staff and have either a turnover of less than €50 million, or a balance sheet of less than €43 million
Access more information on the website.
40% funding is available towards a range of training and/or consultancy from our Specialist Skills Providers.
This part of the programme is part funded by the European Social Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.
Help to Grow: Management
The Help to Grow: Management course supports managers of SMEs to boost their business’ performance, resilience and long-term growth.
The 12 week programme can be completed alongside full-time work and follows an in-depth curriculum that will help you build your skills in leadership, innovation, digital areas, employee engagement, marketing, responsible business and financial management. By the end of the course, you will have created a business growth plan to help you lead your business to release its full potential.
The cost to attend this course is 90% government funded.
By the end of the course, you will:
- Develop a Growth Action Plan uniquely tailored to helping you lead and grow your business.
- Develop your leadership and management skills, enhancing employee wellbeing and engagement in the process.
- Recognise what drives productivity and growth in your market.
- Learn how to drive responsible business practices, including creating an inclusive and greener workplace.
- Understand how to innovate your business model by investing in digital technology.
- Develop strategies to improve efficiency and save time and money.
For more information on these programmes, get in touch and we’ll connect you to the expertise and resources you need.
Articles
Help is one call away: how the Growth Hub helpdesk can support you
Are you thinking about starting, growing, or scaling your business? Hear about how the Growth Hub helpdesk can help you by providing the latest business support, tailored to your needs.
New support for York and North Yorkshire businesses as leading regional media figure joins the Growth Hub
Mike Pennington, a familiar name in the UK media industry, has recently joined the York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub as a Business Relationship Manager. In 2023, he'll be bringing his expertise to businesses in our region and connecting them with the Made Smarter scheme.
York, North Yorkshire and East Riding employers urged not to miss out on free skills training
Employers across York, North Yorkshire and East Riding are being reminded that it’s their last chance to take advantage of free training and support through the Skills Support for the Workforce Programme before the it ends in March 2023.
Events
15th February 20239:00 am - 5:00 pmFREE
15 Feb - Harrogate Co-Lab: Business Support Drop-In Session
This free drop-in service based in Harrogate can help answer your questions and direct you to relevant business support, resources and programmes.
22nd February 20239:00 am - 4:30 pmFREE
22 Feb - Pitching Perfectly - To win new business
Are you a small to medium sized food or drink business that wants to win more business and need to plan the perfect pitch? This full day workshop will help you understand what buyers are looking for and give you the confidence to pitch to them.
01st March 20234:00 pm - 6:00 pmFREE
1 March - Ian Howard- The Enterprise Growth Roadmap
In this two-hour session, Ian Howard will introduce The Enterprise Growth Roadmap. Regardless of where you are at right now, whether you are just launching your business, trying to make sense of the number of opportunities available to you or looking to attract external investment, the Enterprise Growth Roadmap Planning Workshop will help you create a framework to develop your own growth strategy together with some simple steps to help you implement it.
Resources
Glossary of Climate Change Terms for Businesses
A free digital glossary defining the key climate change terms relevant to businesses, to help you understand and engage with sustainability resources and support.
2022 Seminar Recordings
We have recently hosted a programme of in-person seminars and other events, some of which were professionally recorded and can now be viewed on our website.
Seminar Recording : Access to finance: Funding growth
This workshop will provide guidance on cost based pricing, calculating your costs before deciding an appropriate margin, as well as covering market based pricing asking questions such as: What value do you add? What are you worth? How do you position yourself?
