In every issue of Skip and Waste Magazine, on page 9, Kiverco’s team answers questions about world-class engineering and how, by thinking big, we all make big things happen.
The feature is called ASK KIVERCO.
In issue one (June 2023), Anne McKiver, Kiverco Director, answered two people-focused questions.
Here’s the first of them.
Question 1. Businesses that make great promises, need great people. What do you think are the best ways to recruit and keep the best people?
I personally spend a lot of time thinking about this. Because we don’t always get things right with recruitment. Or how we bond and focus our existing team. Most businesses could be better at this.
Let me talk about how we try our best to engage our existing team, first. Here’s an example of how we got this wrong – then reacted to put it right straight away.
30 Years.
Just recently we put our 30 Year Company Brochure together. It’s a neat document. An easy read. Yes, it focuses on product and manufacture, of course. But it highlights our ambition too. Clearly and simply. So that people who want Kiverco to help them understand why we think we’re the only solution to their problem.
“Teams feel more bonded, are driven to achieve better things, and stay together longer when they feel they’re all working towards making the same important change.”
Yet in the same month as we release our 2023 Company Brochure, I have people asking me things about, say, our approach to sustainability. Or precisely how we define customer segments. Or how we prioritise in Aftercare. Things that I know full well are in the Company Brochure. They’ve just not read it.
And that’s my fault – not theirs.
100 People.
So next month our team of 100 will each receive a wee package, from me. A letter, thanking them – by name – for what they do. And the brochure will be in there too.
I think they’ll be proud when they see, in black-and-white, what they – as a team – are achieving.
Teams feel more bonded, are driven to achieve better things, and stay together longer when they feel they’re all working towards making the same important change.
Attracting the Best People To Your Team
Recruitment. That’s hard as well. For me, as a start-point, I think it is our responsibility as business builders and job creators to do two things.
First Things First.
First, we need to create nice places for people to spend their time. After all, we’re asking good, hard working and intelligent people to spend more hours each weekday with us than they do with their kids. So we’d better make things pleasant.
I don’t mean easy. Kiverco is set on creating The World’s Toughest Recycling Plant. That’s not easy. But team members should feel safe, respected, heard, and connected to the overall ambition of the business.
They need to know the part they and their role plays in achieving that ambition.
They Have To Believe What You Believe.
Second, I need to make sure that those exploring joining Kiverco know the change we are trying to make – clearly. Kiverco believe in a world where recycling plant recovers much more, much more accurately and for much longer.
I need to make sure that anyone considering joining our team knows this because, for them to be a good match for Kiverco, they must believe in this too.
And they need to describe, confidently and clearly, how they can help us achieve this change.
“We need to create nice places for people to spend their time.
After all, we’re asking good, hard working and intelligent people to spend more hours each weekday with us than they do with their kids.”
So that’s it for me. Do these two things if you want to recruit and keep the best people.
Create a nice place for people to work.
And help both current and aspiring team members to understand the ambitious change you want to make, and the role they play in making that change.
Kiverco, based in Dungannon in Northern Ireland, is a Recycling Plant designer and manufacturer that is World Famous for creating The World’s Toughest Recycling Plant.
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