If your employees tend to work individually or lack vital communication skills, it may be worth taking the time to implement a number of company-wide changes. It can be difficult to know where to begin if you are unfamiliar with promoting good collaboration amongst employees but by familiarising yourself with a number of helpful tips and tricks, you can enhance teamwork in your workplace and create a happy and healthy working environment for everyone involved going forward. Build diverse teams It can be tempting to build teams of employees based on their shared skills, knowledge, or experience, but by building diverse teams, you can ensure your workforce bonds on a deeper level and forms long-lasting friendships that may also exist outside of work. This is because a group of employees with varying backgrounds and histories are far more likely to bring new and fresh ideas to the table as opposed to a group of like-minded individuals or employees that are already familiar with one another inside or outside of work. This can potentially lead to a wider range of perspectives and, as a result, a diverse approach to decision-making on important projects or within the entire business as a whole. Organise non-work events If you are committed to enhancing teamwork in your workplace, it may benefit you to organise non-work events on a regular basis to encourage employees to get to know one another on a deeper level, communicate in a non-work environment, and discuss topics unrelated to work. It can be done in a number of ways but is most commonly done by scheduling team-building events, organising days out, and planning office Christmas parties. This is especially important if your employees work from home or across a number of different departments with little to no opportunity to collaborate or engage outside of work. Reorganise teams on a regular basis It may seem disruptive or even cruel but by reorganising teams on a regular basis, you can ensure the individual skills, strengths, and weaknesses of team members complement one another and, essentially, enhance teamwork in your workplace. If certain employees are struggling to get on with one another or power dynamics are a common problem, it may be worth rotating team members on a regular basis until you form successful teams that are capable of working together to achieve a common goal. This can have a substantial impact on productivity and morale in the workplace and may even lead to greater profits in the long run. Provide learning opportunities In order to enhance teamwork in your workplace, you must provide relevant learning opportunities if and when necessary. This can ensure all employees and trained and up to date on any company-wide changes and allow you to provide them with the chance to sharpen their existing skills on an ongoing basis. It may sound like an obvious point, but you would be surprised at how far proper training and guidance can go in maximising the benefits of working together as a team. In addition to enhancing teamwork, hosting guest speakers and relevant seminars may also enhance employee job satisfaction and engagement and ensure they understand the importance of becoming a valuable team member both inside and outside of work. If you are looking to enhance teamwork in your workplace, there are a number of steps you can take. This includes building teams of diverse employees, organising non-work events throughout the year, reorganising teams on a regular basis, and providing learning opportunities. By doing so, you can produce greater results and ensure employees are happy and productive whilst at work.

It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.  It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years. Here we speak to Jason Hercock, Andrew McFarlane Holt and Trevor Wells, Directors at Chartered Surveyors and Property Consultants, Wells McFarlane, who present their views on the future of the office, industrial and land markets in 2022. “The office market remains very competitive, especially for premises that have a high specification and therefore represent better value, and I don’t see this diminishing in 2022,” explains Jason Hercock. “What we’ve seen recently is businesses reflecting on how they use the space they occupy and to what extent it’s fit for purpose. Decisions that may have been parked last year are now being made with more confidence, as firms have a year’s experience and working patterns have emerged. “How this translates is that there is a definite need for designated office space, somewhere tangible that ensures the identity of a business is retained. Out of city spaces, with open plan, flexible layouts and private parking are hugely desirable, perhaps also as they are accessible without commuting on crowded public transport. “Similarly, small to medium sized offices will remain sought-after, as firms look to downsize and provide environments better suited to flexible working arrangements.” Andrew McFarlane Holt expects the industrial sector to perform equally strongly. “Demand is completely outstripping supply and this won’t change over the next 12 months,” he said. “Rents and capital values are also increasing – both indications of a healthy 2022. The industrial/logistics sector has been one of the big beneficiaries of the pandemic, particularly for businesses specialising in light manufacturing, home improvements, technology and online retail. “What’s happening now is new industries such as TV and film production, streaming services and even modular home developers are looking to secure high volume space and this means good quality stock is hard to find – more speculative development is urgently needed. “On the positive side, so much development in this sector, especially in the Midlands with the expansion of Magna Park, has considerably strengthened the local economy and created ample employment opportunities, which we expect to continue through 2022.” The land market faces a similar scenario, as Trevor Wells outlines: “Appetite for land of all types is extremely high and prices have performed well as available parcels are in such short supply. “Land continues to be seen as a safe investment, especially as Capital Gains Tax was not altered in the Autumn Budget. Strategic land is much sought-after due to increasing pressures for housing stock and industrial uses, and commercial land is now actively competing with residential land. “We’re still waiting to see the full impact of the Planning Bill that was announced in The Queen’s Speech so hopefully further details on the new categories for land will emerge in 2022 and accelerate viable options.”

It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.  It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years. Here we speak to James Wallis, owner of Aristotle Financial Planning in Derby. Quite apart from the high levels continued sales, mergers and acquisitions that we have been dealing with, thanks to owners approaching their retirement, the pandemic, unsurprisingly, continued to have a big effect on the way we work – and who we worked with – during the year. It has encouraged more people to launch start-ups and also to reassess their lives and changes in circumstances, which has seen them making bigger financial decisions than they might otherwise have taken. In particular, we made more use of technology in order to overcome remote working during lockdown but behind the scenes the software we use to do our work has come on in leaps and bounds in 2021. That will help us enormously next year and will be a game-changer by allowing us to operate more efficiently, which means that financial advisers will be able to take on clients with less wealth who previously would not have been financially viable.