Becki’s growth journey at JHR Becki started with JHR in January 2016 with 18 months experience under her belt and worked extremely hard to achieve three promotions within her first three years with the Jo Holdsworth Recruitment. Progression Journey: Joined Jo Holdsworth Recruitment as a Recruitment Consultant in January 2016 Promoted to a Senior Consultant in October 2016 Promoted to a Managing Consultant in January 2018 Promoted to Divisional Manager January 2019 Promoted to Company Director January 2020 Promoted to Partner January 2023 Jo Holdsworth says.. Since joining JHR Becki has been hugely successful and has become a pivotal part of our success and growth. It has been a pleasure to see Becki grow during her time with JHR, she has consistently added value by exceeding my expectations time and time again, Becki has high levels of natural commercial acumen and has taken our business forward by influencing a great deal of positive change. Becki is extremely fair and team orientated and always considers the team and the business when making decisions. I am very excited about Becki’s growth at JHR and look forward to our continued partnership and her own personal professional develop ment.

As the war on talent continues companies that can attract and retain the best talent all have one thing in common, psychological safety, but what is it and why is it so important? Dr Amy Edmonson of the Harvard Business Review who originally coined the phrase ‘psychological safety’ shares that psychological safety is the belief that you won't be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. In the workplace, it gives employees the confidence to speak their mind without the fear that their teammates will embarrass or reject them, and it creates an environment which fosters creativity. Psychological safety has a huge impact on how employees feel on Sunday night before returning to work on Monday morning. Organisations which lack psychological safety will find employees less likely to share ideas or voice concerns for fear of embarrassment or rejection and it can lead to increased turnover and lower employee engagement. Whereas those companies who create a safe space for employees to share ideas and bring their authentic selves to work will be rewarded with increased employee engagement, better team collaboration and a more creative workforce. ** So now we know why it is important, what can we do to create psychological safety in the workplace? ** It all starts with transparency. If you are a business leader or manager you need to be utterly clear and transparent with your team in order to build trust. Employees want to know the vision of the company, any challenges the business is facing and have a clear understanding of the company goals. Ask for feedback and reassure team members that their opinions and ideas are important and will be listened to. Be proactive and ask people for their opinions, then be respectful when they speak up. Be mindful that everyone processes information differently and while the extroverts in the team may be quick to volunteer their thoughts and ideas, the introverts may need more time to think about the question or process the information, so give people options of ways they can communicate. Encourage people to take calculated risks and reassure them it ok if they don’t succeed or make mistakes. Own up to any mistakes you have made as a leader and share what you have learnt from that. Then ask your team to share anything they have tried which hasn’t worked out as expected, and what they have learnt from it. Show value and appreciation of ideas. Establish an environment where all ideas are welcome by respecting the voice and opinions of others. Thank people for sharing their thoughts, you don’t have to act on all ideas put forward, but the more you acknowledge people for sharing their thoughts the more likely others will be to contribute. Get to know your employees, ask if they are ok. Show you care about them as people, and you will build trust which will give people the confidence to contribute. Follow through on your commitments and be precise with your expectations and information. To build trust your team need to know they can rely on you so set clear expectations and adhere to your commitments. Explain reasons for change and allow people time to process the change. Where possible, include your team in decision making. This will make them feel valued and you will get less resistance to change. Champion your team. People thrive with regular positive praise and recognition, instead of criticising things that have gone wrong, praise the things which have gone ri ght.