By Zonal’s Group Head of Human Resources, Catriona Dick
I have worked in human resources for over 20 years and have been leading my current team of for the past 12 years. Continuous learning and development is critical to my career journey and as a leader. It is also a key component of my team’s development and Zonal’s success as a connected tech innovator for the hospitality sector.
We live in a dynamic and ever changing world, where the way we work, often influenced by technological advancements, shapes our future. Being able to lead my own team, as well as the wider Zonal collective, to achieve their personal ambitions and set them up for future success through continuous learning and development is central to that goal.
Through continuous learning we are not only able to nurture home grown talent, but it also gives businesses, such as Zonal, a competitive advantage. This is even more pressing as we are all competing in a challenging job market, where you want to retain your brightest talent.
In my experience, I’ve found that my team members want the ability to learn new skills and build new experiences. Having a clear career progression strategy is vital to keeping them engaged and motivated.
But when it comes to continuous learning and development it isn’t a case of one size fits all – tailoring your training to suit the audience is a must. What is right for my HR team is unlikely to be right for our developers who are designing software programs for the next generation hospitality tech solutions.
To be effective, training also needs to be regular. At Zonal we design clear training schedules where time is set aside for team members on a weekly or, at the very least, regular basis. Thankfully, this is now more achievable as virtual and online training is something we have all become accustomed to, especially over the past couple of years, requiring less time away from the work environment and where travel isn’t required. But it shouldn’t all be virtual, face to face coaching and peer to peer learning makes the ideal combination.
Finally, offering training isn’t enough – you need to know if it is suitable and effective, so getting feedback post completion is of vital importance.
Today’s employers must take investing in people seriously – ignore it and you run the risk of the ‘great resignation’. At Zonal we live and breathe continuous development, and I am so proud to say that this year, to date, we have promoted 18 team members. In 2021 this totalled 48. We’re immensely proud of this record!
To find out more about Zonal and our current vacancies visit our Careers website here.
