The nursery group of nearly 50 settings in Scotland and the North-West has hired Azma Broughton, who has more than 25 years’ experience in people leadership, to develop a plan to recruit and retain high-quality early years professionals.
The move is partly in response to the impact the pandemic has had on the business including managing staff absences due to Covid-19 and losing members of staff to other sectors.
Under the role, Broughton will also look at ways to enhance the support they provide to employees, including the rewards they offer, and the quality of the training.
Cary Rankin, Thrive chief executive, said, ‘Competition for talent is fierce and our focus on retention and attracting new people will be critical to our growth and stability.
‘Our overarching focus therefore needs to be engagement and making sure our people have a sense of belonging. On top of that, the pandemic has reminded us how important it is to focus on wellbeing and our colleagues’ mental health.’
He went on to say, ‘In her new role, Azma will work with leaders across the business to ensure that our people strategy and the tone of our communications and engagement across the business are all aligned to our values. It’s great to have her on board to hold us all to account when it comes to how we lead and invest in our people.’
Broughton added, ‘We need a clear vision of what it means to work for Thrive, how we look after our teams and how we want them to feel. This means looking at the whole colleague journey from attracting people, to being recruited in line with our values, the quality of our induction and training, the support from managers, how we value people as individuals and support their performance and development.
‘I have been busy connecting with our teams in the nursery settings and listening to colleagues and managers to understand their successes, issues and challenges.’
