Talent Development

At SCH, we value our staff, and invest in personal and talent development. This year SCH ran a leadership and talent development programme spanning nine lessons, including one presentation, and a graduation across the year which 47 individuals attended.

This course covered topics such as effective communication, resilience, emotional intelligence, personal effectiveness, negotiation, presentations, uncertainty and change, leadership, and problem solving. At the end of the course, members in groups had to work together to solve an issue experienced within the business and present this. These issues ranged from bird scaring in orchards, through to the SCH onboarding process.

This course provided insight to many topics and made individuals aware of the potential they held. The topics came with tips and tricks to help work on and improve their skills and strengths. For many, the greatest gain was the relationships built with teammates from other business units which they may have had limited dealings with previously.

The course offered professional insights, including a session facilitated by the Icehouse company who specialise in skill development and growth in employees. Via an anonymous 360 feedback This session alone was inspirational for the attendees because it showed them what people anonymously viewed as their strengths and weaknesses within the company. This was done alongside their own identified strengths and weaknesses. Many found it inspirational as they may not have identified some of these themselves and now have an insight to focus on or acknowledge something they may not have realised.

The course provided valuable professional perspectives, notably through a session led by Icehouse, a company specialising in enhancing employee skills and fostering growth. Through an anonymous 360-degree feedback process, this particular session left a lasting impact on participants by revealing how others perceived their strengths and weaknesses within the company. This feedback complemented their self-identified strengths and weaknesses. Many attendees found this experience inspiring, as it shed light on aspects they might not have recognised on their own, offering them valuable insights to either address or acknowledge previously undiscovered facets of their performance.

To conclude the course, an overnight offsite graduation was held for attendees to regroup with  a final lesson and continuing to build their relationships with peers. The Senior Leadership Team were also invited to share in this occasion and understand further the value gained by these team members.

It was a hugely successful course with plans to have a second level in the following year which focuses on a more personal level than broad scale. The benefits that this course has had on the individuals has really been seen in their field of work and the shown great improvements to their personal lives and their professional lives. Well done to the People and Culture team at SCH for organising and executing this course.