CEO's column: Appreciating the power of mentoring

It 's the start of a new financial year for us at the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, writes Henrietta Brealey.

And, while the day to day never stops, we 've been working on carving out time to pause and reflect on the successes, challenges and trends of the past year.

We welcomed just under 8,500 delegates to events last year - which formats worked best for helping our members make new contacts or pickup intel and insight applicable to their organisations?

We represented local businesses on around 50 regional stakeholders boards and groups and secured 80 pieces of regional and national media coverage for the Chamber and our members - how can we refine our role as a leading voice for local businesses?

You get the gist.

For me the trend that stands out the most over the past year is all about people. It 's been roughly two years since Anthony Klotz, a professor of management at University College London's School of Management, coined the term “the great resignation ” and things are still far from normal in the labour market.

According to our Q1 Quarterly Business Report - the Chambers ' longstanding temperature check of local business sentiment - 68 per cent of businesses attempted to recruit last quarter. Of those, just over two thirds experienced recruitment difficulties. And it 's easy to see why with unemployment rates at historic lows and payrolled employees now exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

The good news is that Professor Klotz now predicts that the volume of people up and moving in 2023 will be closer to pre-pandemic levels. Part of the reason for this is the extent to which companies are now mindful of, and investing in, talent acquisition, retention and development. This for me is the big trend we can all take away from the past year.

And in good timing, we 've got something coming up that can help readers on keeping pace with best practice on just that. On 10 May, the GBCC will be holding our Growth Through People Conference. We 're bringing together business leaders, experts in the field and representatives from local businesses for lots of learning and reflection on “what 's working ” and “what next ” for attracting and retaining talent. It 's part of our annual Growth Through People Campaign, a programme focused on peer learning and thought leadership content all on how investing in leadership and people management skills can help businesses boost productivity. Seven years in to delivering this campaign, and it just keeps getting more and more topical each year.

Thanks to our sponsors and partners: the West Midlands Combined Authority, Aston University and South & City College Birmingham, it 's totally free for delegates to attend. You can find out more on the events section of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce website.

Another takeaway from me over the past year is the value and impact of mentoring. I 'm personally a huge advocate of the power of mentoring. I can trace my whole career back to early advice and an introduction to the Chambers from a mentor (thanks Marc!). At every stage in my career since, I 've had formal and informal mentors offering advice and helping me reflect and learn along the way. I 'm also proud to be a mentor and have hugely benefitted from that too - you don 't realise just how much you 've learned and picked up in your career until you 're sharing insights with someone at a much earlier stage in their career.

In this fast changing environment, having someone external as a sounding board, sense-check or friendly guide can be incredible helpful. I 'm delighted that we have been able to trial an internal mentoring programme for my Chamber colleagues this year, working with One Million Mentors.

I am also particularly proud of how Future Faces, led by their mentoring subcommittee, have developed their mentoring programme this year. Future Faces is the young professional networking and development division of the Chamber. Earlier this year they launched a mentoring pilot, matching 44 mentors and 44 mentees for six months of monthly meetings. That pilot has not come to an end with quite some success:

• 90 per cent of mentors found benefits from taking part in the scheme
• 100 per cent of mentees felt that mentors were able to support them with their goals
• 100 per cent of mentees said they had made progress and developed personally as a result of the scheme

Not ones to rest on their laurels, they 're straight on to another round to support even more Future Faces members with access to a mentor.

So while this column is about reflecting on the past financial year, I 'd like to end it with a call to action for you all for the coming year: could you be mentor? Applications close on 30 April, find out more here.

Henrietta Brealey is chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce

This column first appeared in the Birmingham Post