PRINTITRESELLER.UK 21 ONE-TO-ONE place more emphasis on expanding its services set. “Internally we call this our ‘plus one’ selling focus,” he explained. “By that I mean not leaving money on the table when engaging with customers. For example, our partnership with Kofax enables us to provide productivity and workflow tools – that’s a key focus area for us now. We are also working on bringing what would have been transactional printing purchases under MPS contracts, and making sure renewals are successful. It’s about having the right conversations with customers and identifying where and how we can help.” Brother has already stated its goal to build new channel partnerships in support of its SPS business growth strategy and the firm is also looking to partner expansion within its core business. “It’s about having enabled partners that can have the conversations with customers around our services offering and support them with Brother’s specialised hardware and software applications,” Jones said. Investing in people The so called ‘great resignation’ is another recurring theme at the moment. Jones admits that Brother has been affected by this trend too. “Across the industry we are seeing a lot of people moving on, getting new jobs and taking early retirement. Within Brother UK, we have experienced a seven per cent churn, a little higher than we expected. But interestingly, we have also been attracting new talent and so whilst losing colleagues is not without pain, we have been able to backfill those positions comfortably.” He continued: “What this has demonstrated is the importance of ensuring a company’s organisational value proposition (OVP) is on point and very much front of mind,” he said. Last year, Brother UK made a significant investment in redesigning its Manchester head office to support collaborative working and social interaction. The business has adopted a hybrid working model – whereby employees work from the office three days a week and from home the remainder of the time. This model is continuously reviewed and will be evolved as required to support the needs of colleagues and the business alike. The office features new break-out spaces and meeting rooms as part of the redesign, which also includes new technology infrastructure to enable hot desking. “The investment we’ve made in the workplace redesign is already paying dividends,” Jones said, adding: “Our OVP has been a key component of our strategy for decades, and we are laserfocused on ensuring it continues to stay relevant. We have lots of new initiatives around employee experience that we will be rolling out across the next threeyear period.” As testament to the company’s success in this area, Brother UK has just announced it has received Investors in People’s Platinum status for the third time. “I am extremely proud of this achievement,” Jones said. “We are the first company in the UK to secure this three times in a row. Of note was the results of our most recent employee survey, our average score was more or less the same post-pandemic as it was prior to COVID-19. The IIP assessors noted that this was dramatically different from most other firms, whose scores suffered significantly. “There is lots of fluidity in the workplace market so making sure our succession plans are mapped out to ensure we continue to attract new talent and being proactive in terms of refreshing our OVP will remain front and centre,” he added. “Looking ahead, we will continue to push for new ways to add value to both our own and our customers’ business. We have an exciting array of new technology that we will launch this year, with particular focus on our inkjet and labelling product lines. We have a strong services offering – and a number of innovative solutions including MLS and our circular economy-driven print subscription service – EcoPro – that address changing customer requirements. I am feeling very positive about the coming year,” he concluded. www.brother.co.uk The business has adopted a hybrid working model – whereby employees work from the office three days a week and from home the remainder of the time
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