One month into 2025, most of the new year “trends” articles have run their course. It’s good to know what is up and coming and where businesses need to evolve. However, one constant is that communication is evolving at an unprecedented pace, placing pressure on businesses to deliver the customer experience that consumers demand. This means that the communications industry needs to innovate and provide communication tools and services that businesses demand. People are front and centre of this innovation.
To keep pace with the rapidly evolving communications industry, there needs to be a commitment to career development through a culture of growth, continuous learning and skill-building, says Kate Shead, Human Resources Executive at Telviva, a leading provider of cloud-based communication solutions.
The role of leadership in unlocking potential
For Shead, the key to a thriving organisation lies in strong, human-centric leadership. Leaders set the tone for the entire organisation and play a crucial role in recognising and nurturing the potential in each individual. She points out that people are not machines, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Some employees may not see their potential at first, while others might be ready to step up. Effective leaders must be able to identify and unlock that potential, adapting their approach to the needs of each individual.
An approach that works well is promoting “personal best” performance. Encouraging team members to strive to achieve their personal best, rather than compete for top spot, fosters self-worth, persistence and is outcomes based. This way, a leader can support individuals to set improvement challenges that are personal and directly aligned to an employee’s values. This is a great approach for most people but particularly those who battle with confidence or fear of failure.
Balancing business and employee needs
Shead stresses the importance of balancing the needs of the business with the needs of employees. When hiring, the focus is very much on finding the right skills and a workable culture fit. When onboarding, the focus is on getting the person to a point of job efficacy as efficiently as possible. But once these fundamentals have been achieved, focus should shift back to prioritising an employee’s personal growth.
“Striking the right balance is critical,” Shead says. “It allows businesses to meet their strategic objectives while empowering employees to grow.”
Creating a culture of recognition and collaboration
Shead also highlights the importance of recognising employees for their contributions, not only on big occasions like annual awards or reviews, but on a daily basis. This builds on the culture of confidence, mutual accountability and collaboration.
Innovating learning and development
There remains a place for the traditional approach to skills development but in today’s world the pace of change and the preferred style of learning requires a more agile and flexible approach.
Telviva has made learnerships and internships a core strategy to build grass roots skills for the organisation and the greater IT sector. Running over 60 such programmes since 2018, the company enjoys a graduation rate of over 90%, with a 70% graduate employment rate of which 60% have been with Telviva.
Complementing these initiatives is the short intervention, self-paced, on-demand learning platforms option. It is also very effective to build company-specific product and skills training as it really puts focus where the company needs it. “For leaders, seeing people rise above where they started can be incredibly fulfilling,” says Shead.
“When new employees join, they might not know their full potential. By first creating a supportive environment, an organisation can meet their team’s basic needs, like job security and a sense of belonging. And then, the motivating and challenging can begin, and through this employees recognise their potential and begin to do their best work. This is what makes for a motivated and creative individual and team. Ultimately, this is where a key competitive advantage lies — in a team performing at its best.”
