Wrexham-based Lyan Packaging Supplies Ltd. has been operating for over 30 years and specialises in the supply of transit packaging, including specialist temperature-controlled packaging through their Icertech division.
Managing Director Adam Jones got in touch with the Welsh Government’s Business Wales service for help to grow the business, which resulted in:
- relationship Management support with growth strategy
- specialist HR advice to review and improve processes and practices
- 2 jobs created and improved staff retention, engagement and satisfaction
- an ‘Investors in People’ accreditation
Founded in 1988 in Wrexham, Lyan Packaging Supplies Ltd. is a leading UK supplier of bespoke packaging solutions. The family-run business specialises in transit packaging, offering a wide range of packaging materials, either from stock or manufactured to the client’s bespoke requirements. The business has a trading division, Icertech, which specialises in the temperature-controlled shipment of goods.
What objectives did you set out to achieve in your business?
Our main objective was to improve our recruitment strategy and new staff retention, in order to support the growth and development within the Icertech division.
What challenges did you face?
We have previously not been very successful with recruitment, despite having a hard-working and loyal staff base. We struggled to attract and retain the right sort of talent and we suspected this was related to the content of job advertisements and the recruitment process.
It was clear that we needed to improve our recruitment and induction strategy, along with some of our other HR practices. As a small business, we did not have any current staff with great HR experience, and we were unsure of exactly who to turn to, so we approached Business Wales for support.
What Business Wales support have you received?
We initially had a general meeting with our Relationship Manager Rowan Jones to talk about our growth and development strategy as a company. Rowan was very friendly, gave us some practical advice, and after pinpointing exactly where we needed help, he put us in touch with a specialist HR adviser, Lowri Dundee, who had the exact expertise we required.
Lowri reviewed our existing recruitment process, with a view to attracting the right quality of candidates and reducing potential risks. Lowri looked at our induction processes to help with retention. We also explored other areas of Human Resource management that we could develop upon, such as GDPR and employee engagement, to help improve our productivity. Lowri finally put us in touch with an organisation called ‘Chwarae Teg’ to further enhance our HR practices with a particular consideration towards equality and diversity.
Outcomes
The help received from the Business Wales team has been professional, friendly and concise throughout. Since using the service, we have made huge improvements to our HR processes, which will undoubtedly have a significantly positive financial impact on our business. In particular, we achieved our objective of recruiting and retaining a new member of staff (they are still with the company 8 months after), and we have just confidently recruited a further member of staff to support our business growth.
Furthermore, since our interaction with Business Wales, we have also achieved an ‘Investors in People’ accreditation under the new framework.
Future plans and ambitions
We want to continue to achieve sustainable and long-term growth in the business through developing our most important asset – our staff. We aim to complete our programme with Chwarae Teg this year to become a ‘Fair Play’ employer with regards to equality and diversity. We also aim to achieve the next level up in ‘Investors in People’ at our next re-accreditation.
If you want to read more success stories of how Business Wales has helped other people like you to start or grow their businesses, visit https://businesswales.gov.wales/case-studies or follow @_businesswales on Twitter.