Derbyshire-based Matt Clutterham and Jenny Jarvis, the founders of the award-winning brand and human transformation business Q Branch Consulting, say using DISC profiling saved their own relationship – now they are using it to help firms thrive through improved staff retention.
Q Branch Consulting has added DISC profiling to its growing list of services as new data has shown UK workers are quitting their jobs at record rates.
Q Branch, which is achieving remarkable growth with clients including charities, businesses and public sector organisations, works with companies on transforming their brand as well as their people.
The company fuses the talents of its founders: Matt, a former theatre lighting designer turned brand strategy consultant who has worked with some of the biggest names in the world including Gucci, Samsung, EE and Bacardi; and Jenny, a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) trained life coach, who helps business leaders achieve greater success through personal growth.
Now Q Branch is using the renowned DISC profiling system to help business leaders retain their talent by identifying staff personality profiles so they can create thriving teams where everyone is listened to and can perform at their best, with conflict kept to a minimum.
The system works by means of a questionnaire, the answers to which provide a profile which looks deeply into whether a person adheres most to four key personality types: Dominant, Influential, Steady or Compliant.
The resulting profile and analysis provided by Jenny is aimed at helping businesses retain staff by ensuring they are comfortable in their working environment.
Q Branch’s founders – who are partners in life as well as in business – say they are using DISC profiling in their business after it helped save their own relationship in its early days.
Jenny said: “I use DISC profiling for all my clients as it lets me know how they like to be communicated with. A ‘C’ type personality, for example, needs lots of detail in order to feel happy, while a ‘D’ type will appreciate a very direct style of communication. People who are ‘I’ type personalities are sociable and influential while someone who is an ‘S’ likes clear boundaries and doesn’t appreciate working in a non-harmonious environment.
“DISC profiling is a fantastic tool for companies and we have seen our clients able to keep staff through offering leaders a greater understanding of what makes their employees ‘tick’. No business can work without establishing good relationships and that’s why we believe that DISC profiling is a great way for companies to ensure they keep their best talent on board.
“I’m happy to share that Matt and I used DISC profiling ourselves after a communications issue early on in our own relationship – it helped us see that we simply had different personalities and our misunderstanding had arisen through us looking at an issue in very different ways, not that we were incompatible.”
Research from Personio, which has surveyed thousands of employees and employers across Europe, has suggested nearly half of the continent’s workforce are planning to look for a new job in the next 12 months.
Jenny and Matt say using DISC profiling will help companies keep staff rather than lose them to competitors, simply through increased understanding rather than more obvious retention schemes such as pay rises or extra holidays.
Jenny added: “DISC profiling is powerful but can also be used in the wrong way. We have heard of staff who have undergone DISC profiling and are subject to negative questioning when it comes to a job interview. We advocate sensitive use of the system to help leaders forge good relationships with staff rather than create negativity. Leaders need to undergo DISC profiling themselves in order to understand how they operate – it really helps people appreciate why they act in certain ways and why, perhaps, their relationships haven’t necessarily gone well in the past.”