Business driven People focussed

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2 When a small company grows, Human Resources (HR) becomes a vital aspect of development and success. Good recruitment, training, development and compliance with the law should not be taken too lightly. A well thought out HR plan can be the difference between building a great team or a poor team and a great team will deliver success for the business. Clearly a poor team or even a difficult individual within the team can be a recipe for disaster. A business owner should be concentrating on building the business and not having to worry about whether the team supporting them are committed and eager to succeed. Would you like to create this vision? All your employees are working as a team and for the benefit of the company. There is a feeling of togetherness, cohesion and teamwork. If a problem arises the team s ethic kicks in and the problem is understood and dealt with. If someone has made a mistake then your managers are fully equipped to manage the situation, will speak with the individual or individuals in private and seek to understand how the error occurred and put in a process to ensure it does not happen again. Not quite there yet. Don t worry, Reality HR have put together their 5 HR top tips that will ensure that your team performs at a high standard, has loyalty and develops a culture of responsibility towards their colleagues and the company. 1 Recruit the right people Recruit the right person in the first place and many of your HR nightmares will disappear. Recruiting the right person into your business is key to your businesses success. You can recruit the world s best qualified and most experienced person but if they don t fit with the team personalities or the team dynamics then the relationship won t work. If the relationship isn t working you re likely to have miscommunication, increased sickness and many other problems but ultimately higher staff turnover, and failing business performance.

3 1...continued Clearly, it is still important to identify who has the right skills for the role and to select applicants on a fair and unbiased basis but remember, recruitment starts long before placing an advert. For example, write the job description, the person specification and agree the recruitment stages beforehand. Spend time in the interview process to probe the prospective employee by asking lots of open questions, and ask about their families and interests. Use psychometric tests to get a better understanding of their behaviour, character and motivations. 2 Engage with your employees Know who s working with you and who s pulling in the opposite direction by engaging with your team and getting to know what they are thinking. Employers want engaged employees because, as well as being happier, healthier and more fulfilled, they deliver improved business performance. Research has repeatedly demonstrated a relationship between how people are managed, employee attitudes and business performance. There are nuances in the drivers and outcomes of employee engagement, but this basic link holds true across different sectors and job roles. Positive relationships are evidenced with profit, revenue growth, customer satisfaction, productivity, innovation, staff retention, efficiency and health and safety performance. Companies also increasingly recognise the importance of their brand and reputation. Engaged employees will be stronger advocates of their company and help protect the employer from the reputational risks associated with poor service levels or product quality. Conversely, having a disengaged workforce brings huge risks. As well as productivity losses, organisations may lose their best people and face huge difficulties when embedding organisational change if employees are not on board. Disengagement also threatens effective team working and innovation, as employees will not be inclined to use their knowledge and skills for the good of the organisation. Disengaged employees will not defend the company or its reputation.

4 Top 5 HR Tips 3 Manage performance If you never measure performance how do you know who your best employees are? A good business will have a simple performance management system in place which allows you to set clear performance objectives and Key Performance Indicators which can be measured, highlighting who s going above and beyond to make your business a success and who is avoiding responsibility. Performance management isn t just about rolling out the appraisal forms every year, it s about having regular conversations and meetings with your team. Talking to your employees should be an integrated part of day to day management. 4 Communicate effectively Ensure you communicate effectively with your team and colleagues. They say men are from Mars and women are from Venus but it could also be said Managers are from Mercury and employees are from Saturn. Most businesses think they communicate effectively but do they really? How often have you sat in a meeting where one employee goes away thinking one thing and another employee something totally different? So the question must be do you communicate effectively and take personal responsibility for checking employees are listening and understand? There is much research that confirms that up to 93% of communication is non-verbal i.e. it s not always what you say but how you say it. Be clear with your communication, do not leave any room for misunderstanding when you convey important messages. Invite questions from your team to ensure they are clear about your message. If necessary follow up with a written version (e mail) so that there is absolute clarity.

5 5 Measure performance Put in simple measurements that can be monitored regularly. Start by measuring the basics such as unplanned absence, staff turnover, poor performance, number of grievances and engagement levels. There is no way you would run a business without looking at the profit and loss account or the balance sheet so why do businesses not know who their worst performers are? Before you can start on a journey to improve your teams performance you need to know where you re starting from, so if you want to drive down sickness, poor performance, and poor attendance in your business you need to know exactly who the worst employees are and not just guess. Put simple straight forward measurements in place which give you key information to make informed decisions and know where you re heading. Without simple key measures in place processes like redundancies or capability can be complicated and lead to legal issues. Document the evidence and review the information regularly so that you have a reference point if it is necessary to take action. If you like this then try these: Top 5 recruitment tips for SME s & for growth