Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day
It’s time for HR to move beyond policies, practices and processes, HR’s value proposition to business is to ensure HR professionals and their practices’ produce positive outcomes for key stakeholders, employees, line managers, customers and investors.
THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE IS A KALGOORLIE BASED HUMAN RESOURCES (HR) CONSULTING COMPANY THAT SPECIALISES IN DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS WITH SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES. WE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH EMPLOYEE INITIATIVES.
CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL GOALS.
AT THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE YOU ONLY PAY FOR THE WORK WE UNDERTAKE FOR YOU; NO ANNUAL OR MONTHLY FEES; NO CONTRACTS; JUST QUALITY, LOCAL, SERVICE.
My friend was stood down from her job due to COVID-19 on March 23, she, along with her colleagues, hasn’t had any contact or communication from her employer at all during this time. At the time of writing this blog that’s been 11 weeks.
I have another friend who’s team at work was sat down by their manager a matter of hours after initial lockdown announcements were made and were told they’d probably have to make people redundant. This is a business who’s core operations were not affected by the lockdowns at all. No discussion about how the operations may change or how the business values their employees and will aim to do everything in its power to retain jobs – straight to the fear inducing.
Kylie McLerie from Collective Culture Consultancy, a Kalgoorlie based business consultancy service that specialises in leadership development, believes that “Leadership is, or should be, a people based exercise. Effective leaders are always remembered for how they made people feel valued and part of the big picture, not simply a cog in the wheel.”
Leadership comes from inspiring and empowering those around you, a position title doesn’t make you a great leader, which is why you find great leaders at all levels of an organisation. (You can read more about this here).
If I were to ask you to think of your most inspiring and well respected managers or supervisors at work, and their most admirable traits, many of you would respond with some common themes; honesty & integrity; good communicator; inspirational; accepts accountability; empathy; ability to delegate & empower; humility; transparency; resilience and decision making capabilities.
Kylie McLerie states the ability to be a great leader comes from the ability to “be the standard that you expect. If it isn’t modelled from the top then it won’t be part of the culture”
“What you do has far greater impact than what you say” Stephen Covey
An organisations culture is the standard it accepts, not the standard it expects. If a leader can’t emulate the right behaviours then why should your employees?
Which brings me to my opening quote “A fish rots from the head down”
If a leader in your organisation thinks is kosher to not follow policies and procedures; lead by intimidation and fear; not communicate; speak poorly of clients, employees and / or people from minority groups; withhold relevant information from employees, then guess what?
Your employees will think that it’s ok to act that way as well
It will impact business profitability significantly.
Employees will have low rates of engagement and productivity, they’ll speak negatively about their experiences while working for you and you’ll suffer frequent and high turnover – and that’s just the obvious symptoms of poor leadership.
“Leadership is not about you; it’s about investing in the growth of others” Ken Blanchard
In 2015 a behavioural statistician, Joseph Folkman, commenced a study to look at the legacy of poor leadership within organisations. The aim was to conduct analysis to reveal any correlation between an executives capacity to effectively lead, and the impact of that leadership style on their direct reports and so on throughout the organisational structure.
Joseph gathered 360 degree feedback on 6000 leaders, looking specifically at the feedback from their direct reports and was then able to match those direct reports to 360 degree feedback from their direct reports.
The results were statistically significant. Managers who came in at the lowest 10% for their coaching skills had direct reports who’s coaching skills rated in the 45th percentile. Thats 5 points below average. On the flip side to that, Managers who scored exceptionally well for their coaching skills had direct reports who scored in the 60th percentile, or 10 points above average, for their coaching skills.
It is clear from this study that good coaches tend to develop good coaches and that poor coaches influence others in the opposite direction.
If you promote internally you can see the legacy implications of poor leadership.
“Value your team, you’re only as good as the people around you” Ali Kent
Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day
It’s time for HR to move beyond policies, practices and processes, HR’s value proposition to business is to ensure HR professionals and their practices’ produce positive outcomes for key stakeholders, employees, line managers, customers and investors.
THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE IS A KALGOORLIE BASED HUMAN RESOURCES (HR) CONSULTING COMPANY THAT SPECIALISES IN DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS WITH SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES. WE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH EMPLOYEE INITIATIVES.
CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL GOALS.
AT THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE YOU ONLY PAY FOR THE WORK WE UNDERTAKE FOR YOU; NO ANNUAL OR MONTHLY FEES; NO CONTRACTS; JUST QUALITY, LOCAL, SERVICE.
This morning I made my pilgrimage to the local coffee van in the park, my journey there is adjacent to a number of bike paths and walking trails. For the past 7 weeks my well trod journey has presented young & old out riding bikes, walking, Mum & Dad and the 2.5 kids out living their best lives in the sun & soaking up nature.
The global pandemic has seen the best and worst of humanity, amongst the stories of dust ups in the Woolies loo paper isle are stories of bike sales going through the roof as people step away from their smartphones and endless social commentary about the future of work.
Nationwide lockdowns and directives from all levels of Government to stay home has opened the door to many employees having a work from home conversation with their bosses.
If the past 7 weeks have taught us anything, for many employees having to continue to structure their work around traditional office hours, in a traditional office building, dealing with traditional office politics is an outdated, and unwanted mechanism.
See, the thing with employees is they have lives outside of work. They have children and elderly parents, friends and pets they’d prefer to spend a lot more time with. Big, big lives that don’t always fit into the neatly compartmentalised structure of the daily grind we have been conditioned to accept.
What happy, productive employees need is flexibility. The freedom to structure their workday around the other demands in their life.
COVID-19 gave parents the ability to work from home and spend a lot more time involved in their kids lives, lots of very confused (but happy) dogs were going for lots of walks and trips to the park as more and more people grabbed any opportunity to get outside and soak up the sun & fresh air. For many, our lives simplified and became a whole lot more free, quite literally overnight.
People found that with out the constant interruptions and frustrations of office politics they got so much more work done.
But, as with everything what works for some won’t resonate with everyone.
Recently Mark Bouris interviewed Georgia Vidler, Director of Product at Canva on his podcast The Mentor. Understandably their conversation quickly turned towards the changes Canva had implemented to continue being a productive organisation in the face of the lockdown & social distancing requirements in Sydney. Mark admitted that prior to this period he always thought people requesting the flexibility to work from home were having a lend of him, what he found was he had a much, much more productive workforce.
While employees were positive about the changes made, there was a good percentage who indicated they liked working from home but also craved the social interaction that working in the office gave. They didn’t want to be back in the office full time though, they wanted a blend of both. This lead to Mark looking at creating 2 teams and having them in the office a week about, of course this means going forward he needs less office space, giving up a whole floor in the Sydney CBD will offer considerable cost savings.
But more importantly to the sustainability of the business, Mark was able to see a different – a better way – of working and ran with it.
I’m not pollyanna, I am aware that not everyone working from home will do the right thing, but chances are if they are that way inclined they probably aren’t working to full capacity in the office either. A line manager who has an understanding of each job role and the expected outputs will pick up on this pretty quickly and effective performance management processes will address the shortfall in achieving the expectations of the organisation.
Given that you pay people to do a job, not sit in a chair, if the job isn’t 100% customer facing does it really matter where the employee works from? And if they are achieving their outputs does it really matter if they only work for 7 hours on the odd day here and there instead of sitting on Facebook for the last hour of the day because people can’t get past the concept that unless they are “at work” for 8 hours then they aren’t getting full value from their employees.
I know I’d rather an absolute star who applies themselves and gets their work done in a 4 day week than pay someone to fluff around for the majority of the day and be under the pump to meet deadlines.
Quality over quantity baby…….. Quality over Quantity.
What changes do you hope to come out of the global pandemic? Have you made any lifestyle changes that improves the quality of your life?
Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day
It’s time for HR to move beyond policies, practices and processes, HR’s value proposition to business is to ensure HR professionals and their practices’ produce positive outcomes for key stakeholders, employees, line managers, customers and investors.
THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE IS A KALGOORLIE BASED HUMAN RESOURCES (HR) CONSULTING COMPANY THAT SPECIALISES IN DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS WITH SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES. WE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH EMPLOYEE INITIATIVES.
CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL GOALS.
AT THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE YOU ONLY PAY FOR THE WORK WE UNDERTAKE FOR YOU; NO ANNUAL OR MONTHLY FEES; NO CONTRACTS; JUST QUALITY, LOCAL, SERVICE.
Have you ever walked into a business and it’s evident that it isn’t everyones ideal work environment?
They just don’t suit the vibe of the business………… there’s something that’s just off.
I’m not talking about appearance. Hiring for cultural fit isn’t about how someone dresses, how attractive they are, the presence of tattoo’s, piercings and everything else that falls under the umbrella of employment prejudice.
This is about defining your strategic direction and values and then developing a set of strategic people processes that will assist you with achieving your business goals.
People processes that are developed around a balanced scorecard.
Businesses who place too heavy of a focus on skills risk having a dysfunctional workplace culture. At the extreme end of this concept are organisations that recruit based on skill based selection criteria’s, and score each candidate based on their ability to meet each criteria, at the lower end, and most common use of this practice, is to look at a resume and base the hiring decision around a degree, trade or years of experience in a particular industry.
The problem with this approach is that yes, technically they can do the job, but is that person actually someone that you would want to represent your business?
Do they have personal attributes that align to your values? Do they understand where your business is headed and have the right attitude to help you get there?
Skill & Competency versus Behaviours & Capability. The approach should be balanced, a nice little blend of both.
Drilling down, this is about finding employees that fulfil your expectations in regards to personal attributes, relationships, delivering results and the functional aspects of their jobs.
This is why we’ve developed our Key Behavioural & Capability Framework, to provide a toolkit towards achieving a competitive advantage through your people.
This balanced approach to your people management feeds into everything you do, it permeates through each and every initiative involving your employees. It starts with your organisational strategic direction, the framework takes your operational goals & values, develops a set of behaviours and capabilities and cascades them through assessing the capability of your organisation, how you recruitment, how you manage performance, how you develop your employees and how you plan for the future.
An all encompassing HR strategy to meet your business needs.
Employment Law & people management is a complex beast, if you need assistance navigating your way around we are on hand to provide support & add value to your business
I‘d love to meet with you to discuss how I can create a HR Strategy that adds value to your business, Contact Me for an obligation free chat.
This post is the 4th in a series of how quality HR solutions can add value to your business. Catch up here, here & here
HR is so much more than a set of policies and procedures. Strategic HR Management is about developing value adding strategies surrounding compensation & benefits, workforce planning, recruitment, performance management and career development. The policies and procedures aspect of HR is about compliance and risk management; they work within the wider business environment but their core purpose is to provide a risk management framework to manage the industrial relations and employee relations aspect of the business.
Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day
It’s time for HR to move beyond policies, practices and processes, HR’s value proposition to business is to ensure HR professionals and their practices’ produce positive outcomes for key stakeholders, employees, line managers, customers and investors.
THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE IS A KALGOORLIE BASED HUMAN RESOURCES (HR) CONSULTING COMPANY THAT SPECIALISES IN DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS WITH SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES. WE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH EMPLOYEE INITIATIVES.
CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL GOALS.
AT THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE YOU ONLY PAY FOR THE WORK WE UNDERTAKE FOR YOU; NO ANNUAL OR MONTHLY FEES; NO CONTRACTS; JUST QUALITY, LOCAL, SERVICE.
Whether your organisation has an in-house HR team or you’ve engaged an external HR consultant you need to be getting a lot more value than employment contracts and legislative policies.
Your HR function needs to be business driven and have a strategic approach that aligns the people and culture initiatives to the organisations’ strategic priorities and its values.
To be an effective function within the business your HR team (internal or external) needs to be able to competently perform the critical elements of the people function, but more than that, the executive or leadership team needs to allow them to do their job.
Presumably they have been engaged because management has recognised the need for HR support, as with any professional or expert within their individual field they are there to provide expert guidance and solutions for the business. Their professional knowledge, analysis and reports should be utilised to make evidence based business decisions.
If an Engineer were to advise on a particular course of action to avoid catastrophic failure management wouldn’t disregard their recommendations. High turnover, poor leadership, poor culture, lack of strategic direction, undervalued employees, poor reputation, inability to attract & retain employees are all a sign of catastrophic failure on HRs behalf.
Sometimes these outcomes are a result of the leadership teams failure to act on the recommendations of HR, too heavy of a focus towards business outcomes and a lack of balance with the people aspect of running a successful organisation. It’s the role of an experienced HR practitioner to present an effective business case to influence and educate management, to make a convincing argument as to why an investment in your strategy will result in a greater opportunity to meet the organisational goals.
The Australian HR Institute has developed a Model of Excellence; the competencies to which HR specialists should be measured against. The model reflects the “business and people” approach that is widely regarded as best practice and aims to:
contribute to a profitable and sustainable workforce
increase workforce competency and engagement
develop excellence in people management
create a dynamic and productive work environment
The Model of Excellence
Business Driven – HR adds value to the organisation through understanding the organisational context and objectives. They fully understand your business operations and the priorities of the business; drive a competitive advantage for the organisation through HR initiatives & projects; are proactive in managing the impacts of of economic, political and legislative influences
Strategic Architect – HR develops goals and plans which contribute to the strategic management of the organisation. They develop and implement HR strategies that add value, are valued by the organisation and ensure organisation strategies are achieved; apply analysis to the organisational outcomes and how they might be achieved from a people perspective; take action to ensure HR activities improve the organisations performance and design and deliver solutions to workforce issues, challenges and opportunities
Ethical & Credible Activist – Influences through the provision of valued insights. They have a track record of achieving positive people outcomes; exercise sound judgement and courage when influencing decision making; display a high level of personal values and leadership, they embody ethical behaviour and accountability.
Stakeholder Mentor & Coach – Builds quality relationships and partnerships with key stakeholders to ensure organisational capability. Engages with industry and internal & external stakeholders to develop effective HR solutions; coaches managers to develop their competence and confidence to perform their people management responsibilities effectively; engages in solutions focussed conversations
Expert Practitioner – Builds, maintains and applies expert HR knowledge to deliver HR benefits to the organisation. Continually develops knowledge; challenges the status quo and develops insights on how decisions affect organisational design, culture and performance; understands metrics and makes informed business decisions after analysis
Culture and Change Leader – Foster a sustainable organisational culture in response to the internal & external environment. Has an understanding on the creation of a positive workplace culture; designs HR solutions to foster an optimal organisational culture; translates culture & values into workforce and workplace practices; champions a values based culture
Workforce and Workplace Designer – Designs a workplace that sustains a capable workforce. Aligns the workforce profile with the needs of the organisation; designs a productive, sustainable and engaging workplace that integrates work and life; constructs and designs jobs which match the needs of the organisation and employee capabilities; establish frameworks and systems that ensure a productive and engaged workforce; builds frameworks that enable the development of workforce capacity and capability to meet the future needs of the organisation
Where does your HR team sit within the HR Competency Model? Do they require additional support to provide a HR service that is consistent with the organisational strategic direction and best practice?
If you have engaged an external HR consultant are they meeting this need for you? Are you getting 100% bang for your buck or are you literally getting employment contracts and a booklet of legislative policies?
Employment Law & people management is a complex beast, if you need assistance navigating your way around we are on hand to provide support & add value to your business
I‘d love to meet with you to discuss how I can create a HR Strategy that adds value to your business, Contact Me for an obligation free chat.
This post is the 3rd in a series of how quality HR solutions can add value to your business. Catch up here & here
HR is so much more than a set of policies and procedures. Strategic HR Management is about developing value adding strategies surrounding compensation & benefits, workforce planning, recruitment, performance management and career development. The policies and procedures aspect of HR is about compliance and risk management; they work within the wider business environment but their core purpose is to provide a risk management framework to manage the industrial relations and employee relations aspect of the business.
Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day
It’s time for HR to move beyond policies, practices and processes, HR’s value proposition to business is to ensure HR professionals and their practices’ produce positive outcomes for key stakeholders, employees, line managers, customers and investors.
THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE IS A KALGOORLIE BASED HUMAN RESOURCES (HR) CONSULTING COMPANY THAT SPECIALISES IN DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS WITH SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES. WE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH EMPLOYEE INITIATIVES.
CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL GOALS.
AT THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE YOU ONLY PAY FOR THE WORK WE UNDERTAKE FOR YOU; NO ANNUAL OR MONTHLY FEES; NO CONTRACTS; JUST QUALITY, LOCAL, SERVICE.
There’s nothing quite like seeing your business or department thrive because of the hard work & skill of employees that you have nurtured and developed.
There’s nothing quite like a leader who recognises if you want dedicated, engaged, on brand specialist or senior employees you need to start that process in house.
About a decade ago I worked on a new mine start-up for an up and coming miner. It was at the tail end of the GFC, mines had closed, contractors were hit hard and Kalgoorlie was definitely in a downturn of sorts.
Wider, iron ore was still paying good money and some of the more savvy operations were picking up Grads whether they needed them or not because they knew in less than 12 months, when nit all turned around, they would.
Evidently as a HR department we found ourselves in an interesting position, senior level engineers and geologists we easy to source, junior level not so much. Locally based operators and maintenance positions were easy to fill initially but as the operations grew it was a hard task.
Plans were quickly put into place early in the piece to train and develop our own operators, apprentices were signed up, as were WASM vacation students and new supervisors were put through leadership training.
In the recent 10 year celebration photos the company posted to Instagram I counted a handful of senior management that were those vacation students, graduates and green supervisors.
If you’re complaining about the skills shortage or lack of quality employees my question to you is;
“How many apprentices have you taken on in the past decade?”
“Can’t find skilled operators? What internal training pipelines do you have in place?”
“How are you engaging with WASM, CRTafe and the local high schools to create some brand awareness around you and the career paths you can offer”
In short, you don’t get to complain about the problem if you aren’t actively involved in the solution.
In 2019 I wrote this post about why apprentices and trainees should be a part of your workforce planning.
Let’s just hit the pause button on the skills shortage element of this conversation and focus on why it’s just good business practice to develop your own talent.
Businesses and leaders who see development of their employees as a priority routinely see more engaged, innovative employees with a solid connection to the company.
If your first thought when I talk about investing in employee development is “What so I can invest all that time time and energy for them to just take all that knowledge elsewhere” then you need to reconsider your assumptions.
If an employee is fulfilled by their work they are less likely to leave. According to the 2018 Linkedin Workforce Learning Report a (not so surprising) 93% of employees stated they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career.
That being said the “job for life” concept belongs in another time, so it’s inevitable that at some point in their career they will bid you farewell. So I guess what I’m saying is if you put effort into developing your employees at least you will get value, loyalty and connectedness from them during their tenure over those employees who are afforded very little training and concentrated career development.
So how can this look in the average business? Varied and diverse based on the business and industry but here are some common elements.
A structured onboarding program into the business that steps out the general “this is us, this is who were are and how we operate” introduction through to on the job training. From where documents are saved, to the document management and naming conventions for files, to branding and language to the business right through to the nitty gritty of learning what’s required to absolutely succeed at a role.
Allowing autonomy and ownership over their role and projects. Don’t micromanage, pull them up if you can see a disaster looming but quite often there more than one way to achieve the end goal and their perception of problem / solution might just create some innovation and efficiency for the company.
Create a safe space for learning and development. Start giving your team exposure to the inner machinations of the business by bringing them along to operational meetings or have them involved in creating the strategy for your department. I have had some amazing Managers and CEO’s that really taught me the “back end” of the business that ultimately allowed me the confidence to move into management positions and then to specialise in people and culture strategies. There was no withholding of knowledge and information to protect their role. They took me along for the ride and I’m the first to acknowledge I would not be here today without them. If past and present employees were asked to comment on your input in their careers what do you think they will say?
Employment Law & people management is a complex beast, if you need assistance navigating your way around we are on hand to provide support & add value to your business
I‘d love to meet with you to discuss how I can create a HR Strategy that adds value to your business, Contact Me for an obligation free chat.
This post is part in a series of how quality HR solutions can add value to your business. HR is so much more than a set of policies and procedures. Strategic HR Management is about developing value adding strategies surrounding compensation & benefits, workforce planning, recruitment, performance management and career development. The policies and procedures aspect of HR is about compliance and risk management; they work within the wider business environment but their core purpose is to provide a risk management framework to manage the industrial relations and employee relations aspect of the business.
Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day
It’s time for HR to move beyond policies, practices and processes, HR’s value proposition to business is to ensure HR professionals and their practices’ produce positive outcomes for key stakeholders, employees, line managers, customers and investors.
THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE IS A KALGOORLIE BASED HUMAN RESOURCES (HR) CONSULTING COMPANY THAT SPECIALISES IN DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS WITH SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES. WE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH EMPLOYEE INITIATIVES.
CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL GOALS.
AT THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE YOU ONLY PAY FOR THE WORK WE UNDERTAKE FOR YOU; NO ANNUAL OR MONTHLY FEES; NO CONTRACTS; JUST QUALITY, LOCAL, SERVICE.
I don’t know about you but my head has just been in a spin the past 2 weeks; helping my clients make necessary changes to their business operations while simultaneously wondering if I will even have a business in 6 months.
Watching webinars to see what other businesses were implementing so I could *hopefully* keep my clients just that one step ahead. Trying to preempt what might happen next while assisting with contingency planning based on what we know now.
It’s been a ride that’s for sure. Pivot is everyones new favourite word but every time I hear it I’m like
Last week I shared some clips to Facebook & Instagram with the aim to disseminate the most pertinent information, I want to make use of this post to be able to expand on that.
Unless your employees have just awoken from a coma they know something pretty unprecedented is happening in Australia right now. Early survey data is showing overwhelmingly Australians are feeling anxiety and fear. These feelings can make employees feel unmotivated, detached and less obligated to their employers. If management isn’t communicating with employees then you can expect these feelings on steroids.
Don’t hold your cards close to your chest, communication needs to be clear and such that it provides clarity and instils confidence. Be specific, what’s in scope and what’s not, if your strategy is to buy time and preserve cash then communicate that. You need to be open with your employees so you can gain their buy in if you need to need to look at changing rosters and pay reductions. Don’t make assumptions as to what your employees will or won’t do, or that they’ll only look out for themselves.
But, you need to be a role model. And that can mean taking the hardest hit yourself. All trust and respect will be lost if you start making cuts but continue to pay bonus’ to management or treat yourself.
From a people perspective where to from here?
Well it depends on your financial situation; if you fall under the WA or Federal Industrial Relations system; your employment contracts and your relevant Award ** side note Fair Work and the Unions have rushed a few changes through to amend Awards in light of the current crisis. It always pays to check the Award for any amendments before making decisions **
If you can make it through the next 6 months relatively intact after some adjustments you should be looking at purchased leave agreement; amendments to work hours; pay reviews and voluntary leave without pay. These strategies are designed to minimise immediate expenditure with little disruption to your operations and workforce.
If the next 6 months is a bit so / so now is the time to be looking at annual and long service leave liability and if you should be looking at clearing some of that now, rather than at a possible closedown; standing down non essential positions and as a last resort redundancies. The strategy here is to tighten up financially while keeping your workforce “on hold” so you can revert to normal operations as quickly as possible once the lockdowns are over and the economy starts to recover. The Job Keeper payment is payable for employees stood down as a result of COVID-19.
And if you’ve consulted with your accountant and it is likely your business won’t survive this period? Your options are going to depend on your business size because redundancies are treated differently for businesses with less than 15 employees.
What I can tell you with certainty is no matter your size, turnover or industry you should be focussing your attention to the following functions:
Paying for experts; if it’s not your area expertise now is not the time to wing it. At all.
Show strong, ethical leadership; your employees are looking to you for guidance right now, back yourself and lead by example
Plan; look at your cashflow and get business continuity plans in place. Look at your workforce planning. Plan that sh*t out to within an inch of its life
Nail down those processes; If the past 2 weeks has shown you that you need to get some structure to your operations now is the time to do it. From a HR perspective this isn’t just about actually having documents to minimise risk and strategies to add value to your operations, it’s about perception. A business with well presented and accessible information for their employees (and potential employees) looks 100 times more professional than one that has very little in place. And if you think that’s neither here nor there then how about this – employment law is complex and ignorance of your obligations isn’t going to save you from being slapped with a Fair Work penalty.
Pivot! Diversify, Innovate; Has the virus disrupted the way you normally conduct your business operations? Find a work around, get online, change your product. At least you can say you gave it a red hot crack.
Create loyalty; focus on your existing customers and cliental, create a sense of “stickiness” to keep them engaged with your business. Get out there and talk to them, see where they are at, ask how you can modify your operations to service their needs more effectively
Communicate, communicate, communicate; You might be doing something really great behind the scenes, but behind the scenes is just that – hidden from view. If you want people to know what you are up to you need to tell them. Pump those good news stories out. With social distancing and lockdowns people have only social media to keep in touch and this is where your voice needs to be. Still create content but save the hard sells for another time. Right now people just want support, a laugh and to know they aren’t alone.
and finally…………
Be a good corporate citizen; Please? Is it really that hard? Trust your employees to work from home, employ strategies to help with minimising the spread of infection, think about your employees financial and emotional wellbeing; not just profit, got something that would benefit someone worse off? How can you allow them to access it. I wrote this post a couple of months back, I honestly believe attitudes are changing and people are less willing to allow unconscionable behaviour slip on by. Don’t be on the wrong side of history (mic drop 🎤 rant over)
Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day
It’s time for HR to move beyond policies, practices and processes, HR’s value proposition to business is to ensure HR professionals and their practices’ produce positive outcomes for key stakeholders, employees, line managers, customers and investors.
THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE IS A KALGOORLIE BASED HUMAN RESOURCES (HR) CONSULTING COMPANY THAT SPECIALISES IN DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS WITH SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES. WE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH EMPLOYEE INITIATIVES.
CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL GOALS.
AT THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE YOU ONLY PAY FOR THE WORK WE UNDERTAKE FOR YOU; NO ANNUAL OR MONTHLY FEES; NO CONTRACTS; JUST QUALITY, LOCAL, SERVICE.
Now’s the time to start communicating with your employees about the impact of the current crisis on your operations.
Right now we are all feeling a sense of anxiety & fear
During these times, in the absence of a leader who is clear, authentic and transparent in their communication, employees will begin to feel detached and less obligated to the organisation.
Communication (well the right type of communication) can assist with allaying the fears of your employees. People are looking for clarity and confidence in their leaders, now is not the time to hold your cards close to your chest – everyone knows what’s happening out there, they know there is going to be pain, you don’t need to pretend everything is fine.
But you do need to be clear on the reality and what your strategy is.
And it’s time to pay for good advice, let the specialists take care of your people and financial matters. You need to be out there talking to your clients, understanding where they are at, looking at strategies to pivot your business operations, making the necessary changes to your core business.
What can your employees expect if your industry goes into lockdown?
Will you be looking at stand downs over redundancies?
As the lockdowns and job losses impact the economy what is your strategy to minimise the pain?
You have a requirement to communicate any major workplace changes to your employees – we are here, the time is now.
They need time to plan & prepare – emotionally and financially.
This is all about having a workforce there ready to go back to work when this is all over. To buy time to weather the storm
I’m here to support you through this when you are ready
Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day
It’s time for HR to move beyond policies, practices and processes, HR’s value proposition to business is to ensure HR professionals and their practices’ produce positive outcomes for key stakeholders, employees, line managers, customers and investors.
THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE IS A KALGOORLIE BASED HUMAN RESOURCES (HR) CONSULTING COMPANY THAT SPECIALISES IN DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIPS WITH SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES. WE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH EMPLOYEE INITIATIVES.
CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL GOALS.
AT THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE YOU ONLY PAY FOR THE WORK WE UNDERTAKE FOR YOU; NO ANNUAL OR MONTHLY FEES; NO CONTRACTS; JUST QUALITY, LOCAL, SERVICE.
