Increase the talent in your business
Recruiting the right people is essential if you are to grow your business. Conversely unfilled positions can drain the lifeblood. So engaging professional advice can pay off big time. But when making an appointment retain control, so as to be sure the person you are placing will fulfil your needs not just earn someone a fee. The best person in a position is many times more effective than the average – Google (as an employer itself) says up to 300 times so.
HR professionals will help define needs (which may be different from your first thoughts), enable you to reach the right candidates, structure interviews for you and provide contemporary selection techniques; meaning you make the right decisions and get the best talent.
Get remuneration levels correct
Paying too much makes no sense, but paying too little will prevent you attracting talent. To get the best from your people
- value the experience of current employees
- ensure pay is “felt fair” as the base line for motivation
- make sure salaries reflect added value
- remember that it is easier to push employees out than to pull others in from elsewhere
- Use compensation and benefits specialists to access and interpret the wealth of pay data available.
You can save thousands, perhaps tens of thousands a year, attract talent, and increase motivation at the same time.
Focus on your business not on recruiting
Happy employees will stay with you. Sometimes turnover can be significantly higher than for your sector norm or you may have frequent attendance issues. These are signs that there are matters that need to be, and can be, addressed. Employee problems that are resolved well, employees who perceive they are treated fairly and who “buy-in” to the values and aims of your business will improve productivity.
Where you can, use HR professionals to improve communication with employees, nip “issues” in the bud and create an environment in which people want to perform. Less time on employee issues can mean more time on the golf course!
Tackle poor performance or attendance
There is a lot of legislation here restricting how you can tackle these issues. But tackling them early on often avoids them turning into those serious, frustrating or risky matters. This is where HR advice and experience can provide the confidence to resolve issues safely, to everyone’s benefit and within the law.
Know your own values.
Examine your attitudes to:
- open-ness with information
- how far to empower employees, allow initiative, or delegate authority
- the amount of regulation (internal and external) that will impact on business activities
- attitudes to honesty and ethics
- will employees have fun?
- the management style, characterised by confidence, assertiveness, love or fear!
- the importance of training
- diversity, characterised by attitudes to women, racial groups, people with disabilities, etc.
Outside HR expertise can be valuable to challenge your thinking and as a sounding board for your ideas. Then you will be going in the direction that is right for you.
Make 2015 a great year!