How to boost business through HR

It’s time for another instalment from Amy Blick, the owner and founder of exhilHRate! Here, she shares tips on how you can boost your business with trusted and tested HR strategies.

For any motor factor, regardless of size, it’s always good to cast a critical eye over people performance and your people package; really going under the hood, making change without haste. So, I encourage you to take a long, hard look at your team – how do you look after them? How do you foster an inclusive, welcoming culture? Warming to this, how will you recruit and retain the best people this year, so that time for all is time well spent?

Tough decisions may be needed, including budgetary cuts – reducing your workforce without compromising on customer satisfaction and business efficiency. Running parallel to these activities should be a root and branch audit of your people policies with the aim of making improvements that cost little but that deliver large. Here are a few suggestions to set you on the road to being an exemplar employer:

Put in place a performance management system

It’s unacceptable to give employees random, unstructured feedback and infrequent anecdotal updates on their performance. The odd chat in the pub or when you have half an hour should be abandoned in favour of a professional system whereby employees can provide feedback on your business and can listen to your considered and structured feedback on their performance. This is a crucial part of business improvement. A performance review system sends the signal you’re an employer that genuinely puts employee progression and performance at the centre of your business. If you visit my HR document site, The HR Playbook, you’ll find useful templates that will help you do just as I’m suggesting.

Encourage feedback – properly!

Make the system of gathering feedback more structured. Share the concept in a team meeting. Give examples of great ideas, big and small. Set up an HR system (to give Kudos) or email address solely for ideas; arrange an idea sharing session every quarter. Reward those contributing great ideas that bear fruit. When people feel part of a business to the extent they’re motivated to share ideas, it’s a sure sign of an inclusive business. Some of the best business ideas emerge once team members realise their voice counts. I have, however, seen business owners reacting defensively when employees suggest improvements, often those from the front line of customer service and sales. Ignoring feedback because you’re happy to continue doing what you’ve always done, is poor performance!

Start a conversation about culture and respect

The high-profile cases in the media; people being called out for inappropriate behaviour around colleagues shows what happens when things go very wrong. A culture where you ignore bad taste ‘banter’ and don’t take team member concerns around unwelcome behaviour seriously is not one to be proud of. Wielding a stick and talking about uncapped fines at employment tribunals can help shift a culture pretty quickly, but the best approach is to proactively set the tone and the culture from the top downwards.

So, talking to team members about what your culture stands for and the behaviours that will not be tolerated sends a strong message to all. Every member of your team should feel safe, welcomed and included in the workplace. If this means calling out those that are infringing on this, don’t delay. I see this occasionally when brought into an established business, until I point out that the behaviours could constitute harassment or are just out of touch and out of date, the perpetrators are unaware. The business owner has become so used to this behaviour that it’s become the norm. Set your stall with your employees: encourage feedback, ask them to share what’s on their mind, good and bad, with the option to do so anonymously if this would make them feel more at ease.

Boost those benefits!

If it’s unlikely you’ll be increasing wages this year, consider enhancing your staff benefits package; for example, could you trial flexible working arrangements? If you don’t try you won’t know.

Could you link up with a local fitness centre so they can offer your employees more for their membership? At zero cost to you. Look at other local businesses where they’ll benefit simply by offering your team extra benefits to use them.

Or could you offer an extra day’s holiday for long service members, an extra day to reward exceptional performance? When you align benefits such as this to individual goals, everyone’s a winner.

There are reasons to be optimistic about this year! Make sure you put your people at the heart of your business and that optimism will be shared by all.

Are you ready for an HR helping hand?

After reading this, if you are thinking that it is time to give your HR some love and attention, look no further.

I have created my HR MOTs, which are tried and tested, for businesses to use as a powerful tool to get peace of mind on certain areas of your business and your practices. If reading this article has made you realise you are not confident in your employee engagement or you know you are not ready for what the rest of this year might bring – an MOT is perfect for you.

Ranging from one to two days, depending on what you want to cover, the MOT consists of deep diving into your chosen MOT – you can choose a general MOT or a more specific option – and reviewing what you currently have in place.

Following from this deep dive, a full recommendations report is created and professionally formatted, ready for you to use with great things you are currently doing, quick wins for change and recommended improvements. These reports are a brilliant way to make your HR next steps simple and easy to implement.

Don’t just take my word for it! Here is what business owners have said about their HR MOT:

“Enthusiastic, knowledgeable, experienced and adaptable. We worked with Amy for two days and she made such a big impact in a short time… We didn’t want her to leave!”

“Thank you so much! I cannot express what this HR MOT has done for us. It allowed us the opportunity to refocus, grow strategically and be reassured we have the right processes in place.”