How HR supports the growth of your business
How HR supports the growth of your business
Posted by Stuart Falconer • September 2, 2021

Experience has shown me that the majority of businesses in the SME environment view HR as a resource to be accessed as and when there’s a problem. We’re seen as firefighters, being called in when there’s a problem to be fixed. This is reactive HR. It deals with the immediate problems as they arise but doesn’t address the root causes. Recognising that you can turn this round and take a proactive approach is key to understanding how HR supports the growth of your business.

The reactive approach

If you take a reactive approach to HR, your business environment will look like this:

  • Poor communication
  • No strategy
  • Inefficient
  • Continually held back by recurring issues.

Having worked in HR for over 20 years, I can tell you that most problems can be traced back to a common root cause. Poor communication! Effective communication isn’t complicated – but without it, your business and staff won’t function properly.

Whenever I get involved in a staffing issue and poor communication is identified as a contributory factor, I routinely pose a question: ‘What can be done differently to avoid that situation from occurring again?’ Well, read on . . .

The proactive approach

If we can identify why a problem occurred in the first place, we can put steps in place to prevent it happening again. This is a proactive approach to HR and it looks like this:

  • Deals with the root causes of issues
  • Effective communication
  • Training for managers
  • Strategic conversations.

That creates efficiency, doesn’t it? It gives you the chance to move your business forward without constantly being held back by the same time-consuming and energy-draining HR issues. You and your employees start working together for the good of the business, with shared values and a shared vision.

It all starts at the top

Without leadership from the top, even the best processes and practices won’t work. Senior management must be accountable for filtering shared values down through the business. This requires your business structure/hierarchy to be in tune – you can only achieve this when you have the headspace to see the bigger picture and think strategically. A proactive approach to HR provides you with this space.

And that’s how HR supports the growth of your business!

Morgan Thomson HR doesn’t just provide a firefighting service. We’ll help you create a workplace environment that learns from its mistakes and takes action so that those mistakes don’t keep happening. Take charge and watch how your business develops.

Need to break out of an HR rut? Feel free to email me at [email protected] or call for an informal chat: 0345 095 0139.

Stuart recently presented a webinar on the topic of how HR supports the growth of your business. To watch the webinar, click here.