8 common people challenges faced by growing businesses
If you’re running a business, it’s growing and you’ve started taking on staff, it’s highly likely at least one or two of these challenges will ring true. If that’s the case, it’s probably time to start thinking about a co-sourcing solution for your HR function.
Whether you’ve got dedicated in-house resource for HR, or you’re the business owner trying to navigate your way through the HR minefield, take note of the common pitfalls we come across.
1. People strategy (or lack of)
As businesses grow, taking a strategic view on future staffing and organisational structure pays dividends in the long run. Leveraging people as a strategy to maintain competitive advantage is powerful. Looking at how competitors are attracting and retaining talent; remuneration structures; employee benefits and flexible working offerings are some fantastic strategies. Most small organisations struggle to plan and implement people strategies because they don’t have an experienced board level representative.
2. Having the right staffing model
Staffing models vary and accurately assessing skills gaps across various disciplines can be challenging. Full time employees aren’t always going to be the most cost effective solution to a skills gap, but recruiting and motivating freelance or contractor staff comes with its own problems. Having someone in the organisation to advise on the right combination of talent required at specific times in your growth cycle can have a significant impact on growth.
3. Creating and communicating an appealing employer brand
Candidates have a lot of the power in most markets these days. There’s significant talent shortages in a lot of sectors, meaning employers have less choice when it comes to hiring. One way you can differentiate your company against your competitors as a great place to work is through your employer brand - the real differentiators that make you better to work for than your competitors. Creating and communicating this brand to potential candidates is a common challenge for growing businesses.
4. Knowing you’re on the right side of the law
For most business owners, employment law probably won’t be something you’re expert in. This is manageable to a certain point, but once you start growing more quickly and acquiring staff, knowing where you stand when it comes to employment practices and implementing contracts and processes can become an issue.
5. Limited time
Most business owners have many different hats. Running and growing the core business becomes overshadowed by day to day infrastructure challenges that go hand in hand with a growing business. You have to become the finance department, IT support, HR strategist and business owner all rolled into one and for the most part you won’t have the time or experience to deliver across all aspects effectively.
6. Hiring the right people
Running effective recruitment processes and understanding the right combination of personalities to place in your organisation can have a significant impact on the success of the business. You need to avoid hiring the same type of person, and understand where different personality types will thrive in different parts of your organisation.
7. Navigating technology
There are thousands of HR technology platforms and software available on the market. Most of them designed to make your HR function run more smoothly. The challenge is knowing where you should invest, what will actually improve operational efficiency and which of these technologies work together most effectively. Making the wrong decision on which HR technology to implement into your organisation can be a costly mistake.
8. Training and development
After you’ve taken on a certain number of staff, formalising training and development becomes important for the attraction and retention of talent. You need to offer staff personal development and training that keeps them engaged while at the same time having a positive outcome for your business.
The people function is muli-faceted. There are a lot of areas to consider and you can’t invest in them all at once. Sourcing the right sort of support for your HR function can make your life a lot easier, and encourage a happy and motivated workforce. This is where co-sourcing is a great hybrid solution that will give you time back to focus on the core business but without management losing control.