Foundations for People Growth
When starting, scaling or simply just running a business you are likely to be head down focussed on building products, driving revenue or investment and just living in the chaotic moments of juggling a million different things. Everyone who is working in the early stages are pumped and excited and everything workforce falls into place. Rarely does anyone have any expertise or frankly the interest in workforce planning so the happy chaos continues until you need to scale further.
Strategic planning takes time and requires a certain type of expertise. Nowadays, a lot is expected of HR professionals who are predominantly bought in (if at all at the very early stages) at a more junior level to build policies and processes to support compliance and structured growth. A recent Gartner study of CHRO’s demonstrated that only 19% have a wider capability to understand critical business prioritises and support CEOS in navigating economic climate changes. HR always plays a fundamental part in forming the structure and the seamless flow of information and people though an organisation, but it is too much to expect those that are not a highly qualified to take a creative lead, to have commercial acumen and the strategic ability to think about the wider demands and impacts of the workforce when meeting business objectives.
As an executive search and strategy partner – we see these pressures and the longer-term impact they have on the companies’ ability to build and sustain an agile workforce. We sit alongside both CEO’s to translate and develop the strategic capabilities of HR to ultimately drive business results alongside people growth.
It’s that age old struggle of being able to really see what needs to be done as opposed to falling into the constant rut of “ just doing”. Scaling companies must allow outward vision and a critical eye into the business, with access and credibility across all layers. This is an extremely hard and emotional ask for an HR function that doesn’t have the personal or 1-2-1 founder or c-level leadership exposure.
5 areas of strategic focus, essential in scale ups
- CEO and C-Suite people leadership skills: Ensuring the CEO and the leadership team are prioritise and are ready for people growth. Fundamentally understanding the challenges of growth, the pitfalls and the skills required to lead and maintain a high performing culture.
- Winning talent in turbulent and dynamic landscapes. There is always misconception around who is available to hire and how attractive your business is to a prospective candidate. Really understanding your talent marketplace is essential as is the messaging and processes you have in place to attract, engage and onboard. This perception and expectation across the business leaders has to align and be managed well.
- Influencing stakeholder engagement across people transformation: The messaging around all people initiatives has to be consistent and attainable, it should feel like an invisible thread throughout the key players within the organisation and not just via policies.
- Continued focus on workforce development and sustainability: Boardroom time and expertise focussed on workforce planning and aligning culture, skills and capability attainment that is backed though personal development. Understanding overall business objectives is essential to drive the workforce requirements.
- Commercial positioning alongside people growth: A very solid grasp of where the organisation sits commercially, and the profitable requirements needed to support people growth. Being able to sit at board level and articulate how people performance directly and indirectly effects changes in profitability.
A recent, LinkedIn post from a highly successfully entrepreneur (James Bott) who builds and invests in startups and plays a vital role in scaling tech focussed companies, put out a simple list of 10 of the key learnings he had in achieving success. We have pulled out the people ones to reaffirm how important this people journey is, right from the get-go. We feel he has really simplified the noise around people growth and the collaborate priorities of a founding CEO and the senior leadership team.
Out of 10 learnings, 5 of these sat directly around people requirements, which goes to the attention and priority needed right at the foundation layer of growth.
- Culture – this in my opinion was one of the main drivers of our success, create a good culture and the business will grow itself. #peoplestrategy
- Empower your staff – letting go of certain areas is very hard for founders, but you’ll be amazed at how incredible your people can be, give them a chance! #workforcedevelopment
- Staff forecasting – work out how long tasks take, run your new business and client retention pipeline into this so you know exactly when you need to hire rather than hiring when you feel ‘busy’ this will improve profitability and staff retention. #workforceplanning #recruitment
- Business partner – I had a brilliant one, a problem shared is a problem halved and all that. I’d encourage any solo business owner to try and find a partner/co-founder who has complimentary skills. #executivehiring
- Focus on what you are good at – it’s easy to be tempted by other products and shiny new tech but being a leader in what you specialise in will get you what you want a lot quicker. #leadership development.
This all seems so simple, but as we all know people are complex. Every business needs support in getting this journey right. We are here to jump in and help you get started and/or support your existing HR function in navigating the strategic planning for your people.
We are always happy to jump on a call with a scaling CEO and chat about everything people.
Contact emma@hillierrose.com