Employee engagement: You don’t know what you don’t know
When it comes to employee engagement, advice from someone impartial who can help you focus on your goals, not just the paperwork, is invaluable. There’s often a lot more to be aware of than you might realise.
Take our Delivery Director Shamila as a great example. Shamila’s superpower is taking the time to delve into what makes a business and its people tick. She is an expert at cutting through the complexities of the business world to hone in on key opportunities for improvement. By reconnecting business goals with the people driving growth, Shamila aligns the whole business on a path towards success.
Her favourite quote:
“Human resource isn’t a thing we do. It’s the one thing that runs our business” - Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts Limited
The issue with the ‘do as we’re told’ approach is that it prevents HR from fulfilling a strategic function in the business and relegates it to an operational function. Treating HR in this way means it can’t serve the long-term interest of the business, the management within it or indeed the employees. When this happens the business is more likely to run into unanticipated issues (which in some cases HR could and should have predicted!) and ultimately this can have a negative impact on an organisation’s balance sheet.
A lot of the time, taking a holistic approach is more cost effective for the business in the long run and enables more sustainable growth.
How do you know what you need?
Speak to the right people. You can’t be expected to know what you don’t know. That’s why it’s so important to have the right expertise around you, people who will challenge your thinking and guide you to make impactful decisions.
Our people get the best from your people.
Our HR Delivery Director Shamila Mhearban recently had a business owner reach out as he was in need of some ‘additional policies’ that his business didn’t currently have. The obvious response would have been to say ‘yes, we can help with that’, provide him with a quote and get started. But that’s not how we build long-lasting relationships with the growing businesses we support.
This particular client was about to hire two new members of staff over the next six weeks who would both need ‘contracts and some policies’. He had already been quoted ‘x’ for the contracts and additional policies he required but was looking to get a third quote before he made a decision.
He had already spoken to two providers within the HR space, but our name came up in Google and he thought he’d give us a call. Instead of agreeing with him straight away and giving him a quote for the work he had described, Shamila took a different approach.
“I started asking a few questions. What’s happened? Why do you need these policies? What’s different about the new people that you are hiring? What’s the outcome you want and aside from the tangible paperwork, how will you know that these documents have fulfilled their purpose?”
When we work with an organisation, we are not just a ‘supplier’, we are a partner. That means we don’t work with everyone, we work with those who appreciate our strategic approach. That’s why asking the right questions, no matter the size or age of the business, is important to us if we are going to do our job properly.
Shamila also asked, “what’s the long-term vision for your business, are you selling it, is it a family empire you want to grow, do you always want it to be owner managed?”
Contracts and policies, in their very nature, are designed for the future. Therefore, it makes sense to think about the future when you’re creating them.
And lastly, “who challenges your thinking?” — another poignant question that really encourages business owners to take a step back and assess their decisions. Through answering these questions, it was the business owner himself who volunteered that actually the paperwork was secondary to the fact that he didn’t always feel like he had the ‘right answer’ and that having a policy in place would ‘solve’ this issue. From his perspective, HR was a ‘product’ that would fulfil a purpose and solve a short-term problem.
However, by the time he had finished his conversation with Shamila he was confident that what he needed was the ‘strategic thinking’ of someone who understood what he was dealing with. The paperwork was secondary to putting a proper strategy in place that would allow him to run and grow a successful business.
There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to HR
Our trusted advisor relationship with our clients means that we don’t come to the table with existing plans/ideas on what they need. We come with a list of questions designed to pull out the information that will help us advise and support them in the best way possible.
In many cases, this means disregarding what employers thought they wanted, understanding their desired outcome and then exploring with them to figure out the best way to achieve their goals. It is crucial that we understand the ‘why’ before we work on the ‘how’ and the ‘what’.
What are the benefits of an external HR partner?
We’re objective, unbiased and honest.
Our expert consultants are employed by Gingko People, this means that their only priority is giving the right advice and solution to our clients, more or less time spent on a client does not mean more or less taking home at the end of the month.
Additionally, we are external, at a time when HR is becoming massively scrutinised (sometimes derided as just being a ‘mouthpiece’ for management priorities) can any in-house HR team really compete with objectivity and neutrality of an outsourced HR function?
As an external partner, we are able to be honest with you about where you’re going wrong and what needs changing. We are far enough away from company politics that we can give objective advice without clouded judgement.
And what does that mean for trust within an organisation? When an external Gingko consultant stands in front of a group of client employees and says, ‘I am here in the best interest of both you and the organisation’, employees believe them and are more likely to view decisions made by the organisation as legally compliant and authentic.
When you’re looking for an HR partner, don’t just look for the products you think you need, look for the people you trust to advise and guide you honestly.
If you’re considering reaching out to an external HR consultant for specific pieces of work, think again about why you need them and whether wider strategic thinking is actually what you need. Speak to one of our expert consultants today.
