Author: Natasha Kearslake

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Specialist HR Support

Specialist HR Support – How Do You Know When Your Business Needs it? 5 Signs to Look For.

The development of HR in a business often follows a similar pattern. Initially, it starts out as the part-time responsibility of a nominated team member – perhaps with specialist HR support via a telephone advice line to call on for guidance. As the business grows and takes on more staff, the role becomes full-time and is given to someone with basic HR experience.

But there will come a time when this solution is no longer able to cope with the scale and depth of the organisation’s HR needs, and external specialist HR support is needed. While very large organisations can afford to invest in creating a dedicated internal HR resource staffed by experienced professionals, this isn’t an option open to most owners of small and mid-size businesses.

So how do you know when your business is approaching the point when it needs to have access to external, specialist HR support?

It’s different for every business: there are no set rules around headcount, turnover or any other metric. Although it isn’t possible to predict when the time will come with any degree of accuracy, it’s sensible to look out for early indicators so you can be proactive and prepare.

Working with a wide range of clients has given us an insight into some of the more common signals that indicate a business may be nearing the point when external support is needed.

Here are five to look out for:

1. When a single issue seems to dominate & never gets resolved

Many clients we work with employ between 11-50 people. I’ve noticed that when the headcount reaches around 20 or so, a persistent HR issue can often emerge. It might be about virtually anything, but most often, it will relate to a particular individual, and it just won’t go away. Because no one is quite sure how to address it and decisions aren’t made about it, it becomes disproportionate to its size and a distraction to business as usual.

2. When your internal HR resource doesn’t have the solutions you need

As already mentioned, it’s common for HR to be just part of one person’s role in a smaller organisation – perhaps supported by an advice line for guidance on basic rules and procedures. The individual may have minimal HR experience – possibly even none – and expectations of responsibilities will likely be limited to admin.

This kind of arrangement can work perfectly well, but at some point, an issue will almost certainly arise to test the boundaries of current capabilities, and this is a critical moment on the HR journey.

We often find ourselves called in to assist a highly competent individual who’s done a solid job of handling HR up to this point but finds themselves unsure of how to advise the business owner on a complex issue. And why should they? They don’t have the training, experience or knowledge to be able to provide a bespoke solution.

Without the right advice, a business owner who might otherwise be great at engaging and building relationships with employees, can easily find themselves out of their depth, leading to a bad situation becoming worse.

3. When your advice line provides rules & processes – but not the answer

While your HR needs remain relatively simple, subscription-based advice lines can be a cost-effective way to supplement your internal HR resource. However, most of these solutions tend to provide rather generic advice. They are generally great at reiterating rules and regulations and detailing the correct procedures to follow in set scenarios. But their value can be limited in more complex situations which call for a more nuanced approach and where an in-depth understanding of the business dynamics and the personalities involved is needed.

“Our HR requirements have changed as our business and workforce have grown exponentially. While our HR subscription service was still useful for queries relating to junior staff and apprentices, we recognised that we needed help implementing the advice provided. In addition, the service was not robust enough to support our needs in relation to senior staff.” Pete Mills, MD, Pantera. Read full case study.

4. When the consequences of not following due process catch up with you

In a small organisation, it’s easy for HR processes not to be applied quite as strictly as they should be. Lack of time, lack of knowledge, nervousness and a desire not to ‘upset the applecart’ might all be reasons for letting some seemingly minor issues go unchecked.

You might tell yourself that something isn’t important – and on its own, it might not be, but if you don’t follow processes, it’s probably going to catch you up sooner rather than later. Cut an employee some slack because they always meet their target, and when they really step over the line, you’ll find communicating your message much more difficult than it needs to be. Because you’ve not had the right conversations along the way, the employee might not even realise they were getting close to a red line. If you don’t follow the correct process from the outset, relationships can deteriorate, impacting your business – and you won’t get to the point where either the employee complies or you’re within your rights to take formal action.

5. When your business experiences significant growth or change

A period of growth or change in a business can often put pressure on an internal HR resource – especially when it hasn’t been explicitly planned with a specialist HR support focus.

You’ll have a business plan setting out key goals and milestones, but opportunities might present themselves – an acquisition for example, that may lead to an unanticipated growth spurt, or a new contract or client win might require you to add to your skillset by taking on new talent. Both scenarios have the potential to upset the dynamics of a business if they’re not managed with care.

“Our long-term objective is to manage our HR function in-house, but in the meanwhile, we needed an HR professional to advise and support us – and to train our internal resource. Working with Organic P&O Solutions gives us the reassurance that we’re doing things the correct way”. Anthony Young, Director, Bridewell Consulting. case study.

Where Are You on Your HR Journey? Is it Time for Specialist HR Support?

Do you recognise any of the indicators outlined above? If you do, it’s time to have a conversation about supporting your HR resource with external, specialist HR support, expert help and advice. Wherever you are on your HR journey, whatever level of internal resource you already have in place, and whatever kind of HR issues you might have to address, we’d love to assist you in your next phase.

At Organic P&O Solutions, our service can be as flexible as you need, adapting to your changing needs as your business grows. Get in touch with us today for an initial chat.

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Working Parents: 6 Things You Can Do to Help You Get Through Lockdown

Balancing work with parenting responsibilities is tough at the best of times. But with homeworking, home-schooling and changing school schedules thrown into the mix during lockdowns, life has become even more stressful for working parents with children of school or pre-school age.

According to the Modern Family Index, there were 13 million working parents in the UK in 2019. For the same year, the Office for National Statistics reported that 75.1% (three in four) of mothers and 92.6% of fathers with dependent children were in work in the UK. All these numbers have been increasing steadily over the last 20 years or so.

It’s quite likely you’ll have working parents in your team, and you may even be one yourself.

Although we’re all in this together, each of us will be experiencing lockdown from our own unique perspective. As a working Mum myself and with working parents in my team, I can empathise with others in similar situations. I wanted to use this space to share a few of my own experiences and some coping strategies to help working parents – employers and employees alike – deal with these challenging times:

1. Keep talking!
The old adage has it that sharing concerns and worries with others halves the problem, and here at Organic P&O Solutions, we concur wholeheartedly with this simple piece of advice. Many of the challenges we’re asked to help with could have been resolved earlier if people had just had a conversation and reached out for help.

Employers and employees need to engage in open and honest dialogue, so there’s a clear understanding of the support everyone needs to do their job effectively. The answers may not always be easy or immediately apparent, but in our experience, solutions usually emerge from dialogue.

And it shouldn’t just be employees that open up about the challenges they may be facing. There can be a lot of pressure on an employer to present themselves as superheroes to their team. It’s an unrealistic image, and a better approach would be to demonstrate that they are in fact human – by, for example, admitting they’re finding home-schooling tough or that their energy levels have dipped. There’s no need to go into details, but by doing this, they will be helping encourage employees to share their own issues as well as taking the pressure off them to try to be perfect employees.

2. Find ways to connect with people you need & who need you
Lockdowns and social-distancing have reminded us just how much we depend on each other for support, and it’s important we find new ways to stay connected, offer help – and accept it when it’s offered to us. Every one of us is impacted by the pandemic, and by working together, rather than in isolation, there are plenty of ways we can support one another.

Think about where you need help, and about the support those in your work or social network might need. Are there places where these needs cross over? Perhaps there are ways you can mutually support each other professionally, personally or emotionally.

From a personal perspective, although I’m good at working on my own, I do need to interact with my team. I miss the breakfast meetings we used to schedule. While face-to-face conversations over coffee and croissants are not possible, I make sure we do the next best thing and make full use of video calling – not only to discuss business but also to socialise virtually and catch up for a chat.

Outside of work, I love to run, but with home-schooling as well as working I’ve had to reschedule things. I’ve taken to running with a friend once a week when my son stays with his Dad, and I also go on a regular monthly walk with another friend. It’s a temporary routine that allows me to meet my home and work commitments, get exercise and have some invaluable social interaction.

3. Be realistic & go with the flow
For anyone working and having to look after children, these are stressful times. Being a full-time carer, teacher, Mum or Dad, and doing a job from somewhere that’s probably part-home, part-nursery, part-school and part-office; and maybe with a working partner sharing the same space, is likely to stretch anyone’s nerves, patience and energy reserves to their limits.

It’s a situation that requires putting on and taking off different hats throughout the day. As far as is possible, try to engage the right mindset for the task at hand. This is easier said than done, but where you can, try to compartmentalise your time, dedicating set periods to tasks rather than attempting to multi-task too much.

Crucially though, don’t stretch your personal limits. The combination of high stress levels and depleted energy means you need to be realistic in your expectations of yourself and own what you can realistically achieve.

Over the summer, I realised I couldn’t sustain my early morning FastTrack Fit Camp sessions on the same days that needed me to still have energy to run around with my son or go out with him for a bike ride. Something had to give, or I’d burn-out, so Fit Camp sessions had to take a break for a little while.

I do also think that trying to make some space for yourself each day is essential. Being a lark, I start work early in the morning – usually between 6 am – 7.30 am. It means I can be with my son for breakfast and allows me to have some quiet time – for me, an essential ingredient for happiness and productivity. I get to look at the moon, enjoy a good cup of coffee and plan my day before the phone begins to ring or I’m needed on the home front!

4. Recognise that positivity & negativity both have roles to play
Our nature will mean we tend to either lean slightly towards pessimism or optimism. The scale and duration of the current situation call for balance. There’s no point in taking the approach that everything is coming up roses – but at the same time, being a complete Eeyore will get you nowhere either. Positivity and negativity can both be forces for good: the first supports resilience, momentum and forward direction, while the second can be a realism check to help identify potential obstacles and blind spots.

In short, both have their place, so embrace them and try to retain a sense of balance.

5. Allow time to transition between roles
Following on from the above point, a working parent will probably need to transition through a dizzying array of roles each day, morphing from breadwinner to teacher, confidante to cook, parent to partner, team leader to cheerleader – and more besides.

In any given hour I might have a coaching session with a client, check on my son’s schooling, clean the bathroom, work on a future product idea, give guidance to a team member about a project they’re leading and take a call for HR advice.

It’s emotionally and physically exhausting, and I know that if I don’t take at least some time out between each task, I won’t take any learnings from what I’m doing.

It’s only by learning that we can improve and make things better for ourselves, but it’s impossible to learn anything while in survival mode. Allow some time to feel comfortable regularly to allow the learning to emerge, so you can prioritise what’s useful.

6. Know your early warning signs & share them with others
If you’re struggling, it’s all too easy to just carry on and ignore the signals indicating that something is likely to give. Left unchecked work and family relationships might suffer, and mental or physical illness could become a real possibility.

It’s important to recognise as early as possible when things might be reaching a critical point, and often, others will see this in you before you see it in yourself.

Stress affects people in different ways. An out of character short temper, limited attention span, forgetfulness and excessive tiredness can all indicate that help might be needed. Most of us know how we react to stress, and we need to share our ‘tells’ with colleagues so they can look out for warning signs.

Can We Help You & Your Team Get Through Lockdown?
Hopefully, lockdowns and home-schooling will soon be consigned to history. In the meanwhile, if you or anyone in your team is struggling with the challenges of working through the current situation, Organic P&O Solutions can offer advice and support.

Get in touch with us today.

Case Study: Archway Business Solutions

CASE STUDY: Archway Business Solutions

Recruitment Support

"Tash very much took the pain out of the interview process..."

ABOUT ARCHWAY BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

Archway Business Solutions install photocopiers and printers directly to clients and offer an ongoing support service to ensure they work efficiently. They are a service based company and focus on offering the best after sales care to clients within a very competitive market place. The company purchased a new building 10 months ago which started the ball rolling for business expansion and highlighted the need for support to recruit the right people to enable that growth.

“Our long-term objective is to manage our HR function in-house, but in the meanwhile, we needed an HR professional to advise and support us – and to train our internal resource.”

THE PROJECT - a customer’s perspective

“We have grown organically as a company and I have run the business by myself over the last 8 years, I recognised with the business expansion I needed to recruit someone to work closely with me.”

“I was fine to recruit engineers but really need some HR support to help me find the right admin person to work alongside me. I tried to find the right candidate on my own, but I was presented with some challenges, so decided to ask Tash to come and help me.”

“Tash came and walked me through the interview process. Initially helping me create the questions; leading the questioning with me during the interview and then helping me to review the candidates at the end of the process. After the interview process we discussed all applicants and came to a joint decision as to who the best person was for the job. ”

“Tash very much took the pain out of the recruitment process. She was prepared to write the letters advising people they had been unsuccessful as well as the offer letter to the successful candidate. ”

Tash also helped us with the contract, sitting down and explaining it to both myself and the successful candidate, making it simple and easy to understand. It was a seamless process.

“I will definitely be working with her in the future and would recommend her to anyone with any HR worries at all.”

A great result

“Tash also helped us with the contract... explaining it to both myself and the successful candidate”

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People Plans

6 Questions to Ask Yourself for your 2021 People Plans

What plans do you have for your business in the New Year? Is your HR strategy in complete alignment with your organisational objectives?

Along with your plans for other core business areas like marketing, sales and finance, your people plan plays a critical role in ensuring your company achieves its goals. But it’s not set in stone: it’s dynamic and must be regularly revised and adjusted to keep pace with changing circumstances.

It’s good practice to review your people plan quarterly, and this is something we do with all our retained clients.

Reviewing your HR needs is an exercise in reverse engineering, requiring you to work backwards from your goals to consider their impact on your people – then check you have the infrastructure, skills, and competencies in place to make them a reality.

In our experience, businesses tend to focus on the resources and roles they need to have in their people plan, giving rather less thought to how those resources and roles need supporting to be effective.

A good people plan will look ahead to consider capability and training needs and try to anticipate potential change – for people as well as the business. If for example, you know an employee is going to be taking maternity leave in a few months, your plan needs to factor this in, identifying how continuity will be maintained, and when any conversations need to take place.

So, how does your people plan measure up against the ambitions you have for your business? Here are six questions to ask yourself:

1. DO YOUR EMPLOYEES HAVE THE RIGHT MANAGEMENT SKILLS?

Does your plan take account of all the skills your people need, highlight where there may be skill shortages, and identify how these will be addressed?

Too often, people are put into line management roles and expected to succeed because they’ve demonstrated they are technically competent. But this doesn’t mean they have the management skills their role calls for. Regardless of where an employee may be in the management line, do they have what it takes to engage, motivate and inspire loyalty in those people who report into them?

Do your people have the skills they need to deal with change? Businesses that invest in training managers and equipping them with the skills they need to manage, motivate and support people and teams are best placed to deal with change.

Inevitably, there will be times when you have no option but to be flexible, react and adapt, but this said, it’s vital to make sure you have a solid infrastructure in place for training people so that when change hits, those people impacted know what to do. Ideally, you will have anticipated and rehearsed potential scenarios, so plans have been experienced and tested.

2. ARE YOUR EMPLOYEES FULLY ENGAGED WITH YOUR BUSINESS?

To make the most of the skills, talent, knowledge and experience in your employees, you need to ensure that each of them is fully engaged with your business.

Ideally, at all levels in your organisation, you should be striving to foster an environment that encourages employees to invest fully in their role, so that for example, they’re prepared to dedicate discretionary time to consider ways systems and processes might be improved.

Building engagement requires looking at the ways you are connecting with your team – and the ways they are connecting with each other. But it isn’t only about communication, it’s also about emotional intelligence, and you’ll need to make sure you’re doing everything you can to nurture this skill within your people. For example, you might have equipped a line manager with all the technical skills required to undertake an appraisal, but do they have the emotional intelligence to have a heartfelt conversation with their colleague? A conversation that will be deep enough for them to fully understand the whole person at work – while keeping within boundaries?

3. DOES YOUR PLAN TAKE ACCOUNT OF YOUR EMPLOYEE’S FUTURE NEEDS?

As much as it possibly can, your plan needs to anticipate the future needs of your employees.

Using all the information available to you, you need to consider each individual within your organisation. What support do you need to put in place to help them be the best they can be? Are there any personal circumstances or life events you need to factor into your plan?

Assessing future needs to ensure your organisation gets the best return on investment in its people – and that employees get the best from the organisation – may involve having difficult conversations. But it’s crucial employees feel they can be open and honest, and confident you’ll listen to their needs as the business develops and grows.

4. ARE YOU LOOKING AFTER THE WELLBEING OF YOUR PEOPLE?

Is employee wellbeing embedded into your organisational culture?

In recent years, there’s been a growing focus on wellbeing in business. Often though, when it’s talked about, it’s in the context of employers going ‘above and beyond’. But it needs to become the norm. The pandemic threw the topic into sharp relief, and unsurprisingly, those employers who already proactively embraced the concept are those that have fared best.

Your employees are your most valuable resource, and taking care of them requires an approach that’s very different to the way you maintain and look after any of your other assets. Your business needs to invest in helping employees to stretch and develop themselves on a personal level, and to take care of their mental and physical health,

5. ARE YOU USING THE RIGHT CRITERIA TO JUDGE PERFORMANCE?

Are you rewarding the right people in your organisation?

Setting targets is key to achieving business objectives, but if you operate one-dimensional incentive schemes that only trigger a reward when a ‘magic’ number is hit – you may not be leveraging the full potential of your people. This kind of culture can lead to extreme swings in performance, and the focus on targets can distract attention from other vital areas and suppress creative thinking.

An ideal solution will identify and reward people who – though they may not always reach every target they’re set, nevertheless contribute to steady, constant and sustainable growth or improvement.

The concept that momentum is as important as achievement is best explained by business guru Simon Sinek in this video How Do You Measure Success?.

6. ARE YOUR HR POLICIES UP TO THE JOB?

Do you have clear HR policies to help guide you through any eventuality?

Taking the time to set down policies and keep them up to date is essential: by having them in place, everyone in your organisation will know where they stand, and they’ll provide a point of reference if clarity is required.

It’s easy to see creating HR policies as more burdensome admin, but not having them when they’re needed can prove disruptive and costly. It’s worth noting that those businesses with unambiguous homeworking policies found it easy to implement new ways of working during the lockdown.

If you don’t have HR policies across all your core people areas, you’re leaving rules and boundaries open to interpretation. Of course, when you come to apply rules, you can use discretion, but not having any to apply will leave you exposed.

Remember, you don’t have to invest your own time in creating HR policies – you can always engage an expert like Organic P&O Solutions to do it for you!

Let Organic P&O Solutions Review Your People Plan!

Tell us about your goals, about the opportunities and challenges your business is facing, and we’ll review your people plan to make sure you’ve got everything covered. Contact us today for an initial chat!

Case Study: Bridewell Consulting

CLIENT FOCUS: Bridewell Consulting

HR Support - High Growth SME

We wanted someone experienced in working with bigger organisations. Someone who would bring a larger enterprise approach.

ABOUT BRIDEWELL CONSULTING

Bridewell Consulting, one of the UK’s leading independent Cyber Security and Data Privacy companies, employs over sixty highly skilled consultants across the UK. Their core areas, which encompass a full suite of wider services that can be tailored for clients, are Cyber Security, Penetration Testing, Data Privacy and Managed Services. Bridewell supports the protection of clients’ systems and data by evolving and strengthening their security and privacy posture over time.

“Our long-term objective is to manage our HR function in-house, but in the meanwhile, we needed an HR professional to advise and support us – and to train our internal resource.”

The challenge

“Our vision is for Bridewell to become a global leading cyber security company where people enjoy and want to work. We’re hiring the best talent from across our industry to build an elite team of specialists. Since we started, we’ve experienced significant growth, with our headcount doubling each year.”

“We engaged Tash to assist us in developing an organisation and culture where people would aspire to work, to ensure we have the right management structure in place for future growth and to help us build a fit-for-purpose team. She also has responsibility for supporting and training our internal HR assistant – with a view to us eventually taking control of HR ourselves.”

Working with Organic P&O Solutions

“Early on, we used Tash as a safety net, to provide us with HR advice as and when we needed it. But as Bridewell has grown, she’s become an extension of our internal team, delivering crucial strategic support.”

“Tash has reviewed our HR processes and documentation – including our staff handbook and employment contracts to ensure they’re fully compliant. She meets regularly with our internal HR assistant, setting her tasks and overseeing her work to help us increase and develop our in-house HR knowledge.”

“With Organic P&O Solutions supporting us, I can be confident that our HR tasks are being driven forward, and that we have the right structure in place for our planned growth.”

Going the extra mile

“Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Tash has been there to support us. In service areas where clients have been most heavily impacted by the pandemic, she’s helped us to make adjustments to our structure with as little impact to our staff as possible .”

A great result

“Working with Organic P&O Solutions gives us the reassurance that we’re doing things the correct way. I know Tash is always on call if I need advice, and when I have ideas I want to discuss, I value her experience and the external perspective she brings.”

Case Study: Chartered Institute of Building

CLIENT FOCUS: The Chartered Institute of Building

An HR Leadership Role Coaching Success Story

Tash's coaching has been critical in helping me to make a positive impact on the business

ABOUT THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF BUILDING

The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) is the world’s largest and most influential professional body for construction management and leadership. Members work worldwide in the development, conservation and improvement of the built environment.

The CIOB accredits university degrees, educational courses and training, and its professional and vocational qualifications are a mark of the highest levels of competence and professionalism.

“When I was promoted to a new strategic role with a team reporting into me, I recognised I was going to need support and development in certain key areas.”

The challenge

“Having worked in administrative roles within the CIOBs HR department for several years, I gained my MA in Human Resources Management and
was promoted to the position of HR Manager. After discussing with my line manager how to make my transition as seamless as possible, we engaged
Natasha from Organic P&O Solutions.”

“Tash has been working with me for over a year now. Initially, our face to face coaching sessions focused on the functional aspects of my new role, addressing a wide range of issues including aspects of team management and workload prioritisation. More recently though, I’ve been working with Tash on developing my leadership, influence and resilience skills.”

Working with Organic P&O Solutions

“Tash has been a massive help to me in making the transition. She’s helped me to shift the way I work by getting me to challenge the way I think, working with me to analyse situations, consider why I respond in certain ways – and assisting me in altering my instinctive behaviour where necessary.”

“Tash’s HR experience has been particularly useful for me in my role. If I’m struggling with a particular HR issue, I know I can call on her for advice.”

Going the extra mile

“Tash has really helped me to challenge the way I think: she picks up on things that are symptomatic of what I need to change: things that without her prompting I wouldn’t even be aware of.”

A great result

“As a result of the work I’m doing with Tash, I’m confident in my role and the decisions I’m making. I think this confidence feeds through to the rest of the organisation in terms of the way I work with my colleagues and how I interact with my team at all levels.”

Case Study: Inca Accounting

Client Focus: Inca Accounting

A HR Support success story

Tash's expert advice helps us to balance our legal responsibilities with our business objectives

ABOUT INCA ACCOUNTING

Inca Accounting specialises in working with the owners of micro to small start-ups, helping them build and grow successful, sustainable businesses. By surrounding owners with all the support and information they need, Inca has achieved a new business survival rate that exceeds the national average by more than 300%.

“Before appointing Organic P&O Solutions, we were having to dedicate considerable internal time and resources to dealing with HR-related matters.”

The challenge

“Overseeing HR has been part of my role at Inca from the outset. As our workforce grew in line with our expanding client base however, I found the increasing amount of time I was spending on HR matters was impacting on my other important responsibilities.”

“With ambitious plans for further growth, we knew we needed to find an HR advisor used to working with big organisations – one that could respond to our demanding requirements and deliver a high level of service to free up more of my time.”

Working with Organic P&O Solutions

“Working with Organic P&O Solutions has transformed our HR resource at Inca. Tash brings a new level of professionalism to this crucial area,
thinking strategically and helping us to anticipate issues before they even arise.”

“We have developed a strong working relationship, and Tash has become an important member of our team. it’s reassuring to know that she is there to give us prompt, professional advice when we need it, and to provide ongoing support to our in-house HR administrator.”

“Tash has also helped us to finalise our HR Employee Handbook, capturing all our HR policies in one place. The Handbook had been a work in progress for several years but remained unfinished due to lack of time. Thanks to Tash, it’s now fit for purpose and underpins all our HR activity.”

Going the extra mile

“Tash is proactive and full of great ideas. She helps ensure we comply with the latest legislation; doing so while always keeping the best interests of our business front of mind.”

A great result

“Knowing that Organic P&O Solutions have got our back on everything HR-related leaves me free to focus on servicing our clients. I know I can have complete confidence that Tash will take care of all our requirements – and that she will do a great job!”

Case Study: Pantera

Client Focus: Pantera

A Leadership and Executive Coaching Success Story

Tash helps us understand what our legal obligations are - and what it's possible to achieve just by sitting down and having a conversation

ABOUT PANTERA

Pantera is the leading carpentry and joinery contractor in London and the South East. Working on prestigious residential, commercial, educational, and leisure projects, the multi-award-winning business has established a reputation for delivering high-quality work and first class client service.

Integral to Pantera’s success are the company’s apprenticeship schemes and graduate and senior management development programmes which have contributed to producing a highly trained workforce.

The challenge

“Our HR requirements have changed as our business and workforce have grown exponentially. While our HR subscription service was still useful for queries relating to junior staff and apprentices, we recognised that we needed help implementing the advice provided. In addition, the service was not robust enough to support our needs in relation to senior staff.”

“Pantera’s rapid scale-up meant that the business also needed help with HR training, and with updating our policies and processes. It was clear we needed to bolster our HR resources in line with our expansion.”

Working with Organic P&O Solutions

“Organic P&O Solutions’ input has been crucial in helping us manage the HR challenges that have come along with our business growth. Tash supplements the support we get from our HR subscription advice service, and adds a further level of depth to it, helping us understand and implement the guidance we receive.”

“Tash has been instrumental in helping us develop employment contracts that address the fluctuating workflow typical of our sector; balancing the flexibility we need while ensuring contracts remain fair and attractive for employees. She’s helped us get our HR policies in place and put them into practice so we’re fully compliant, and has run training workshops in skills including interview techniques to help us make better recruiting decisions.”

Going the extra mile

“When I needed to recruit a Personal Assistant, Tash worked with me to create a profile of the ideal candidate. It really helped our focus throughout the process, and the eventual appointee fitted the criteria Tash had set out exactly!”

A great result

“Having Tash work alongside Pantera lends us a level of HR professionalism not normally found in a business of our size. Being seen to invest in people shows our team how much we appreciate and value them, and elevates our reputation as a good, caring employer, helping differentiate us from our competitors.”

Case Study: Martin Grant Homes

"Well paced and full of content relative to the subject.....engaging and challenging. Great course. Would thoroughly recommend Organic P&O Solutions"

Martin Grant Homes is one of the foremost housing developers operating in the South of England and is currently operating on a dozen sites from Northampton to Chichester, producing in the region of 300 homes a year, both for private sale and for affordable housing.

Organic P&O Solutions designed a two-year Site Manager Academy programme for the company with the aim of developing these key members of staff to deliver:

  • Improved management skills
  • Cohesive team approach
  • Co-operation across sites
  • Shared purpose and focus on company goals

Watch the video to hear how the organisation and the managers involved have benefited from the Academy.

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personalities

Making it Personal: 6 Ways to Use Personality Profiling to Build a Better Business

Being aware of the qualities and characteristics that create the unique personalities of the people we work with is essential – especially right now, when the pandemic means many of us are not able to connect with colleagues in person.

So, do you know what makes each individual in your organisation tick? Can you say what motivates them or which communication style they prefer? Do you know how they respond to stress or the types of people they do and don’t work well with? Can you predict how they’re likely to think and behave in different situations?

These are just a few of the questions you need to be able to answer if you’re going to get the best out of your people – and all of them require insight into the diverse range of personality types you’ll have in your business.

Understanding where your employees – and you – sit on the personality spectrum is a crucial step to developing improved teamwork, communication and productivity.

Thankfully, getting inside the heads of your employees doesn’t require you to be a trained psychologist. Ascertaining personality types is relatively straightforward. There are many profiling tools available that can assess and compare personality characteristics. They vary in sophistication and the level of information they return, but most are based on simple, multiple-choice questionnaires. There’s no pass or fail – each of us has a place on the spectrum – but the information they can provide has a range of practical uses.

You might think of profiling as something primarily used by employers when recruiting, to check a candidate has the qualities – as well as the qualifications and experience a position calls for. Certainly, if you’re recruiting, personality profiling tools can help make sure a candidate is a good fit for a vacancy – although, if this is the goal, they shouldn’t be used simply to identify traits, but rather as a means to understand the preferences of candidates in work situations.

At Organic P&O Solutions, we use personality profiling both for our clients and our own team. Here are six ways you can use it to benefit your business:

1. To Improve personal effectiveness

Profiling tools can be used on a one to one basis to help anyone get a deeper understanding of their personality. The process will provide insight into areas the person being assessed may not consciously be aware of, including how they make decisions, what they like to be appreciated for, their preferred communication style and their stress triggers.

Profiling shouldn’t be used as a one-time checking tool. Personally, I think there’s a good rationale for revisiting results regularly as context and circumstances change. As an example, at Organic P&O Solutions, we recently looked at our own team profiles to learn how each of us was likely to be affected by lockdown. It was a valuable exercise that helped us understand what we needed to do to assist each other and get the best out of ourselves individually and collectively.

2. To increase employee engagement

By helping employees understand their personality traits and how they fit within their team and organisation, profiling can help employees feel recognised, valued and accepted. As a result, it can bring about greater cohesion, a sense of belonging, higher engagement and more robust performance.

Research has shown that employees having the highest levels of engagement with their employer are likely to perform 20% better than other employees and are 87% less likely to leave the organisation. Clearly, engagement is directly linked to organisational performance (to find out more, download our whitepaper here).

3. To develop more robust team dynamics

When team members and managers understand the motives, tendencies and behaviours of each other, they can use this knowledge to inform how they interact. Profiling can create the opportunity for a more effective dialogue where team roles and responsibilities can be agreed, and where communication and conflict are easier to manage – leading to a strong team bond based on mutual understanding.

4. To enhance management skills

Personality profiling can help managers adapt their leadership style to get the best from their team. When a manager understands their own personality characteristics and those of their team, important decisions can be communicated in a way that takes into account what works best for individuals.

5. To build better communications
Personality profiling creates a common language that allows individuals to explore their differences more constructively. Knowing the personality types and preferences in a team, and understanding how you and others like to interact can facilitate better communication

Sharing results with employees will encourage them to adapt their behaviour where change may be needed, and make them aware that people may interpret the same thing in different ways – helping them understand why colleagues might see something one way while they see it differently.

6. To increase productivity
Crucially, personality profiling can positively impact your bottom line. Companies that focus on developing people and strengthening teams to their fullest potential will see an increase in productivity levels. This is because their team learning and individual preferences are linked to how goals can be delivered, and those, in turn, are connected with overall business objectives and performance metrics in a way that works for everyone.

You might believe you know what personality type you are – but you’ll almost certainly know someone who’s opinion of themselves – at least in certain situations, is entirely at odds with your own. You may believe you’re a good judge of other peoples’ personalities, but be honest – how often have you been proved wrong?

The fact is that we’re all capable of working outside of our preferred styles. For many years I worked in an environment that required me to be outgoing, so that’s the persona I adopted – but actually, I lean more towards the introvert/thinker end of the scale. When I have a problem to solve, the last thing I want to do is talk it through with someone: I need time to myself to focus and think things through. Because profiling has helped make me aware of this, and I’ve shared it with my team, they understand that this is how I like to work, they know to leave me alone while I consider the challenge and come up with a solution, before I bring it to the table for discussion.

Tools of the Trade

As mentioned earlier, there are plenty of personality profiling tools to choose from. In no particular order, here are three of our favourites:

  • Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
    MBTI has been around for nearly six decades. It’s my preferred tool when it comes to working with teams because it’s very scientific and can produce real ‘light bulb’ moments. However, being able to interpret the results and translate them into practical actions requires having a good understanding of the process.
  • DISC Profile
    Even older than MBTI, DISC is an intuitive profiling solution that’s simple to implement. DISC refers to the four behaviour types the test assesses: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance. It is more focused on behaviours than preferences but has the same Jungian roots as MBTI.
  • Thomas Kilmanm Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)
    TKI looks at how individuals deal with negotiation and conflict – both of which call for the same skills. We use this tool to help people understand how they can adapt their behaviour to address challenges and reduce the likelihood of conflict.

Let Us Help You Make It Personal

If you’ve not used personality profiling, you may not be getting the best out of yourself or your employees. Here at Organic P&O Solutions, we’re expert practitioners in a range of profiling tools. Contact us today to find out more about how we can use them to help improved personal and team performance in your organisation.

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