Don’t let HR give you the heebie-jeebies!

It’s late and it’s raining hard.

The wind is howling and everyone has already left the office for the evening.

You can’t shake the feeling that someone is behind you, but when you turn around, there’s no one there.

A feint “tap tap” on the window outside… nothing.

Shaking your head you tell yourself, “come on now, it’s just the weather outside. There’s nothing scary here”.

You reach to turn off your computer.

Ping!

The sound makes you jump.

“Blast” you utter under your breath, an email.

Your heart stops.

It’s from HR.

That can only mean one thing.

You’re done for.

With a trembling hand you click your mouse and read the subject line:

“Please come to my office – we need to discuss what happened on Wednesday”.

Your mind races.

What can it possibly mean? Are you fired? What did you do? Hang on, is this about that guy upstairs? Did he make a complaint about you leaving a paper jam in the photocopier?

Your mind races, a thousand thoughts and scenarios rush through your brain but they all lead you to one outcome…

Your untimely demise.

You head off down the corridor. Down the stairs… down into the lower levels of the building. Why does HR have to be in the darkest reaches of this place?

Is it your imagination or is it getting colder down here?

Your breath is starting to show in the air.

You edge closer to the door.

There is a dim light you can just make out under the crack. It has a strange red colour to it.

You step closer and reach out your hand… the door slowly creaks open before you get a chance to touch it.

What the?!

“Come in!” says a voice you don’t recognise – “don’t worry, I won’t bite!”.

These are the last words you will ever hear.

The end.

It’s scary season – but HR doesn’t have to be!

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the story from different people about “that HR woman” who “loved a good firing”.

Honestly, I think it qualifies as an urban legend!

“Ooooh” they say, “I knew this HR person and she LOVED it when there were redundancies to be made. I mean she REALLY enjoyed it”.

Or another favourite of mine, “oh look out, HR’s here!”.

Whether branded a demonic portent of doom or the fun police, HR has in some circles managed to get a bit of a bad rep.

Alongside this, if you are in an organisation where you don’t really have enough people to warrant allowing one of these heinous creatures into your workplace on a full time basis, you may file HR in the “we don’t need it” box.

Well I’m here to tell you to not be so hasty. HR is more than telling people off, firing them and keeping your bottom out of a tribunal. In fact, learning to love HR could be the best thing you do for your business.

You have no business without your people and whether your business succeeds or fails will largely be determined by the people you have in it. That’s the long and short of it.

Whatever your business aspirations are, whether you are maintaining, growing or developing your business, you need to think about your people strategy and the sooner you do, the sooner you can start reaping the rewards.

When we talk about a people strategy, what is it we mean? Because actually, there are most likely a lot of elements you are already doing that already fall into the People Strategy cauldron.

A People Strategy starts with how you attract and recruit your talent, it builds on how you keep people motivated to your cause and wanting to pour their hearts and souls into making your business a success and it builds the relationships in your business that allow your people to grow, develop and thrive.

That all sounds very nice and I can hear you all saying “ohhh, she’s on about that fluffy stuff”.

Well, that “fluffy” stuff is actually really scary stuff. In fact some of the most terrifying figures I have come across are based on that fluffy stuff. The next part is not for the feint hearted so look away now if you don’t want to lose your appetite.

• The cost to employers of mental health problems in the UK was almost £35 billion – and that was back in 2016. We have a mental health pandemic looming post-COVID – what will the numbers look like then?  A good reason to consider Wellbeing as part of your People Strategy.

• Conflict in the workplace costs UK employers around £28.5 billion every year.

  A good reason to consider conflict resolution and training as part of your People Strategy.

• Unproductive workforces cost UK businesses a total of £143 billion each year. Turns out, only 1 in 4 people believe they are consistently productive at work.

  A good reason to consider developing your people and teams as part of your People Strategy.

• Poor company culture costs over £20 billion per year and causes almost a third of SME employees to leave their jobs.

  A good reason to consider developing your Culture and Values as part of your People Strategy.

These are just a few examples to drive home the importance of putting people up front and central in your business plans.

Being a nice boss will get you so far.

Providing a great environment will get you so far.

Paying people well will get you so far.

Hiring great people will get you so far.

Having a plan – a People Strategy -  where you are intentional about your people, where you are confident in how you all use your people skills, where you have an engaging and strong work community, where you actively seek to embed positive change – that will get you further than you could possibly imagine.

If you want to imagine how far a People Strategy will help you and your business, book yourself in for a call with Lucy.

She’s not at all scary and she promises not to bite you…