Want to know the secret to a thriving business that meets and exceeds its aspirations year on year? It’s HR. OK, I have a clear bias, but honestly without solid HR or people and culture functions, a business is limited in how it can grow or scale. Big dreams? The only way to bring them to life is with good people who buy into your vision  and this comes from providing a workplace that enables this connection and buy in.

HR- we need a seat at the table! Strong, solid people and culture practices bring benefits that are too extensive to list in a single blog post, and on the flip side, the impact of poor HR can be costly across a slab of measures as well as growth-inhibiting.

I work with people who are across a range of industries and sectors, usually in a growth stage (or ready to launch into scale) with at least 10 members of their team. In the past six months alone, I’ve worked with people in the health sector, accounting practices, legal firms and consulting suites, to name just a handful. These are clever people, no doubt about it. They’re incredible at what they do and have big dreams for their businesses and the clients they serve. They bring me onboard because they’re not quite ready for an in-house HR role, or they don’t necessarily require one, but they know that my extensive experience, expertise and skillset will help them strategically scale their business.

HR is interesting in that every HR professional has their own approach to how they deliver and implement their expertise. A great example of this is bringing in a profiling tool such as DiSC. Some people use it as a blunt instrument in opening up communication within a team that may have been classed as dysfunctional, whereas others use it as a means to take a great team to exceptional *waves hello*. Some people focus heavily on detail and compliance through a rules-based approach. That is not me.

While I’ll always have obligations and compliance in consideration, I work in grey. I like to work closely with clients not in a black and white way, and I can only get to the nuances of the grey though a partnership approach with a business where relationships are key. This is where I spend time unearthing and developing a deep understanding of a business to know its challenges, identifying its risks and then uncovering the possibilities and opportunities. At the core of all this? People.

Having people as the foundation is essential for strategic, sustainable success. Everyone brings different strengths, backgrounds, skills and experiences to the workplace. Good HR provides the platform and practices that give leaders the ability to take advantage of the different lens people can bring, the perspectives that unveil the opportunity. Through understanding their people, they can strategise much more effectively when making important business decisions in a timely manner.

This is why I think it’s essential for HR to have a seat at the table and to be part of the leadership team. It’s this inclusion that allows them to understand the business, its clients, what they do, its people. In former roles, I used to sit in on the Sales and Business Development team meetings so I could understand both the challenges of winning work but also what was coming in the pipeline from a resourcing perspective. If the business had a body of work coming in requiring extra staff with a skillset that we either didn’t have or weren’t proficient with I needed to know so that we could source that talent and get the project over the line.

A concept that sometimes gets lost in the traditional or colloquial definitions of HR is our ability to coach. A huge part of what we do is bringing to life coaching models for leaders to use with their people. We’re not just the people who set up employment contracts – we can help leaders understand that every contact in their team is actually a human that deserves to feel valued and should be set up to thrive at work.

HR is essential to a thriving business with flourishing people – if you’re feeling a little limited on the HR front, please reach out for a conversation. I’d love to be of support!