When your resources are human
It feels like ages since I have had the time to write. In fact, it feels like ages since I have had the time to do anything more than work, eat and sleep. It is the busiest time of year for our business and Michael and I made the commitment to focus all our attention on the business for July and August. This was our choice. We believed we could cover the load despite being short staffed. Surely it couldn’t be that bad. A few extra hours of work each day and we would could get through the workload. We have honoured our commitment, pretty much working seven days a week, late nights and early mornings. We are now certain that working at this level is unsustainable and thankfully things are about to change as we replenish our resources – we are hiring more humans.
In the classic chicken and egg scenario, we knew we needed more staff, but we also needed the money to pay for the new staff. We needed new staff to do the work, to get the money, to pay for the new staff. We work harder to try to make the money so we can afford these people but we too are only human. I have been unbearable to live with and be around, and I think I have aged about 10 years in the last 2 months. I can see the toll it is taking on Michael as well. We have let this go on for too long and a change is needed urgently.
It is cycle I have become familiar with in this industry. There is a basic formula that a staff member should be making 3 times their salary to be cost effective. That means we need to grow a pool of new clients in order to justify hiring a new person. Depending on the salary level, that could be quite a lot of work, or quite a big risk if the work does not come in. The pain level builds to a crescendo until you have no choice but to hire a new staff member. The pain eases off and for a moment you feel overstaffed. Then it all starts to build again. Right now, we are at the peak of the wave, at breaking point. We have two new staff members starting in the coming weeks. I feel like I can start to breathe again.
We knew that we would have a staffing issue at the beginning of the year, and like most businesses, we waited until things were getting critical before seeking help. We called on our friends Kenny and Raeleen from Red Leaf Consulting, and we have been so grateful for the help they have given us.
I am a numbers person, and in all honesty, I thought Human Resources was kind of irrelevant, and just a department that organised payroll, employment contracts and other documents relating to staff. I had minimal interest in the function and could not fathom how a HR department could add value to an organisation.
I have been amazed at what Red Leaf have done for us, and I am certainly seeing the benefits of having a considered approach to managing staff and hiring new people.
We started the process with a strategic planning session. While it was a great session, I was questioning what this had to do with HR. We know our business, so why is it relevant to a HR consultant to know what we want to do with our business? Light bulb moment, our business is driven by people. If we want to take our business in the direction we have planned, we need the human resources to do this. More importantly, we need the right human resources. Suddenly things were making sense.
We already have a great bunch of people who work for us, putting in effort day after day. However, there were frustrations with the way staff were working, both individually and as a team. We could also see some frustrations with the way Michael and I were working together. Why do people act or react in the way they do, when that is not what I would do in that situation? Why are certain personalities clashing within our small team, and how am I to handle this as their leader?
Red Leaf suggested we run a DiSC profile (personality test) on the entire team to give us some clues as to the work styles of our team members. The test involves answering 30 simple questions and as you are answering the questions you are thinking how can this possibly tell anything about me?
The resulting document which outlined my personality explained me to a T (both the good stuff and the bad stuff). When our team members completed their profiles, it explained each of them rather accurately as well. Ok, so it is not perfect, but it is a great tool to use and I am sure it has helped me over these past few months. I am more understanding of my staff and why they are the way they are. I am more understanding of myself and why I act the way I do, or why I feel frustrated doing the tasks I really don’t like doing so much.
The next step was to work out what profiles suit each of our job descriptions, and match those to the staff we have. It has given us a basis to move staff into roles that suit them better, playing to their strengths where we can. It has also given us a tool to use when we hire new staff. I highly recommend it for any team. We can all use some improvement, and this is a simple and effective way to understand our staff’s individual work styles as well as how the team functions.
Interestingly, I was the lowest ranked out of all of my staff to be an accountant. This does not mean I am not a good accountant (I am a great accountant), but it does mean that I don’t have the personality to be your typical accountant. It makes sense. I don’t get excited preparing a set of accounts. What I get excited about it using those accounts to help people. The numbers speak to me and some weird numerical creativity starts to shine though. I love watching businesses grow, I love coming up with new ideas. I love MY business and coming up with new ideas for MY business.
Thankfully I am not an accountant, I am a partner in an accounting firm and that is a job I am perfectly matched to do. My job allows me to exercise my drive and creativity. Hopefully our new resources, of the human kind, will free up some of my time so that I can get back to doing what I love – helping my clients to drive their business's forward.
A big thank you to Kenny and Raeleen from Red Leaf Consulting for your continued support over the past 6 months. To get in contact with them go to www.redleafhr.com.au