The Warning Signs

One of the biggest issues faced by small businesses is being able to identify what their corporate culture is, and whether it’s contributing to the performance problems they are experiencing. After all, company culture isn’t always to blame for bad performance! So here are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a negative company culture.

• Unmotivated employees: If you suddenly find yourself constantly dealing with unmotivated employees, you should be taking a good look at the corporate culture of your business. Employees who are present but not engaged in their work, or who don’t see the point or benefit of their tasks is one of the clearest warning signs of bad corporate culture.

• Workforce anxiety: Usually high-performing employees now delivering sub-par results, or asking a lot of questions and seeking reassurance can be a sign that something is amiss. Unclear vision, poor employee development programmes and miscommunication from management make this one of the factors in bad corporate culture, and results in unmotivated and uncertain employees.

• High employee turnover: If you’re constantly losing employees and needing to hire replacements, this is the biggest red flag for negative company culture. While some larger corporations see high turnover as part of their business model, a smaller business is always having to hire for the same position then alarm bells should be ringing.

• Being all things to all people: Having a few different types of tasks to do within your job role is perfectly normal. But having one person do the roles of several people can lead to a seriously bad feeling in your business. It causes burnout and frustration, and it shows you don’t recognise individual strengths, or know how to delegate.

• Failing to meet deadlines: Every good business has goals, and good managers will set goals, tasks and deadlines for their team to meet. If your projects are always coming in late, then you have a serious problem. Often the root of the issue is poor communication and collaboration, both of which can be resolved by management taking a more accurate role in the process, and ensuring everyone is on the same page.

The signs of a bad company culture aren’t always complaining employees or KPIs not being met. As a business owner and manager, it’s your job to keep an eye out for the signs that something is wrong and address it before it has time to seep into your company culture and become a normal thing.

What to do About Company Culture Problems

Learn how to motivate your employees: Engaged and motivated employees are the lifeblood of any business, and the building blocks for your company culture. But it’s management’s job to motivate them effectively and create a positive environment, which often means more than just opening the company wallet. Here are 4 ways you can motivate your employees that have nothing to do with money.

Set SMART goals: Setting goals is a crucial part of any form of improvement or change. Setting SMART goals is a great way to stay on track and make sure you’re actually making progress. You can find out more about SMART goals and how to set them here.

Conduct effective performance reviews: It’s important to understand what the role of performance reviews actually is in your business to ensure management are conducting them effectively. This will make them a more productive experience for the managers and the employees, as well as provide realistic goals and feedback. For tips on how to improve your performance reviews, click here.

Be proactive: One of the main reasons so many businesses find themselves in HR trouble is that they wait until problems happen before they act. In this case, the focus is on maintaining the status quo, rather than making any meaningful improvements. A proactive HR approach means you can prioritise employee development and foster a positive company culture. To read more about that, click here.

And if you need support at any point during the process, we are here to help.

At Karen HRM, we help business owners and managers just like you to understand your unique company culture, as well as how to fix any underlying problems and create a positive, thriving company for the future. If you aren’t sure if your employees are happy, we’d love to help. Contact one of our team today, and book in your free consultation to help improve your company culture.

The post Bad Company Culture (And How To Fix It) appeared first on Karen HRM Limited.

The answer is simple – it’s a combination of engaged employees and fantastic company culture. Out of everything you can do, those two things can truly define your business performance and commercial success – both good and bad.

But why is that? What does the culture of a company mean, and does it really make such a huge difference? As outsourced HR managers who help business owners with all of their HR needs, we wanted to share our thoughts on its importance.

What Is Company Culture?

Company Culture is essentially the way an organisation does things. But this isn’t about policies and procedures, or any of the technical know-how. It is more about the values, behaviours, attitudes, and approaches that make each workplace unique. It’s rooted in the organisational goals, strategies and structures, customers, and involvement in the greater community. So, while two companies could provide the same products or services, no two would ever have the same company culture.

It’s also how it feels to work in the business and can be the difference between a good job and a bad one for candidates in the recruitment process. Put simply, it’s the glue that pulls all employees in the organisation together in search of one common goal, and it can have a huge impact on employee retention and recruitment, as well as performance. Most businesses try to summarise their company culture in a few words. A few examples could be:

• Transparent
• Inclusive
• Collaborative
• Nurturing
• Progressive
• Connected

But of course, each company is different! What do you think your company culture could be summed up as? If you’re not sure, you can always contact us here to find out more on how we can help you improve your company culture.

How Does Company Culture Impact Performance?

Research has shown time and time again that employee engagement rates are very closely linked to the culture within a company. Beyond that, businesses with good company cultures tend to have more engaged and satisfied employees, which in turn means an improvement in overall performance.

This doesn’t just form overnight. It usually starts with the business founders, who impose their beliefs, values, and assumptions onto the fledgling business, and onto their employees. As the company grows, those cultural elements become shared, and form the continuing culture of the organisation. This is one of the reasons no two companies are the same, and why many candidates will cite ‘I just didn’t fit in’ when they leave a job – because the company’s culture and values don’t tally with their own.

Workplace culture very much sets the tone for employee engagement and retention within your business. Once they have become part of the business, good company culture is what encourages those ‘best of class’ employees to stay with the business, decreasing turnover and improving profitability. Your company culture also has an impact on your ability to innovate as a business, how efficiently you work and how productive your employees are. It also creates a better customer experience, with happy and productive employees providing better service and building that sense of community that both customers and employees enjoy.

The interesting thing is that larger companies may end up with multiple cultures. A study into the organisational culture of the NHS done by Russell Mannion (Professor of Health Systems) found that the culture was far from uniform or coherent. Instead, working groups looked for and developed commonalities, with some only being prominent in some areas of the organisation. This meant that subtly different cultures could emerge with different occupational or professional groups within the same organisation. Moving away from the NHS, we often see this with businesses that have one head office and regional satellite offices. Each office tends to develop its own unique way of operating, which may be slightly different to other offices in the same group. This isn’t a bad thing! In fact, it actually allows each office to be productive and enhance performance in its own way.

Need Some HR Support?

That’s all we have time for in this post, but stay tuned for part 2, where we examine the warning signs of a bad company culture, and what you can do to improve it. And if you need any support to understand and manage your own company culture, we’re here to help.

At Karen HRM, we help business owners and managers just like you to understand your unique company culture, as well as how to fix any underlying problems and create a positive, thriving company for the future. If you aren’t sure if your employees are happy, we’d love to help. Contact one of our team today, and book in your free consultation to help improve your company culture.

The post What Is Company Culture, And Why Does It Matter? appeared first on Karen HRM Limited.

What does an HR Business Partner do? 

These people work alongside managers, teams and stakeholders to curate people and organisation capability whilst also designing people strategies and activities.  They ensure that the HR policies and procedures match the needs and goals of the organisation and those in leadership positions. Their job does not centre on administration or handling policy wording – instead they focus on the bigger picture, by directing the goals of the human resources team, and producing HR strategies. Most importantly, these HR strategies must fit the wider business strategy.

Most commonly, they are aligned to a specific area of the business and work alongside this area to execute a business strategy from a people perspective. To successfully work in this field, one must have sincere relationships with other people in their business area, as well as other teams in the company. Not only that, but they must have hard evidence to make accurate, well-informed decisions (such as data or metrics).

Common tasks that HR Business Partners carry out may include:

• Giving advice on people practices (for example, succession planning)
• Building relationships with and influencing those working in the business
• Meeting key stakeholders to address any people challenges they are facing
• Coaching key stakeholders to increase business efficiency and achieve business goals.

What is the definition of Business Partner? 

A business partner is a commercial entity with which another commercial entity has an alliance. These two parties could be individuals who chose to work alongside one another to create a business or may be separate teams/companies who have chosen to work together and cooperate for a shared goal.

What’s the difference between an HR Business Partner and an HR Manager? 

These are distinctly different roles and each specialises in different methods of running human resources within an organisation.

An HR Manager’s job in general, centres around developing policies and implementing procedures. They are also responsible for overseeing systems that include recruiting, hiring, processing payroll and system administration to name a few. They also manage the HR department.

Conversely, in general, an HR Business Partner does not take the same administrative tasks over a department, and instead focus their time on working alongside the organisation’s senior leadership team and department managers to optimise and guide company strategy. HR Business Partners are still heavily involved in the HR department, they just don’t take on the same administrative tasks that an HR manager may be involved in. Instead, they help to form HR strategies and initiatives which will have an impact on the entire organisation.

Submit an enquiry via our online form today to find out how we can help your business, or call 07771 642 182 to book a 30 minute consultation with Karen directly.

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If you currently feel ill-equipped for this, fear not, as we have some useful advice for you below.

What is a challenging conversation? 

A challenging conversation is any conversation where the primary subject matter may evoke strong, potentially unpredictable, or uncontrollable emotions. Due to this, it’s essential to bring these discussions up in a sensitive manner.

Some examples of challenging conversation topics could be:

• Underperforming at work
• Dealing with office disputes/investigating grievances
• Handling clashing personalities
• Comforting employees after bad news, e.g. if they are about to be made redundant
• Addressing personal problems that may be affecting work performance.

These sorts of conversations are best had in a more quiet, intimate environment, usually one-on-one, to prevent the employee feeling publicly embarrassed.

Why have a challenging conversation?

From a surface level, it may seem easier to let small mistakes go unmentioned, however, in the long-term it can have some detrimental effects.  For example, your employee will carry on believing that there is no problem and continue to harm the productivity of your company – after all, if they’re not told, how will they know they’re doing anything wrong!  It also denies your employee the opportunity to fix their errors and improve, for if they don’t put things right (and you say nothing) this could set a bad example to everybody else and either damage morale or make everyone on the team think that this form of behaviour is acceptable.

Tips on how to manage a challenge conversation:

• Tackle the issue the moment you spot it. Don’t wait for it to fester and spiral out of control before you have a word.  If you wait, the problem will only become more complicated and deep-rooted, making your job even harder.
• Talk in a quiet place, just you and whoever is directly involved. You don’t want your employee to feel as though they are being made a public spectacle of – this will help minimise any feelings of embarrassment/disappointment/anger.
• Have an open line of communication with your staff and team.  Where they will feel comfortable raising issues or concerns.
• Listen to employee representatives to gauge how your staff are reacting to the issue – this can help gauge the severity of your conversation
• Have a clear plan for your conversation.  If you’re discussing a difficult topic there’s nothing worse than aimlessly talking around the issue and ultimately your employee having no idea what it is you are concerned about.  Have a clear idea of your purpose, for example “what’s the challenge at hand” and “how it can be resolved”.
• Manage your own emotions.  Whilst these sorts of talks can definitely be distressing to both parties, as a figure of authority and calm.  It is vital to keep your cool even if your employee isn’t.
• Stay open-minded!  Perhaps your staff has a legitimate reason for a dip in performance recently, such as troubling personal issues (maybe they’re going through a divorce or a family member has passed away).  Give them a chance to explain their side of the story and present yours as well, and from there a mutual, amicable solution can be found.

Submit an enquiry via our online form today to find out how we can help your business, or call 07771 642 182 to book a 30 minute consultation with Karen directly.

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What does SMART mean?

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time bound

This acronym, first coined in the 1980s by George T. Duran, is used to break down goals and objectives to make them easier to accomplish. These criteria have mostly come from Peter Drucker’s ‘Management by Objectives’ concept and has been further developed by Robert S. Rubin and other authors who have expanded the acronym to SMARTER, adding Evaluated and Reviewed.

How to use SMART goals to optimise your potential 

1. Specific

It is important for your goal to be precise and targeted as otherwise it may feel overwhelming to begin working towards it, leading to lack of motivation and ultimately no success. Your goal should be able to address these five ‘W’ questions:

• What do I want to accomplish?
• Why is this goal important?
• Who is involved?
• Where is it located?
• Which resources or limits are involved?

2. Measurable

Your goal should be measurable and have quantifiable objectives that can easily be worked towards. This is vital so that your improvement and progress is trackable, making it more motivating than trying to work towards something abstract.
A measurable goal should be able to answer questions such as:

• How much?
• How many?
• How will I know when it is accomplished?

3. Achievable

In order for your goal to be achievable, it’s essential that your target is realistic. No matter how ambitious you may be, setting unrealistic goals will be disheartening. You should be able to find a balance between pushing yourself and testing the best of your abilities whilst also keeping it attainable.

Ask yourself these questions as you set your achievable goal:

• How can I accomplish this goal?
• How realistic is the goal, whilst factoring potential hurdles, for example finances?

4. Relevant

There’s no point setting any targets unless they mean something to you!  This stage is to make sure that your goal matters to you and will benefit your life.  Additionally, by creating worthwhile goals, people will be more likely to help and assist you along the way, and this peer support can be crucial in remaining on target.

A relevant goal should answer “yes” to these example questions:

• Will this be worthwhile?
• Is this the right time for me?
• Does this align with my other needs?
• Am I a suitable person to reach this goal?

5. Time-bound

Setting yourself a deadline can be very helpful as it can give you something to work towards and add extra motivation. Every goal should have a specific target date, and your everyday tasks should not overshadow your long-term aspirations.

A time-bound target should be able to answer:

• When will I achieve this?
• What can I do six months from now?
• What can I do today?

Why use SMART?

SMART goals are able to give the clarity and focus, which in turn create motivation, needed to achieve your real goals.  It can turn your ideas into actionable objectives by defining the specifics of your goals and what exactly needs to be completed to achieve them. Additionally, a completion deadline can be highly encouraging if you enjoy a challenge and pushing yourself, and at the end you’ll be able to see in literal terms how much progress you have made. The best part? SMART goals can be used by anyone for anything without any type of formal training due to its clearly defined steps.  Goals can be changed based on the individual and their abilities, and ever-adapting plans can still easily follow the SMART guidelines.

Submit an enquiry via our online form today to find out how we can help your business, or call 07771 642 182 to book a 30 minute consultation with Karen directly.

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