People power: taking HR seriously

People Power: Why now is the time to take HR seriously

The job market is undergoing an evolution. The post-Covid world has created new opportunities for workers and a high demand for talented specialists. It may be a bubble, but Nicki Robson, director of Breedon Consulting, told us why now is the time to invest in

your people WORDS BY TOM YOUNG

Loyalty can be a fickle thing. No matter how much you love your job, if a competitor offers you a 30% pay increase, it’s difficult to ignore. That’s the world we live in now. Previously unseen pay packages are being used to lure the best talent away to corporate businesses that can afford to pay them. This comes at the expense of SMEs who don’t have the budget to compete. There’s never been a more important time to prioritise your human resources.

“It’s difficult to fill jobs – especially for specialist roles,” says Nicki Robson. “Pay awards are up, resignations are up, and there are people who don’t want to work in an office anymore – they’ve got used to being at home.”

Remote working has also made the world infinitely smaller. It’s now possible to work for a company based in

London and be paid ‘London money’ while never leaving your house in Leicester. Workers are no longer restricted by geography and can get paid more without needing to relocate.

“Others have been approached by local competitors paying a stupid amount of money, and so consequently, people who would previously have been very loyal and stayed put, are now being lured away.

“Add in the rising cost of living and increasing bills… it has a massive impact on people. And if it has an impact on people, it has an impact on HR.”

If your staff do leave, you’re confronted with the challenge of replacing them while keeping to your budget. This creates a pressure to increase salaries, at a time when energy bills are already seeing a rise in costs for businesses.

“Smaller companies won’t have deep enough pockets to match their large-scale competitors who can offer people a 30% pay rise to move. It’s a horrible situation, and it means that smaller businesses need to get creative about employee satisfaction and retention, and really work hard on engaging and motivating their people so that they don’t want to go.”

There are ways to incentivise loyalty other than money. Culture is a prime example – if a worker knows they’re valued, they like the people they work with, and they enjoy the atmosphere, they’ll feel comfortable where they are. As the summers get hotter, even air conditioning could be an incentive!

“Now is the time to invest in the people that you’ve got. Ask yourself the question: ‘why should they stay with you?’ Make them love you. Make them want to stay. Make them enjoy it. Make sure they know their development

Now is the time to invest in the people that you’ve got

opportunity is where they are,” adds Nicki.

From a worker’s perspective, these salaries won’t be forever, as they’re unsustainable. Workers who get tempted into moving may be the most at risk when the bubble bursts.

“A job has a specific value, and the current circumstances are inflating that value, but it won’t be there forever. As every other fixed cost goes up, companies will think: ‘OK, we’ve got to cut costs somewhere’, and wages will be the answer. When salaries return to normal, it could see a lot of high earners suddenly out of work.”

In the face of all these problems, it’s vital to have experienced HR. Breedon Consulting has solutions.

“When Covid hit, and Rishi Sunak started announcing things we’d never heard of, everyone was making it up as they went along and working out how the new laws affected them. It was at that point that businesses realised the importance of having HR people who knew what they were talking about. They recognised the value of it because they were in crisis, and that time is coming again, so it’s best to make plans now, rather than waiting for things to go belly up.”

Whether it be for HR, marketing or IT, the advantage of hiring an agency is that you gain the knowledge and experience of a whole team, rather than one employee – and the cost is comparable, because you’re sharing the agency with other companies. It’s a professional services timeshare!

“If you think of a big corporate HR department with lots of specialists, they might each be doing operations, HR, strategy, learning and development, employee engagement, etc. The big companies have all that in-house, but small companies don’t have any of it. We do all those things for small companies, as and when they need them.”

“Without an agency, SMEs are likely to treat HR as an afterthought – a luxury they can’t afford a specialist for – so the duties fall to someone like the Finance Director, because ‘it’s confidential’, but that person already has a fulltime role to focus on. It’s also a different skill set, and they may not have the best people skills.

“Alternatively, the responsibility goes to a PA, someone who gets on with people, and can fill in forms, but they don’t actually know their stuff. It covers your HR admin, but it doesn’t cover anything else. It doesn’t cover employee retention or employment law. It doesn’t add value or make things better for employees. It doesn’t do any of that; it just churns around bits of paper. An agency ensures everything gets covered.”

To discuss ways to invest in your people, visit breedonconsulting.co.uk.