How an Hr Consultant Can Add Value To An Already Established Business

It’s 2022 and your business has now been operating for 7 years and going from strength to strength. From humble beginnings and with lots of lessons learned you look back at the achievements and the goals you have reached. Your business has grown from a start-up with 2 employees to an established business of 40 employees; your brand is recognisable, and you have found your place in the market.

Reflecting back feels good and wonderful but you know in order to continue being successful you cannot take your foot of the pedal. You still have that burning desire to grow the business and to create a legacy for future generations to come. You realise that it’s time to go back to the drawing board and re-strategize in order to grow and sustain your business for the next few years.

The last business strategy you had focussed on the marketing of your business and driving sales. The strategy worked well but since then your human resource component has grown substantially and is taking a lot more effort to manage. In the beginning you took an informal approach to HR and hired people that looked good and sounded like they know what they were doing.

Some employees ended up being good hires while others didn’t live up to expectations. Up to now it’s been a mixed bag of low performing employees and high performing employees. Over the last few months you have witnessed that your better performing employees are leaving your business and you are not sure why this is happening and it takes so long to find someone new to recruit. Your Finance Manager who was put in charge of HR is complaining non-stop that she is bogged down with people issues and not getting to her finance work.

You also realise that for an HR component that has grown to one of your biggest expenses to run “freely” is probably not the best way to go about it moving forward and if not managed better can eat away at your profits. Preventing good people from leaving and hiring better people will definitely help the business reach its goals.

So you and your management team decide that it’s time to get in some extra help from outside to help you manage and better drive your HR component. Your business model from the start has been to keep the business lean and to rather outsource what you can as oppose to starting up new department.

What this business needs is the help of someone that is an expert in the field that can deal with difficult employment matters, provide the correct advice, and partner with your business. They must know how to acquire competent employees, to optimise and manage competent employees, and know how to retain competent employees. These experts you are looking for are called HR Consultants. It’s important to understand what they do and how they can help you.

What is an HR consultant and what do they do?

Human resources (HR) consultants provide advice and guidance to businesses and ensure that a business’s employees serve the best interests of the company. By creating and implementing customised HR strategies, they work to ensure the business is effectively utilising its employees to achieve its goals, while working at high levels of performance and efficiency.

An HR Consultant is often either outsourced from an HR Consultancy or works independently. They advise and perform HR functions as and when they are needed within the business.

HR Consultants can support a business with the following:

• Manage the recruitment and selection process on behalf of their clients.
• Write Job descriptions to ensure the correct person applies for vacancies and also for existing employees to have clarity of what is expected of them.
• Guide you through the process if you need to retrench employees.
• Help with absenteeism and discipline.
• Mitigate harassment and bullying in the workplace.
• Put HR Policies & Procedures for Labour Law compliance in place.
• Creating business and/or job-specific contracts of employment.
• Provide accurate salary Advice and Support to ensure you pay enough to keep your top talent and to remain compliant to main agreements.
• Help you manage your employees effectively and implement strategies to improve employee productivity.
• Establish onboarding practices to increase employee retention.
• Writing of HR Templates to save time and for consistent application.
• Provide on-call HR Advisory services whenever needed to avoid clients making costly HR mistakes.
• They ensure that your employees are aligned and geared to aid the business in reaching their goals.

Let’s dig deeper into the benefits of an HR Consultant and how they can add value to your business.

HR Consulting is cost effective

It is more cost effective for small to medium sized businesses to hire an HR Consultant who will do the job well and with efficiency rather than build up an HR department from scratch. When you already have a team you can bring in an HR Consultant to deal with the specific area that needs attention without disrupting the other team members with what they are doing.

HR Consulting increases effectiveness

Experienced HR Consultants can often deal with HR processes more effectively – especially quite complex HR functions such as recruitment, employment regulations, employee handbooks, policies and procedures. This will reduce the time that employers and managers spend on HR-related paperwork and procedures, and more time dedicated to their areas of focus.

Additionally, any changes in administration or company policy they bring about should also improve efficiency further.

HR Consulting helps to regain your focus

As mentioned earlier, owners or management often get embroiled in the day-to-day HR issues, distracting them from their main business focus. An outsourced HR consultant will allow you to shift your focus back, while providing comfort knowing that the HR side of things are being taken care of.

By working alongside the HR consultant, your own staff can learn and grow, as well as being able to focus their efforts in key areas.

HR Consulting saves the business time and provides clarity to employees

An HR consultant can often be brought in to help create some of the more difficult HR documentation such as HR Policies and Procedures, and to help establish best practices. In turn, this documentation contains the answers to many employee questions, ranging from how to book leave to fire safety procedures. By having the answers at their fingers tips, employees (and employers) get consistent answers to their questions, faster.

HR Consulting increases employee satisfaction and decreases employee turnover

The quality of services your outsourced HR Consultant provides has a direct effect on employee satisfaction. Having an HR expert speak honestly with your employees about their work, and then having changes implemented that are fair and that benefit everyone, will lead to greater employee satisfaction, increased productivity and decreased turnover.

Are you in need of an HR Consultant?

You have seen the services and value that a typical HR Consultant can provide but how do I know who to reach out to?

How do you know which HR Consultant will be a good fit for your business?

Look for the following to ensure you get top quality service and advice:

• The HR Consultant must have experience in the areas where your business needs help. Book a meeting and find out if they can assist you or check out their website of a list of their services on offer.
• A good HR Consultant must be an arm’s length away from you and your business at all times. They must be available when needed and offer advice as soon as possible. Virtual and/or face to face support can both be used as long as it’s effective.
• Look for website, Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn reviews. This will provide you with proof that they are who they say they are.

FIC Consulting ticks all the above boxes and can provide high quality services that you require, accurately and timely.

Get in touch with us today and let’s see how we can be of value to you.

If there is something I want you to know about me right away, it’s that I have a passion for supporting business owners. I believe in the future of South Africa and that there are so many opportunities out there to be successful and to make a change to our economy.

I want to be part of that change by providing businesses with core HR and Labour Solutions that will not only result in legislative compliance but actually positively impact their bottom line.

Over the years I have gained practical HR experience working in various sectors such as mining, construction, financial services, and corporate legal. As a business owner myself, I can relate well to businesses and what their needs are.