What does an HR Consultant do?

​​Over the summer break, I happened to be catching up with a friend who wasn’t aware that I worked with a team who happened to be the BEST HR consultants in the business (I’m being humble, I should have told her it was the best in the world).  She was somewhat aghast that anyone would need or want the services of an HR consultant as her experience of HR in the corporate world had been less than positive.  

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​My friend was also surprised that small to medium businesses would require HR support as she thought they wouldn’t have enough staff – or problems – to warrant such a requirement.  Now, those of you who have already accessed our services would guffaw at this notion.  Many of you have already learned that managing people is one of the hardest and most labour-intensive elements of leadership and seeking out the right team to support you can help reduce or avoid the ‘human’ problems and challenges so that business owners and leaders can focus on the other important stuff, like growing their business!

It's at this point, that I should be transparent.  I too once owned a small business with a number of employees.  Fresh out of the confines of an international business (with its own in-house HR henchmen) I thought I knew it all and felt that I could work on and in my business while dealing with all that brings – OHS, Awards, recruitment, employment contracts, networking, marketing, accounts payable and receivable, inventory ordering, customer management, cleaning, reports, BAS. The list is never-ending as many of you know and doesn’t even include any of the aspects of managing real people such as performance management, reward and recognition, culture, development, resignations, redundancies – the list of things to do when it comes to managing and leading your team is endless!

So here’s my big confession….

I got it wrong.

There, I said (wrote) it!

I tried to do it all because I thought I knew it all and, because I thought it was cheaper.  What a goose!
I look back now, and I realise that my contracts were appalling – technically correct but still appalling.  My ability to performance manage problematic staff had significant room for improvement.  I handled a redundancy process like a complete amateur thinking that advice from Fair Work meant I had ticked all the legal and fair boxes (nuh huh – now I know the many bits I did wrong and the gaps in info from the FWC!).  And don’t even start me on development as there was no time for that. 

All while trying to grow a business.  Something had to break and that was me (don’t worry, I’m all glued back together now). 

What difference would an HR consultant have made?
OK, many of you already now the value of an HR consultant because you’ve had access to the best team in the business (world) and you’ve already got fantastic contracts and position descriptions in place, sorted out and communicated your policies, you’ve made sure your team are being paid correctly, recruited some great additions to your team, you’ve addressed culture issues and established company/team values that set the tone for your company and you resolved those pesky interpersonal conflict issues and now have a positive, engaged and productive team. 

Maybe you’ve brought us in to run some training – DiSC profiling, 360 feedback sessions (???), workshops that develop new managers or deliver new skills and depth to experienced managers.  Some of you have worked with us on an HR Audit that has allowed us to develop a plan that we are now working through, staff engagement activities, training needs analysis, reward and recognition program, succession planning, key knowledge capture or established a matrix of talent management.

For me, had I known that HR consultants were a real thing and that they could offer such amazing services (and so much more), I would have delivered a better business.  I would have been able to put the right structures in place – or had my HR consultant sort it for me – while I got on with the job of leading my business and taking it to the next level. 

What’s your point?
Why am I telling you all of this when many of you already know what an HR consultant does as you already work with us? 

Because sometimes it is easy to forget just how much more we can do to help you take your people, your leadership and your business to where you want to go.  If you aren’t sure if we can support you in a particular area, just ask any of the HR Staff n’ Stuff team and have a chat about what you need.  I think you will be surprised just how much the right HR professional can deliver and what a difference it can make to your company.
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Lookout 2022, we are here for amazing things!

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