Britain’s fastest expanding businesses are now growing at a rate of 70% per year. While those kinds of growth figures are phenomenal they also present some serious challenges in terms of the infrastructure of the business keeping up. For many small businesses, 70% growth is not on the agenda just yet. However, expansion of any kind can have HR implications and, when it comes to growing your business, these need to be carefully managed.
Do you have an HR resource?
For companies at the earliest stages of growth the first task is often establishing an HR presence in the first place. Once you start to employ staff there are HR considerations to manage, from salaries and contracts, to pensions. If your HR structure is to keep up with growing your business it needs to be scalable, sustainable and capable of ensuring that your business values and functions are properly supported no matter how big you become.
Is HR capable of increasing your workforce?
Expansion requires staff. Without more people most businesses simply cannot grow. However, they need to be the right people, with well-suited skill sets and apt competencies. Recruitment policies and plans need to be implemented well before real growth begins so that when the business starts to need more employee support, the mechanics are already in place to achieve it – fast.
Can you retain your existing employees?
When a business is growing it can be a tough time for employees. Rumours and competitiveness, insecurity fears, unsuitable HR infrastructure and uncertainty about the future can all contribute to causing your staff to start looking elsewhere. Reducing turnover of staff is key for positive growth and depends on HR that takes into account what staff need to hear and receive during a growth period, as well as providing an infrastructure that provides information and certainty.
Do you have an HR strategy in place?
No doubt you have a strategy for growing your business that identifies how you will develop your current offering to something more substantial. Alongside that you should also have an HR strategy that ties into the key growth milestones for the business and has the flexibility to scale up alongside the figures that you achieve. Planning and anticipation are essential for ensuring that HR complications don’t impede business growth. From estimating employee numbers, to being prepared with the paperwork and anticipating concerns and needs, overcoming the HR impact on growth is a key part of enabling your business to thrive.
