Recruitment for Small Business Growth

A growing company needs more expertise than even the most skilled founder can provide and most entrepreneurs start to grow their business with people they already know — so whilst there may be a shared history and a deep trust, there is often a critical skill set missing on the team. This skills gap should be filled with the longer term strategy in mind.

Who to Hire? 
It might be an operations role, it might be someone who is 20 years further into the sector and has connections and experience you can draw from, it might be someone like a CFO, or IT Director whose technical expertise will add value or a really great admin person who relieves you of all the day to day work and frees you up to work on the business rather than in the business. It all depends on the company’s current leadership mix, history, strategy and place in the market.

A CFO may be required if your company is growing at a rapid rate, requiring outside financing or careful cash management; when your company requires a formal audit; or when you are contemplating a complex financial transaction such as an acquisition, merger, or public offering of stock. So how do you go about finding a seasoned CFO? Many companies work at first with a part-time financial executive, an interim manager whom they later recruit to join the management team on a permanent basis.

Traditional HR can often be outsourced. Many smaller companies manage their HR by employing a good interim HR Manager or part-time consultant to assist with initial set up and understanding of legislation, process and procedures. Recruitment can also be outsourced again to a good consultant or by hiring in a part-time recruiter who knows your longer term business strategy and company culture. Hiring a seasoned HR Director on an interim basis for a defined period of time will ensure you implement best practice policy and procedures whilst keeping your costs down.

What is the biggest challenge that young companies will face in 2010? 
Some young companies may be facing issues with their lenders or investors, and they may be having a hard time making promises around company stability. If you’re trying to hire experienced, strong candidates, you have to be able to show that your company is stable, has growth opportunities and has the resources required for the candidate to be successful. But honesty is still the best policy and avoid sugar-coating challenges – if someone feels they have been misled down the track this will only result in bad feeling all round.

If you’re hiring less experienced staff, it’s more critical than ever that you hire for flexibility and their ability to think on their feet. Within a smaller business environment these skills and attitudes are essential as the days of organisational charts with clearly defined job descriptions and career paths are out dated and have been replaced with a flat structure with people prepared to carry out diverse, flexible roles under-pinned by a culture that embraces autonomy, flexibility and a clearly defined purpose, vision and set of organisational values which everyone is guided by and which allows for good management decision making, by everyone.

What’s the biggest opportunity? 
Of course, companies have an opportunity to pick up talented people who have been made redundant in the last year or two, but, more importantly, they have a great opportunity to realign their company culture.

Retain Your Loyal People 
If you’re trying to retain staff, the future value proposition needs to be clear, honest and, if not exciting, certainly brighter than it may have been painted in 2009. Current staff need to hear some sincere gratitude for the sacrifices, hard work and flexibility they have already shown and most likely will have to continue to show in 2010.

According to a recent report in Forbes, a daily thank you proves a powerful employee motivator 
Verbal praise from a manager can be as effective as a cash award in motivating employees, yet a survey shows 75% to 80% of workers say they get little recognition from bosses. Restaurant chain Hard Rock Cafe reports worker turnover was reduced 3% when managers gave verbal recognition to workers for a minute a day.

What’s the most important step a small, fast-growing company can take to build its leadership pipeline?

Recruiting top managers is not always easy. Persuading talented leaders to join a start-up is not as hard as it once was, but it still involves having a good eye for talent and the ability to sell an idea and its potential upside to a savvy operator who might well have other options.

Moreover, making the wrong hire at the highest levels of an organization can have serious consequences. The severance costs of terminating a top manager can be high—and they can be higher still when you factor in any turnover in a key department that precedes or accompanies the departure of a bad hire.

For all of these difficulties, however, entrepreneurs who have built strong management teams enjoy obvious rewards. They can rely on the skills of others to compensate for their weaknesses. They can focus on strategic issues while confidently delegating day-to-day tasks, such as managing people. And they can use their management team to secure outside funding and establish creditability with potential customers.

Greening Your Workplace and Skills

The recent UN Climate Summit and increasing numbers of high profile people taking an interest in the environment has raised the awareness of green issues to an all time high. But is this awareness being practically applied and are green practices an integrated part of your organisation’s culture? And have you ever thought about what more you could do to help further your sustainability practices?

Green-skilling has emerged as one of the top workplace trends for the coming year. The implementation of green workplace practices is not only good for the environment, but is increasingly becoming a powerful way of attracting potential employees, clients and investors. Sustainability is the way of the future and both individuals and businesses will have to start thinking – and acting – green. 

If we consider making green issues a central part of our business strategy by integrating sustainability into all aspects of our business such as the products we make, into operations and processes, and into accounting practices, our businesses will increasingly demand green skills and knowledge.

However, despite increased awareness of environmental issues, a recent Green Steps Australian Workplaces Survey has found that most Australian workplaces offer no green skills or sustainability training for staff, do not review staff on environmental performance or address sustainability issues when hiring.

What we do in the workplace is as important as what we do in our homes and if we are serious about saving water, cutting carbon emissions and reducing our impact we need employees everywhere to be green skilled. What we do at home only accounts for 20 – 30% of Australia’s energy and water consumption and waste production, which means we can do far more to combat our environmental challenges by addressing sustainability within the workplace.

Skills which you could put to use in your workplace include:

• Effective communication to encourage employees to make changes at work;
• Undertaking energy, carbon, waste and water audits to determine the impact of your workplace;
• Planning and implementing environmental sustainability projects;
• Developing behavioural and cultural change programs.

Employers want green candidates

Despite the lack of workplace training, 90 per cent of Australian employers still consider themselves to be ‘environmentally aware’ and 71 per cent said they would favour green-skilled candidates when hiring. 

Credentials in environment policy, stakeholder relations, corporate social responsibility projects and philanthropy - coupled with good skills in strategy development and implementation - are essential for the contemporary manager keen on developing broader skills and experience.

This doesn't mean you have to specialise in a career in this field. Gaining experience - even in a voluntary capacity - can benefit your career in the longer term.

Private companies and public companies see the value of adding to their brand image by having policies in these areas and it is a way of attracting the best employees, clients and shareholders.

Organisations often form committees and call for volunteers from the wider organisation to participate, develop and deliver on the corporate strategy. By volunteering to be part of this group, individuals will experience a different role, perhaps, from [what they do] every day.

People who undertake voluntary positions or board positions outside their usual work also benefit from this experience as it reveals a passion and unselfish approach to social issues, as well as possessing a well-rounded and healthy interest in what's happening around you.

By investing in these experiences your career options will be broadened, not only in your chosen function. It may also lead to a different path altogether or a move sideways which may benefit your long-term career aspirations.

Managers who have a greater knowledge of these areas already on their resume will have the edge over those who do not, as companies become reliant on all their managers to be aware of these initiatives and imbed them into the culture of the firm.

They definitely will be the preferred candidates as they will have a head start on what has become key to an organisation's success and sustainability.

Where to start

The Environmental Jobs Network, a not-for-profit organisation in Melbourne that helps job seekers find work in environmental industries. Conservation Volunteers Australia and Volunteer Green are two organisations worth considering for pro bono work in the natural environment. Interest groups such as the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth often have networking events. Professional associations such as the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand or the Australian Association for Environmental Education can give you information about conferences, seminars, courses and the latest publications. 

Five things every organisation can do to improve their environmental performance

1. Conduct a basic environmental assessment. What is your organisation’s energy and water use and waste production?
2. Reduce energy use by encouraging staff to turn computers off at the end of the day.
3. Reduce waste by taking away land-fill bins under desks and setting up central waste and recycling stations in staff rooms or kitchens.
4. Cut paper use in half by setting double-sided printing and photocopying as a default.
5. Build the capacity and green skills of staff by providing green skills training.