Alchemy HR can support you through the various stages of your business whether you are starting out or are looking to improve your existing services.
Only you…?
In the beginning, you are your business. You are the values, the knowledge and the strategy. Managing people consists of managing yourself, creating and implementing your plans, getting yourself noticed and building your client base so you can make the impact which has driven you to set up your business in the first place. This is the best place to start in planning your HR and organisational development needs. Does your business plan include how you will build and develop your knowledge? If you plan on growing your business have you thought about how best you can do that using other people?
Alchemy HR will offer you support and advice on the most appropriate way you can engage others to help you, be that, as employees, volunteers or on some form of temporary basis (casual worker, consultant, agency workers, freelancing, contractors) and provide you with a resource plan which is tailored to your strategy and values. Your resource plan will show you the risks and benefits attached to each option giving you a purpose built recruitment and selection process which you will be able to develop as you grow.
Small army
So there’s a few of you, doing the same thing or doing different things with the common purpose of building your client base and providing much needed services. You may work remotely, share an office or work from the same home. Communication usually flows easily and all are pulling in the same direction. You may have people working for you as employees, volunteers, temporary workers or people who come in and do the odd hour or two a week. What do you need in terms of HR? Do you know the various different ways you can legally engage people to work with you? Do you understand your legal obligations as an employer? Do you know how (and if!) you are getting the best out of the people who work for you? Do you know if they are getting the best out of working for you?
Alchemy HR will work with you to build the necessary systems required when you become an employer such as how and what information about your employees you need to record, drafting the necessary contracts of employment and policies, identifying simple and effective ways of managing the development of the skills and knowledge of your employees and ensuring that you are kept up to date with employment legislation and changes which may affect you.
Expanding and diversifying
Your organisation is growing and your client base is increasing and needs are possibly evolving. You are thinking of getting more people to work with you and thinking about offering different services. You have drafted a business development plan. Have you identified the existing level of knowledge and skill of your workforce? If you have discovered knowledge gaps do you know how best to fill them? Where to go? What to look for? Do you have plans in place to develop your existing workforce?
At this stage of your business, Alchemy HR can first and foremost provide you with an HR audit which identifies what has been done and what needs to be done in terms of developing your business through your people. This can involve improving existing systems and tools and getting your business ready for expansion. Once ready, we can build a complementary organisational change plan that allows you to manage the skills and knowledge of your existing staff, recruit new staff to meet your evolving needs without losing business continuity.
Reducing and concentrating
You’ve decided that you need to concentrate on a specific service provision rather than lots of services. You realise this means that you will not need all the people that currently work for you. You want to be honest about your needs and support these people in finding alternative work. As sad as it is to make these types of changes they can be very necessary. Avoiding it is sometimes impossible. Decreasing the size of your workforce needs to be planned carefully and compassionately. Have you included your staff in your decision to change the business? If so, have you planned how you will communicate this difficult message? Do you have support in place for those who will be leaving? Do you have support in place for those who will be staying?
Alchemy HR provides advice and expertise which will cover your legal obligations and develop an organistional change and communication plan to take you through each stage of the process allowing you to implement a fair and thoughtful change programme.
When you engage Alchemy HR, we will work with you to ensure that all of the necessary questions are asked and answered and that you are able to make decisions that allow you to plan and develop your business in a responsible way, ensuring that those work for you have the necessary trust and confidence in you as an employer.
Services include
- Recruitment and selection
- Advice and guidance on areas of employment law
- Pay systems, benefits and commission structures
- Simple tailored HR policies and processes
- Performance management systems (appraisal frameworks and feedback tools)
- Change management and leadership
- Coaching and development
- HR related training courses