There has been a lot of news about the RNZAF Hercules plane breaking down whilst flying the Prime Minister and his delegation around the world. Resulting in the Christopher Luxton having to go ahead on commercial flights and leaving half his delegation behind.
Yup, this is embarrassing all around, plus it ends up with lots of last-minute logistical nightmares to sort out. So, what lessons can you learn from this for your business?
- Contingency planning
If disaster strikes, do you and your team know what to do? COVID was the most major change anyone has faced, but where you able to pivot? Have you remembered the lessons learnt? For the PM and his delegation, they were able to get some of the team onto commercial flights, but also had to leave some behind, so have to adjust how they approached the situation with a much reduced team on the ground.
From an HR perspective, retaining flexibility in your workforce is still critical in the current economic climate to ensure that you can respond to unexpected challenges. In small businesses, that includes having staff with a wide range of skills so they can adapt and pick up new things. Having flexibility in the fixed payroll cost (i.e. lower guaranteed hours, contractors etc).
- Learning from Challenges
For the PM the questions they should be asking are, should we use the Hercules, or commercial flights? Do we need such a big delegation?
From an HR perspective, I am getting a lot of issues with theft in various forms. Falsification of timesheets, misuse of the company fuel card etc. Many of these issues have been going on for some time, but have either not been spotted, or have been let slide because of fear of having to go out and recruit new staff.
The good news for employers is that the recruitment pendulum has swung very much back in favour of employers, rather than a shortage of applicants, those who are recruiting are getting an overabundance of applicants.
But you need measures, rules and controls in place to prevent people from taking advantage of the loopholes in your systems (and they will!). And this months free webinar is about the importance of HR Policies and procedures, and enforcing them.Click here to register.
- Review – are you doing the right thing?
It is important that you continually review your business:
- If someone resigns, do you need to replace like with like? Can you contract out? Can you use technology to automate some tasks within your business?
- Is what you are delivering still meeting the needs of your (prospective) clients?
- Is what you are doing returning profitability?
In a tight economic climate, clients are wanting more for less. So:
- Do your staff know how to push back on clients asking for extra that is not paid for?
- Are your staff burning themselves out by trying to please customers, when in fact they could push back on
- Are the clients worth having? (never be afraid to fire a bad client, if they are costing you more than they are paying you, they are not worth it!)
Here to help
We are here to help with any staff queries, so feel free to call me on 021 741 544 or 0800 HRtoolkit (0800 47 8665). Or sign up for our DIY document library for only $399 + GST per annum, or our DIY expert package which gives you access to the document library and unlimited phone and e-mail support for only $129 + GST per month (minimum 12-month term)
Cheers
Lisa Mackay
Founder of HRtoolkit Ltd