Most small to mid size builders today have found themselves without any internal professional Human Resource function. Either that function was a casualty of the many layoffs over the last 5 years or it never existed to begin with.
The builders, who remain in the game today, are alive because they utilized situational leadership during these tough economic times and focused on cost cutting, raising capital and finding that next buyer not employees.
Today is the time to begin to modify your thinking on the human resource asset of your business. I have written previously that many employees at all levels are unhappy with their current employment opportunity and would leave for a competitor if opportunities existed. This next year we will start to see this migration.
Knowing that cash is still king for the builder, hiring an in-house people pro still is out of reach for many in our business. Outsourcing this competency can give your organization a real competitive advantage and save you the pain of the fixed cost that comes with it.
You should expect an outsourced professional to;
- Assure that you are legal in all people practices
- Gauge current development and satisfaction levels of your employees and implement actions to optimize both.
- Evaluate all compensation and offer a uniform solution that maximizes understanding and execution of individual and company performance metrics while creating the greatest ROI on every compensation dollar spent.
- Coach Managers and Executives on infrastructure, performance reviews, organizational design, process and people decisions which when improved will increase productivity.
- Assist in tying people strategies to business and operational plans
Your people will be the next focal point for our success as we start to come out of this recession. Most builders will ignore it or get a late start in preparing. If you are interested in breaking away from the pack, this outsourced people strategy will assist greatly in you achieving your business mission in 2012.
