HOW MANY STAFF DO YOU HAVE?

‘So, what’s your current headcount?’

I have been asked this question multiple times this past year by journalists looking for a story on our recent expansion and contraction. I am starting to feel like there is a massive distance between where today’s more progressive businesses focus and that of the traditional media outlets. Are we basing our logic to define a successful company by the number of people we employ? Is this not how we judged successful businesses during the industrial revolution, when manufacturing ruled the British Isles and made it a power house of the world.

Well let’s fast forward away from these smoke-filled, gloomy, dark days to more recent times and 2012 when a small 12 person business start-up company called Instagram was bought by Facebook for a reported $1 Billion. Or jump a couple of years later to 2014 when WhatsApp was purchased for a staggering $19 billion, they only had 55 employees.

So, what does head count really mean in today’s agile, fast paced business world. Does the size of your team really dictate whether you have a successful company or not? Much like the other dreaded question; ‘So, what’s your turnover?’

Is reporting on these two vanity measures really going to prove how good a business is? Let alone, define the success, impact, value, culture of the business.

Here’s a metric that I am really proud of, this our team ranked their work happiness as 8.6 out of 10. Here is another proud figure, in a recent lunchtime learning event 95% of invited staff attended. Or what about this one; our ‘PortLife' ReadyMag had 56 views.

Okay, so I am making apoint, but in theory, when did revenue and headcount dictate that you were successful? I had always been schooled in the adage ‘Profit for dough, revenue for show’. But, even this cannot encompass the true value of the business success. Surely life just isn’t that simple or straight forward now-a-days.

Much like the change in views and expectations for recruitment and employee benefits. The emphasis has changed from merely being focused on salary, bonus, benefits and holidays, to the softer longer term personal and psychological benefits such as culture, teams, flexibility, health and wellbeing, training, career progression office flexibility, to name only a few.

Hopefully, in the near future we will be reading more about, quality value metrics, which have far greater, deeper meaning than headcount and turnover.

Until this time, let’s try and focus our attentions on the deeper more meaningful KPIs that count, flexibility, happiness, progression, environment, tools, vision, training, mindfulness…