Looking to grow your business? Here are 7 ways HR can help you de-risk growing pains

Growing a business is exciting but it’s also full of risks. The bigger you get, the more moving parts there are and if you’re not careful, things can start to unravel.

People problems, compliance headaches and cultural shifts can all trip you up if you don’t plan ahead. That’s where HR (done properly)comes in. It’s not just about policies and paperwork. It’s about making sure your growth doesn’t turn into chaos!

In my experience, there are two points where things tend to go wrong the most. The first is when you hit around 6-10 employees. The second is when you grow past 15-20. These are the stages where what worked before suddenly stops working. Communication starts breaking down, decision making slows, and things get messy. The culture you built when it was just a small team starts to shift and if you’re not careful, you can lose the magic that made your business great in the first place.

This is why HR (done properly) is so important. It’s not just about policies and paperwork. It’s about making sure your growth doesn’t turn into chaos.

Here are seven ways Dynamic HR Services can help you scale without the stress.

1. Hiring the right people, not just the available ones

When you're growing fast, it's tempting to grab whoever’s willing to jump on board. But bad hires are expensive and disruptive.

A proper hiring process that looks beyond CVs and actually assesses culture fit (or better, culture add) will save you a shit-ton of headaches down the line. Don’t just look for skills. Look for attitude, adaptability and whether they’ll thrive in the kind of business you’re building.

2. Keeping your culture on track

Culture is easy to manage when you’re a small, tight knit team. As you grow, things change. New people bring new dynamics and if you’re not intentional, your culture can take a nosedive.

If you worked with me, I’d be working with you to define what ‘good culture’ looks like in your business. Then it should be reinforced at every level through leadership, processes, policies, recruitment, performance management and even making business decisions.

3. Preventing legal and compliance nightmares

Nothing sucks the fun out of business growth like a tribunal claim. As your team expands, so do your legal responsibilities.

Contracts, policies, working time regulations and discrimination laws all need to be managed properly. You don’t need to be an expert in all of it, but you do need to make sure you’re compliant. A good HR setup will flag risks before they become costly problems.

4. Stopping toxic pockets before they spread

A bad manager. A cliquey team. An employee who’s great at their job but an absolute nightmare to work with. These things can fester and spread if they’re not dealt with early.

You need an early warning system! I focus on helping you and your managers spot early red flags and give you the tools to handle issues properly. This makes sure small problems don’t turn into full blown toxic culture disasters!

5. Making sure performance actually scales

When you’re growing, everyone needs to pull their weight. If you don’t set clear expectations, you’ll get inconsistency, resentment and people who feel like they’re drowning.

Working with me will result in defining what ‘good performance’ looks like in your business. We also set clear goals and put systems in place to make sure everyone knows what’s expected of them. This is then reinforced with regular structured feedback sessions (not archaic, shitty appraisals).

6. Managing pay, benefits and career paths

Paying people fairly and competitively is one thing but as you grow, you’ll also need to think about structure. What do progression paths look like? How do you keep your best people engaged so they don’t jump ship?

I’ll help you plan ahead so you don’t end up losing great employees because they can’t see a future in your business.

7. Supporting leaders as the business evolves

Your leadership team is critical to your success but as your business grows, the skills they need will evolve too.

A manager who thrived in a team of five might struggle when that team becomes ten. Leaders who’ve never had to manage conflict before might suddenly be dealing with tricky situations.

That’s why I focus on helping your leaders develop through training and coaching or just having someone to bounce ideas off when they’re dealing with challenges.

Final thoughts

Scaling a business without thinking about HR is like building a house without a solid foundation. You might get away with it for awhile but eventually, the cracks will show.

HR, when done right, isn’t about slowing things down with red tape. It’s about helping you grow in a way that is sustainable, legally sound and free from the kind of people problems that can derail a great business.

If you’re planning to scale and want to make sure your HR foundations are solid, let’s chat. I help businesses grow without the chaos.

?Need a sanity check on your people strategy? Pop me a message.

New Products Online Now!

Alongside the Sexual Harassment Prevention Pack our Managing Probation Periods Pack is now available to buy online.

Our online shop is where you can easily browse and purchase a range of our helpful HR products with just a few clicks and no interaction or up-sell from a human being!

Over the next 12 months we’ll be adding more products to the site until we have a full library of course, policies and products available.

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Natalie | Founder and Director, Dynamic HR Services Ltd.

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