The beginning of the year is often the time when people take some time out to re-evaluate their careers.  For business leaders, it’s a common time of reflection to better understand what’s working, what’s not and what areas need to be optimised in their organisation.

Here are our recommendations of where business leaders should focus when looking to make change:

1.  Find a mentor

Leading businesses can be incredibly isolating.  It’s important to work with a mentor who can provide objective advice and is someone that you trust.  These relationships can be developed formally using a business mentoring program or informally through professional networking such as LinkedIn.  A good mentor can help you gain a new perspective on challenges that you are facing and help you develop your personal strengths.  Many businesses have experienced an extremely difficult environment in the past 2 years and it is essential that leaders seek out supports to help navigate uncertainty and optimise processes. 

2.  Employee Engagement is key

In the current environment, with a significantly restrained employment market, retaining top talent is key.  It is a candidate’s market and as such, it is incredibly important to ensure that your staff are engaged, motivated and can see a future with your business.  This is great news for candidates but not so much for businesses who are finding it increasingly difficult to compete in the war to find and retain talent.  The term ‘the great resignation’ mentioned in industry circles relates to an expected increase in employees leaving their current employer to seek work/life balance through flexibility, having experienced the benefits of working from home and reducing the daily commute and office grind.  To fully engage your employees, you need to understand what they need from an employer and then find ways to making it work in your business. 

3.  Plan a Resourcing strategy that works for you

In a candidate-short market, it’s important to find a resourcing strategy that’s flexible.  That might mean looking at options such as virtual or semi-virtual workforces, outsourcing parts of your business (using recruitment or labour hire agencies, for example) and even offshoring certain business functions where appropriate.  Skilled IT staff, in particular, are incredibly difficult to source and overseas based skilled staff could be a great solution.

4.  Understand what’s working and what’s not

The New Year is the perfect opportunity to evaluate what aspects of your business need optimising or processes that need changing.  One way to start this process is to ask staff to submit their feedback on what should ‘Stop, Start and Continue’.  Staff across the business are best-placed to comments and opinions on what areas of the business aren’t working and focus areas for the new year.  It’s also a good process to work through with a business mentor.

5.  Marketing transformation

Business leaders must understand how COVID has changed the market for their organisation. For some, COVID 19 has catapulted their business to the next level and for others, it’s reduced it to its knees. To adapt to the changing environment businesses are finding themselves in, we recommend evaluating your digital strategy and better understanding how it can help you reach new customers and markets.If you would like to explore HR outsourcing, speak to the HR Team at Flexi Personnel.