At the heart of smart HR work is outcome-driven conversations. I can help you fine-tune your project’s mission and connect it to measurable outcomes, but some more general goals usually precede this.

Types of goals. A typical goal of organizations hiring an HR consultant is a desire to see positive outcomes in the general areas of compliance, recruitment, retention, relationships, and environment. Here are some examples of what these goals might look like. 

• Compliance (including individual, accreditation, certification, and legal):  We need a plan for meeting the requirements of our accrediting body. We want to identify strategies for remedying the equity issues identified during the recertification process. We want to ensure that everyone understands the laws that dictate our hiring practices. 

• Recruitment: We want to make our company a more appealing place to work. We want to understand how new recruits experience our know hiring process. We are seeking suggestions for improving our recruitment practices. We want to know why our applicant pools are not representative of the wider industry.

• Retention: We want to create new strategies for retaining talented employees. We want to better understand what people need in order to be successful here. We want to know how satisfied our workforce is with different aspects of their employment. We want to understand what is driving turnover.

• Better Relationships: We need to create a procedure for addressing instances of bias in our organization. We need to decide what values and skills we want our next director to have. We want our leaders to be DEI-aware. We want to promote more respectful interactions. We want to understand how intergenerational dynamics are playing out in our workforce.

• Better Environment: We want to understand and improve our organization’s culture. We need to eliminate prejudice and discrimination from our policies. We want better partnerships with our community. We need to address a recent incident that has people on edge.

There are two ways to think about timing that will improve the odds of your project's success. The first is aligning your project to opportunities that may be inherit to different stages of the organizational lifecycle - whether you are just starting out, undergoing a big transition, long established, or at the end of a chapter. The second is the ebb and flow of your organization's calendar and how it differs according to the various roles that team members play.

The organizational lifecycle

New and Renewed. If you are charting new territory or perfecting the art of the pivot, you have an opportunity to put your organizational values to work in creating a workplace culture that works for everyone. I can help new and transforming organizations lay important foundational groundwork. 

Established. If you are a long-established organization, you may need help with routine HR issues from time to time, minor updates to policy and procedure to help you remain competitive, or an occassional overhaul. I can help at any step of your journey.

Endings. Terminations, reorganizing, selling, and closing are all difficult endings in some sense and require different things of your team - from tying up lose ends to reinvention. Inequalities can intensify at the end of an organizational lifecycle, and unaddressed challenges can make the next phase more difficult if work is to continue in some capacity. I can help your team face even the most difficult next steps with resilience.

The organizational calendar

It's important to think about how your project will fit into the ebb and flow of your team's calendar and how this might differ by role. When taking on projects that require input from across your workforce, barriers to participation may exist between full-time and part-time employees, office and remote workers, permanent and seasonal staff. You may also need to think about the best timing for your customers, students, or community partners if your project relies on their input.

To whatever extent you are able, conduct surveys or focus groups during working hours and designate time for participation. Optional and extra = underattended. And if only those who feel the most urgency about a particular situation make the time to provide input, they may perceive a lack of concern for the situation - and your results will be skewed towards negative experiences.

I can help you deploy the resources that are already at your disposal, laying a foundation for permanent members of your team to implement and update any plan of action with confidence. I offer a free consultation that can help you match your goals to your resources. The following will almost always come in handy:

Data. Most organizations maintain employment data, reports, and other information that will come in handy for a variety of projects. Even if your project will involve collecting new data from team members or customers, evaluating existing information can eliminate duplicate efforts and help you ask better questions - saving your team time and money. 

Human Capitol. Some organizations I work with have HR, DEI, and other People and Culture specialists on staff. Even if you don't, you likely have team members with skillsets and job responsibilities that make them valuable to your project. Staff who can build websites, create presentations, program surveys, and analyze data are just a few examples. Think of who those people might be and invite them to the table. 

What money can buy. Whether you work with a consultant or not, your team is likely to encounter expenses beyond your normal operating budget. You may need to consider lost productivity if team members are diverted from their work for an HR-related initiative. Apart from salary, expenses related to travel, facilities, and software are common. I offer a free consultation and estimate, and I never assess an expense without prior agreement.