Month: July 2024

As the founder and Managing Director of Positive People, I am very proud to let you know that in August this year Positive People will have been in business for 30 years!

What a different landscape it was back then when we started! HR professionals were few and far between and the small to medium sized business sector was crying out for some HR support.

So, working initially from my wife’s dresser in our bedroom, Positive People was launched in August 1994. With a foundation built strongly on integrity, professional competence and client centricity, it has always been about making a positive difference to our clients’ organisations.

I would like to thank our many clients who have supported us along the way. What a great set of businesses!

And of course, a big thank you to our amazing team who set out every day to provide the best possible HR advice and support to our clients.

Insights, learnings & highlights

1. A massive swing towards people centred organisational cultures. Workplaces have progressively moved to be employee focused and offering more individualised employee benefits
2. HR has progressively morphed from being a predominantly administrative function to a strategic business partner with a high impact on organisational success. HR has gained a strong and legitimate foothold as a key function in organisations
3. Right up there has to be the growth and development that we’ve seen in Team Leadership – both individual Managers and Senior Leadership Teams. With our support we have seen them move to embrace what HR can do for them and becoming strong advocates of a people centred culture within their businesses.
4. We have been so lucky to have at Positive People a fantastic group of skilled Consultants. They are committed to providing top class HR support to our clients and work so well together. So, the importance of your team sits right up there as a critical and essential component in any organisation’s success.
5. Values really matter. Our focus on Integrity, Respect, Professionalism, Transparency, Honesty and Open Communication means our clients gain an HR partner with a high standard of behaviour and competence, who you can trust and who will always have your needs at the forefront of everything we do for you.
6. Change isn’t just around the corner. Change is sitting looking at us every day. So, the importance of embracing change, planning for what might be different going forward and making the most of the opportunities it presents is a key driver of success.
7. Allied to living with change is the need to be perpetually looking ahead and scanning the horizon to see what might be coming up. And then developing plans to either counter any ill winds, or to optimise any openings that might present themselves.
8. Across all decisions, a view through a commonsense lens is imperative. Sometimes the moment takes over and we can lose sight of what is both operationally functional and financially sound. Standing back and then applying the concept of common sense across new ideas, proposed developments and key decisions allows for a reality check.
9. An evolutionary approach to mostly everything is a great way to make improvements. This allows for a degree of experimentation and risk taking to take place and allows for innovative exploring. Importantly, being a staged approach, a new idea that doesn’t work won’t sink the ship.
10. From day one we have been learning from our clients. This has allowed us to develop and grow ourselves individually and as Positive People. We have shared our learned knowledge across our client base so that all our clients benefit from our multi-Company and industry wide learnings. 
11. We know that above all else our clients want and expect first class HR support from us at every turn. And so that has always been our number one priority.
12. Our 30 years have been about our clients, not about us. And that remains our sharp focus.

We are proud of where we are today and confidently head into the future with plans to constantly improve, innovate and forge ahead as we provide even better HR support and services to a growing client base.

It has been a fantastically enriching journey, and we are super excited as we move into our next growth phase!

August is going to be an exciting month as we celebrate our 30 years in business!

Thank you once again.

Alan Pettersen and the Team at Positive People

Recently one of our team was working with a newly appointed Supervisor, and he asked her advice on correcting some payroll mistakes. The back story was that his team had been working long hours for two weeks to get something urgent completed for a customer and through an administrative oversight hadn’t been paid their overtime. He was livid and sick of being told the office team were “too busy” to help right now. He and his team were on the verge of walking out.

While we managed to calm him down and work through the issue constructively, it did start us thinking about business priorities and reflecting on where your team sit on your priority list?

We act with urgency to deliver for our customers, and we expect our team to do the same…….

But how much urgency do we attach to delivering for our own team?

No doubt your customers don’t have to chase you to respond to emails, fix mistakes or answer questions. That in turn ensures that they trust you, want to work with you again and builds a true customer partnership.

Applying the same principals with your team can have the same results and is a solid foundation for engagement and high performance.

“If you look after your staff, they’ll look after your customers. It’s that simple.”

Richard Branson.

We all set high customer service standards and create excellent service philosophies, so we definitely should be doing the same for our own team. The simple things matter so start small, make clear promises and keep them.

We suggest:

• Always pay them correctly and if there is a mistake fix it with urgency.
• Reply to staff emails as soon as possible, in any event within within 24 hours, even if it is with a holding email to say you will provide more information tomorrow.
• If you give them a time frame for an answer, keep it.
• If someone in your team sets a meeting with you, prioritise it – turn up on time and only cancel in an emergency.
• If someone in your team asks for help, say yes. You may not be able to help straight away (great if you can), but you can make it a priority and schedule a meeting as soon as possible.
• If it is performance review or pay review time, do them when you say you will.
• If you conduct a Staff Engagement Survey, provide feedback on the results and respond as soon a possible
• If a re-imbursement is owed, pay it promptly

These basics, which actually only reflect common courtesy, are crucial!

You can have the most impressive HR systems and communication plans in the world, but if your daily actions don’t show your team they are important and your top priority, then the rest won’t matter.

Getting this right and having high internal service standards will help your team deliver exceptional results and get right behind your external customer service promise.

Positive People have 30 years’ experience helping organisations build strong teams.

Call us now on 09 445 1077 – We can help.