As the UK economy reopens in line with the lifting of Covid restrictions, employees are proving to be increasingly important to firms. With all the challenges around finding and retaining good people in the aftermath of the crisis, fuelled by changes in employment law and a shift in what employees want from their employers, an effective HR function has become pivotal for businesses to survive and succeed.
That is the view of Diane Johnson, lead HR consultant at RfM Transform, an arm of the RfM Accountants + More business. Her role involves delivering what she likes to call “impactful HR”, working with business leaders to deliver better results, enable increased people performance, improved engagement, and turbocharge productivity.
Johnson explains: “Effective HR is key to business success and survival. Caring for your staff, creating great working conditions, and facilitating their training and growth, is the royal road to keeping great people and growing a business, especially in the current climate.”
Referring to some of the challenges around staffing, Johnson adds: “It’s a simple fact of business life that thorny people challenges will arise. It can be difficult to remain impartial when there are problems. So, my role is to diplomatically and sensitively untangle the issues faced by businesses.”
The services that Johnson and RfM Transform at large provide are geared toward meeting the needs of SMEs that may not have access to in-house HR. Johnson believes that SMEs in particular require good and committed staff, and robust structures are therefore needed to bring that talent into a business and retain it.
“I like working directly with owners and leaders to create a bespoke suite of HR solutions, and put in place the processes and procedures that will enable the businesses – and its employees – to thrive”, Johnson says.
“As a coach, I can then help business leaders think about all the ways they can grow and retain the very best talent their business needs to succeed.”
Readers can learn more about RfM Transform's HR services here.
