Ghana: Business Growth Through Effective People And Culture Strategy

Every organization, people and culture strategy is a roadmap to increased profitability, productivity, employee experience and customer satisfaction. The strategy provides a blueprint for best-in-class service offering for any organization. 

Effective people and culture strategy has great impact on the bottomline and shape the way businesses operate. Business people usually look at the organisation in terms of revenue and as such, can easily lose sight of the company's core values. However, a business' HR (People & culture) strategy is the bedrock of a successful company. 

Some of the important responsibilities of HR professionals are to develop leaders and managers, build systems, structures, policies, procedures and ensure that these things are fit for purpose. Again, effective people strategies results in talent which are equipped with all they need to be effective in their jobs.

Many businesses, especially those in small scale, overlook the importance of hiring and maintaining a human resource (HR) expert in their businesses. Most business owners believe they have the expertise to manage people successfully while others consider bringing in HR expert expensive. However, businesses end up with employment related legal tussles and again, they do not reap the full benefits of optimized performance from the people they work with.

This article identifies ways in which any business can propel growth through effective people and culture strategy for performance optimization of its employees and its impact on business net growth.

Policy Development

Some of the people strategies which set companies apart is strong company and employee policies. Policy development is key to any business that is poised to stay in business and build their employer brand. Designing and implementing strong and up-to-date people policies will be able attract the best talent to an organization. For example, employees who work in Technology or Fintech industry would appreciate flexible work options. A company in a cosmopolitan environment would also design policy for minority in society to feel connected in order to build their interest to join their business.

Through great people strategies every organization would be able to build strong employer brand to attract best talents. People policies such as discipline, recruitment, leave, welfare, performance management, talent development, employee wellbeing, termination etc are designed all around the employee life cycle to set clear expectations for employees, and it directs the business and its people on how to conduct themselves and the consistent manner of doing things. Policies sets the legal obligations defining the employer and the employee relationship, duties and their rights. The right company policies would protect companies against lawsuits, claims of discrimination and wrongful act/ omission.

Designing a culture around strong policies propel businesses to grow in revenue, increase company profitability and strong employer brand. Reinforcement of these policies create a company culture of empowerment.

Promoting Skills Development and bench strength

The key focus of every business is to make profit, stay competitive and remain in business. Employees need to be equipped with the right tools and skills for the job. When an employee become better skilled at what they do, the company produces better results and becomes a win-win for the employer and the employee. Through strong people strategies, HR create and maintain a conducive work culture for business to thrive. People strategies designed around talent management drives business results. For example, through performance management people leaders will be able to coach line managers to support their team members in efficient way.

Teams within Human Resources can use data driven insights to draw interventions which yields greater business value. Through talent reviews business leaders are asked to assess employees across the organization on performance and future potential. Completing a talent review helps companies uncover talent gaps and identify high potential employees. The insight gained then enable management to make strategic talent decisions and plan for the company's future. For example, let's say a business want to build bench strength, so we have employees ready to step in and fill leadership vacancies. In a talent review meeting, the business will be able to identify high performers who exhibit most of the needed traits and skills, while also pinpointing any gaps employees need to close.

The result? Business will know where to focus their training investment, coaching, learning and development efforts better.

Achieving business goals

One key talent initiative is performance management. Ensuring that the business has a strong strategic objective to drive growth and also has the best talent to deliver top performance is the headache of every business executive. Great performance management systems ensure increase in production levels, higher employee engagement, improved customer service and help employees find value in the work they do. Setting performance standards, supporting managers and team members to achieve their organizational goals ensure that each employee understands their role and know their expectations. Again, employees receive continuous feedback on how they are performing in relation to expectations, employee's growth and development is supported throughout the year and performance that fails to meet the expected standard is addressed.

As part of performance management, compensation and benefits framework can be designed to align performance culture with how business reward its employees in a consistent process. These will in turn result in high employee output which would eventually increase business profit and employee engagement.

For any organization to achieve the bottom line, it always depends on how efficient and productive its people, systems and structures are. When new employees understand the company's performance management systems and the job expectations very well, they would pick up speed in performance delivery. Again, they would also get to know how their line manager supports their growth, where to go for help and what support resources are available to them. Employees would, therefore, not be frustrated and confused regarding the organization's expectation of them. Moreover, productivity level of the individual will increase, which in turn, would support the achievement of the overall business results.

In a business where employee experience is important and valued, a strategy on employee and customer onboarding must be well designed in order attract and excite customers and candidates from the word go. For example, when employees are thoroughly onboarded, they know their expectations, they usually build right stakeholder relations and build strong relationship with their line managers and colleagues. These would then help them feel connected to the business priorities and its people and make them stay longer in the organization. When employees feel connected to the business, its goals and ambition, they contribute better to business results, especially, the revenue.

In conclusion, people strategy and culture design are paramount to the success and continuity of any business. Developing performance management systems, great employee and customer onboarding initiatives, driving talent management initiatives drive growth and profitability of any business. Having the right people and culture strategies can be an added advantage for every organization to reduce employee turnover, increase efficiency, increase profit, build the employer brand, and drive revenue growth.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.