Human Resources is sometimes seen as a back office function rather than being a strategic partner that can help drive revenues.
However, the HR function can directly impact growth. With the right strategic HR solutions in place, you can align your team with your goals, improve employee engagement and retention, and help foster a culture of success.
Helios HR's team of experts has helped many businesses attain this kind of success. Here is one example that shows how we do it.
Case Study: A great business with a struggling sales team
We worked with a client who was struggling with business development for their small business. They believe they have a good product, good technology, and superior intellectual property, but they've struggled to bring their solution to market in a way that grows their customer base and generates a consistent revenue stream.
This turned out to be a sales issue. The company struggled to hire high-performing sales professionals, and the ones they did hire didn't last long. Turnover in the sales team might be caused by factors that lead to turnover in other departments, such as an inadequate Total Rewards offering or negative workplace culture.
Sometimes, it's for a reason specific to sales. Sales professionals might not fully understand the product, or they might have weak relationships with other departments. They simply might not understand the company's strategic vision. All of these issues are human resources management problems, and they can be tackled by the right HR professionals.
How did HR help resolve the issue?
For many leaders, the first thought is, "We need to get better at hiring salespeople."
This is partly true. Strategic HR services can review your talent acquisition processes to improve recruitment outcomes. However, in this case, the company needed to address some deep-lying HR challenges.
Here are the steps taken by the Helios HR consultants who worked on the case:
1. Recognize
First, we started by gaining an understanding of the business, how it operates and the company culture. The foundational awareness is important to be able to accurately portray the business to potential candidates and approach other elements of the engagement.
2. Review
We reviewed and ultimately redesigned the sales compensation plan to incorporate incentives that were market competitive and motivating to increase attraction and retention. We also looked at factors such as professional development opportunities and well-being initiatives, which can have a major impact on staff turnover.
3. Rethink
We revamped the employee onboarding experience to be more intentional upfront on training and education for smoother assimilation into the organization. We developed a new hire mentoring program along with other activities and processes to help with the learning curve.
4. Refine
Next, we partnered with the hiring manager to develop job advertisements and job descriptions that pinpointed the relevant industry experience and skills needed for the role. We proactively sourced passive candidates and developed behavioral interview questions that tested product knowledge, cultural alignment, and overall sales aptitude. We also identified valid and reliable pre-hire assessments to help identify the type of sales skills necessary to be successful.
5. Reorganize
To address the bigger cross-functional issue, we pulled in organizational development consultants at Helios to review the workflows and communications across departments. By conducting focused interviews, we identified the need for someone from the development team to sit in on sales meetings to hear first-hand from clients.
We established the need for implementing detailed account plans to capture critical information in a systematic way across departments, and that everyone could benefit from communication training across generations.
6. Reinforce
Lastly, all of these behaviors need to be reinforced continuously. Our human resources consulting professionals tied the desired behaviors to performance conversations and encouraged managers to coach employees on these skills and behaviors to accomplish their business goals.
What was the outcome?
After our project was completed, our client reported back that they met their annual sales revenue goal for the first time in three years and are on track to accomplish their 5-year strategic plan.
Our intention in sharing this case study was to hopefully help expand your awareness of the impact a strong HR team can make in your business. You may already have this capability in-house with your existing team. When HR is given insight into organizational challenges and empowered to play a larger role in identifying solutions to your human capital problems, growth happens.
Want to explore strategic HR solutions for your business? Book a call with Helios HR today!
