STAR Workplace Assessment
Australian workplaces are not all the same. The STAR Workplace Program recognises the unique dynamics that different employers bring to their business and enables you and your team to assess your own workplace. As the people responsible for the success of the business, you and your team are the best judges of the quality of your workplace and business results.
What is important is your satisfaction with your business and the satisfaction of the people working with you. That's what makes your business a STAR!
The underlying methodology of the STAR Workplace program is based on research developed by the HR Coach Research Institute on why some businesses have satisfied, engaged employees that make strategy happen and why others don’t.
The STAR benchmarking tools identify what really drives strategy in your business. The four components that are evaluated include:
- Strategy Fulfillment
- Team Satisfaction
- Actions & Processes to Retain Employees
- Results of Performance
STAR Workplaces achieve a high rating in all areas. If your business needs assistance in a particular area, the benchmarking process helps in your action planning for improvement which will assist in retaining your STAR Rating for the future. Businesses can also use the report to help prioritise actions and review options for improvement which can be actioned over the next six and twelve months
Please click here for more information on STAR Workplace Assessments
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HR Staff System
The HR Staff System is an integrated PC-based system which gives you an automated HR Staff management system that guides you on the best practice processes to:
- recruit staff
- start staff
- manage staff performance
- provide basic policies and procedures
- review remuneration
- exit staff
- manage all staff issues
You can make your business look and feel professional in the recruitment and management of your people at a fraction of the cost of employing a HR professional, when you install this system. The time savings alone ensure the cost is recovered quickly. Click here for more information on the HR Staff System
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Psychometric Assessments
HRM Partners are committed to using a range of psychometric assessment tools to help businesses to:
- Improve recruiting decisions;
- Improve personal awareness;
- Enhance team performance; and
- Identify and enhance leadership and sales skills and performance
Core to these applications is the knowledge that a person’s personality is key to how they think and behave. There are 16 different personality types, and it is very hard/impossible to change someone’s personality. Therefore the key is to understand what personalities you have in your existing team, and what personalities will be a good fit to build the capability and performance of the work team. Rather than hire for skills and then fire for fit, many successful organizations now hire for skills and fit, and they use psychometric assessments to measure this ‘fit’ component.
The key psychometric assessment tools used by HRM Partners include:
- DiSC - a simple assessment tool that has been used commercially for nearly 50 years to help identify a specific individuals personal drivers, motivators and de-motivators;
- DiSC Indra - an assessment tool developed in 2002 that combines DiSC personality theory with interpersonal theories to identify work team challenges and opportunities for improvement; and
- Genos Emotional Intelligence - an Australian benchmarked assessment tool to assess the leadership and relationship management skills of supervisors, managers and business owners.
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Business Planning and Alignment
Distinguishing Features of high performing organisations include:
- Clear understanding of what their business is about, what it stands for and their competitive advantages; and
- Well articulated set of values that define where/how employees should focus their attention
Companies whose employees understand the mission and goals enjoy 29% greater return than other firms
(Watson Wyatt Work Study)
Workers want their work to make a difference, but 75% do not think their company’s mission statement has become the way they do business (Workplace 2000 Employee Insight Survey). As small and medium sized organisations position themselves for further growth success, they need to develop an appropriate and targeted business plan, which must be practical and pragmatic – rather than theoretic and forgotten about once completed. HRM Partners have extensive experience helping successful organizations to both develop and articulate their vision, mission, business values and people values, to position their organisation for even greater success
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HR Plans
Many organisations need a strategic human resource management plan, to ensure that they improve the management and performance of their most valuable (and expensive) resource. A HR Plan can be implemented to deal with issues identified in the STAR Workplace assessment processes. Organisations can either do all of the work in the plan, or do some of the work – or come up with a solution in between these two extremes. The core goal is simply that organisations need to strategically and tactically plan for improvement in their Human resource management practices and systems, or it will not happen. Willing it to happen is not likely to make a difference, despite a business owners best intention!
The HR Plan should cover an assessment of where the organisation is as a starting point, normally using the STAR Workplace assessment processes. We then need to ensure that the foundation HR systems and processes are implemented, effective and being managed by resources within the organisation. Compliance testing and Risk management of the human resource management function needs to occur, complemented by logical and effective performance coaching for performance improvement. Finally the plan needs to deliver tangible workplace improvements in processes and procedures to position the organisation for future business growth
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Leadership Development
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is about expressing, understanding, perceiving and managing emotions of yourself and others to improve organisational outcomes. Current international research is proving that EQ is a more likely indicator of successful leadership and work performance than measures like intelligence(IQ), personality or even previous experience.
HRM Partners are accredited to use the GENOS EI assessment tool to assess emotional intelligence, and then have a range of programmes that can be implemented to assist participants to improve their emotional intelligence - leading to improved organisational and individual performance. If you are genuinely serious about positioning your leadership team for great success in the future, you need to invest in developing their emotional intelligence. It has the capacity to enhance team performance, reduce stress and absenteeism levels, and build capability and performance in organizations.
HRM Partners also implement a range of Values frameworks within an organisation, which can lead to enhanced responsibility-taking, accountability and decision-making for managers, supervisors and front-line employees. If you are worn-out making all of the decisions, all of the time, we encourage you to implement a values framework that supports everyone in the organisation to make the right decision at the right time.
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Recruitment and Retention
If you are an existing client of HRM Partners we can assist you in recruiting and selecting the best candidates, as we know how critical it is to get it right every time. Our assistance can be as little as completing personality tests on short-listed candidates, up to managing the entire recruitment process. We are committed to supporting our clients to achieve quality recruitment outcomes to help position their business for growth, within the budget constraints that each business has. As every poor recruitment decision costs a business between 100-150% of that appointments annual package, improve your strike rate for recruiting great employees by using some of the services of HRM Partners
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Industrial Relations
The industrial relations landscape is experiencing it’s greatest change in 20 years as businesses come to grip with the requirements of the Fair Work Act 2009. HRM Partners are well experienced to help organizations capitalize on the new opportunities, while also providing support and advice to avoid some of the new pitfalls. The team at HRM Partners have negotiated awards and agreements in the Industrial Relations Commission, and have also developed and registered AWA’s and ITEA’s.
The new industrial instruments will include Enterprise Agreements and modernized awards, and all negotiations will need to cover the 10 legislated minimum entitlements (national employment standards). We are all heading into unchartered waters in the new industrial relations environment, so it makes sense to use someone who has been negotiating pragmatic business outcomes for the last 20 years.
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Restructure and Outplacement Services
Many businesses have to restructure their activities to respond to growth and contraction opportunities in their competitive market. HRM Partners have had extensive experience in organisation restructures over the last 20 years, so they have learnt all of the pitfalls and failures the hard way. In the process their experience reflects much of the research from overseas – a poorly planned or implemented restructure can kill an organisation within 5 years. While it is natural for business owners to make short-term decisions, they often benefit from reviewing alternate options to stabilize and then grow their own business. There are many lessons that have already been learnt in taking businesses ‘from good to great’, so we encourage you to learn the easy way from our extensive experience.
If businesses do decide to downsize, HRM Partners can help you develop and implement a strategy that complies with all legislative requirements and sends a clear message to your employees that you respect them, value them and want them to succeed. Speak to us about our tailored Outplacement Services, designed to maintain the positive morale of employees who may be leaving your organization. We can also help businesses develop and implement the ‘survivor strategies’ for the team left running the business.
Many successful businesses merge or acquire complementary businesses or competitors, as they grow their own business. The research on M&A’s is that most acquisitions fail to deliver the expected financial returns because of failed people integration. HRM Partners have been involved with a number of significant business acquisitions and mergers, and can provide you advice and support to achieve improved financial returns through improved and aligned people systems integration
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Performance Management
Most organisations struggle to develop a performance improvement culture in their business, where everyone looks for ways to improve their individual and team performances to lift the performance of the organization. The greatest challenge with implementing a performance management system into any organisation is the low completion rate of assessments, with research suggesting that less than 40% of the required assessments are ever completed. Assessment processes need to be simple and consistent with the organisation’s values and reinforce the culture and direction of the business. HRM Partners can also measure the performance improvement your business needs to make to achieve financial budget forecasts.
HRM Partners can assist you to develop and implement practical performance management systems and processes that actually work, and move a business from a culture of blame laying to a culture of improvement. These systems can range from individual assessment through to 360-degree assessment, in the knowledge that no one knows everything, and most people are keen to be mentored and coached to improve their performance.
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Remuneration and Rewards
All organisations need to be competitive in their remuneration and rewards systems and processes to ensure that they can: attract and retain the right people; reward the right behaviours; and, ensure their business grows financially to be able to fund and support further growth. HRM Partners have extensive experience working with small, medium and large businesses to build pay structures and processes that ensure initial and ongoing alignment between employees and the success of the business. Equally important are the reward systems in an organization, where the rewards can simply be recognition for a job well done or a public ‘pat on the back’. Research continues to demonstrate that companies that get the ‘recognition’ and people processes of their business right, are rarely forced to pay at the high end of the market. Money is usually the 4th ranked motivator for employees, so organisations really need to get the other motivators right, if their business is going to succeed.
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