The Impact of Treating Employees Like Clients For Business Success

TSummary/Abstract

Harry Spaight and Mike O'Neill are catching up on how Mike's business is doing. Mike is pleased that people he has been speaking with have come back and want to figure out how to work together. Harry then asks Mike about the relationship building he does in his business. Mike explains that he has spent over 20 years in corporate HR, working for a small company that eventually became a Fortune 500 company and leading a large HR team. For the last 10 years, Mike has taken his HR expertise to help small to mid-sized businesses grow.

Harry Spaight is talking to an expert in HR and people management, who is helping businesses with their people problems. The expert explains that they offer both training and coaching services in order to help businesses improve their people skills. On the training side, they focus on making sure that supervisors and leaders are comfortable in their roles and are able to treat their employees in a way that gives them a sense of value. For coaching, they work with individuals and teams on very specific behaviors to help them improve their performance. People problems can be a major hindrance to businesses, but the expert is helping people to identify and address those issues in order to ensure that their business can continue to prosper.

Mike O'Neill is a business owner who helps companies with people-related challenges. He views HR as a profession that requires credibility and the ability to sell services to internal customers. O'Neill believes that the key to gaining trust with decision makers is to show that he is there to support them, not to threaten them. He starts with the HR department to build trust and demonstrate his ability to help them be more successful. He then looks to understand the challenges they are wrestling with most, and helps them find a solution if he can't provide it himself.

The conversation between the two people focuses on the importance of HR departments when hiring new employees. It is suggested that when talking to business owners, the conversation should be more bottom line-oriented and focus on how the potential employee can benefit the bottom line. It is argued that more emphasis needs to be placed on keeping existing employees, as supervisors are often seen as representatives of the company. The conversation then moves to the average longevity of employees, with it being suggested that turnover is a major issue, and that there should be a target for employees to stay for a certain period of time.

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