Working with small and medium sized businesses to make their strategy and business plans reality through effective resource management, brand alignment and providing resources for significant projects
Making Strategy Reality
Am I Managing My Time Effectively?
We live in a World where we constantly seem to have more and more to juggle and technology makes everything happens so much more quickly that it often creates a feeling of urgency. And it’s not just limited to life in the office. If you’re the owner, director or senior manager of an SME (small or medium sized enterprise) then you are probably familiar with the feeling that you are the busiest person in the World? You find too much time is eaten up by administrative issues and non-core activities simply because you don’t have departments to deal with them. It seems that the only solution to getting everything done is to work longer hours but even when you do you’re still unbelievably busy. Recognise the scenario?
Business Efficiency Check
If your organisation needs to grow, or reduce costs, then you may need to review the way you operate to achieve your goals. Undertaking a critical appraisal of your resources, to analyse where efficiencies could be improved to save time and or make cost savings, or to make aspects of the business run more smoothly and productively, is time consuming and is likely to result in changes across the organisation.
Joined Up Thinking
Joined-up thinking is an intelligent approach to management where all the elements of running the business work together to produce a better result, or in summary - the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Making Strategy Reality - Am I The Best Person To Do This
No one can do everything - not even some of the time. All businesses and organisations depend on mundane jobs to reach their goals, but sometimes these creep into our to do lists resulting in too much management time being spent on non-productive activities. The demands we face at work require constant juggling and it can be easier to slip into spending too much time on low-value activities, particularly if they are 'easy wins' in contrast to addressing strategic priorities, or staff issues, which take us outside our comfort zone.
Effective Resource Management
HR Audit
When companies review their HR services an audit is frequently the starting point. Similarly when a company is considering a sale or a merger a detailed review of their HR documentation can save hours of costly legal fees and help get the documentation in order for due diligence.
HR Services
If you do not employ, or have access to, a qualified HR professional, or you have a junior HR professional working alone, SFM Consulting provides external support and or mentoring in the following areas:
- Workforce Planning
- Pay and Grading Review
- Setting Up Your Internal HR Processes, Policies and Procedures
- Benefits and Motivation
- Finances for HR Personnel
- Absence Management
- Performance Management
- Training and Development
Human Resources
Your staff are probably your most important asset. In most businesses efficient and successful delivery of the strategy is dependent on the staff and requires engaged and motivated staff, who value the business and are valued by their colleagues, who understand the aims and objectives of the organisation and are focused on achieving them, with appropriate training when required.
Managing Your Resources
Systems, processes and organisational culture impact upon the management and utilisation of your resources - your people and their skills - your assets - your technology - and have a direct bearing on the efficiency and effectiveness of your operation which ultimately impacts on your business success, namely the ability to achieve your business goals and targets, your profitability and your competitive advantage.
The recession forced many organisations to make cut backs and they are now finding it a slow struggle to grow turnover and profits.
Time Management
For any time management initiative to be effective it needs to be part of an organisation’s culture. It’s one of the two most important resources a company has – the other being its people, but it’s can be the most abused.
Brand Alignment
Brand Alignment
Your brand represents everything you stand for as a company and what you believe in. It could be described as your corporate soul. Describing the attributes of a brand in words is a lengthy process however the power of successful brands mean that we come to recognise a logo, or corporate identity, as a shortcut statement that represents everything about your brand. For a brand to be successful, and understood by its target market, it should be the same throughout the length and breadth of the organisation - like the words in a stick of rock.
Branding and the Role of Human Resources
Your brand is the heart and sole of your organization and regardless of whether or not your organization has set out to create a brand it will have one. In simplest terms your brand is an expectation, or a promise, about the values and qualities that to everyone that buys from you, sells to you, or works for you, can expect. It extends well beyond your marketing effort and it’s only as good as the people behind it ... and the people in front of your clients or customers. A common mistake made by many organisations is that brand is only relevant to clients or consumers. It’s not so. Every aspect of a business needs to reflect, reinforce and support the brand.
Networking
Networking is all about creating business relationships and if you work in any business to business (B2B) service sector it’s an essential business development tool as it’s unlikely that cold calling is a valuable source of new business.
Social Networking
If you operate in the business to business service sector then it’s highly likely that cold calling isn’t an effective way to generate new business, the reason being that building trust is an integral part of winning new client business, and you can only start to build trust through communicating personally with your potential clients through face to face and social networking.
Strategic Project Execution
Care Quality Commission and Primary Care
SFM Consulting has specialist expertise in the primary care arena - specifically the operational management (including HR) of private GP centres and nurse-led NHS walk in centres. SFM Consulting provides private healthcare providers with guidance on registration with the CQC and on-going compliance.
Outsourcing Strategic and Significant Projects
Is there a project that hasn't been started, or started but not completed, because there isn't the time .... or the inclination? If this is the case then take a look at the possible reasons. Reasons may be workload, lack of desire to do the project, lack of skills and experience to do the project, or doing the project may create more work and hassle. However if the project contributes to delivering the business plan or strategy it's like to be a source of revenue and contribution to profits so there's a cost to procrastinating.
