HR Consultants & Recruitment Experts | Outsource HR with Employee Matters Consulting Solutions

Testimonials

The prospect of an employment dispute is terrifying to me, despite 40 years of legal experience, mainly in large firms. Now that I am the principal of a boutique planning and environmental law practice, employing 7 people, my salvation has been Natasha Hawker's book 'From Hire to Fire & Everything in Between'. It is a gem: well written and practical, it nicely balances my need for simplicity with sufficient detail to make it useful. The book is empowering in that it helps me identify the issues and questions I need to have in mind when analysing and addressing a problem. Thank you Natasha, you have literally improved the quality of my life by reducing my stress when it comes to dealing with employment matters.

Glen McLeod

Principal

We were referred to Employee Matters by our business coach, to provide coaching and support for our management team, make sure we were compliant with our HR responsibilities, and build on some of the structure that we already had in place. Employee Matters and the team were knowledgeable, responsive, flexible to the needs of our business, and Nardia became an integral part of our team. Employee Matters will continue to be part of Technium as we grow, and I'd recommend anyone who has employees to not wait for a problem, but to take a proactive approach and engage with Employee Matters sooner rather than later.

Simon Pilkington

Managing Director

The Hire to Fire toolkit subscription from Employee Matters has been the exact match to the structure of our HR system and has definitely proven useful. We found the checklists the most helpful part of the toolkit because it's scary to think that if we miss something small, or get something wrong, in HR, there is the possibility of some fairly high penalties.

Kathryn Vellacott

Client Services Manager

Natasha was engaged to develop and facilitate a half day training session as part of our annual global conference. The brief was to educate our people leaders on hiring excellence and optimising team performance. As a fast growing small company, we were looking for someone to train our relatively new people leaders from both commercial and technical backgrounds (and multiple geographies). Natasha was willing to understand our organisation and particular needs, and tailor the content and workshop accordingly. She also set up an expectations model in advance so we could reflect on the desired outcomes and we debriefed against this model after the event. The training session itself was very well run, with a nice mix of theory, discussion and practice sessions for behavioural interviewing in small groups. Natasha's experience as well as her passion and enthusiasm for effectively recruiting and managing people is impressive. The session was very highly rated by our people leaders and we frequently hear people talking about Natasha's interviewing techniques. We would happily recommend Natasha to organisations seeking to invest in their recruiting and people-management capability.

Stuart FitzRoy

Chief Product & Engineering Officer, Rokt

Natasha did a fantastic job of both presenting key information in a pre-planned structure that was informative and easy to understand, and dealing with the many questions that came thick and fast from Q and A. It was really great to get the opportunity to speak to an expert who could help with any challenges a company is facing in the HR space no matter how big or small. I particularly liked that Natasha’s focus wasn’t just advice on how to stay on the right side of employment law, but also how to build a company with great culture and a happy, motivated and cohesive workforce. Great Job Natasha, looking forward to learning more from you in the future.

Drew Alexander

Director, XAM Consulting Pty. Limited.

"In 2017, my company launched its first group coaching program, designed to provide small business owners in their early years with the knowledge and support they need to grow, whilst effectively managing commercial risk. Employees and contractors are such a high-risk area for business owners, specifically those who cannot afford – or do not know where to find – reliable advice. I met Natasha in 2015 when she was delivering a presentation to a group of small business owners. With years of experience of my own in HR, within corporate organisations, it was obvious Natasha knew her subject matter inside-out. She was engaging, relevant and it was obvious that she cared. Upon launching my group coaching program, Natasha was an obvious choice to deliver a workshop on recruitment and employee engagement. Natasha was – as usual – engaging, and the content of the presentation was very relevant to the audience. As was evident from our surveys, my clients were extremely satisfied with the workshop – they felt that Natasha was the “right balance between knowledgeable and approachable”, and that the workshop resulted in increased awareness relating to HR matters which are relevant to them, and the confidence to expand their business through more clarity on the hiring process and employee engagement strategies. Since then, all the clients who attended the workshop have hired employees and they have found the strategies they learned to be extremely useful. I recommend Natasha to all my clients who currently, or plan to, employ staff, and I hope Natasha will continue to facilitate the HR workshop for our future group coaching programs."

Kathryn Kavanagh

Director, Momentum Lab

"I was very fortunate to meet Natasha Hawker at a Conference and felt so inspired by her enthusiasm that I got hold of her book “From Hire to Fire”. I found it to be an excellent summation of events that occur every day in the workplace with ready tips in how to deal with these situations. Natasha’s goal in writing the book was for it to sit "doggy eared" on managers desk and being referred to as a guide when these situations arise unannounced. This objective has been achieved and I would recommend any small business owner who is unfamiliar with managing staff to get hold of the book as it is a great knowledge base to deal with these situations".

Brian Doughty

Founder and Director, The Outsourced CFO

“Honoured to have Natasha Hawker sharing her entrepreneurial journey and incredible achievements with us. Her presentation has added value, inspired and empowered our start-up students’ businesses and mindset significantly. Her lessons and insights arounds Internal Communication, Retention strategies and Risk assessments were incredible. Thank you so much for sharing such powerful strategies with us.”

Paula Mills

CEO, Academy of Entrepreneurs

“Thank you thank you thank you for bringing the wonderful Kevin into my life. You always told me having the right person in the job would do just that 'change my life'. While I never doubted you...one can never truly know the impact until it happens. Big kisses and thank you to you and of course Sally. Myself and my business are forever truly grateful to you both. “

Janelle Gonzalez

Managing Director, Blue Toro Pty Ltd

By Paul Ackerman Following a recent decision by the Fair Work Commission, Modern Awards have been amended effective August ...

Read Post

WHAT ARE YOU REALLY LOOKING FOR FROM YOUR EMPLOYEES?

I am sure you have heard the saying that there are two things that keep business owners up at night: Cashflow and People. It's said so often because it's basically true. The financial viability of your business is, of course, critical; your business survival depends on it. But the source of virtually all of your potential for a growing, profitable and sustainable business, lies in your people. As a team of skilled and experienced HR Consultants, Recruitment and Employee experts servicing Australia from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Employee Matters exists to ensure your business is achieving the success it deserves, by tapping into the talent, drive and commitment of your people. What Kind of Business Are You? At Employee Matters we typically see four types of business:

Crisis business - This is a business that is in despair. Typically we see these businesses being unaware of the People risks they have. For example, breaches of employment laws such as the Fair Work Act, Modern Awards or Health and Safety rules. In many cases they may even be aware of breaches but they either don’t care or don’t feel they can do anything about it - “how can I afford to pay my people Award rates and run my business?” is a typical catchcry. Often their workforce is hostile and their business performance is best described as dysfunctional. The key to moving out of this ‘Red Zone’ business space is to recognise that you are in this state, and to have the courage to spend time, money and effort in turning the business around. If you feel you are in this space and, importantly, if you are prepared to invest in the change, Employee Matters is here to help you.
Directionless Business - This is a business that is somewhat disillusioned. If your business is in this space you are typically unaware of your risk profile and what you need to do to meet your Employment Relations compliance requirements. You have a workforce that is disengaged; they turn up for work in body but with little spirit or motivation and business performance is inconsistent. There is a focus on the cheapest price possible for your business investments. If you are in this ‘Amber Zone’ we can help, by first of all, assessing the state of your business with our ‘Employee Metrics’ HR diagnostic tool and then set out to build a program that ensures you manage your people-risk effectively and then move on to establishing some great practices across all nine stages of the Employee Life Cycle (more about the Life Cycle later).
Achieving Business - This is a good place to be! You have a people strategy underpinning your business plan and you are aware of your risks. Your employees perform well, are happy working for you and you have good business performance. This ‘Green Zone’ is a good place to be, but the question is, is it good enough? We call the line between this level of business and the next the ‘Good Enough’ line. Things are good, but are they great? If you want a great business where ‘good enough’ really isn’t good enough and you really are striving for people who can take your business forward, where to from here?
Mastery Business - You have mastered your business, when you have your risk well managed and you have systems in place to ensure you are always on top of, and mitigating or eliminating, risk. You have a ‘Volunteer’ workforce who are fully engaged with your business and perform so well, that they can manage your business without you. This allows you to move out of the business and work on your business strategy, knowing the business will sustain itself, perform well and make great profits. More importantly, your business is now a highly ‘saleable’ asset. This ‘Blue Zone’ is better than merely good enough; it’s the key to your business and personal dreams.

Finding the Right Support So you have identified the type of business you have and, importantly, the type of business you want. You know you need some Human Resources support and expertise to help you achieve your business goals - but what should that HR support look like? Should it be in-house; where you hire an HR Manager for your business? This is great, if your business is of a size that requires this, but if not you need more options. Even if you are at the size where HR support is becoming vital for your business, you should still consider the cost of hiring an HR person or team. What will you get in terms of skills and experience in the market and what about backup when this person is on leave, planned or unplanned? Will this person be willing and capable of completing the full range of HR activities from the filing to writing the HR Strategic Plan? The other option is to look for HR support externally, either for all or for some of your HR needs. This is where it becomes critical to think about the type of external support you are looking for. This support basically falls into three types:

HR Distance Model - This is generally a price-driven, commoditised external service. Typically these are delivered via a call centre or helpline, where you speak to a different person every time you make a call. Your issues are dealt with reactively, so there is no help with proactively planning your HR strategy. Often you have to sign up on an extended support contract which locks you into the service, as this gives the HR support business the certainty of revenue allowing them to control their margins. So while the advice and expertise may be OK, the model is volume-based and efficient from the supplier's perspective, but the service capability is very limited.
HR Account Manager Model - Here at Employee Matters, this is our standard operating practice. We offer you a dedicated HR and/or Recruitment expert who works proactively with you, in your business. We are there to support you, coach or mentor you, in understanding the people in your business and how best to manage and lead them. Or, we can simply do the work for you, coming ‘in and out’ of the business as you need us. You have the support of a highly experienced expert, knowing that there is a wider team of experts behind them, also ready to support you. You speak to the same person all the time, so they know your business and your specific challenges and goals, and are part of your team, even if they are not ‘on the books’ of your business. Now, this is a great service; but you can go further than this:
Employee Asset Model - What if you wanted to attain Mastery in your business, moving it into the ‘Blue Zone’ we talked about above? Where your people treasure your business as much as you do, so much so that a Bank would lend you money based on your Employee Assets, just as easily as they would on your physical assets or your Balance Sheet. Where you can step out of working in your business; allowing you to:

Work on your business, setting the strategic direction and focussing on the bigger picture, allowing you to grow the business to new heights
Take time out of your business and enjoy the other aspects of your life; family, travel, study
Create a business that does not require you, and so has a high saleable value for when it comes time to exit the business, passing it on to your kids or realising the value of this great asset upon sale

We can use the Employee Asset Model to define the role your people play in creating this level of value in your business.

Employee Asset Model We have had so much interaction with so many clients over the years, that we’ve come to see that, at the centre of this kind of Business Mastery, is your ‘Treasury of People’ – building a business where your employees treasure your business as much as you do and, ultimately, that you are building a business treasure trove of motivated, engaged, skilled and experienced Employee Assets, that can drive your business forward, even when you are not around.

This happens because of the effect your Employee Assets have on the three key goals for your business:

Profit - What makes your business viable
Growth - The key value driver for your business
Sustainability - This is critical to survival in the long term, but also key to your ability to scale your business, ‘give back’ in whatever way motivates you and, importantly, makes your business a valuable saleable asset

So let’s look at How your treasure trove of Employee Assets drives your goal for a profitable, growing and sustainable business. There are Three Levers by which your Employee Assets greatly impact the profitability, growth and sustainability of your business:

Performance
Culture
Risk Management

Why these three levers?

Performance - High performing teams of great people are what drive your profitability and the growth of your company. To really press the accelerator on your business, you cannot rely on your skill, drive and resilience alone; this is a recipe for burnout. Having people on board who are motivated, skilled and crazy for success, creates a momentum in your business making greater performance and growth a certainty.
Culture - A lot of businesses struggle with ‘Culture’ in terms of what it means and, importantly, what it means for them. Don’t let your difficulties in defining it, or getting comfortable with what it means for you, blind you to the power of Culture. How things get done in your business and, importantly, people's attitude to seeing that they are done - and done really, really well - are key drivers of your profitability. This is where people are interested in working smarter rather than just harder. Just as importantly however, is the potential for sustainable profitability. While it is true that aggressive, winner-takes-all cultures can produce great profits, they can’t do this for very long. It is these cultures where, eventually, we see corners being cut, rules bent and ultimately broken, and increasingly dysfunctional workplaces where everyone is trying to beat their colleagues, as well as the competition.
Risk Management - We can hear the yawns already! Who wants to talk about risk management; it's not as ‘exciting’ as performance and not as ‘interesting’ as Culture, but when it comes to the success of your business it is just as important. It’s managing your risks, that allows you to plan your growth and keep your plans on track. It is also vital to ensure you have a long-term, valuable business. Managing risks keeps you in business, so you can eventually see the growth take hold and then manage that growth for the long-term.

In order to manage the impacts of your team in these areas, we have developed the Employee Life Cycle Model to explain how we can take these three levers of Performance, Culture and Risk Management and introduce systems for each that accelerate your success and that of your business: yes, this is where we come in to help you make the most of these bankable Employee Assets. Employee Life Cycle Taking each of the three levers (Performance, Culture, Risk Management) we now have three accelerators for each lever - creating the Nine Step Employee Life Cycle - to ensure you are getting every last drop of value from your Employee Assets: Performance - you need to

hire the best people you can possibly afford
- Attracting the right people with your Employee Value Proposition
- Finding them through advanced candidate search techniques
- Ensuring you are hiring the best possible fit for the role
- Onboarding new people, so you realise the value of your new asset quickly and effectively
manage and optimise their input by having the systems in place to clearly identify what needs to be done and how your employees can contribute to this
measure your, and their, progress against targets by having processes to accurately identify everyone’s contribution, what this looks like over time and what they need to change to take that contribution to new heights

Culture - you need to

train your team for optimal performance
- Having a framework so you are clear on what competencies are needed for every role
- Identifying what development needs everyone has, for their current and future roles
- How to implement training that best meets your business needs
build and maintain levels of engagement and understand how to measure and positively affect
- What your people say about your business
- How much they want to stay with your business
- How far they will strive to make your business a success
have a proactive approach to the well-being of your people

Risk Management - you need to

assess what people risks you are exposed to through our world class HR diagnostic tool Employee Metrics, to identify the risks, the level and the importance of the risk and recommend what you can do to mitigate or eliminate your people risk
maintain a robust policy framework, ensuring you have all the policies you need from a compliance perspective, as well as giving clarity to you and your people around what is expected and how things will operate. Policies such as Health & Safety, Equal Employment Opportunity, Leave, Appropriate Workplace behaviour, etc., are vital for this
know how to exit both non-performers and employees that you might like to work for you again. Exits can be difficult whatever the circumstances. If the circumstances are good, you need to manage the exit as part of maintaining your Employee Value Proposition, Where they are not good, you need to ensure you are complying with everything you need to, to best protect your business. Whatever the nature of someone’s exit, you can always learn from them or the situation

People often ask why we use the term accelerators; it’s because this is how we quickly build Employee Assets for our clients. How We Work Take a look at those nine accelerators: scoring yourself as a Red, Amber or Green, how do you think you are going in devising a strategy for each of them, implementing that strategy and reviewing your results? Why not let Employee Matters come in and help you with this assessment using our Employee Metrics diagnostic tool? We will:

Assess the areas where you are using this traffic light system
Let you know relatively how important each area is to your business, so you can set priorities
Make specific recommendations against each of your Red and Amber areas, showing you how you can improve

You now have your People Management priorities. Let us help you to overlay this on your business strategy and develop an implementation plan (a Program of Works) to address all of your people issues and create a People Strategy guaranteed to drive the Growth, Profitability and Sustainability of your business. We have a range of services designed to suit your business needs, while delivering on your people strategy. Whether it's through:

A one year strategic implementation plan via our Enhance HR model
Coming in an out of your business as you need us via our Employee Expert Retainer package
Helping you with your hiring needs via our Recruitment Expert packages
Our range of specific fixed-price services to help you with your specific HR needs

We can ensure we have a solution that is right for your business. Where to From Here? Making a decision that you want more than merely ‘good enough’ through the people in your business, that you want the ‘Treasury Of People’ which is a team that is as engaged and driven as you are. This is your next step. Can we suggest you make this now. As we all know, the course of business success is not a straight line. Momentum is as much a key in your business success as it is in getting a car up to cruising speed, or an airplane off the ground. It can seem slow at the beginning, but the further you go the more quickly the results accelerate. In other words, the sooner you start creating treasure in your business, the sooner you see the results and the longer you have to benefit from holding that treasure. Equally, if you don’t address the problems in your business, they also accelerate and take on a momentum of their own, sending you into the ‘Red Zone’. Tackling your people issues now, while they are small, means avoiding huge problems in the future. So, if you are ready to start creating your business future right now, through harnessing the power of your people, get in touch with Employee Matters. Let us sit down with you and map out the road to your ‘Blue Zone’ of Business Mastery.

Book a discovery session

Book Now

Subscribe Now

Simply Enter Your Details To Find Out How We Can Help Your Business

Ready to go on a Discovery?

To Book your Employee Metrics Lite session, please fill in the details below and we will be in contact.

Apply Now

Please fill up the fields below

(We can be your external ‘in-house’ HR team!)

Take this short quiz to find out which option is best for your specific business

We help you Hire, Manage and, when needed, Exit better

We help you Hire, Manage and, when needed, Exit better

(We can be your external ‘in-house’ HR team!)

Take this short quiz to find out which option is best for your specific business

Featured In

Employee Matters HR Consultant

"Your employees should be your greatest strength, but they could be your greatest risk."

OUTSOURCE YOUR HR WITH TOTAL CONFIDENCE

Testimonials

Glen McLeod

Simon Pilkington

Kathryn Vellacott

Stuart FitzRoy

Drew Alexander

Kathryn Kavanagh

Brian Doughty

Paula Mills

Janelle Gonzalez

Our Services

Employee Metrics

Human Resources

Recruitment

Our Clients

Recent Blogs

Signup for all the latest news + offers

Book a discovery session

"From Hire to Fire and Everything in Between"

Employee Matters HR Consultants

Talk To Us

Book a discovery session

THE HIRE TO FIRE TOOL KIT

Simply Enter Your Details To Find Out How
We Can Help Your Business