The Tipping Point for People Managers

You know things can’t go on like this but how can you start to make a change?

The role of an HR or Office Manager (depending on the structure of the business) has come to the forefront in the past twelve months. The expectation from the top of the organisation has been huge. To get a workforce working remotely, continually managing wellbeing and keeping on top of everchanging guidelines from the Government has taken an extraordinary effort. Teams will undoubtedly reflect with a ‘how on earth did we manage to get through 2020?’ in the months ahead, whether because of COVID or BREXIT or both.

According to a recent Sage report there has been a 60% increase in the HR workload with a continuously high level of administration tasks. Before the pandemic the HR function was beginning to move to a more automated position and investment in HR software and developing existing systems was on the list of things to do. In the current climate this will have dropped down the list of priorities despite the acute need for more resource and support as businesses ‘wait out’ the storm.

At Bay Tree we have sat down and worked out how our services can ease this pressure point for HR and Office Managers, indeed anyone who has reached a tipping point – You know things can’t continue like this but how do you start to make a change? Is this situation the new ‘norm’ or will your workload one day revert back to something like it was pre COVID? But what shape will you be in though when that time comes? When speaking with clients at this ‘tipping point’ we start by suggesting they make a note of the following as they go through their task lists.

What are these task lists?

1. Tasks that could easily be delegated
2. Tasks that would be ‘nice to haves’ but currently don’t fit into anyone’s role and so never get addressed – organising social events or providing more internal comms are two good examples
3. Tasks that are not getting done subsequently creating a bottleneck for others to be able to get on and causing a ripple effect of inefficiency
4. Tasks that are taking a particularly long time to do – we call them ‘time drains’. For example adding data to a CRM system
5. Tasks that always seem to have to be tackled after core hours ie. in your own time.

These five lists are the brief for a Bay Tree VA. You may be looking for support throughout the week, for a few days a month or to get you through a project. If you, or a colleague, have reached that tipping point, discuss the prospect of using a VA with the main decision maker. The people in a business are undoubtedly a most valuable asset and it is in the company’s interest that workload is distributed efficiently and economically.

To discuss how a Bay Tree VA could be a resourcing solution for you contact Fiona Portway fiona@baytreeva.co.uk

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